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It’s a familiar voice. But not the one I was praying for.
Yasha strolls into the living room, an easy smile on his face. Until he smells the gasoline.
His nose wrinkles at once. “What the fuck is that smell?” Then he turns to me, and his face goes pale. “What the…. Sofia! What the fuck?”
Sofia grins maniacally and splashes more gasoline on the floor. “Hiya, Ricky. Do I have some ‘splaining to do?”
“Cut the shit,” he snarls. “What is she doing here? What are you doing?”
Yasha’s phone rings before Sofia can reply. He groans and answers it. “I told you I’d call you back, Veronika. I don’t have time to—”
His voice cuts off. As he listens, his eyes dart to me and then away. He clenches his teeth and curses. “Okay. Okay. I’ll handle it.”
He hangs up and spins on Sofia. “Adrik knows she’s gone. He already called Veronika. If I don’t help him find her, he’s going to kill me.”
“He was going to kill you anyway. Water under the bridge.” Sofia shrugs.
“Fuck, Sofia! This was not the plan!”
“You two are working together?” I ask, shaking my head. “Why? She’s a Volandri. Her brother…”
My voice trails off when Yasha snaps his attention to me, his eyes deadly. “‘Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.’”
“Quoting Shakespeare now?” Sofia snorts.
Yasha continues. “My feelings toward Pietro don’t change the fact that the Volandri mafia are the only allies I have capable of overthrowing my brother.”
“And my family would have punished Pietro for what he did,” Sofia says, her voice shaking with anger now. “We wouldn’t have stood for him deviating from the plan. But Adrik saw to it that he was executed. He took Pietro from me, and now, I will take you from him. Justice.”
Yasha groans. “No. That wasn’t the plan. The plan was to get my brother out of the way, not kill him. There was never any discussion about your own personal vendetta.”
“He can’t mourn if he’s dead,” Sofia hisses, staring at me like a starving animal. Then she turns to Yasha, placing her palm on his chest. “Adrik can’t properly pay for my brother’s life without experiencing true, crippling pain first. We have to break his heart and his will to live. Only then can he die.”
“Adrik didn’t even kill Pietro!” I blurt.
Yasha tenses and Sofia turns to me. “Of course he did. I was there when it happened.”
“Well, you weren’t there when I found Pietro in a dungeon cell just a couple weeks ago,” I argue. “Adrik said he killed Pietro, but he lied. He kept him alive and tortured him for years.”
Sofia looks more amused than anything. “I think I would know if my brother was alive.”
“He isn’t alive,” I say. “Not anymore, at least. He died just the other day. Didn’t he, Yasha?”
Sofia turns to Yasha. He’s doing his best to school his expression into amused innocence, but he isn’t as skilled as Adrik in hiding his true emotions.
“You’re being absurd,” he says.
“Yasha killed him and framed Adrik for it,” I say, trying to appeal to Sofia. Trying to drive a wedge between my two captors. “The person you want revenge on didn’t even do what you’re saying he did.”
Sofia stares at me, blinking. I can feel her doubts creeping in. I can see the uncertainty in her eyes.
Then she turns to Yasha. “What’s she talking about?”
“Fucking nonsense,” he says. “This is why you should have stuck to the plan. You went off on your own and now, you’re letting this bitch get in your head just like she got in my brother’s. It’s what she does.”
I bark out a laugh. “Out of everyone in this room, I’m the only one not playing mind games!”
Sofia ignores me. “Maybe I’ll get in touch with Adrik and see what he has to say for himself.”
Yasha’s eyes go wide. He shakes his head. “That’s a bad idea. My brother thinks you’re dead.”
“So let’s give him the good news, shall we?” she suggests. “I’ll let him know I survived the crash and faked my own death. And then he can tell me whether he faked my brother’s death. I do love a good reunion.”
Yasha is chewing on his lower lip, worrying his skin until I’m sure he’ll split it open. Then he reaches into his pants and pulls out a gun. He aims it at Sofia’s head.
Finally, Sofia looks genuinely surprised. “What are you doing, Yasha?”
“Adrik can’t know we were working together,” he stammers. “That was always part of the plan.”
“He’s going to die, anyway.”
“Not if it can be avoided!” Yasha roars. “You and the Volandris were supposed to secretly help me overthrow him and then seat me in his place. Our formal alliance will come later… once I’m don. No one can know we worked together.”
Sofia flings her arm out in my direction. “And what are you going to do about her?”
“The same thing I did last time,” Yasha says, turning to me. “I’ll drug her and she’ll forget everything. Well, almost everything.”
My stomach turns. How much do I still not know about the night he raped? What else am I forgetting? It’s probably better I never know. But this? Right now? I can’t forget. If I get out of here and see Adrik again, I have to be able to tell him what is going on. He needs to know the truth about Sofia and his brother.
I can’t let them win.
Sofia steps towards Yasha almost as if the gun isn’t between them. Her hand pets down his chest, dipping low over his stomach.
“Yasha,” she purrs, angling her chin so the porcelain-smooth, unscarred side of her face is all he can see. “This is why you should be don. This is why you deserve it more than your brother. You always have a plan.”
I barely keep myself from laughing. She thinks this is a plan? I don’t know a damn thing about being part of a Bratva or a mafia and even I know this is a shit strategy.
Yasha lowers the gun slightly. “And this is why I asked you for help. You believe in me, Sofia. And I believe in what the two of us can do together. What our families can build. With your manpower and my knowledge of the Tasarov Bratva, we can cripple my brother. Imagine what it will be like when I have the might of the Bratva behind me as well.”
“It sounds like a dream, love,” Sofia murmurs. “But your brother never let you take the lead. You don’t understand how this works as well as I do.”
Yasha shakes his head. “No, I took the lead plenty. I know—”
“I was there, remember? I was almost married to your brother. I saw the way he treated you.”
“He treated me like a child,” Yasha says, his jaw clenching.
“So let me take the lead on this until you’re ready. And when you’re don, you’ll call all the shots,” she says.
Watching them is like sitting through a bad movie. The motives are so obvious it’s almost laughable. She’s a snake. He’s a pawn. Surely they see that in each other?
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” I say finally.
