Page 56 of Scarred Hearts

“I got a call that the Russians are planning something to still try to get you to go back with them, and a couple of stray Mussolini’s popped up again, so it was my intention,” he pulled out a cigarette, lighting it and inhaling through his words, “that you and Nadia stage a fight. I don’t think the Mussolini’s will be a threat after everything but I’m not taking chances right now.”

Giovanna glared at Nadia, her jaw tightening. “Staging won’t be necessary. I’m going to fucking kill this bitch the minute I’m turned loose on her skanky ass.”

“You’re one to talk, whor?—”

“Enough!” Ian roared before bringing his voice back to a normal level. “I don’t know the extent of what happened, and I don’t give a shit, but I need us to all be peaceful for the time being.” Trust, he mouthed at Giovanna.

She bobbed her head. “Okay. I guess I can work together on this.”

“God,” Nadia snorted, “you’ve gone soft.”

Giovanna charged her, but Nadia drew her fist back, bringing it across her cheek. Giovanna struck her twice in a row then swept her leg out, pulling Nadia’s feet out from under her. She fell, cracking her head on the cement. Giovanna put the bottom of her boot on Nadia’s cheek.

“Gia,” I muttered, and she snapped her gaze to mine. I didn’t think for a second she’d back off, but I knew Ian’s limits, and any second now, he was going to lose his shit.

She glared down at Nadia, reluctantly removing her shoe. “Don’t forget who my family is or what I’m capable of, and we won’t have another problem.”

Nadia licked the blood on the corner of her lip, staring up at her with a sneer.

“Nadia,” Giovanni growled, “are we going to have a problem getting along?”

Giovanna scoffed. “We don’t have to get along to accomplish whatever this is.” She took a step back, folding her arms in front of her as she met his gaze. “We just have to get through this without killing each other.”

“I never wanted to kill you!” Nadia spat. “I loved your br?—”

“Fuck y?—”

“Shut up! For fuck’s sake, SHUT UP!” Ian dropped the cigarette to the floor and twisted his shoe on it. “Neither one of you speak again until you’re told to. You’re both going to do as I say and you’re not going to do anything else because any small fuck up could cost both our families everything.” He pointed back and forth between the Rovati’s and us. Glimpsing me, he pressed his lips into a thin line before he continued; a great hint I wouldn’t like what he said. “We need to hype the fight between you two among the communities, not the public. I’m going to involve some of our allies, as is Gio. We’re going to have them bring in fighters of all kinds to draw in the crowd. Chance is getting some of his friends together too.”

Taking out a cigarette from the pack in his inside jacket pocket, he lit another. I did the same. I was waiting for the one thing that would set me off.

He glimpsed me once again before he delivered the blow that would cause me to snap. “My main fight will be with Gia and one of the Russian guys.”

Mouth agape, I immediately dropped my cigarette in shock. “The fuck it is!” I snapped before I could stop myself.

Brows raised, Ian jerked his head back, staring at me. “Excuse me?”

“Gia’s not fighting a dude. Fuck that shit! Let her beat the last breath out of this girl right here?—”

“Hey!” Nadia gasped.

“—but there’s no way in hell she’s fighting a guy!”

Ian took several wide strides toward me, coming to a stop in front of me. “You’re not the fucking boss. She will do as I say.” He clenched his jaw. “And so will you.”

Standing taller, I gnawed the inside of my cheek, glaring deep into his hateful eyes. “You’re my brother-in-law before anything else and I won’t allow her to?—”

“Allow me?!” Giovanna finally snapped and we turned toward her, a small smirk on Ian’s lips. “You have zero power over me, Tyler. If he wants me to fight a fucking grizzly bear, I’m going to do it. I trust him and his reasoning for whatever this is. I’m not fucking scared. I’m not a fucking helpless little girl. I’ll do whatever it takes to save your family from whatever is coming.”

Still amused, Ian twisted back to me. “You heard her.”

“You did that on purpose,” I hissed. “You wanted me to push her.”

He winked. “Like I said, you’re not the boss.”

“Or the asshole you’ve turned in to,” I muttered so only he could hear me.

He did a double take at me with an almost painful expression before he shifted his attention back to the girls. “I don’t care if you girls get along or not, but you will practice day and night to choreograph the perfect fight. For this to work, I need Gia to win and advance to the final fight.”

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