Chapter 20 #2
Gio comes around the corner with backup.
“Get her out of here,” I order him, feeling blood dripping down my cheek. “She’s banned from the club for life.”
Chiara loves gambling here. It’s her addiction.
I know that denying her entrance is as big a punishment as breaking it off with her is.
I’m not fooled that she cared about me. But she liked the power that came from being with me.
She liked what I could give her. That’s all over now.
I should have made it clear from the second I knew I was marrying Katya.
“You can’t ban me from the club!” she shouts at me as Gio and another guard take her off my hands. “I won’t let you treat me like trash! You’ll regret this, you fucking coward. Just wait until I tell her the truth about you, all of your kinky perversions. She’ll leave you.”
“Watch your tongue, or I’ll have it cut out,” I snap, meaning that threat. “And if you dare to insult my wife, I’ll make sure you can never do it again.”
I don’t harm women.
But when it comes to Katya, I’m fucking feral. I will protect my wife at all costs.
Gio and the guard carry Chiara away, and I stalk back into my office, calling for a cleanup crew for the takeout that’s all over my floor and wall.
Katya
“There’s something I need you to do for me,” Misha says the second we’re alone.
I left Antonio in the living room. It took a lot of persuasion to allow an Andriani guard into Misha’s inner sanctum, but I finally managed it. My brother balked at having Antonio sit in on our chat, so we’re alone in Misha’s office.
My reaction to his command is instant. My gut clenches, and my whole body seizes up.
“No. I’ve already done enough.”
Misha gives me a patronizing smile. “You’ve barely done anything. You’ve been free to live as you wanted for years.”
I ball my hands into fists, my nails digging into my palms. “I got married like you asked me to. I sacrificed my career. I gave up everything.”
“Don’t be melodramatic, Katya. Have you been shot? Stabbed? Hmm?” He takes out a knife from the drawer at his desk, flicking open the blade. “Have you had to do anything other than smile, look pretty, and spread your legs for your husband?”
Anger zings down my spine. “How dare you?”
“I dare whatever I want, sestrenka.” He closes the blade, then opens it again, the rhythmic metallic sound grating on my nerves. “Do you know why?”
Open, closed, open, closed.
I keep my eyes on the knife, not saying anything.
“Because I’m the fucking Pakhan, that’s why,” he finishes coldly. “Everyone does what I say, when I say to do it.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then it goes poorly for them.” He grins, pressing the button that sends the knife’s razor-sharp blade out again.
“People die. It happens. Sometimes it can happen when you least expect it. Like when you’re carrying in the groceries.
One shot in the back of the head is all it takes. Then, lights out.”
He’s threatening Svetlana. Again. Just like the picture he sent me. A chill sweeps through me. I should have known he wouldn’t stop at forcing me to marry Enzo.
“Leave Svetlana out of this,” I grit. “I’ve already done what you asked of me.”
“That was before, when I thought I could work with the Andriani scum through an alliance.” He sneers. “But they’ve proven untrustworthy.”
“How?”
He clenches his jaw. “A shipment came in the night of your wedding that we were supposed to split fifty-fifty. But everyone at the drop was killed, and all the product and money miraculously disappeared.”
I know instantly that Misha is talking about the same thing that led to Enzo leaving the morning after our wedding and coming back after being grazed by a bullet.
“What does that have to do with the Andrianis not being trustworthy? If everyone was killed, I assume that means Andrianis were killed as well. Why would they go after their own men?”
His lip curls. “To stage the scene. The whole drop was a fucking setup. I don’t even have proof that the Andrianis at the drop really died. They disposed of the bodies before I could see them. For all I know, that was some AI shit they sent me.”
“You would be able to tell the difference between a real picture and AI,” I point out, frustrated with him. “You’re not making sense. Why would they want to do this?”
“Because they’re angry I beat them at their own game. Because Andrianis are sore losers. I don’t fucking know, Katya, and I don’t care. All I know is that the drop was a setup, and I’ve got to make my move now before it’s too late.”
I think again about the shape Enzo came back in.
“It wasn’t a setup. They had nothing to do with what happened.” I can’t believe I’m defending my husband’s family against my brother now, but that’s where we are.
“Bullshit.”
“Enzo was wounded,” I burst out, realizing too late that I’ve called him Enzo instead of Scorpion.
“Enzo, is it?” Misha’s eyes narrow. “Whose side are you on, Katya?”
Not my brother’s—never his after what he’s done and all the threats he’s made against Svetlana. I used to think I knew him, that there was good in him, but not any longer.
But am I on the Andrianis’ side? Everything was once black-and-white, but now it’s gray. I don’t know where I belong or who to trust.
“Yours,” I tell Misha anyway.
It’s the answer he wants. The only answer I can afford to give him.
“We are blood. Never forget that.” He flicks the blade open, closed, then open again, before running his thumb along it. “Because if you do…”
He doesn’t have to finish his sentence. I already know what he’s saying. He’ll kill me.
“What are you going to do?” I ask Misha.
“It’s not what I’m going to do, sestrenka. It’s what you’re going to do.” He flings the knife, and it whips through the air, landing in the wall behind me. “You’re going to kill Scorpion Andriani.”