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There was another search of the house.
And, yeah, it didn’t matter how good the sex was, or how much I liked being spoiled, even I couldn’t ignore the red flags anymore.
Czar was clearly into some criminal shit.
I should know.
I worked for a fucking Irish mafia family.
“What do you want, Nyx?” Conor, the second-youngest Murphy brother asked when I walked into the office at The Bog one night before my shift.
“Conor, can I ask you a question?” I asked.
To that, he let out a sigh.
Conor was the moodiest of the Murphy brothers. Always scowling. Had a bad temper.
I don’t know why I chose him instead of the more steadfast and reasonable Cillian. Or the lighthearted Rian. Or even the more standoffish Sean or Eoin.
I guess maybe I knew that Conor would be the one to give it to me the straightest. And that was what I’d needed right then.
“Fine,” he said, clearly annoyed at the interruption.
“Is Czar a drug dealer?” I asked, watching as Conor’s brows furrowed.
“Are you fucking serious?” he asked, looking at me like I was a complete idiot.
“The car. The cash. The police always harassing him…” I explained, thinking he was insinuating that I was being paranoid.
“Jesus Christ, Nyx. You’re shacked up with the biggest heroin dealer on this side of California and you don’t even know it?”
I felt like all the blood rushed out of me at those words.
“Heroin dealer?”
“Czar,” Conor said. “Czar Petcova.”
“I know what his name is,” I said, snipping at him because I was so disappointed in myself.
“Petcova, Nyx,” he said.
“You keep saying that like you think I know what that means. I don’t.”
“Petcova. They’re a huge fucking Bulgarian crime syndicate. He used to work out of LA, but the heat he was under there smoked him out in our direction to lay low. His whole operation is still there. And spreading out everywhere in between.”
So, yeah, that was how I found out that I’d been dating a Bulgarian crime lord.
I wish I could say I’d smartened up right then and there, that I fell instantly out of love with him, that without the rose-colored glasses, I no longer liked what I saw when I looked at him.
That just… wasn’t true.
I stayed on with Czar for a full two years after that, ignoring all the red flags.
Until, of course, I couldn’t do that anymore.
Because Czar got arrested.
Then he got charged.
