Chapter 26
TWENTY-SIX
“I t’s happening,” Konstantin grins, placing his phone down on his desk.
I look between my boss and his brother, the two of them grinning maniacally at one another. Swiping my palms over my slacks, I ask, “ When?”
“ Tonight.”
Yebat. I didn’t think this would be happening so soon, I thought we had time. Then again, Prescott is out for blood, and you can’t put a time frame on that. He doesn’t seem like the patient type, and with how obvious his distaste is towards The Five, I should have known shit was going to get worse.
After our meeting today with Genovese, I thought they’d call this whole thing off. I should’ve known that it wasn’t the end. Konstantin wants the city, and he’ll do whatever it takes to succeed.
“ Do I need to do anything?” I glance between the men in front of me, hoping they can give me some reason to get involved with this plan, but they shake their heads.
“Your man is doing all the heavy lifting,” Vadim supplies.
I don’t respond with the first thought that runs through my mind. Prescott is not my man, in any sense of the word. I didn’t bring him into the fold, I didn’t extort his vendetta, and I certainly didn’t agree to any of this shit. “ So, you don’t want me to make sure he follows the agreement?”
“No. Whether Prescott succeeds or not doesn’t concern us. I’m just entertaining the idiot. If he gets them all locked up, then so be it.”
I glance between the brothers. None of this plan adds up, but I don’t voice that thought aloud. I know the laws well enough to see the holes in this plan. Prescott is going to raid Genovese’s fight club tonight, use it as an excuse to take The Five down, but in reality, that won’t hold up. The Five will be out in forty-eight hours, with no charges levied against them. And that’s not just because of the power they have over the city, it’s because legally, there’s no evidence against them. So why the fuck doesn’t Prescott see that?
My thoughts drift to what Vadim just said.
“ All of them?” I raise a brow, swallowing thickly.
Vadim nods, his eyes taking on a sinister edge. “ Even the bitches that cling to them.”
My breath shudders and my nerves spike. This shouldn’t bother me as much as it does. The Five are the enemy, and I should be supporting the Federovs with this effort to take them down. But I don’t. I can’t find it in me to be happy about this, because the most prominent thought is the one where I promised Alvaro nothing would happen to his sister.
She’s not my responsibility, yet I feel this profound sense of protectiveness over her. Maybe it’s because she's innocent in all of this. She isn’t the target, yet Konstantin won’t stop until all five families are buried. Clearly, my loyalties are skewed, but I’m also morally mature enough to see that taking down innocent people is wrong.
After the longest beat of silence, Konstantin dismisses me and I’m marching towards my room, phone in hand. Despite Alvaro ignoring me, I still need to try and warn him. We saw each other earlier at Mosaique, but his anger was evident and I made no attempt to talk to him. I should have used that opportunity to speak up, but hindsight is a bitch, and I’m within whipping distance.
The truth is, I’m more pissed with myself that I didn’t open up to him the other night when I had the opportunity. Especially after Varo showed a more vulnerable side to me. At least if I had told him the truth, he'd have a reason to avoid me. As it stands, I don’t know why the guy is avoiding me— even my usual taunting messages haven’t gained an ounce of his attention.
I’m of half a mind to just turn up at his apartment, but shit is happening within the Federovs’ ranks, and I need to remain alert. We’re still no closer to finding out who our mole is, and every second I spend out of the loop is going to make it even harder for me.
As soon as I kick my bedroom door shut, I hit dial on Varo’s contact card. My heart is pounding, my pulse is so loud that I can’t even hear the ring through the speaker. I pace up and down my bedroom, my shoes clipping across the wooden floor frantically as I card my fingers through my hair, tugging on the strands. “Pick up. Pick up.”
My stomach drops as my call is sent to voicemail.
“No!” I stab my fingers onto the screen again, calling him again.
Voicemail.
My hand clenches around the phone before I decide to send him a message. I should have done that to begin with, but the need to hear his voice is what spurred me on in the first place. That, and the hope he’d finally put his damn ego aside to actually answer my goddamn phone call.
I’ve been battling with my own conscience all weekend. At times, I considered the fact that I don’t owe Varo anything, but then I remember how he looked at me, how he cupped my face, his eyes swimming with so much vulnerability that the guilt started to fester away within me. Coming to the conclusion that Varo deserves more than my lies, I decided I need to face him and come clean. The only problem being that he won’t talk to me.
Today was the first time I had seen Varo since that intense night, since he disappeared the following morning without a single word. The evidence of our night together is still embedded in my lip, the cut constantly opening from where he bit it. Call it my personal form of torture, because it’s what’s keeping me grounded, reminding me of the purgatory I’ve found myself in. I bring the pad of my finger to the cut, running over the indent as I type out my message.
Me: Stay away from the fight night.
I hit send and stare at my message, waiting for the notification that says it’s been read. Only it doesn’t appear, and I’m left feeling deflated. Either I’m blocked, or he has no signal. Neither is the outcome I want, and with my watch showing ten o’clock, I don’t have much time. So, I do one thing that could ultimately fuck me over.
I grab my keys and head straight for the garage.
The car lights up when I’m close, the homing sensor of the Range Rover welcoming me. My breaths come out fast and sharp, worry and anticipation warring with one another. I shouldn’t be doing this, but there’s a glimmer of hope that this might work. All I can do is try, and then maybe, just maybe, Alvaro will understand the truth.
“Didn’t realize we needed to be somewhere.”
I’m two steps away from the car when I freeze on the spot. I spin around, coming face to face with Kai, his lips curved as he shakes his head. He glances at the keys in my hand and folds his arms.
My blood goes from hot to cold in a millisecond. I feel like I’ve been caught red-handed, even though I’ve not technically done anything yet.
“I know I shouldn’t ask…”
“Then don’t,” I snap at him.
“But I’m gonna,” he smirks, closing the distance between him and the car.
My skin feels itchy, like my blood is crawling through my veins, my nerves completely shot. My fingers wrap tightly around the key fob, my pulse pounding hard and fast.
He tilts his head at me, eyes narrowed. “What’s going on?”
Pulling out a cigarette from the pack, I spark it up and take a long drag, letting the nicotine poison my veins. It does nothing to alleviate the thoughts racing through me, but it takes the edge off my anger. It would fill me with a lot more relief if I could actually tell Kai the truth. Holding onto secrets has never done anyone any favors, but mine are too fragile to expose. I don’t even know how my second would react if I told him I was fucking the enemy, that I had somehow allowed a sentimental place in my heart for him.
Kai is as understanding as they come, but even I know how explosive this particular secret could be. Because as soon as one is spilled, the rest come falling out like a waterfall.
Ignoring him, I march over to the SUV.
“Milo…” Kai huffs after me.
“Don’t,” I urge, exhaling. I’m too irritated, too on edge, too fucking tired for this shit.
“Yeah, you don’t get to do that, man.”
I spin around, my eyes narrowing on my second as he shakes his head at me. “Do what?”
“Pretend that you aren’t distracted.” There’s that familiar accusatory tone I’ve come to tolerate. It only gets my back up further.
“I’m not?—”
“ Bratan, I know you well enough. You’re not yourself. What’s going on?” He reverts to Russian, raising a brow at me as he waits for my response.
Taking another drag of my smoke, I flick the ash to the ground. I’m stalling, I know, giving myself time to think about how I’m going to answer him without giving too much away. “I have a lot on my mind,” I admit vaguely.
“Don’t we all. But that wasn’t my question.” Kai smirks, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s the Italian, isn’t it?”
I don’t answer him. The fact he suspects as much means I haven’t been as careful or inconspicuous as I thought I’d been. But then again, as I think back to all my interactions with Alvaro, I don’t think I’ve been that careful at all. In fact, I’ve been careless. Bringing Bonanno into the office at Mosaique, kissing him in places I considered discreet. The more I think about it, the more I realize I’ve been an idiot, and all it would take is the wrong person to see what’s been going…
“ You’re going to see him?” Kai chuckles, lighting up his own cigarette. “ Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”
“How did you know?” I finish my cigarette off, stamping it under my foot.
Kai shrugs, sucking on his smoke for the longest time before exhaling. The silence stretches between us for so long that my impatience grates on me. When he eventually opens his mouth to speak, his words are framed by a smile. “ He came into the staff suite at Amadeus, looking for you. I figured it wasn’t for a meeting, because he was in the club for hours. Plus, you were practically eye fucking him all night. You always do.”
“ Eye fucking, huh?”
Kai rolls his eyes, his lips wrapped around the filter for a moment before he pulls it away, pointing a finger at me. “ You need to be more careful. If the Federovs find out, you’re fucked.”
“You know you could go to them with this information. Take my place.” My thoughts war with one another. He’s only a few steps away from sealing my fate. All it would take is the accusation for my whole world to crumble. I realize the irony as I say it, because I made my own bed.
Would I prefer that Kai go to them? Spill my dirty secret? I’d be a dead man within the hour.
Kai tosses his used smoke away. “ Then I’d have nobody to annoy,” he says with a grin, heading towards the driver’s side of the car. He holds his hand in the air for me to toss the key at him.
He catches it with a wide grin, winking as he slides into his seat. When I join him, he tilts his head to the side, watching me carefully. “ Plus ,” he adds as he starts the engine, eyes softening, “ we all have our secrets.”
I ignore his last comment, resisting the urge to ask him to elaborate. There’s a reason we all have secrets, and some are better kept that way. I just hope mine don’t spill first.