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“Not since that night,” I say, blowing out a cloud of white. “But they’ll be no hesitating when I aim my gun at O’Sullivan’s head.”
His dark gaze flickers over my face for a couple of beats. “Fine. I’ll talk to Zaccaria… Maybe we can bring you in.”
My blood surges.
Finally.
“I’ll call you when he’s made a decision.” He straightens up and holds his hand out. “Until then, stay out of trouble.”
I grin slowly. Shake firmly. “You know I won’t.”
“Then stay out of jail.” He starts strolling back to the curb, lifting his arm up to hail a passing taxi.
“Hey, Guido?” I call out, my next question resting on my tongue like a silver bullet as he yanks the taxi’s back door open. “Did O’Sullivan ever have any kids?”
He stills, one hand wrapped around the door handle. I see him weighing up his answer, his face shadowed—at first, by indecision, and then by the red double-deckers rumbling past.
“A daughter.” He slams the door shut again and gestures for the cabbie to wait as he strides back over to me. “She’s not his flesh and blood, though. He stole her from her mother when she was just a kid. He forces her to live in his house and take his name.”
My hand clench around my lighter. “Why?”
“She’s the lovechild of one of his enemies, so he took her as leverage.”
“What’s her name?”
“Ada… Why so interested?”
“Just considering all my angles.” I flick my cigarette butt over the side of the bridge.
“Don’t give me that crapola, sunshine,” he says sharply. “You look like one of your girlfriends just short-changed you on a blow job.”
“You think I want to stick my dick in anyone connected with that Irish cunt?” I snarl, but the words sting my mouth. She’s worth so much more than my street scorn.
So much more than my lies.
Truth is, I can’t stop thinking about her—her soft lips, her witchy eyes, her pale skin… I’ve been walking around with a hard-on for days, and no other woman will do. Even the thought of touching another drives my fist into a wall.
“Don’t do it, Frankie.” His expression turns serious. “Don’t go thinking about using her in some Romeo and Juliet star-crossed, start-all-the-wars baloney. That’s not how O’Sullivan operates. He doesn’t give a fuck about Ada, but he gives a fuck about keeping Kirill Semenov happy.”
Kirill Semenov.
Somewhere in my head, a black floodgate opens, and memories I’ve kept buried for years come spilling out—like the secret meetings between my father and the Bratvapakhanbefore everything went south. Kirill pledged his support for my father’s vision of the Red Compass, then switched allegiance to O’Sullivan. He was instrumental in bringing down my family’s organisation. As such, I plan to make him suffer my vengeance just as harshly as O’Sullivan will.
Guido starts walking back to the waiting taxi again.
“What’s she’s got to do with Kirill?” I say loudly, thinking of the purple bruises on her neck.
Did he give them to her, or did O’Sullivan?
“A band of gold and a lifetime of Russian devotion.” He slides into the backseat and then reappears in the light of the open doorway. “Ada O’Sullivan is marrying Semenov in a couple of weeks, Frankie.”
A wave of emotion colder than the Thames smashes into my soul.
She’s too fragile for that evil bastard.
He’ll crush her, and then he’ll kill her when she’s served her purpose.
“Does she have a say in it?”
