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Wicked’s eyes narrow on Mik. “What happened to not having any proof, asshole?”
He continues. “Because it’s more fun this way.” He flashes a wide grin. “I didn’t want this fucking marriage any more than you, so we made the contract not legal. Truth is, your papa has a side hustle, Ruby La Rosa, and it came to bite him in the ass. Fuck the commission. We were going to take you for us, youknow, revenge and all that—” Mik bites on his cigarette. “But then Wicked came through with something better. We take your papa instead! Marvelous.”
I step between Mik and Papa, clutching the phone in my hand and zeroing my eyes on Mik. “You’re not going near him.”
“Thought you might say that, wifey, so please…” He smirks at the phone in my hand. “Push play.”
Victor La Rosa knew what he needed to do. His wife was the only person he knew would always matter to him. That was, of course, until he found out the truth about the one he married. He had pride too wide for his body.
The night was cold tonight. Colder than usual. He brought it down to the fact that the trees were bare from fall.
“Victor.” Antonio gestured his hand into the doors that lead into the old run-down asylum. Antonio was no different than Victor. They both knew what the other wanted from the other, but neither of them wanted to say it out loud.
Victor stepped through the doors, his glossy loafers tapping against the clear tiles. He followed Antonio as he led the way down to the end of the corridor, where a door waited for him. “We do all business talk in here, because if you’re wearing a bug, you get shot.”
Victor let the insult fly over his head. They both knew that the day Victor worked with the cops would be the day he would be thrown down a grave. He wasn’t interested in breaking Omertà.
He took the spot beside Antonio, keeping his eyes focused on the statue ahead of him. Virgin Mary crying blood. “You couldn’t be more weird if you tried—” Victor turned to him. “Brother.”
“Mmhmm. I know.” Antonio crossed his hands in his lap. He knew what his brother had come to say, but he awaited eagerly on the words to leave his mouth. Antonio had waited for thismoment since she was born. It was like watching the ice melt in Antarctica.
“She will be ready when she’s seventeen. It will need to be handled delicately, as she will be known among our worlds to be my daughter. People will ask questions. It can’t be done quickly. I need her up until that point.” Victor waved his hand. “You can experiment your drugs on her until you take her. Pearl will ask questions, though, so we will have to handle that.”
Antonio moved forward to see his brother’s eyes. He always knew when he was lying. “I agree, but I do have to ask, will you be telling her before she is handed over?”
“You can’t hand her over, Antonio,” Victor snapped at his brother, once again annoyed at his lack of knowledge. It was why their parents exiled him from the family. He clearly made a new one with K Diamond. “You need to plant someone in her life. Someone from outside our families. Use one of your little—” Victor looked over his shoulder at the young boy standing near the doors. “Experiments.”
“The human anatomy is far from a hobby, and if it wasn’t for what I do, brother, a lot of people wouldn’t have organs now would they? Since the system would rather see people die.”
“Oh, don’t act like you’re God. You kill more people than the system.”
“Also true,” Antonio said smoothly. “However, don’t worry. I will have it handled. She will be seventeen. I will put someone into her life that their main mission will be to bring her to me. Get close to her.”
Victor’s eyes fell on Antonio. He knew his brother. He was deceitful, but he trusted him with this because he knew he needed Ruby. “Whoever it is cannot be linked to the Cosa Nostra, or any mafia, underground outlaw. He must be a simple person with a simple life. One I can pierce into. They’reeasily manipulated.” Victor stood, wiping his hands down his suit and nodding at his brother. “You will have your daughter back, even though I should kill both you and Pearl for doing what you did.”
“I want her too,” Antonio said just as Victor was about to leave the room. “I want her dead. You know if I don’t get these things, La Rosa, that I will entice a war so heinous not even you could escape. You can’t run from me…” Laughter cackled through the haunted building.
The phone slips from my fingers as I turn back to Papa, unable to grasp the scene that played out in front of me. “How could you…”
His face changes from trying to get me to believe him to complete and utter disgust. “Because you are not my daughter. Because you are the product of your mother’s deceit!”
Wicked clucks his tongue. “I’d be really fucking careful with your next words, Papa La Rosa.”
“But—” I squeeze my eyes closed. “I don’t understand anything.”
Mik pipes in from the back, and the smell of metallic and rotting flesh engulfs me. “Your dear Papa, I mean the real one, was a lot smarter than your fake one gave him credit for. Placing you in the home of—my—parents, ordering Wicked to kill them to gain the attention of Victor, and Victor thinking this poor innocent civilian could be led blindly…”
“Then why haven’t you killed all of us over it?” I yell, spinning toward Mikhail with tears rolling down my cheeks.
“Because, little wife, your pet monster has protected you all along.”
“Right,” I murmur, unbelieving. “He dragged me to a fucking maze and drugged me! Don’t tell me that’s protecting!”
Mik’s brows raise. “And then let you go.” He lifts his shoulders in a shrug. “Well, I can’t answer for the way he went about it, but I can tell you why we didn’t just kill you all instead, and that’s simply because Wicked?” the corners of his mouth curve up in a dark grin. “Gave a better ultimatum. I take La Rosa and Antonio, you go back to being the baddest mafia bitch everyone loves with a forever alliance to us with no war, and Wicked—” His eyes flash up to him before moving over his shoulder. “Will give my brother back unharmed.”
“Brother?” I follow his eyes. Val sidesteps out, flashing me a smile. “No.”
Val’s arms wrap around my body, pulling me in tight. He kisses my head. “I’m sorry, baby girl.”
