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Gavan allows himself a small smile before his face darkens.
“Now, are we going to flip a coin to see who gets to skin Serj Mirzoyan alive?”
* * *
“M—Mr. Drakos?”
I pause in the hallway of the long-term recovering wing of Mt. Sinai hospital. Frowning at the sound of a voice I recognize, I turn to peer into the open doorway of the room beside me.
Theo Petrakis smiles nervously at me as I step into his room.
“I—I saw you walking by and just wanted to say hi.”
I nod, smiling at him. “How’s the recovery going, kid?”
He shrugs. “It’s okay. The skin grafts itch like hell, but it’s all healing pretty well. And, hey, my dad came by this morning and told me the good news. We’re not going to war with the Bratva?”
I frown. “We? Theo, you’re just a kid.”
He blinks. “I’m eighteen, Mr. Drakos. My dad’s already teaching me about running the business.”
I smirk, nodding. “Fair enough. But no, there’s no war. We’ve dialed it back. It’s all settled.”
“That’s good to hear.”
I nod.
In the last twelve hours, alotof things have been settled. First and foremost, no, the Drakos-Kildare alliance will not be shooting it out in the streets with Gavan’s people. All parties on both sides have been informed, and a total cease to any hostilities has been issued.
Gavandidend up flipping a coin in that sub-basement. He even won the toss, too. But he’s not going to be skinning Serj alive.
No one’s going to be doinganythingto Serj alive.
Because he’s fucking dead.
Apparently, he and Melik got into a heated argument about the pending sale of the empire. They were both drunk, and when Melik drew a pieceon his own father, meant only to intimidate him, it discharged, blowing a hole in Serj’s gut. At which point, Papa Mirzoyan pulled hisowngun out, and shot his kid in the chest. Which sounds cold asfuck, unless you’d ever met Melik.
If you had? Yeah, you’d kinda get it.
Both Serj and Melik bled out before anyone found them, and now Vanya is the new head of the Albanian family. It’s currently a big fat “to be determined” what she does with it.
“That’s great to hear,” I sigh. “Look, Theo, I didn’t mean to come down so hard on you that time at Nora Guin’s apartment. Your dad’s an okay guy, and I know you’re a good kid. I just want you to know that.”
He smiles. “Nah, I get it. It must have looked super sketch. But honestly, Mr. Drakos, I wasn’t, like, trying togetwith Nora. Nick wasn’t, either. We really were just wanting to chill and hang out. Seriously.”
I nod, my brow furrowing. “Have you talked to her recently? Nora, I mean.”
Elsa hasn’t been seen since the night of the bombing. According to her building super, she hasn’t been to her apartment, and when I dropped by Crown and Black, her friend Fumi told me she was on vacation, after giving me an earful about not hurting her friend.
She didn’t mention notkilling her, though.
It’s a thought that keeps me up at night, twisting me back and forth: whether Idowant to find Elsa, to wreak my vengeance on her, or if I never want to set eyes on her again, so I don’t have to do that.
Because if I do find her, I will. There’s no question about that.Elsa’sthe one who was feeding info to Leo.Elsais the one who knew about our hidden warehouses, and the passcode for the back door of The Banshee.
Presumably, she’s with her fucking father somewhere, given than no one can find either one of them. But something doesn’t sit well with me about her having brought Nora along for the ride as well. Because I checked her school and her ballet class—she’s been missing since that night, too.
“Nora?” Theo shrugs. “Probably having the time of her life on a beach in Thailand.”
