Page 114 of Merciless Queen

With a parting grimace, I say, “Only if she knows they’re there.”

After spendingthe morning visiting a few of the clubs and bars and hanging out with the staff, it feels great speeding home on my Ducati Streetfighter V4 SP2.

The trip ends too soon, and while I consider staying away for longer, paperwork calls. The second I’m inside, Anastasia is right there, wringing her hands together. “Finally, you’re home. You have another present and?—”

“Toss it.”

Veles sprints from the kitchen to greet me, and I reach down to the only gift I’ll ever keep. There’s nothing else he could send my way that I’d want.

I head for my office with Veles trailing me—and Anastasia, who’s rapidly shaking her head. “No, no, it’s nothing I can toss out. Nothing you’d want me to. It’s?—”

“Sell it then.” Given Zeno’s pattern, it’s probably a car or something extravagant.

“Not that either. It’s, um…it’s Agapov.”

Simply hearinghisname rocks me to my core. My heart beats a bit quicker and sweat beads across my neck. I’m thrown backto the day he had me pinned to a bed. To the moment he stole what was never his.

“What do you mean?”

She can’t possibly be saying Zeno’s newest gift ishim? That two and a half years of searching has resulted in nothing and Zeno found him after, what, amonth? I’ve unpeeled every corner of Russia, all while thezmeya—snake—slithered away undetected and right into Zeno’s snare?

It doesn’t make sense in the most comical, fucked-up way. Life’s cruelty slapping me again.

Anastasia holds up her phone, a camera feed on it. “Cosa Nostra soldiers showed up at the edge of Moscow with him earlier today. Lev and a few men brought him to one of the warehouses.”

There he is. Boris Agapov is passed out in a chair with his arms behind him and his ankles tied to the legs. The camera’s position is too far away to make out his exact features, but I don’t need it to. I’d know him from anywhere. From my memories, my nightmares.

He’s here because of Zeno. Because Zeno once asked me why I hate Papa so much and I told him the truth.

All Zeno’s gifts tell a story. The flowers were his way of attempting romance. The gun is something he thinks I’d enjoy. Veles was proof he paid attention and noticed I enjoyed Venus’s company.

The retrieval of Boris Agapov says heheardme. Cared enough to launch his own search.

He has an ability to make me feel naked, and once again, he managed to strip me bare, forcing me to face my past. A past that I’ve been both hunting and running from. Hunting Boris while running from the fact I now have to deal with him.

Anastasia reaches for me, but I stumble away, not meaning to flinch. My back hits the wall, my vision blurring as I stare atthe camera feed. He’s so close.Revengeis so close. Reachable. A quick drive downtown, and it’s all over.

“Vanessa?” she calls, but the blood roaring through my ears make hearing impossible. My heartbeat echoes around me, dulling out even the sound of Veles whining by my feet as he senses my panic.

Panic. A combination of panic and ease.

All because of Zeno.

“I, uh—thank you. I’ll…um, I have to make a call.”

“Ciao, moglie.”

I’ve never even admitted it to myself, but Zeno speaking in his mother tongue makes my insides clench with desire. But that’s not the purpose behind my call.

“Why?” It’s all I manage.

Why did you do this?

Why Boris of all things?

Why are you determined to make me like you?

“This doesn’t change anything, Zeno.”

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