Chapter 34
Dimitri’s car screeched to a halt in front of the Marchetti estate, gravel spraying beneath the tires. He was out before the engine fully died, taking the front steps three at a time.
Dimitri strode down the hallway, his footsteps echoing off marble floors, passing different room and he reached Killian’s.
He didn’t knock.
The door to Killian’s room swung open, and Dimitri found both his brothers in different states of dress.
Killian stood in front of his full-length mirror, adjusting his bow tie with the precision of a man suiting up for battle. His tuxedo was immaculate. black on black, tailored to perfection, making him look every inch the dangerous man he was.
Nico sat on the edge of the bed, rolling up his sleeves to fasten platinum cuff links. His mask, an ornate silver piece with sharp, angular features, fit snugly around his glasses.
Both of them looked up when Dimitri entered, and the air in the room shifted immediately.
“You look like shit,” Killian said, his voice flat. His eyes tracked over Dimitri’s disheveled appearance. The blood on his knuckles, the wild look in his eyes. “What happened?”
Dimitri closed the door behind him and locked it.
That got their attention.
“We need to talk,” Dimitri said, his voice rough. “Now.”
Nico stood, his hand instinctively moving toward his brother. “What’s going on?”
Dimitri crossed the room in three strides, his presence filling the space like a storm rolling in. “Victor did in fact, send someone to kill Bea tonight. I was too late to stop him.”
Nico’s face went white.
“What?” Killian’s voice was dangerously quiet.
“What do you mean? Is Bea..” Nico’s voice cracked on the word.
“Bea is safe, hurt but safe. Marco saved her.”
The room exploded.
“MARCO?!” Killian roared. “That fucking Valenti piece of shit was in her apartment?! What the fuck was he doing there?!”
“Saving her damn life!” Dimitri shot back, stepping into Killian’s space. “He heard the struggle, ran in and he put a bullet in Victor’s man before that bastard could finish the job. If Marco hadn’t been there, Bea would be dead right now. DEAD, Killian!”
Killian’s face twisted with rage, his hands curling into fists. “I don’t give a fuck what he did! He has no right…”
“He has every right!” Dimitri grabbed Killian by the front of his shirt, slamming him back against the wall. “He’s her best friend! He was there when we weren’t! When we threw her away like she was nothing, he was the one who stayed!”
“Dimitri…” Nico tried to intervene, but Dimitri wasn’t done.
“Marco isn’t the enemy,” Dimitri said, his voice dropping to something cold and absolute.
“Get that through your thick fucking skull right now. If it wasn’t for him, the woman we all claim to love would be lying on her apartment floor with her throat crushed and a bullet in her brain.
So you can be pissed all you want, but you will respect the fact that he saved her when we couldn’t. ”
Killian’s chest heaved, his eyes blazing with fury and something else. Shame, maybe, or fear. “I don’t trust him.”
“You don’t have to trust him,” Dimitri said, releasing Killian’s shirt. “But you will acknowledge that without him, we’d be going to Bea’s funeral instead of Victor’s execution.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Nico sank back onto the bed, his head in his hands. “Christ. Is she okay?”
“She’s alive,” Dimitri said, his voice softening slightly. “Bruised. Shaken. But alive. Marco’s with her now, and Barb. They’re safe.”
Killian turned away, bracing his hands against the wall, his shoulders rigid with tension. “Victor really sent someone to kill her.”
“Yes.”
“Because she knows too much.”
“Because she’s a threat to him,” Dimitri corrected. “Because she’s smart enough to see through his bullshit, and because he knew we’d eventually come to our senses and realize she was telling the truth all along.”
Nico looked up, his young face suddenly looking much older. “What else?”
Dimitri took a breath. This was the part that would change everything.
“Victor is the reason our families have hated each other this entire time.”
Both brothers stared at him.
“What?” Killian turned around slowly, his expression unreadable.
“The feud. The war between the Marchettis and the Valentis. It wasn’t them.
It was never them.” Dimitri pulled out his phone, showing them the photos Barb had provided.
“Victor orchestrated the whole thing. He set up the Valentis to take the fall for shipments he was stealing. He planted evidence, manipulated our father, turned our family against theirs so he could operate in the chaos.”
Nico took the phone, scrolling through the images, his face growing paler with each swipe. “This can’t be real.”
“It’s real,” Dimitri said. “Barb got the proof. Bank accounts, text messages, photographs. Victor’s been bleeding this family dry for decades, and he used the Valentis as his scapegoat. Every drop of blood spilled between our families, every life lost. It’s all on him.”
Killian snatched the phone from Nico, his eyes scanning the evidence with the intensity of a man watching his entire world collapse. “That son of a bitch.”
“He’s been playing us all.” Dimitri said. “Tonight he’s planning to finish the job.”
“He already thinks he killed Bea,” Nico said quietly.
“Yes he does,” Dimitri confirmed. “She was the only one who saw through him from the beginning. She tried to warn us, and we threw her to the wolves.”
Killian’s hand tightened around the phone until Dimitri thought it might shatter. “I’m going to kill him.”
He looked at both his brothers, making sure they were listening.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. We go to this stupid party.
We act like nothing’s changed. We smile, we shake hands, we play the part of heartbroken fools.
” His voice turned to ice. “Victor cannot know that Bea is still alive,” Dimitri continued.
“That’s our ace. He thinks he’s safe. We let him keep thinking that until the moment we’re ready to strike. ”
Nico stood, his jaw set with determination. “What’s the plan?”
“Marco’s bringing Bea to the ball. They’ll come in costume, masked. Victor won’t recognize her. They have all the evidence. Everything we need to bury him in front of the entire city, in front of every ally and associate he’s ever had.”
“And then?” Killian asked, his voice deadly calm.
“And then we make an example of him,” Dimitri said. “We show everyone what happens to traitors in this family. We show them what happens when you try to destroy us from the inside.”
The three men stood in silence, the weight of what was coming settling over them like armor.
Killian walked back to the mirror retying his bow tie angrily. “I still don’t like Marco.”
“You don’t have to like him,” Dimitri said. “But he’s not our enemy. Not anymore. Maybe he never was.”
Killian’s jaw worked, but he nodded once. Grudging acceptance, but acceptance nonetheless.
Killian met Dimitri’s eyes in the mirror, and something passed between them. An understanding, a promise, a pact sealed in blood that hadn’t been spilled yet.
“For Bea,” Killian said quietly.
“For all of us,” Dimitri corrected. “For everyone Victor’s hurt. For the family he tried to destroy.”
Nico stood, straightening his jacket. “Then let’s go to a fucking masquerade.”
Dimitri clapped both of them on the shoulders. Feeling the solid weight of them, the strength. They were Marchettis. They were brothers. And tonight, they would remind Victor exactly what that meant.