Page 113 of Kings of Violence

“It doesn’t matter. We’re not letting her go back to that fucking asshole. If you even suggest it—” Kyran stops when Silvano holds up his hand.

“I wasn’t going to. I was just thinking of our best play. Obviously, we can leave with Sierra now. But we don’t want a messy war.” Silvano sighs and glances at the door. “I almost wish Pavone were here, so I could provoke him into doing something. He’s always good when you need a flashy show.”

“Just let Fox handle it,” Kyran suggests darkly.

I have no idea who any of these people are.

“Fox isn’t here, and anyway, if we murder Konstantin Voronkov, we’re inviting his father to suddenly care about the American operations. Jail time would be ideal, of course, but I’m not sure I could pull that off on short notice.” He taps his lips. “Don Marino would have incentive to lash out. He ranted to me for quite a while about your father and how unreliable he was, after his death. I can suggest the Voronkovs as having had a larger part in that.”

I listen to Silvano brainstorm, and something about the whole situation strikes me as familiar.

Send Konstantin to jail. Provoke somebody else into doing his dirty work.

That’s how Silvano does things, isn’t it. My father and brother always complained that Silvano Cresci was a little bitch who didn’t get his hands dirty. The notes I’d deciphered talked about a shipment they’d stolen back from the Crescis.

The same shipment that ended with Sean in jail and my father dead, somehow.

My mind flits back to what Victor Corvi’s man had said, about convenient changes in power.

Everything that happened resulted in Silvano Cresci getting exactly what he wanted. Sean out of the way. Kyran in his arms, and the entire Winters operation under his control.

And all of it only possible because Pa died.

There hadn’t been a corpse for us to mourn, because Silvano and Kyran had disposed of it.

Maybe that guilty look hadn’t been about Ma at all.

My fingers tighten around the small electronic device I have in my hand — the one full of information about Marino, about Pa’s shipments, about everything I’ve been able to discover so far on one single drive.

I’d made sure there would be enough to at least give Silvano a shot at keeping Konstantin at bay without the entire Cresci Family going under. But now…

“You killed him,” I whisper, wanting to crush the device before anyone else can get their hands on it. “You’re the reason Pa is dead, aren’t you?”

Kyran’s expression gives him away, and I take a step away from him.

“No. No, you don’t get to come near me,” I say, barely able to get the words out. “You…” I look between Kyran and Silvano. “Who did it, Kyran? Who killed him? Was ityou? For your fuckinglover? Our enemy?”

“Sierra, it’s not like that,” Kyran says.

But it is like that. Everything is finally crystal clear.

“I pulled the trigger,” Silvano says evenly. “I’m sorry I did. I didn’t want to. But your father gave me no choice.”

“No choice?” I ask in disbelief. “No fuckingchoice? I’m sure the fact that everything would fall into place with your little plan had nothing to do with it, too, right?” Tears stream down my face, blurring my vision. “God. And I thought Konstantin was bad. At least he’s fucking honest about being terrible.”

Not just terrible. Gentle, sometimes. Protective. Not kind, no, but… something.

“Sierra, we’ll talk about this later, all right?” Kyran says, trying to reach for my arm again.

I jerk away. “No. No, we fucking won’t. You—” I can’t even get the words out, my voice strangled as tears well up in my eyes. “I’ll go back to Konstantin. Fuck you. Fuck both of you.”

I’d rather take Konstantin’s punishment than be near my father’s killers.

“Don’t be stupid,” Silvano says with more dominance than before. “You can hate me all you want, but it’s clear KonstantinVoronkov is abusing you. Come with us, and we’ll get you on a plane to wherever you fucking want, safely out of harm’s way.”

I wonder if that voice makes people bow down to him.

“Do you really think that’s what would happen?” I scoff. “You have no idea what his plans are for me, Cresci.” The name tastes bad in my mouth. “He’d chase me down, because, you know what? Unlike the two of you, he’s not afraid to start a war over me.”

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