Chapter 28
ALEXEI
Iwatch the gates to my father’s house open.
I wonder what he’ll think when he sees me, clothes torn, half covered in blood.
I don’t know if Anya made it back here or if he knows anything about what’s happened.
I wish I could have called him first. He could start getting things in motion before I arrived. Maybe get more security.
As of this moment, the security looks to be about the same as it usually is.
I see his people patrolling the gates and front yard, but nothing more than that.
He probably has no idea that I was attacked.
He’ll be livid when he sees me and will probably want Pecora’s head.
It’s going to be a fight to convince him that the real danger to us all is much closer than Tony Pecora.
I pull up to the curb in front of the house and immediately notice Pavel’s car. Shit. He’s probably in there pouring poison in his ear about me. Probably telling him that I left entirely and need to be hunted down and punished. He probably…
Shit. The revelation hits me like a hammer to the chest. Pavel doesn’t have to tell Father to come after me when Pecora’s family was already looking for me. And he knew exactly where they could find me.
I get out of the car and slam the door angrily. I can’t wait to see the look on that fucker’s face when I walk through the door.
I don’t pay too much attention to the guy at the door. I walk past him and to my father’s office. If he’s not there, I’ll wait for him. But if he is… and if Pavel’s there…
I get to my father’s door and hear voices inside. I hear my father ask Pavel, “Have you heard anything about Alexei yet?”
“No,” Pavel responds. “But it’s still early. I’m sure we’ll hear something soon.”
Right. You sure will.
I open the door. Both men turn to look at me and for just a moment, I see genuine shock in Pavel’s eyes. He blinks, then smiles at me. “Alexei,” he says. “You’re here. Papa and I were just—”
I don’t give him the chance to speak. I walk right up to him and punch him in the face. Hard. He stumbles backward into the wall, covering his mouth and staring back at me in bewildered shock. A trail of blood immediately drips through his fingertips.
“Alexei,” my father says, his voice booming. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I grab Pavel by the collar, yanking him close to my face. “You really thought you could get away with trying to kill me?” I growl at him.
“Get your hands off me!” He struggles against my grip, but I hold him fast.
“I am your brother! Your fucking blood, you honorless piece of shit!”
“That is enough!” My father’s voice breaks through to me as he comes between us, pushing me hard in the chest, breaking my grip on Pavel. I let him go, but I’m pacing the room. The only thing keeping me from beating him to a pulp is Father as he stands between us.
“What’s all this about?” He glances down at my shirt, observing the splatters of blood. “What the fuck happened to you?”
“He tried to have me killed,” I tell him. “My own brother tried to have me killed a second time. Perhaps even a third if you count Pecora’s attempt on my life.”
My father doesn’t respond. He stares at me, his mouth tightening in a straight line.
“That’s not even the worst of it,” I go on.
“That sonofabitch arranged this entire fucking war! He set Damon Pecora up and had him murdered knowing that Tony Pecora would find out he was indebted to us. He was expecting Pecora to hand over his empire and when he didn’t, he tried to have me killed so that you would blame him and green light a war. ”
My father puts his hands in his pockets and sighs. “Alexei—”
“I was attacked this morning,” I tell him.
“I was at a property that only three other people knew about, and two of them were with me. The other was him. He knew where I could be found. And Pecora’s restaurant?
” I look past father to Pavel. “You were the one who told me that he wanted to meet us there. You made sure I’d be there when somebody tried to take a shot at me. ”
Father glances back at Pavel, who’s standing behind him with mussed hair and a bloody mouth. I hope I knocked a few teeth out when I hit him.
My father sighs and says, “Pavel, close the door, please.”
Pavel walks past him and makes a wide berth around me to get to the door. As he closes it, my father walks over to his desk.
“For all the rules about loyalty within our community,” he says, “all the big talk from my elders about protecting your brothers within the organization, about never, ever betraying one another, we certainly have a long and varied history to the opposite. It’s something I’ve always found to be very fascinating. ”
He opens a drawer and looks at the contents for a moment before speaking.
“In fact, I found it so fascinating that by the time I was fifteen, I knew that the only way I would ever become Pakhan was if I push my older brother out of my way.” He chuckles bitterly.
“I’m not ashamed to admit now that he was a better leader.
Right from the start, your Uncle Boris had what it took to lead, even as a teenager.
He had a knack for diplomacy that I just didn’t have.
He was an intellectual and he was completely fearless, one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen in the ring. His skills were unmatched.”
He stares at me for a long time, his mouth turning down into a deep frown. “I see a lot of him in you, Alexei. Too much, I’m afraid.”
He reaches into the drawer and pulls out his gun… and points it at me.
“You are the most logical choice to be my heir,” he says. “I’ve known that since you two were small boys. You possess all the leadership qualities that would have made you a fine Pakhan. Which is why I knew there was a chance this day would come.”
“What is this?” I’m looking at his gun. I can’t believe he’s pointing it at me. “I’ve done nothing to deserve—”
He scoffs. “‘Deserve’? You think this is about what you deserve?” He starts walking around the desk to the front and leans against it, keeping the gun trained on me.
“We are promised nothing in this life, Alexei. Every thing that we want or desire, we have to take. Absolutely nothing is promised. Not even your place in this family.”
I’m confused and angry. Being betrayed by Pavel is one thing, but my father…?”
“You are almost perfect,” he says. “You are intelligent, charismatic, and tough as nails. But you are too empathetic. We allied with a weaker family and your first thought was to try and strengthen them instead of what would benefit us the most. We are part of the Samorodokaya Empire. We devour and destroy our enemies. We do not play nice with them. Pecora was on his way out thanks to his foolish son. Why would we ever want to be associated with any of them?”
My stomach twists in angst as I realize what he’s telling me. “It was never Pavel,” I say aloud. “It was you the whole time.”
He laughs. “Of course it was me. Nothing happens in this family that I don’t know about.”
I don’t know why I didn’t see it. Pavel’s smart in his own right, but he isn’t and has never been the kind of mastermind that my father was. “All of it, then? Even Damon’s death?”
“That’s where we had to start. For years, Tony Pecora has been my chief rival over every other family. He was the major source of arms dealing in this area. Probably within most of New York State. If he were out of the way, then we would be poised to conquer this entire region.”
“So, you set his son up? You made it so he would lose a large chunk of the family fortune to you and then you killed him so that his father would have to pay the debt.”
Father sighs. “I’d actually hoped he’d tell me to fuck off.
Right then, we could have wiped them out.
He wanted to work something out instead.
Pavel suggested that we marry you off to one of his daughters, a plan that I thought was archaic and wouldn’t work…
until it did. I suppose Pecora thought that it would be better to join us than to be vulnerable. ”
My heart feels heavy suddenly. As much as I’d like to think that Pavel did it as a way to soothe my lovelorn heart after Kira’s death, I know better. “I marry one of his daughters,” I say, “and then Pavel sets me up to be murdered. Makes it known that it was Pecora, and you get to declare war.”
“Only you didn’t die.” He gives Pavel a slightly annoyed look over my shoulder. “So, we had to try something else.”
I could laugh. I could seriously laugh and break apart into hysteria. “The bust at one of your clubs.”
“One anonymous call was all that took. The funny thing about that is that I was certain that if you saw your father was in danger—real danger—then you’d snap back in line. You didn’t.” He chuckles and shakes his head. “Just like your Uncle Boris. Too fucking smart for your own good.”
I’m sick to my stomach. I was looking for this den of vipers while standing in it the whole time. My father and my brother. Fucking traitors.
“What I can’t figure out,” he says with a cock of his head, “is this whole thing with your ‘wife’. This marriage of yours is a business arrangement. She has no loyalty to you, yet you took her with you to this cabin of yours. Why didn’t you just abandon her?
Her people would have gladly taken her back. ”
I start to shake inside at the mere mention of her on my father’s lips. If he didn’t have that gun trained on me, I’d knock him on his ass. He waits for my response and when I don’t give it, his eyes harden.
“I see,” he says knowingly. “Then this is a true tragedy, isn’t it?”
The phone on his desk rings, breaking up the tension in the room. He leans back and picks up the receiver, keeping his eyes on me. “Yes?”
I wait as he listens, my mind going over what I need to do get out of this. I suppose I could try to run, but then what? He will pursue me. He’ll have his men hunt me down and he will not rest until I’m gone. Especially now that I know the depth of his treachery.
“No, no,” he says to whoever’s on the phone. “Send her up.”
He hangs up the phone and crosses his arms, the gun still pointed out at me. “I suppose this tragic love story wouldn’t be what it was without a proper goodbye, would it?”
Now I’m confused. What is he…? Send her up.
Isabella. Fuck. She found her way here.
“Don’t worry,” he says. He must see the change in my eyes. “A man should never have to mourn two wives. I will ensure that she remains unharmed.”
I want to believe him. He is currently in control of this situation, and as devious as he’s been, I’m having a hard time believing that he wouldn’t be so cruel as to kill Isabella in front of me.
There’s a knock at the door. I want to turn to see her. I don’t dare take my eyes off my father. I hear the door open and I catch a whiff of her. The soft smell of jasmine floats into the room.
She doesn’t say anything. I imagine seeing my father holding a gun on me is a shock. His face splits into a charismatic smile. “Isabella. Please. Come in.”