Page 53 of Merciless Queen

Getting Vanessa back to Italy sooner than later and finalizing my revised idea is now a must.

I’m not sure she’s mentally present still as her empty gaze passes unblinkingly over the mansion’s floor. I’ll admit, seeing a Volkov like this is fucking thrilling, especially after years and years of being evaded and robbed. Vanessa may not be her father, but they share the same eyes, so I’m able to imagine Ursin in her place, same shattered gaze. Reminds me of when I was left alone to watch my father’s blood stain the floor. It took many hours before I moved, all for wave after wave of grief, agony, and hatred to overwhelm me.

Elio comes up behind me, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. “Ivan wouldn’t be the wiser if we turned on him now.”

“Ivan’s not really my concern at the moment.” He doesn’t have the support he once did because, for better or worse, Vanessa became an actual good Pakhan and the Bratva employees respect her. If her Elite does what she commanded, they won’t allow Ivan’s grubby hands to claim leadership. Not that he’s even aware of that. And it’s something I wasn’t letting him know. His support meant one less barrier and now he believes he’s made an ally out of an old enemy.

It’s simply good business on my part.

With a crook of my hand, I gesture everyone out of the mansion and lead the charge across the Bratva’s property and through the thickening trees, toward the few Hummer SUVs hidden and waiting. They brought the soldiers who attacked and rescued me here, and they’ll take Volkov and me to the private plane lying in wait on an elderly couple’s property. They were paid heavily for their silence and the use of their lands.

Vanessa gets loaded into one SUV, a soldier sliding in on either side of her. I wait for them to shut the door before climbing into the passenger seat and order the driver to begin moving. Silently, he does, and I peek over my shoulder at Vanessa’s glare.

“You’re alive,” I state with a small shrug. “You should be thanking me.”

“Oh, I’ll thank you. With a fucking knife to your back.”

“Testy.”

The sun is shining at just an angle there’s a glow in my eyes so I flip down the visor to block it. The reflection catches Vanessa glaring at the back of my head.

I spend more time on the trip watching her than I care to admit.

Once inside the plane,I immediately head to the back and settle into a seat while Vanessa’s hauled along behind me. Given the number of men not here who should be, there will be a few empty seats on the return flight. It makes the satisfaction less because they were good men following my commands, whose bodies will never be returned to their families.

The deathly look in Vanessa’s eyes as she’s dragged up the plane tells me she’s planning something big. Something that, nodoubt, involves a lot of my spilled blood. Soon, she’ll come to see there’s one villain in all this, and it was the man she referred to as Papa.

Once she’s dropped on the leather couch beside me, a second soldier comes up behind with cuffs and slaps them on her wrists, robbing a bit more of her power. Once the cuffs are tightened, I wave them both away to their seats.

She stares at the metal before jerking her gaze to me, her nose lifted in a sneer as she angles away and leans against the padded armrest behind her. “Fucking serious? All this space...” She nods to the empty couch across from us. “And I’m stuck besideyou?”

“I’m keeping you nice and close. As if you’d do anything else in my position.”

“Careful how close you end up getting,” she mutters in a low, warning tone that all but begs me to respond.

Instead, though, the buzzing of my cell distracts me and I pull it out from my pocket, using it to pretend to ignore Vanessa. Pretend, because I’m learning that actually ignoring her is impossible. How does one ignore the sun rays beaming in their face, or the sting of a bug? That’s what Vanessa’s becoming. A bug with a shiny glow that demands my attention.

Thankfully, my underboss and longest friend, Nero, gives me something else to focus on.

Nero

When do I get to learn you’re still alive?

Me

Right now. We’ll be back soon.

Nero

You’ve left me in the dark, dick. Did you knock off only the one, or get the brother and his son too?

With an amused huff, I imagine his next response when he sees the picture I’m readying to send him. With a slight re-angling of my phone, I catch Vanessa and all her loathing in a single snapshot.

Nero

Cazzo! Z, what the hell, man? This isn’t like you. Not after everything.

He’s not wrong.

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