Page 68 of Forced Bratva Bride

Stefano wipes the back of his hand across his face, smearing blood. He spits a pool of red onto the road.

“Angelo knew about the second location.”

“Yes, because you told him.”

Stefano breathes heavily, trying to pull himself together.

“Just fucking listen, Maxim,” he scowls.

I stand angry, dead still, ready to launch at him again.

Kiril steps to the side, ready to stop me again if he needs to.

“You have five seconds,” I snap.

“Angelo is the only other person who knew about the venue change. Because I told him, yes. It had to have been him. He set the bombs.”

“Just a second ago you thought it was me.”

“Yes, I did, but that was until you reacted that way when you heard Chiara was in danger. You would never have sent her there if you knew there was a bomb.”

For a moment we all stand silently. The air between the three of us is charged so heavily that it feels as though lightening might strike the ground between Stefano and me.

“It could only have been Angelo,” Stefano mutters, holding his ribs.

Kiril looks from me to Stefano. “He’s right.”

“It could still have been him,” I shake my head.

“He wouldn’t have had time to organize everything,” Kiril shrugs.

“Fuck,” I shout, turning my back on both of them and walking down the road, pacing to try and clear this black fog of anger and fear. Fear of what might have happened to Chiara, and the horrific dread at the idea that I might have lost her forever.

Both Kiril and Stefano stand quietly, still tense, waiting for me to come back.

“I don’t know what to do with him.” I nod my head in Stefano’s direction, but I am speaking to Kiril.

“Let me help you. Want to find Chiara as much as you do. She is my sister.”

“Stepsister.”

“Fuck off. Family is family. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her,” Stefano snarls.

“We don’t need your fucking help, savage.”

“I am the only one who knows all of the Napoli hideouts. If Angelo took her, he would taken her to one of those places. And if it wasn’t me, and I know it wasn’t me, then it was Angelo.”

“We do need him,” Kiril says, causing my lips to curl into a snarl of anger again.

“And we can’t waste any more time arguing about it. If my sister is still alive, we need to move now.”

Stefano’s words jolt me back into control. If she is still alive. They make me feel ill, but also flood me with hope. If she is still alive, he's right. I need to move now.

I have no choice but to work with him.

If it is a trap, I will have to figure that out as I go along.

But the truth is, I have long suspected Angelo’s involvement. I just assumed he was working with Stefano. But Kiril is right; Stefano has been under lockdown at my place and wouldn’t have had time to arrange any of this.

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