Chapter 21
SCORPION
“Where are we at on the device?” Priest asks as we’re all huddled up in the underground offices of the casino we run together as part of our aboveboard operations. Like everything we own and run, it’s a front for the rest of what we do. But it pays to look official.
He’s wondering about the IED we’re going to plant in Sidorov’s sex club.
The plan is to make sure no one is in it, but now that I know Katya is in close contact with her brother—close enough to seek him out for a meeting and spend over an hour at his penthouse—I’m worried she might get caught in the crosshairs. That’s not the only thing I’m worrying about, though.
I’m also worried she’s in deeper with Sidorov than I thought.
“It should be ready in another day,” Lucky reports. “I have my guys working on some prototypes out at the farm. The first two they rigged up didn’t explode. The next three exploded before they detonated them remotely.”
The farm is a massive equine property we recently acquired in the western part of the state.
Currently, there are no horses stalled there, and it’s far enough from the nearest town that explosions won’t draw any curious onlookers or questions from the cops.
It’s the perfect place in many ways, and we were damn lucky to be able to get our hands on it.
Saint nods. “We don’t want to rush it. We need to get this right so it detonates precisely, or we’ll get other people in the crossfire.”
People like Katya.
My gut twists again. What the fuck was she doing there?
“Something wrong?” Priest asks me, obviously reading my expression.
Damn. My brother has always been far too perceptive. He sees what most others never do, and he can smell a lie a mile away.
“Katya visited Sidorov this afternoon,” I admit, knowing it sounds bad.
Priest frowns. “Without your knowledge?”
“Antonio cleared it with me, so she knows I’m aware of her visit. It’s no secret. But she didn’t mention she was headed there when I left this morning.”
“Has she been in communication with her brothers?” Saint asks.
That’s the other part that’s been needling me. “As far as I’m aware, she hasn’t. She’s closer to Dmitri than she is to Mikhail, but I don’t think she’s tight with either of them.”
Priest scrubs a hand over his jaw, looking unhappy. “You don’t think she is?”
“Look, you’re the one who made me marry her,” I snap. “Maybe you should have worried about her connections to the enemy before you forced us into an arranged marriage.”
He sighs. “We’ve been over this. You know damn well why you had to marry Ekaterina Sidorova. You took her hostage, and her brother retaliated by taking Isla, Rocco, and the others.”
“I fucking know the reason. But let’s not forget about the fact that the Bratva bombed our goddamn restaurant.”
“Which is why we’re bombing Sidorov’s new club to return the favor.”
“I gave her a new phone,” I explain. “I took her old one and ran her texts through software to analyze her conversations. From what I’ve been able to tell, she’s not close with either of her brothers.”
“So why the rush to Sidorov today?” Saint prods.
“I’ll check her texts now if it helps.”
I sigh, and then I thumb through my phone, pulling up the log of her texts that I told myself I wouldn’t access.
It’s a breach of privacy, and I’ve been avoiding it ever since I found out she was headed to Sidorov, but I need to put the family first. That’s where my loyalty ultimately lies, not with a woman I’ve been married to for only a handful of days, after knowing her for barely any time before that.
Even so, I can’t quite tamp down the stab of guilt as I scroll through her texts from an unknown number. “Looks like he demanded a meeting.” I scroll some more and see an unassuming picture of an older woman carrying her groceries into an average-looking suburban rancher on a tree-lined street.
Unknown contact: Recognize her?
Katya: When do you want to meet and where?
Cazzo, I don’t like this.
Then I see the demand for her to meet him at his penthouse, along with his order that she not bring any Andrianis with her.
I scroll back to the picture, zooming in on the lone woman.
I didn’t know who she was at first because of the distance the photo was taken from, but now I can see that it’s Svetlana, the woman Katya introduced me to at our wedding as her mother.
I know, of course, that she’s my wife’s stepmother, the woman who largely kept her out of the Bratva world and supported her in her career as a ballerina from the time she was a girl.
Katya capitulated the instant Sidorov sent the picture.
Suddenly, everything clicks into place. I’m staring at the reason she agreed to marry me and walk away from ballet.
“Fuck me,” I mutter.
“What is it?” Priest asks, instantly on the alert.
“Sidorov is using her stepmother as a bargaining chip. He must have threatened her previously, because in the string of texts, he sends her a surveillance picture of Svetlana, and Katya instantly agrees to meet him.”
“So he’s blackmailing her, then.”
I nod, still processing all this in my mind, trying to understand what it means.
“Which makes her dangerous,” Saint adds.
“You’re sleeping with the enemy, fratello,” Lucky tells me grimly.
“Katya’s not the fucking enemy,” I snap, quick to defend her.
I don’t even know why. The incredible sex? The way she makes me wild for her?
“So you are sleeping with her.” Lucky grins. “I fucking knew it.”
I scowl at him and make a gesture like I’m going to cuff him in the head. “Fuck off. You worry about making a bomb that goes off at the right time, and I’ll worry about my wife.”
“You need to worry about her,” Priest cuts in, “or we will. Get to the bottom of what’s going on with Ekaterina and Sidorov, and report back to me.
In the meantime, Luck, you get the detonation sorted.
We need this to go down exactly as planned, and the sooner it happens, the better.
I have a feeling Sidorov’s got something up his fucking sleeve, and I don’t like it. ”
On that, we agree.
Ditto, fratello. Ditto.
Katya
The first thing I do when I get back to Enzo’s penthouse is vomit in the guest bathroom toilet until there’s nothing left. Then I brush my teeth and shower, trying to scrub the dirty feeling from my skin.
I can’t.
I feel sick as I finally force myself to dress as Misha’s warnings echo in my mind.
Remember where your loyalty needs to be, Katya.
Guilt eats at me, even though I’ve done nothing wrong.
There’s a burner phone in my purse that Misha gave me, turned off for now.
My brother has assigned me the task of watching my husband closely for the next week. I’m to analyze his routines. What he eats, where he goes, how long he’s there.
Poison, Misha informed me, will be the easiest, best way to accomplish the job.
Clean, he said, dusting off his hands like he could so easily absolve his sins. So much less messy than a bullet.
I knew the instant Misha issued the demand that I wouldn’t be able to do it.
I’m nothing like my brother. The thought of causing Enzo physical harm makes me sick.
The thought of killing him in cold blood…
I can’t. I understood that the second the words left my brother.
But I also knew Misha wouldn’t accept no for an answer.
I argued with him, trying to use reason and logic to persuade him that the risk of harming my husband far outweighs any perceived reward for Misha.
Enzo is in his twenties, and he’s in peak physical shape.
No one is going to believe he’d suddenly drop dead.
All eyes in the Andriani family will be on me.
I’ll be the prime suspect if anything happens to my husband.
The police will be involved.
Misha hates the heat that police scrutiny brings.
But no amount of arguing on my part convinced my brother to change his mind. The deal that went wrong gave him a new goal. He intends to claim Mafia territory for himself, starting with the Andriani family and working through the rest. He wants to take the Andriani throne and put himself atop it.
By using me.
It is a beautiful idea, he said. We’ll choose the right time to strike. No one will know. The poison I’ve obtained is virtually untraceable.
I told him I couldn’t do it.
I had a feeling you might say that, sestrenka, he coolly replied. That’s why I’ve taken the liberty of moving Svetlana from her home to somewhere she will be safe… Unless you don’t do what I’ve asked of you.
That’s when hopelessness truly hit me. When Misha showed me surveillance footage of Svetlana on his phone.
I have no idea where he’s taken her. With Misha’s power and connections, she could be anywhere.
Even, perhaps, back in Russia. All I do know is that the woman who has been a mother to me for most of my life is now in Misha’s ruthless control.
Her life is hanging in the balance, and a monster is calling the shots.
You’d be surprised at how easy it is to make someone disappear, Misha warned me before I left.
My hands shake as I finish dressing. My mouth is dry and my stomach is twisted up in knots. I have zero idea what to do, how to face Enzo when he comes home. I’m terrified he’ll take one look at me and know I’m hiding something.
Can I trust him? Confide in him? Can I put Svetlana’s life in Enzo’s hands?
Part of me says she’ll have a much better chance there than in Misha’s. But the other part of me is fucking terrified. Everything that’s happened between Enzo and me is new. We’re still getting to know each other. How can I be sure he’ll trust me, if I tell him the truth?
I have way more questions than answers, and I feel like I’ve already betrayed him.
I’m out of the guest bathroom and moving through the penthouse when I realize I’m not alone.
“Cara mia.”