Page 23 of Ivory Oath

Not while Viviana is still in danger because of him.

“You’re a piece of shit.” I kick him in the ribs and feel something inside of him give way. “You sacrificed your own daughter and you deserve to die.”

“Mikhail.” Raoul speaks low. A warning.

Agostino deserves to die, but not yet. Not until I know where Viviana is.

I fist the front of his shirt and jerk him off the floor. A few buttons snap loose, but he manages to get his feet underneath him. His lip is split and blood pours down his chin.

“Where is she?” I snarl. “I want to know where you’re keeping her.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t?—”

He doesn’t get to finish the lie. I slam him against the doorframe. His head bounces off the wood so hard that I swear I can see the stars in his eyes.

“You do know where she is. I know you know. Which is why I’m going to pull out a tooth for every second of my time you waste.” I look back at Raoul. “Find some pliers.”

Raoul is a fan of discretion. He prefers to slip in and out of a hit with as little fuss as possible. It’s why I don’t send Raoul and Anatoly on runs together when I can help it. They have very different styles of dealing with targets.

Tonight, I’m erring on Anatoly’s side. I want Agostino to suffer.

Before Raoul can even turn around, Agostino crumbles.

“She’s with Trofim! Trofim has her,” he blubbers. “He threatened me. I didn’t have a choice when he?—”

His head snaps to the side when I punch him, the words dissolving into a bloody spray.

“Men like us always have a choice. You should have been willing to die to protect her.”

I should have died to protect her. I will if it comes to it.

“I’m going to die now, aren’t I? You’ll kill me. Even when I tell you she’s at my safehouse in Staten Island, you’re going to kill me.”

I glance over my shoulder and Raoul nods. He knows where the safehouse is.

“You’re going to die and it’s going to be by my hand, but not tonight.” I back away and Agostino falls to a bloody heap on the floor. “Right now, I need to get to Viviana.”

Trofim has had her alone for days while I was wasting away in the gym.

I can’t waste another second. No matter how much Agostino deserves it.

10

VIVIANA

“When are they coming back?”

If someone had told me two hours ago I’d be anxious for the guards to return to drag me to my wedding with Trofim, I would have called them crazy.

Now, I’m the crazy one.

Crazy as in bored. Crazy as in anxious. And crazy uncomfortable in the ill-fitting wedding dress Trofim must have pulled out of some retired stripper’s costume closet. It’s more mesh than lace and I would not at all be surprised to discover it has tearaway seams.

The girl who helped me get ready, whose name I still do not know, only shrugs at my question.

“You could go find them,” I suggest. “See what’s taking so long.”

I’ve lost all sense of time, but it has to be late. Or early. She’s been fighting sleep for the last hour, her head bobbing every few minutes.

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