Page 175 of The Umarova Crime Family

“What happened, Nazyr?” she questions.

I furrow my brows and stare into her dark eyes. She’s really playing this card. Wow. “You’ve got to be kidding me right now,” I hiss at her.

“I’m not! I need to know what you’re talking about.”

“Exactly what I said! You had your men go after Eset and Meryem, and you don’t even fucking care, do you? They could’ve been killed because of you.” I shake my head and close my eyes, still unable to believe the atrocities our mother is prepared to commit on her quest for power.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nazyr. I… I have people who told me they were going after my daughter. I knew Eset might be at risk, but I… I knew I needed to find my daughter first.”

“Eset will be fine. She has us. As far as you not having any knowledge of what’s happening, I’m not buying it. I think it’s total horse shit,” I grumble, looking into her dark eyes as I search for some sort of answer.

“I’m not talking about Eset! I need to get to your other sister!”

I blink a few times, knowing she can’t be serious. She’s trying to convince me that we have another sibling, one I know for a fact none of us have any knowledge of. “Don’t play games with me.” I’m making my point very clear to her. I’m not in the mood for games. All my life, she’s been playing games with me, and quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of it.

“I’m not playing games, Nazyr. Her name is Xava Beno, and she was raised by some extended family of mine who resides in the Czech Republic. She was the last embryo I had made with your biological father, and I had a surrogate carry her to term.”

I scoff. “You can’t honestly expect me to believe that?”

“I know you have no reason to, but it’s true. Xava Beno. Please. Please go find her before my enemies do. Your sister doesn’t deserve to die. She doesn’t even know what kind of life we’re involved in. She doesn’t know about me or about any of you. She was adopted by distant cousins of mine, Nazyr.”

The more my mother speaks, the more I believe her… but I shouldn’t. I know better than to believe any word that comes out of her mouth. Over the last year and a half, she’s shown her true colors to our entire family and me.

“You really think you’re going to fool me?” I shake my head and laugh. “I’m not as gullible as you think.”

“I’m not lying to you, Nazyr. I… I have another child, a girl, named—”

“Xava Beno. Yeah, I got it. Why in the fuck would you have a surrogate deliver a fifth child?”

My mother licks her lips and shuts her eyes, then looks right up at me. “She was an insurance policy, just in case something happened to the rest of you.”

For the first time in probably ever, I think my mother is telling me the God’s honest truth.

“I wanted to have at least one heir to the Umarova throne tucked away for safekeeping.”

“You are something else, Mother. All you’ve ever cared about is your own self-sustainability. You’ve never given a shit about us, only how you can stay alive and keep yourself powerful. It’s been clear to me for a while now, but right now, it’s crystal clear. I’m done with this, and I’m done with you. I’m tired of your lies, and this will be the last time I ever hear them again.”

I pull my gun out from under my suit jacket, pull back my safety and shoot her in the head. There isn’t even a split second of doubt, and I wish there was. I wish I could’ve felt some remorse for what I just did, but there isn’t any. I don’t have an ounce of it.

“There’s a knock on the door, sir,” Paulo tells me, and I nod, heading up the stairwell.

I reach the front door, and Ruslan’s on the other side. He’s anxious to make his way into the house, so I open the door and know I have one hell of a story to tell my brother.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Mona

No way in the bloody hell did I actually expect Nazyr to take the girls and me to Sweden so soon. I mean, I knew it was going to happen, but I thought he meant in a couple of weeks. I guess I just don’t get my hopes up too often anymore, but I’m glad he surprised me by putting this together so soon.

If I’m being completely honest with myself, we both needed this. We needed to get away from everything we knew and relax in an area that’s uncharted territory. We’ve been in Sweden for a full day so far, and it’s been nothing less than truly amazing. The hope was that we’d be able to be around the snow quite a bit, but come to find out, the only places with snow around this time of year are the mountaintops.

We were able to see the northern lights last night, which was one of the many things on my bucket list to do here. I really think the girls enjoyed seeing the mixture of green and purple lights in the sky. Not many people get to see something like this in the flesh. Most of them see it through photographs or videos, but I can proudly say I’ve witnessed this incredible sight with my own eyes.

The plan is to stay in the countryside for a few days, and then we’re eventually going to head over to the capital of Sweden for our last couple of days. I’ve seen photographs of Stockholm, and the one thing I’ve always noticed is how beautiful the city looks. I really wonder if the buildings are as vibrant as the photographs I’ve seen. Of course, the pictures I’ve seen are probably years old. Who knows if the same orange, yellows, and browns are still painted on the buildings’ exterior walls. Regardless, I’m going to be thrilled to be in Stockholm in general.

Right now, we’re in Bohuslän, which is located in the second largest county in all of Sweden. As the temperatures really start to warm up, the ice has dissipated, and it’s now a typical coastal community.

There’s a lot of smooth exposed rock where we are staying—Nazyr actually rented out an entire traditional red boathouse for us to stay in. Of course, we have security here with us just because you can never be too safe these days. Around the city are smaller islands and skerries off the coast. The locals have told us that their city is known to be a coastal paradise, which is why it ends up attracting so many tourists throughout the year. They also told us the seafood here is to die for, and right now, we’re testing out that theory.

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