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“Who is dealing with your father?” I asked Viktor as he stumbled to his feet.
“The Surgeon. He’ll send me proof of death.”
I blinked at him. The notorious psycho-for-hire and serial killer the media called the Surgeon had Boyan.
“How the hell did you get him to agree?”
Word was you couldn’t pay him to take jobs. He was the unhinged bogeyman of the mob world – no allegiances, no allies, and no trace of him.
“He came to me, saying he had a score to settle with my father. He said he knew we were working together.”
“How the hell did a psycho like that know when I only just found out?” Loch asked.
A million questions burst into my head, all of them about security and leaks.
“Don’t ask me how he knew. The guy’s crazy,” Viktor said, dusting his suit off.
Amy started laughing maniacally. “Someone crazier than you guys.”
She doubled over, wheezing, and then retched, throwing up onto the grass.
I grabbed her waist, but she batted at my hand ineffectually and then tried to twist away. I yanked her against me. She wasn’t pulling away from me now.
“I want proof too,” I told Viktor.
“Oh, I think he plans to visit you himself.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I think you’ve got an admirer.” Viktor smirked.
“We need to get out of here,” Loch said, cradling Rada in a bridal carry. She seemed lost to her demons.
The sirens were pulling closer as we jogged back to the cars. Amy wouldn’t look at me, but I didn’t let her go. I didn’t care how long it took her to come around. She wasn’t going anywhere.
32
Amy remained stiff all the way home. Once alone in our room, I crowded her in the shower and stripped her clothes. She shivered and stared at the floor.
“I didn’t know for sure he was your father, but I knew it would break your heart. It doesn’t matter who your sperm donor was. Just as it doesn’t matter who mine was.”
“How did you find out?” she asked in a small voice.
“Thomas did a more in-depth background check. He found Boyan took over the club your mother worked for. They started an affair, but she moved away when she found out she was pregnant. She had you and returned to work at a different club. But he eventually found her. He was in and out of your lives after that. He had other illegitimate children, but Petar gradually killed them all off.”
She gasped, her eyes flying up to mine. I yanked her underwear off and backed her under the spray.
“Viktor is the only one of Stefanovs with a set of brain cells. I met him a few years ago at an investment dinner. He was working to bring their gang into the business sphere. He hates people trafficking. The deal that supposedly resulted in Uncle Declan’s death was our first attempt at a small alliance. Unfortunately, we both trusted the wrong people.” I gestured for her to squeeze some shower gel into my good hand and began washing her.
“How did you find out?” she murmured.
“Viktor contacted me after everything happened, but it took a while for us to trust each other again. Eventually, we realised there was a rat on both sides. However, working out who was behind it took even longer.” I sighed. “Boyan enjoyed playing the brothers off against each other, and everything was harder to prove with him in prison. Petar finally showed his hand to Viktor, and he alerted me last night, which was why Cian was in the cells.”
She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. I tugged her into my body.
“My gut told me that Cian was involved, but my brain told me he was too dumb to pull it off. I couldn’t find the proof to back up my hunch. I didn’t want to execute a member of my family on a whim. The men didn’t blink when I killed my father because they had lost that much faith in him and lived in constant fear of him turning on them. Some fear is good, but excess breeds disloyalty.” I hung my head. “What I never expected, and regret not considering, was that Uncle Declan was still alive. It meant I didn’t look in the right places for my traitor.”
That stupid assumption could have gotten us all killed.
