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Lia, who used to tremble in front of a gun, killed someone to protect me.
I probably shouldn’t be proud of that fact, but I am.
Even if I want to strangle her accomplice with my bare hands.
“Find Luca and kill him,” I tell Kolya who’s sitting beside me in the back seat as Fedor and another guard occupy the front.
We’re heading straight from the airport to Sergei. I haven’t stopped by the house, merely calling Ogla to inform her about the course of action to take once I’m gone, just as I’ve spent the entire flight telling Kolya what he’ll do from here on out.
“With all due respect, sir. Luca is not the problem now.”
“He is. Since he’s so invested in her and knows that she’s Lazlo’s daughter, his roots run deeper than I thought. He wants to hurt her and has manipulated her all along, which means he’s most likely one of the Rozettis. He was probably assigned to keep an eye on her and he’s used her ever since. Remember the guard who betrayed their secret about hiding Lia from Lazlo after we tortured him? He said that Lia is their trump card against the Lucianos and they’ll use it whenever they see fit. They kidnapped her mother while she was pregnant with her and married her off to one of their own to keep her under their thumbs.”
“Wouldn’t Lazlo know about her mother? The pregnancy? Her grandmother?”
“She wasn’t her real grandmother, Kolya. She was merely a woman who knew Rachel Gueller at some point in her life, and the Rozettis paid her well to pretend to be Lia’s grandmother.”
“Why couldn’t it be that Lazlo knew he had a daughter somewhere and simply never paid attention to her?”
“He’s heirless, Kolya. Believe me, if he knew he had an offspring somewhere, he wouldn’t hesitate to bring him or her into the family.”
“So now what?”
“I want Luca and anyone he works with dead. Since he knows about Lia’s origins, he’s a danger to her.”
“You’re the one who’s currently in danger. You could force Lazlo’s hand by telling him about her. If you bring him around, Sergei might forgive you.”
“No.”
“Boss.”
“If Lazlo finds out about her, he’ll know I duped him all along and will stop at nothing until he takes her. She’s well protected away from him.”
“With all due respect, she won’t be protected when you’re dead.”
“Yes, she will be. You will make sure of it.”
He releases a deep sigh, staying silent for a beat too long. “Is it worth it?”
“Is what worth it?”
“Losing everything for her?”
A small smile grazes my lips. “Absolutely.”
Fedor stops the car in front of Sergei’s house, then accompanies me and Kolya inside.
We pass by a huge painting of angels battling demons in the entrance. It’s a piece of art that Nikolai and Sergei acquired from the black market and exhibited where it’s visible to anyone who walks in.
The previous and the currentPakhans’ display of power in even the smallest of details is intriguing. Through the painting, they subconsciously make their guests pick a side. Angels or demons. Good or evil.
I always thought myself above such mind games, but now, as I stare at the furious paranormal faces frozen in their battle cry, I can’t help but feel a slight twinge of discomfort.
Another thing they hoped to accomplish by placing the painting here.
Sergei’s senior guard stops Kolya and Igor at the bottom of the stairs and speaks in gruff Russian, “Only Volkov is allowed upstairs.”
Kolya steps beside me. “I’m going with him.”
