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"Like being poorer?" she snarks.
I hold onto my temper. She's not herself and she doesn't understand, but she will.
"Like being protected from the bratva."
"What difference does it make if it's you extorting money from my club, or them?"
"They didn't just want money." I hate having to tell her this. It will upset her, but she has to see the truth. She needs me.
"Oh, really? What else did they want? A better place to hang out than that dive bar with the terrible service?"
"They wanted to use your club as a hunting ground for women." I spell it out for her. "They wanted to give you to Ivan to use and abuse before he killed you making a snuff film."
"Ivan, the man in the club that night?"
"No. That man's name is actually Dimitri and his is the son of thepakhan. Ivan is his father's second in command. Thevtoroyhas a type and you're it."
Remembering what Mo and Curly said, fury boils through me. Lucia is my woman. I will protect her, and I will kill anyone who is a danger to her. Including Ivan.
"I'm supposed to take your word for that?"
"Why would I lie?"
"Oh, I don't know…because it's what you're good at."
"Damn it, Lucia, I didn't lie to you."
"You said you and your brothers were in Portland to start a business."
"We are."
"You're here to claim territory for the Hades Brotherhood."
"That too."
"You told me you're a facilitator for your family."
"I am." And an assassin. Sometimes the killing is part of the facilitating.
"You told me you weren't using me to get information," she says like she won the argument.
She didn't. "I promised you I was not trying to use your knowledge to compete with or destroy your club. I didn't."
"I guess our definition of destruction isn't the same."
The kettle boils and clicks off. I pour the water in her mug and let it steep while I find the honey and a lemon. "Destruction is destruction, Lucia. Yes, the tithe will lower your profit margin at first, but we'll get you making more money than you ever were before."
"Don't talk like we're a team. We aren't."
Pain pierces my chest. I've been having these aches all night. I need to up my cardio, or something.
I slice a wedge out of the lemon and put the remainder in the little lemon keeper she has in her fruit drawer. Lucia has weird but cool shit in her kitchen. Probably because she likes to cook. She's going to love having a full kitchen again when she moves into the house she's buying.
I need to find out when she takes ownership so I can get an alarm system installed and other security measures implemented on the property. I've already looked into the houses on either side. Neither are for sale, but I don't anticipate a problem convincing the owners to change that.
If I'm going to be living there, I want my men living in the other properties.
Chapter 34
