CHAPTER TWENTY
“Why did you kill Alana?” asked her sister, Irena. Mikella looked up at her and grinned.
“You know as well as I do that she was becoming distracted. Alana has always preferred sex to just about anything else, except money. That woman did love money and things. She had a purse and shoe collection that made me envious, but she was putting us at risk.”
“She was our sister,” said Irena.
“She was a liability, Irena. We had to remove her. She was too close to those two Rangers and those men that came with the girlfriend, what’s her name, Jill. They weren’t just ordinary men. She said too much.”
“Still. She was our sister, Mikella. We are in this together.”
“We are in this for the money and a piece of the massive pie happening in the Middle East,” said Mikella.
Older by four years to Alana and two years to Irena, she was always the leader of their little band. Although none of the girls had spent any real time with their father or had positive memories of him, they all lived a good life thanks to the money he’d put aside for them.
Unlike many of his peers, he was loyal to his common-law wife, providing a beautiful home and funds to raise their children. They’d had a younger brother who died tragically in a drowning accident, leaving just the girls to carry on their father’s name.
They’d heard stories over the years, growing up in the Czech Republic. They knew what their father did for a living based on the fear in the faces of those who knew them. It was a powerful dose of reality for the girls. But they were three very different women.
Alana, as the youngest, seemed to get away with much more than the two older girls. As hard as their mother tried to give them a normal life, living amongst their father’s criminal friends wasn’t normal. Alana discovered early on that her sexuality would get her whatever she wanted.
At fifteen, she was already enjoying time with the security guards for extra cash. She had her first plastic surgery at eighteen and never looked back. Mikella, as the oldest, tried to keep her sister straight, but in the end, realized that she might be helping them to become as powerful as their late father.
Always the planner, Mikella had a plan that would give them an army of men at their disposal and millions in the bank to do as they wished. The outlier, always the outlier, was Irena. More like their mother, she was quieter, following her sisters because they were her sisters, not because she bought into their plans.
When Alana suggested that they all get plastic surgery to look more alike than they already did, Mikella was all in. Irena had to be convinced of it. She liked that she looked somewhat different than the other two. But she didn’t have the courage to fight her sisters, and now, she realized that she might have to.
“We’ve gone too far, Mikella. What’s done is done. Alana is dead. We have enough money to move forward with our plans. What you’re trying to do is not going to end well for us. Anyone who attempts to cross these people dies. You know that.”
“Don’t be weak, Irena. It’s not attractive,” said her sister, standing to pour herself another cup of coffee. “G.R.I.P. is just another government contractor. They’re not God. We will get the items that we need for our army, and then we will sweep our way across this entire region, and we will own it. All of it. Industry, armies, governments, all of them.”
“Them? What you really mean to say is that you want to own the men. What is it with you and Alana? She wanted to own them through sex. You want to physically own them and use them as your personal war machine.”
“And you want nothing to do with them,” smirked Mikella. “What is it, sister? Do you prefer women in your bed? It’s fine if you do. I don’t care.”
“You know that I don’t, but we’re killing off these young men for no reason.” Mikella slammed her hand on the kitchen counter, glaring at her younger sister.
“It is for a very good reason! They either could not provide us with the information we needed or knew too much. You cannot leave loose ends, Irena. It might be wise for you to remember that.”
Irena stared at her sister, clearly understanding the inference. She was threatening her. If she didn’t comply with everything she wanted, she would be the next one with a bullet in her head.
“Don’t threaten me, Mikella. I may not be a mastermind criminal such as yourself, but I’m not stupid, nor am I weak. You need me for this to work. After all, you’re down one sister now, and you can’t have marriages to multiple men at the same time all by yourself. It would be incredibly difficult.”
Irena turned to leave the kitchen, and then Mikella called to her.
“Irena? I expect you to have the young sergeant eating out of the palm of your hand by the end of the week.” Irena glared at her sister, then gave a smile.
“Of course, dear sister. Anything you want.”
Mikella watched her sister leave the home they shared. She’d sold their childhood home outside of Prague. It was lovely, it was big, but it was full of memories they didn’t need to be constantly reminded of. After their mother suffered a tragic fall, Mikella became the unofficial matriarch.
Her father’s men had always stayed close to the family, and over the years, their own sons became employees. Most of the businesses were run by her mother and a few of the top men on the team, but eventually, Mikella announced she would take over.
Since that time, she’d multiplied their wealth by ten. She understood money, she understood war, and she understood men. They could all be manipulated, and Mikella was a master manipulator.