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“Hello, Mother Dearest,” I grunt through clenched teeth.
“Hello, Ms. Crawford,” Vivian adds, getting the reference.
“Who is this?” she scoffs.
“A friend.”
“Obviously not a good one if you’re lying about who you really are. Get moving, you useless brat.” I always wondered whether my mother was just dumb or uncultured, and it’s looking like she’s just dumb. “We’re going to bring out those piece-of-shit Contis one way or another.” Yep, dumb it is.
“That’s not smart,” I tell her. Her other hand comes across my face, sending my head back.
“That wasn’t either, Mrs. Moreno,” Vivian hisses.
“So you do know my name.”
“Yes, but you don’t know mine, and you’ve just earned your own toe tag,” Vivian says.
“Let me guess—you’re not a friend, but a Conti whore.”
“They call me Viper.”
“Well, if you try anything, I’ll end this little waste of life right here.”
“You got me there. Let’s do what she says, Pattycake.”
“You’re in charge,” I tell her. There’s not an ounce of fear in Vivian’s face, so I relax.
We step outside, and I spot Morozov across the street in between two buildings. He gives me the slightest nod. I return it and say to my mother, “You know, I promised you that wedding present.”
“But…” The bullet pierces her chest, and she hits the ground. We take cover just in case her guards decide to let loose, but one car speeds off, drawing attention to itself. We walk away from the scene, and the cops are called. Strangely, the shot came from the direction of the speeding car.
Morozov walks in the opposite direction and enters a building, and suddenly a black SUV pulls up to the curb. “Get in,” Matteo growls. Vivian hops in the passenger seat. My husband jumps out and drags me into the back seat, and we slowly drive away.
“We didn’t get to shop,” Vivian complains.
“Later, after I tan your ass,” Matteo growls.
“You,” Gio growls, his mouth crashing down on mine. “Don’t fucking scare me like that again.”
Matteo’s phone rings in the van’s dash. “Thanks for that one, Morozov.”
We can all hear the call. “It was a wedding present, as promised. I’m back to Russia. Take care.” The call ends.
“He must have heard me in the kitchen when she attacked me.” They all stare at me, waiting for me to answer. “When she threw me against the counter, she threatened me and I said that if I had to marry him, I’d ask him for a wedding present and that would be to kill her. She backed off in fear. Right after that, he came into my bedroom and offered to help me get away. At the time, I thought he was another one of my father’s new guards.”
“How many new guards did your father have?”
“Only ten, but then again, some of them could have been Sergei’s men. I wasn’t sure. He spoke to a few of them on our way out, saying he was taking me to the church to go over the wedding plans and they believed him, so they must have been new or really scared of him. I was just happy to leave.”
“Why did you go to the building?”
“My godfather works in the building and I was hoping he’d help, but he was meeting with that detective who stopped us.”
“Godfather? Who?”
“Antonio Juarez. He works in the building for an accounting firm.”
“Son of a bitch. I bet that dirty bastard Shamus was playing both sides this whole time.” They show me a picture of Shamus, and I recognize him.
