Page 140 of Relentless Sinner

“I know, Jaxon. And I accept your sympathy. That’s why I won’t punish you the way I plan to with the others. But your sorrow is not enough.”

Fuck.“You have to give me back Gabriella. Why would you take her?”

“Because she’s part of my plan now. I’m going to marry her to get her fortune.” His words cut into my soul like a sword and I realize he played me. He fucking played me to get to her.

Everything he said was bullshit. And he knew exactly what to say to me to make me break up with my wife. “You can’t do this. Don’t punish me for what my father did.”

“My boy, I vowed retribution on my family’s graves, and the only thing that will suffice is getting the leadership.”

“The leadership?” My scalp tightens with this news.

“My plan is to wipe out the line of Bortsovs.”

Oh my God.With no Bortsovs left to take the leadership, his family would be next.Hewould get it. So far I’m the only Bortsov he needs to worry about. Father is dying, Damian and Yuri are dead, and Magnus and Levka are incarcerated. Sickness and imprisonment, especially for the attempted murder of a leader or murder of a family member of the elite, make you ineligible to take the lead.

“Eric this is madness.”

“No. This was always about justice. So the first thing I did to get back at your father was take his beloved Jacob.”

My legs buckle like they’re going to crumble beneath me. I have to clutch onto the wall to keep myself up. “What are you saying to me, Eric?” The anguish in my voice is palpable. “You? You had something to do with Jacob's accident? It wasn’t a car crash?”

“It was. I just fiddled with the mechanics on the car. That’s why he crashed over the side of a ravine.”

My insides dissolve into nothing and numbness takes over that drains my energy. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Idon’twant to believe it. Everything I thought about this man was a lie.

“How could you? You killed Jacob. He was my brother. The only member of my family who loved me.”

“I'm sorry, Jaxon. But he was a means to an end. I knew I had to cause a rift in the line of leadership, and it started with him. Had he lived, I would never have gotten my chance, so the next best thing was to bump you up the line. And your father played right into my hands.”

“How so?”

“That bastard started showing signs of his sickness many years ago yet never got checked out. He swore me to secrecy because he was so scared to lose his position. That asshole sacrificed his health and I let him. I just waited for him to getworse, and that’s exactly what happened. I knew he would make you work for the leadership and pit you against Levka.”

“Yet you acted so surprised.”

“Part of the plan. I knew your uncles would fight against you and try to push Levka ahead of you for the role so they could be moved up the line, too. And that’s exactly what they did. But they didn’t involve Levka as a precautionary measure. I knew about Gabriella’s kidnapping even before you did, and I knew about the bombing. I watched you all to see how everything would play out and create an opening for me.”

Motherfucker. “You bastard.”

“Yes. I had to become the bastard to pull this off. It was me who poisoned Damien and Yuri, then I made it look like Magnus and Levka were involved because I knew you suspected them. I almost managed to poison your father, too, but his expertise saved him.”

Father smelled the poison. That’s what saved him. Had it been any other poison that was odorless or undetectable, he might not have been so lucky.

“Why did you want me to get close to my father?” It doesn’t make any sense that he would do that.

“I genuinely wanted to give you closure. It is my gift to you. You’ll need it where you’re going.”

“Where the fuck am I going?”

“I’m sending you to the island.”

Holy fuck. The Bratva island. The place where no one will ever see me again and I will never make my way back from. It’s worse than death, but he thinks that’s better than killing me.

“After all we’ve been through, that’s what you’re going to do to me?” More disappointment cuts into my heart.

“Sorry. But this is the only way to get rid of you without anyone finding you.” He sighs, and I imagine him shaking his head in that habitual way of his. “I’ll take over once the men giveup the search for you. Then I’ll marry your wife. Also securing my position on the Creed.”

“You have no authority to marry her.”

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