Page 106 of Mob Princess

“Does Bogdan believe we won’t retaliate against him and his family? He has to know we’d find out it was them one way or another.”

“By then, you and Ewan might have killed each other. Or Ewan would be so indebted to Bogdan for the bratva keeping his ass alive, that Bogdan could make Ewan take the fall for something else. Whatever it was, it would keep the peace with you. Then you’d owe them.”

One of the things our grandfather taught us while he was the boss was lingchi, or death by a thousand cuts. That was the plan for Declan, and we started it. But we planned a twist. None of the cuts were deep enough to kill him. After each one, Dillan got out his needle and thread. He sewed up the other wounds as well as he did the time he semi-castrated the fucker.

But we had to cut our torture short—that pun intended—when we found out the bratva was going for our dockside warehouses again. It wasn’t hard to guess and put extra guys there to watch. When they went after the warehouses the first time, we moved what we could out of them and stopped storing shite there. That’s when we used a storage unit. It’s not our place like the other syndicates think. But we keep contraband there.

Declan could barely move on his own. He could barely stand. Our dads took him down there. They tied him up in Shane’s office since it was his shipping company they hit. When the warning went up that the bratva was a mile away, we sent out cars to slow them down. We knew it wouldn’t stop them. It just gave us time to get our arses out of there and leave Declan and his most loyal men behind. One of them freed him.

When the bratva rolled up, they thought they were such hot shit for killing Declan. Shot him from behind a couple times. More than one shooter. Bully for them. He couldn’t get away because he was barely conscious. No one in our family had to live with the guilt of killing a family member, and it wasn’t technically a mutiny since we didn’t kill him. Dillan assumed the throne.

Death by a thousand cuts isn’t fast enough for Mikhail. I figure I have about six or seven more before he’s done.

“What does Bogdan want from me? What does the bratva want from my family?”

“They don’t want your alliance with the Tremblays to be anything more than a pleasant business relationship. If you’re with the Tremblay boss’s granddaughter, then it’s more than an agreement. It’s family.”

And nothing means more to the bratva’s upper echelon than family. I get that. We’re all like that. I won’t get Bogdan without getting everyone who comes with him, and he knows he can’t get me without everyone who comes with me. They’re willing to go to war.

“Sean!”

“In the back.”

Shane barrels through the door, slamming it wide open. He takes in the scene. I have the crowbar under Mikhail’s ribs, but I have done nothing with it yet. I’m standing in the pool of blood he made. I have some splattered on me, which was inevitable.

Finn’s right behind our brother. He assesses the situation the same way Shane does. “I’ll get your clothes and the bag.”

The bag. It’s our go bag, and in it we keep all the essentials. Fresh clothes, fake passports, a few thousand dollars’ worth of foreign currency, three extra handguns, four knives, camo paint, a balaclava, a beanie, NVGs, and preoperative wipes that have a few extra chemicals in them to remove blood, brain, and whatever other bodily “stuff” that winds up on us.

“Lina? Where is she?” Finn spoke before I could, but she’s the only person I’m thinking about. I don’t even look at Mikhail as I step away. I haven’t decided if I’m done with him yet, but he’s easily forgotten.

“She’s at Mom and Da’s. Mair and Ally are there, too. She’s all right.”

“Does she know I was missing?”

“She guessed as soon as I woke her. I didn’t lie.”

“Good.”

“She knows about Lucy.”

I stare at my twin. Our expressions are not identical.

“What the feck did you tell her about that bitch?”

“That you had an arrangement with her that lasted a while, but it was nothing like what you have with Nikki. That you have a relationship with Nikki.”

“Wonder-fecking-ful. All I want is to see Lina, and she’s probably halfway to Montreal. Are you sure she’s still with Mom and Da?”

“Yes. She’ll have questions, but she accepted my explanation.”

“You truly couldn’t maneuver around that part of the truth?”

He’s contrite because he knows he could have. There were plenty of ways he could have avoided mentioning my last sub. One who I was with longer than any other.

“I need to get clean and get to Lina. Bogdan did this. He wants Ewan to know he has no shot against the bratva. That he can manipulate us into thinking Ewan’s at fault for this. They don’t want us getting closer to the Tremblays.”

“A bit late to keep them out of bed with us.”

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