Page 126 of Savage Don

Fucking hell.

“No,” Maksim says, with no room in his voice for doubt. “When I asked him why he did it, his answer was so unexpected that I couldn’t forget it, even after all that’s happened.”

“What did he say?”

“He said that he went against the most powerful mafia entity in the world, and I quote: because she convinced me with her tongue, with her pussy. I’m an old man. I’m a rich man. I can buy whores. But she was no whore. She was a queen.”

“What the fuck…”

“Look, Ray, I’m sorry,” Leonid says. “I know that you’ve been following Domenico like a hawk. I know you have his daughter. I know things probably felt like they were coming together. Hell, I know what’s at stake for you. If I could change it, I would. But I can’t. At least now we know to look for a woman.”

That hardly makes me feel any better.

“A woman?” I shake. “What woman powerful enough to go against us would even try? We’ve married all of our enemies. Made allies of their armies. And the three remaining Italian families are run by men, sons of the men who were killed in the same blast that killed Rian Kilpatrick. This doesn’t make any sense.”

“Artuzov could have been lying,” Leonid offers.

“I don’t think he was,” Maksim sighs.

“Your gut says he was telling the truth,” I fume. “But my gut was telling me our rat was Domenico. How can I trust anyone’s gut anymore?”

“If a man can’t trust his gut, what can he trust?” Maksim says. I can see the sympathy in his eyes, but he’s confident in his intuition. Just like I was.

Fuck.

I don’t want his sympathy. I want answers.

“Nothing,” I admit, and it feels like someone has scooped out my insides. I’m hollow.

I’ve failed my friends. I’ve failed myself.

I’ve failed Francesca.

I’ve put her through so much, and for what?

If I don’t figure this shit out, I’ll be dead by this time next year. Then, I’ll have torn her from her family and made her into an outcast for nothing.

“A fucking woman,” I growl, looking back onto Maksim. There’s no point in giving up. Even if I could do that to myself, I wouldn’t do it to Francesca.

“That’s what it sounded like,” Maksim nods.

“And all she was offering him was sex? He snuck into a federal office multiple times, risked spending his golden years in prison, all for some fucking coochie?”

“Must have been good coochie,” Leonid jokes.

It hardly matters that I’ve been thrown into a fucking blender, I can’t help but laugh.

“Fucking hell,” I grumble, pinching the bridge of my nose as a hearty chuckles fills up my hollow insides.

This is a mess, but there’s still time. I’ve still got my friends to help me along the way. I’ve still got hope.

I’ve still got Francesca.

My life has held harder challenges. This is just another problem to overcome.

“It was good enough that he seemed unable to stop talking about it,” Maksim chuckles. “Even as I dragged him to what I’m sure he knew would be a violent interrogation.”

“And he didn’t say anything else?” I prod, desperate for any more information. Just another hint, that’s all I need.