Page 177 of Mila: The Godfather

She hugs Kadra tightly, and I have to look away when her body starts to shake while she cries silently.

Those damn tears of hers are like daggers to my heart.

“I love you, Sirius.” Mila sniffles, crying a bit louder now.

It takes her a moment, but Kadra says it back. “I love you, my little star.”

That just makes my wife cry harder.

“Is it over?” Mila pulls back and looks at her sister. “Did you deal with the bad men who wish to hurt you? Hurt us?”

“It’s not over, but it will be,” Kadra whispers to her sister. I see something my wife most likely doesn’t. A dark look crosses Kadra’s eyes. A look that promises pain to her enemies. “Until then, I’ll have to stay away.”

Mila starts to protest, but her sister cuts her off. “You and Arianna had a different vision for your ’one day’ than I did. My ’one day’ doesn’t have a happy ending.”

Both sisters hug one more time before Kadra Parisi turns to me. “A word.”

Shit.

Here I thought this would be easy.

I should’ve known nothing with this woman could ever be easy.

* * *

“I should kill you for what you did,” Kadra mutters as we both watch her right-hand man get on his bike and leave with only a nod of his head to his boss.

“You should, but you won’t.” I say in a bored tone.

“You’re so sure?” I feel her icy stare on me now. Turning my head away from the entrance of the mansion, I look down at her. Unlike my wife, Kadra is tall. Much taller than both Arianna and Mila. “You revealed your cards there. There’s no chance you will ever hurt your sister’s heart, and like it or not, I’m in her heart. Hurting me will be hurting your sister.”

“Pretty cowardly of you to hide behind my sister,” she says darkly with an eyebrow raised.

“Not hiding. Just stating a fact. She’s mine, and she’s not going anywhere. You threatening me, is just unnecessary bullshit. Now go on. What do you want?” I want to get to my wife and reassure her that, from now, on it’ll all be fine. There’s still a lot of shit I need to deal with and come to terms with, but for now, all that matters is that she’s alive. We’re all alive.

“Cocky asshole.” I watch as she strides toward her parked glossy black Ducati and straddles it. “I opened the gates of hell. Now, I need you to keep her away from the flames and from Detroit. It’s going to get ugly from here on out, and as much as I hoped she would end up with someone so much better… I know she’ll be safe with you. They’re both safe now. It’s time.”

“Time for what?”

She puts her helmet on, still looking at me. “Time for all of them to pay. It won’t be pretty.” She smiles as if she’s looking forward to the chaos she just released in her city. “And O’Sullivan.”

Crossing my arms, I shout over the noise of her bike. “What?”

“Thank you.”

The fuck?

“For what?”

“You know, both of my sisters had a dream of one day finding happily ever after.” She actually smiles before a dark look takes over. “My definition of one day is very different from theirs.”

“How so?” I ask, a sinking feeling in my gut.

“My story doesn’t end on a happy note, and I made my peace with it.”

What the fuck do I say to that?

The three sisters went through hell, but something tells me Kadra’s hell was much worse.

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