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LUKA
“You make sure that motherfucker Dmitri stays far away from me tonight,” I say to my brother Taras. “I don’t want him anywhere near Tori, either.”
Tori is my other sister, and if I catch him so much as looking at her, I’ll snap his neck right here in the middle of the funeral home. But a sinking feeling in my gut tells me he’s already come up with a backup plan for forcing my hand with this arrangement.
Taras nods stiffly. “I’ll take care of him and his father, don’t worry.”
“Shit is gonna get messy with these guys. You and the others need to be prepared for whatever they pull. I don’t know the details of the arrangement Dad had with them, and why he thought it would be a smart move to sell off Val, but they obviously had a lot invested in it. They’ll want revenge. And restitution.”
“Why not just ice them all? That’s your specialty,” he says, a slight edge to his voice.
I level him with a glare. “I’m trying to avoid an all-out war. Do you have a problem with that? Would you rather open the whole family up to attack right now?”
“Who do you think killed Dad and Dima?” he asks without answering my question. His eyebrows furrow, jaw tensing as he scours the lobby of the funeral home and the sea of faces moving in between the two viewing rooms. “Did it have to do with Val and this sham marriage? Somebody who was pissed off and didn’t want the alliance to actually happen?”
I bring a hand to the back of my neck and rub the lump of stress that’s taken up residence at the base of my skull. “Why the fuck are you asking me? Do you really think Dima would ever tell me shit about his grand plans to take over the goddamn world? Or about the people who want to incinerate those plans?”
Taras recoils, his eyes narrowing. “You know, it’s not my fault you got sent away, Luka. Don’t take your fucking anger out on me. I’m just as concerned about the family as you are, and even if Dima didn’t tell you anything, it’s on you to figure it out. You’re the boss now, remember?”
“How the hell could I forget? There’s a lot we still don’t know, a lot that died with Dad and Dima. But the threat is still hanging over us. Just before he coded, Dima told me I need to save the family now.” I shake my head, my shoulders heaving with a deep sigh. “He never got to tell me from what, though.” My eyes meet Dmitri’s beady ones from across the room.
Sniveling prick.
“Do you think it was Resnov?”
“Natasha’s father knows what I’d do to the rest of his family if he dared make a move like that against ours.”
“You’re putting a lot of faith in him. And there’s obviously something between you and Natasha. Nikolai saw it when he was at your house the other day, and I saw it on the day of the wedding.”
“What’s your point?” My voice takes on an edge because I see where Taras is headed, and I don’t like it at all.
“Dima had this whole plan of parading her around on his arm to show everyone how powerful he is, and how he brought down the Resnov family.”
“Yeah, which is bullshit since I’m the one who actually snatched her.”
“Whatever. The thing is, Resnov had enough time to put together a plan to fuck them up beyond what they could ever do to him. Think about it. An ambush at your own event? You saw Resnov cozying up to Dmitri and his father, Denis, the other day. What if they’re all in on this? A massive takedown? And maybe they kidnapped Val to keep hold of her while they ravaged our organization?”
The throbbing of my temples is so forceful, it almost drowns out Taras’s line of argument.
Almost.
Unfortunately, I heard every word. And it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
Fuck me.
I’m an assassin, not a fucking analyst. I execute, goddammit. Always.
But there’s so much I don’t know, so much they kept from me. And the clock is ticking. I need to sort out the pieces — fast —before someone else disappears.
Or worse.
“It’s safe to say that everyone is at risk right now. But I still have Natasha, and she’s our leverage. Resnov won’t do anything that will put his daughter in jeopardy.”
I say the words, recalling the way that cold bastard spoke to her on the day of the attack. He’s a selfish and greedy sonofabitch, a coward who didn’t even make an attempt to stop me from taking her from his home. And deep in my gut I know that if push came to shove, he’d sacrifice his own flesh and blood.
Dmitri moves toward us, his spine stiff, his lips twisted into a grimace. I follow him with my eyes, every step he takes making the blood simmer more and more as it courses through my veins.
“Check out Dima’s room,” I mutter to Taras. “I want to talk to Dmitri alone.”
