AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She didn’t even have to think about it. “No. I want to fight.”
He nodded. “Then begging the Spies for forgiveness isn’t an option. Even if they agree, it will mean the end of our bid for leadership.”
Our. For the first time, he was implying they were a team. It hadn't been the plan, but the plan hadn’t allowed for the possibility of being beguiled by her husband. The plan hadn’t allowed for the possibility that she could come not only to admire him, but to love him.
Was that what was happening? She didn’t know, but maybe the plan had been faulty from the start.
“So Musa must die,” she said. “Except you’ve been exiled. That means you have no resources available to you.”
“Exactly,” he said. “Which is why today I met with Roman Kalashnik.”
She couldn’t hide her surprise. “Son of Igor?”
He nodded. “I’ve proposed a partnership of sorts. He’ll give me some men to deal with Musa.”
“What will you offer in return?” she asked.
“Help overthrowing Igor.”
She drew in a breath. “That hardly seems like an even trade.”
“I agree on the surface. But right now, our lives are at stake. That makes the assistance Roman can provide more valuable than it might be otherwise. Once I’m pakhan, I’ll have all the resources I need to aid Roman in New York.”
He hesitated, and she sensed there was something else he wasn’t saying.
She touched his arm. “You can trust me.”
He nodded. “I see a future for the bratva where we work in partnership with other cities, where the individual organizations benefit from organized leadership. We haven’t kept pace with modern times. We could have far more money, far more power, if we evolved.”
“Like the Syndicate,” she said.
He nodded. “Like the Syndicate.”
“You think if you take Chicago and Roman takes New York, you might work together to build something new,” she said.
“I do.”
She looked out over the water as the magnitude of what he was saying hit her. She’d known he was smart. Had known he had big plans. But she couldn’t have imagined a move so grand.
A move so risky.
Killing Musa was just the beginning of the danger he would face.
The danger they would face.
She looked at him. “I agree.”
A smile spread slowly across his face. It was sun finally spreading across cold ground.
A relief. A blessing.
He held her face in his hands. “I knew you would.”
“You’re a liar, Lyon Antonov.”
He tipped his head back and laughed. “I did. Not in the beginning. But more recently.” He rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs. “You’re a queen, and I’m going to give you a crown. Not just to our corner of the world but to everything.”
She met his gaze. “You won’t have to give it to me. I’ll fight for it alongside you.”
