Page 66 of Devil's Bride

He groans this time.

“Listen to me, old man,” I growl. “I don’t have time for games. Tell me everything you know about those who run the Phoenix with you.”

“Or what? You’ll kill me?” Blood drips from his mouth onto his suit jacket. “There’s only so many times a man can die, boy.”

“There’s only so much torture a geezer like you can endure.” I lean in and whisper, “Brace yourself, Paulo. I plan to make this very painful if you don’t start speaking now.”

“Shit, man. You make really good threats.”

“Do I?” I roll the sleeves of my shirt. My fist drives into his stomach. He keels over and screams. “Start talking. Who else runs the Phoenix?”

He coughs out blood and spits it at my feet. “You’ll never be able to bring the Phoenix down, boy. It’s so much larger than you think. They’ll kill you before you even come close to bringing the organization down.”

“Bullshit!” I grab his neck. “There are three leaders, and you’re the third. Who are the other two?”

“I have no freaking idea, boy!”

My phone rings. I ignore it.

Nikolai walks to me and takes it out of my pants pocket. “It’s Dominic, you should take it.

“Not now, I’m busy.” I want to rip out Paulo’s tongue and feed it to him, but I can’t, at least not until I get what I need out of him. “You think I’ll believe that? You fooled me, made me believe you were dead.”

“You got a good deal out of it though, didn’t you?” He sneers. “You married that girl. She’s hot, too bad you interrupted before I could get a taste of her.”

My grip on his neck tightens. “Shut up, you fucking son of a bitch!”

The sound of my phone ringing again reverberates in the basement.

“You’re not very smart, boy, are you?” He chuckles sardonically. “You’re not very hard to fool, and you fall easily for it.”

“You can’t pull another stupid trick on me when you’re dead.” His lips curls to the side. “I wonder how long it will take for you to figure it out.”

“Figure what—”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I read the amusement in his eyes, the smile on his lips, how easy it was to take him. It was all… a trap.

Terror washes over me like ice. In the foreboding silence, my phone rings again.

“Get your weapons ready.” I snatch my phone from Nikolai who’s looking at me with confusion. “Go!”

All three of them hurry out. Mikhail starts to make a call.

“Dominic,” I say when I finally answer my phone.

“The Phoenix had this planned out,” Dominic pants over the phone. “They’re closing in on you.”

“Irina.” She’s all alone upstairs. I don’t have time to think or react. There’s an explosion, and the next thing I know I’m floating the air, colliding with the floor of the basement and thudding to the floor.

Pain splinters through me. There’s a ringing in my ears before the world goes dark.

When I open my eyes again, Paulo is standing over me with a smile. He pats me on the head and says, “You’re still too easy to fool, boy.”

Through foggy vision, I see someone carrying a woman. She’s unconscious and slouched over his shoulder. He’s carrying my wife. They’re taking Irina.

I try to move or at least call out to her, but I can’t. I’m in too much pain and too weak.

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