Page 141 of The Lazarov Bratva

“Was it money? Land? Property? What was your asking price?”

“I have no clue of what you speak.” She spits again, a wet sound that lands to my left.

Slowly, I turn to face her, and the fire that blazes in her eyes matches the rage slowly building in my veins. Where the little boy’s heart breaks at facing down the betrayal of his family, the man’s love for his woman and the determination to protect her rises up.

Alyona may have been my past, but Alena is my future, and any risk to her will not go unpunished.

“Aleksander. Or was it Mara? I’m sure they promised you all sorts of things for whatever information you could give them.”

A flash of confusion bleeds across Alyona’s face, visible even as her right eye swells up purple.

“You speak nonsense,” she barks up at me.

“I know you told them Alena was here.” I fix her with a cold stare. “I know you betrayed me and told them not only where she was, but you told them when I wasn’t here. The perfect window to snatch her back. The only thing I don’t understand is… why?”

“Me?” Alyona coughs as if the very thought of betrayal is so completely alien to her. “I would never!”

“Come on, Alyona, have some dignity. You really want to go out this way after all these years?”

“I have—Kristof, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you think you have been betrayed? Look close to home.”

I scoff sharply. “Who is closer than you?”

“You want a weak link, you look at your siblings, huh? Ivan and Nastja? I always said they were weak. They’re young, impressionable, and swayed easily by riches. They’re not even here, are they? Absence speaks volumes for betrayal.”

My muscles coil like iron snakes, and red flashes across my vision.

“But me? I would never, Kristof, you know me?—”

Her words die in a strangled squeak as my hand shoots forward and grips her wrinkled neck, pulling her and the chair up slightly as if she’s nothing more than a wrinkled old turkey.

“You will never speak ill of my siblings ever again,” I snarl, bringing my face an inch from hers. “Do you understand me? Nothing but respect will pass your lips when you utter their names!”

She falls back, gasping roughly when I release her, and the chair rocks back. It teeters on two legs for a second before she rocks forward, and her head hangs low as coughs rattle through her body.

“Of all the people I know, all the people I might have suspected for this, you never would have crossed my mind.” Using the rag, I wipe the fresh blood from my palm. “I would have combed through guards and workers, even turned to you for advice, long before I considered that you were the thorn in my side.”

“Kristof, please…” Alyona sags, crumpling like a deflated bag. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Did you really think the person who put Alena in danger would be allowed to live?” I pace around Alyona in a tight circle. My footsteps echo off the bare walls, broken only by her ragged panting. “I don’t care who I have to kill. I’ll wipe out the entire fucking Family if I have to, if it will keep Alena safe and with me.”

I sigh deeply and stop in front of her. “But if you have any self-respect, you’ll tell me why. Think of it as a last kindness.”

To my surprise, Alyona starts to laugh.

It’s a wheezing, gasping sound like an air pump with a hole that builds into a sharp, throaty cackle. The sound is almost chilling, and I grit my teeth, staring down as Alyona finally looks up at me with her one good eye.

“Protect her?” She scoffs throatily. “You’re the biggest threat to her!”

I lash out with a powerful slap before I can stop myself, but even that blow doesn’t stop the crackling, humorless laughter coming from her.

“That girl,” Alyona pants harshly. “She deserves to be home with her parents where she belongs.”

“She belongs here with me—scratch that, she wants to be here with me.”

“Alena is the most important heir in the entire Russian Family. She doesn’t know what she wants.” There’s a crazed air about Alyona, with her swollen face and crooked grin framed by the unkempt gray curls that fall from her pins.

“That’s what this is about? Loyalty to the Family?” Try as I might, the pieces still don’t fit together in my mind. “Speak plainly!”

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