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“She said she wasn’t. She said that she had no idea who that was.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I don’t.”
“It’s not your fault Aleksey,” my uncle said as he dropped his hand. “You were played from the beginning, as we all were. Ludovico is craftier than I thought.”
I thought back to my interactions with Elia, thinking about all the times she smiled at me, the times that she looked happy.Ihad been happy. Was it really all just a ploy from her father? From the Bogatyr?
“We can make this right, though,” Uncle Misha finished. “We can end this all. If Ludovico thinks he can fuck with our family, then we’ll make him pay. We’ll avenge your father. We’ll make that bitch daughter of his know what it means to hurt you.”
“What are you going to do?”
Uncle Misha smiled. “Do what we do best, Alyosha. Do to Ludovico what he accused you of doing to his son. Butcher him in the streets and leave his body for the dogs. But I need your help, Alyosha.”
“What help could you possibly need from me?” I asked, curious.
Uncle Misha took a deep breath, knelt before me, bowed his head, and extended his palm. “One does not simply end a rival don so carelessly. I will need your permission, my pakhan. I will need your men. All you need to do is speak the word, and I will make the streets of New York run red with the blood of Tarallos this very night.”
I glanced at Boris, who was listening to my uncle’s plan intently, a frown on his face. I turned back to my uncle, kneeling and head still bowed. The liquor pounded at my brain, and Elia’s face swam into view. She was the current heir to the Tarallo Mafia. The child she carried was the next generation for both our families’ legacy.
Without family, we had nothing. I had destroyed her life when I took her brother. Now, she was destroying mine.
Let this be a sharp lesson to you, Alyosha,Father snarled behind me again.Never forget this.
My throat worked as I stared at my uncle, knowing that he was sincere in his words. My father’s death needed to be avenged, this was true. But had I not sworn that I wouldn’t become like my father? But then again, was I not the heir to the family business? Was I not the pakhan of the Korolev Bratva?
How would it look if I didn’t make certain that the one person most likely responsible for his death escaped justice?
“You did your duty,” Uncle Misha pleaded below me. “You got her pregnant. Now give me permission to go do mine.”
Permission, I thought bitterly. As if he ever needed permission to do these things. He, who hid so much from me. He, whom I suspected of treason for so long. To think that he was the only one who had never stopped telling me the truth.
“Permission granted, Mikhail Yevgenievich,” I finally said, my voice soft but laced with steel. “Take my men. Go to New York. And do not return until Ludovico Tarallo is dead.”
A feral smile spread across my uncle’s face as he stood, and he pulled me into a tight embrace, patting my back with a clenched fist. “As you command, my pakhan. It will be accomplished.”
I pulled away. “Don’t fuck this up.”
“Of course,” he replied, straightening his coat. “Your father would be proud of the man you have become.”
I inclined my head in acknowledgment as he turned to go. A sense of relief washed over me when Uncle Misha disappeared back into the darkness.
“What the fuck?” Boris growled the moment we were alone again. “Have you lost your mind?”
I turned to my oldest friend. “Go with him.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“Go with my uncle, Borya.” I reached for my father’s voice. “Eto moi prikaz.”
He clenched his jaw, and for a moment I thought he might punch me clear across the face. I didn’t like pulling rank with him. But it was the only way I could get him not to argue. Both of us knew this.
“Fine,” he said a moment later, his hands clenched at his sides. “I will do this. But know that I strongly disagree with this decision of yours.”
“Tell me everything as soon as it’s done.” I nodded curtly. “You are still my eyes and ears.”
Boris sighed, moving silently in the dark toward the direction that my uncle had disappeared. A moment later, I was left alone on the pier.
