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I was surprised to hear the venom in Nikolai’s voice as he spoke about his father. Although they may not have cared for the man in a father/son sense, I always assumed they had some kind of respect for him. It was very clear they didn’t.
“He’ll destroy her, Arlo, and I don’t mean end her life in the most humane, painless way possible. He’ll beat her down mentally and emotionally until she’s nothing more than dough that he can form into whatever vision he sees fit. And when he’s the only thing that she can grasp on to, when he has you right where he wants you, he’ll destroy you too.”
I was seething with rage, and there was no way I could hide my body’s reaction. I wasn’t even trying as a deep growl of aggression and warning left me.
Dmitry smirked, but it didn’t hold the amusement or satisfaction I assumed it would from seeing me lose control. The very thought of anyone so much as laying a hand on Lina made me want to desecrate the entire city of Desolation. To think that somebody would touch or hurt her, to snuff out that light, made me want to go on a killing rampage.
“Our father needs to be taken out, Arlo. And because you now have a direct link to him through your woman, because she’s a threat and you know my father won’t stop until he gets what he wants, which is now both of you, she won’t be safe.”
I curled my lip at him. “Don’t fucking act like you’re giving me some kind of fucking gift, like you’re doing me a favor. You’re doing this because you want power, Dmitry. You’re doing this because your father is psychotic and destructive, becoming too volatile apparently. Don’t fucking act like you’re giving a handout simply because you have a good heart. It’s just as fucking black and soulless as mine.”
Dmitry laughed and looked over his shoulder, which had Nikolai chuckling as well. “As much as we’d like to take out the old fucker ourselves, show him the kind of family love he’s shown us as we grew up, you know how our world works.” He looked back at me. “It would be bad form for us to have a personal hand in it. But you’re the best of the best. A real coldhearted bastard, aren’t you? You could take him out and make it look like he just disappeared. Poof,” he said as he curled his hand into a fist in front of his face.
I turned from them and paced, knowing what I had to do but not wanting to fucking work with Dmitry or Nikolai. I didn’t want to make back-alley deals with them. This wasn’t even about the Bratva or their Pakhan. I couldn’t give a shit about Leonidand his fucked-up morals. My only concern and priority was Lina.
I turned to face them and growled out, “She’s mine.”
Dmitry started laughing. “Yeah, I think you made that pretty fucking obvious when Dima touched your girl and you pulverized his fucking hands.” Nikolai started laughing even harder this time after his brother spoke. “Although it served the fucker right. He was a touchy bastard and doesn't know what the word ‘no’ means.”
I clenched my jaw so tightly I wouldn’t have been surprised if I cracked some teeth. As I stared at the dirt and trash strewn on the ground, the stench of decay and age surrounding me, I knew what I had to do.
“You and I both know you’re going to take him out.” The confidence in Dmitry’s voice made me instantly want to break his neck, but I said nothing, just glared at the prick. “My brother and I don’t need more war. We want an alliance between the Cosa Nostra and Bratva. We need to grow stronger and create not only domestic deals but international ones. And we found a way to do that. But if our father stays in power, he’ll destroy the progress we’re making.” Dmitry looked at Nikolai and smirked, as if they shared a silent conversation on what was really going down.
“Didn’t you know?” Nikolai prompted and pushed off the wall, stalking toward me. “I’m getting hitched. Got an arranged marriage to a sexy little just-turned-eighteen Italian hottie.” He wagged his eyebrows and grinned lasciviously.
“That’s your plan? An arranged marriage between the Petrov Bratva and Cosa Nostra?” I ran a hand over my face and shook my head. “You guys are even crazier than I thought.”
Dmitry grinned and didn’t say anything else. Good. I wasn’t into all the politics that came with the crime underworld. AndI didn’t want details and logistics on what was all going to go down.
“So we came to a father killer to handle this.”
I kept my expression composed as I stared at Dmitry. They wanted their father out of the picture, wanted to fucking tie themselves with the Italian mafia, so that wastheirfight to deal with. But now Lina was in the mix because of me and my fuckup. I had to finish this. I had to go into the fold whether I wanted to or not, but when it came to her, I realized I’d do anything to protect her.
She had secrets, ones she’d tell me eventually, ones I'd take care of for her, so she never had to worry about anything again but being with me.
I'd do anything to make her mine. And tonight I was going to make her see—and feel—just that.
17
Galina
Iwoke to the groggy feeling that I hadn’t been asleep for very long, the weight of that tiredness trying to pull me back under, but something had woken me up, so I forced myself to blink my eyes open.
I stared at the ceiling, a sliver of the ambient city light coming through the curtain of the bedroom window. As my mind cleared and I woke up further, I realized what had roused me.
I wasn’t alone.
I felt someone watching me, and my gaze was pulled to my side of the bed, where I saw a large masculine body sitting, his forearms braced on his thighs, his head cocked to the side, and his eyes latched on me.
I gasped and sat up, knowing it was Arlo as the fog in my mind cleared. With a hand on my racing heart, I licked my lips and let the silence stretch out between us.
“Moye serdtse bolit, kogda ya smotryu na tebya.”His voice was deep and low but still had the intense effect of moving over every inch of my body and lighting it up.
“Arlo?” I whispered his name in the darkness. “What’s wrong?” It wasn’t by the way he watched me, but the tension in his shoulders, the way he clenched his jaw so tightly I could all but hear his teeth grinding. “Is everything okay?” Every little shift I made on the bed was followed by his eyes, as if he was tracking me and refused to let his prey go.
“It will be,” came his reply.
My heart thundered at those three words that sounded almost threatening. But not to me.Never to me, I thought with certainty.
