Page 29 of Wicked Union

My heart clenches, and I want to scream and smash things. This can't be happening. There's no way we can defend against a Russian attack. Not alone, anyway.

"What have they done?" I ask timidly, my bottom lip quivering. I bite it to stymie the shaking, but my hands tremble instead.

Dad shakes his head and pulls his arm away. His hands clasp together in his lap, and Mom whimpers almost imperceptibly.

"There was an incident…" Dad's tongue flicks over his bottom lip, and he looks up at me. "Aria, Melody had a very close callon the street. Nothing happened, but she's shaken. She's gone to stay with family in Boston for a few weeks."

Dad doesn't have to say any more at all. Those sick bastards came after my sister and threatened her. Likely, they would have succeeded if Dad's men hadn't been there. She always has security wherever she goes, even now at my cousins' house where she is.

"Can I speak with her?" I ask, but Dad grimly shakes his head.

"She's distraught, Aria. After what's happened in the past few months, she needs some time alone." His hand pats my knee. "And I need to know you're safe, so I'm going to meet with your husband to align our families to fight against this foe we face." He stands and moves away, and I scowl in fear. What is he talking about?

"Papa, you can't fight the Russians." I stand, but he turns and holds up a hand. "I can't fight on my own, and my family cannot fight alone, but with the Ramiro alliance, we are stronger than any enemy in this city." He cups both of my cheeks. "Now promise me you will do as your husband says and be safe."

I can't answer him. My enemies come from within my family, not from outside. My enemy is one who may be playing both sides, and I'm the only one who even knows it.

"Promise me," he says sternly, jerking his head slightly.

"I promise," I tell him, but my mind is already at work thinking up a new plan. I have one last connection I can leverage to try to stop this. A friend by the name of Yuri Uhkov. And he may just be the one to save my life, because if Carlos Ramiro gets his way, I no longer trust that my family is safe under his leadership and Idon't believe he will stop at humiliating Tito. I fear he wants my husband dead.

22

TITO

The car bumps over some rough pavement with Tony at the helm. It's late. There are at least a dozen cars in the caravan behind us looking like a march to war. We're headed to the front lines of this war, the edge of my territory where it butts up to the Uhkovs’ drug houses.

I'm taking Sal's advice for the most part, though I've sent a few cars into Peralta territory too. I hear my enemies aren't being kind to my allies now on account of the way I've married the Peralta princess. I'm just protecting my investments there. Sal thinks that's a mistake, but if I do anything less than this, Hector Peralta will take on more than he can handle, and I can't handle being married to a sinking ship. It's going to be mine. That's just a matter of time. I don't want it damaged.

"So, you heard from the DA today?" Vinny, seated next to me in the back with his gun in his lap, chews a big wad of chewing tobacco, pushing it into his lip firmly with his tongue.

"Aaron did, yes. The DA is willing to cut a deal, no jail time, but that's not enough. I'm under a fucking microscope, and here weare, marching off to push men off what is rightfully mine. This isn’t going to end well."

My dad knows what he's doing. He's been doing this for long enough that I should trust him, but his health is going quickly and my life is on the line. I can't help but feel like he may make a mistake in the way he does things, and it makes me want to take control. But with Carlos reaching for power, putting a bug in my father's ear to sour him against me, I can't do anything to upset him.

I love my brother, and I see how he will be a good asset in the future if he can be rehabilitated. It's natural for brothers to fight over the inheritance. Carlos will get his fair share—the money, the businesses, the realty. But I’ve always known that what he really wants are the authority and power. Something is going on with him and I can't figure out what. At first, I thought it was something to do with Aria, but now I'm not sure. She seems to want to be as far away from him as possible.

"No jail, that's good," Tony chimes in, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. His eyes are full of mirth, though at a time like this, they should be full of anger. Our men have been slaughtered by our enemy several times, and we're on the hunt tonight. But Tony is as loyal as they come, and as far as supporters within this family, he's got my back one hundred percent.

"Yes it is, but it's not enough. Dad will continue to work with Aaron to get me cleared of all wrongdoing, even if he has to slip some of my inheritance to them. And when it's all over, he'll share his secrets with me so that one day, I can do the same for myself and others."

The lights outside the car blur past as I delve into deep thought. It feels hollow to talk about my father like that, to tell my loyal men that one day, he will be just a memory. It brings up rage at life itself and the cruelty of death, the finality of it all. I tap into that anger as Tony turns the car down the street toward our destination. It's that rage coupled with the anger over why I'm in this situation to begin with that will fuel this night.

I've not figured out yet who tipped off the police about the money laundering, but I'm glad it's turning into mostly an embarrassment and not anything full-blown. Even then, Dad would have found a way to get me out of it. It would just have cost more. And it probably would have been the throne I paid with. I'll find out, though, and when I do, the person who gave up info on me will pay dearly.

"There," Vinny says, pointing. "That's where the last of them were found. They shot three of our guys in cold blood, shoved two women into their van, and later, we found the women beaten but alive." Vinny runs this neighborhood for me, and he shepherds his flock here. The men who were killed were very close to him, ones he personally trained. And the women were like sisters, bonded in blood.

"Then we go here. I've always told Carlos that the Russians having their front line directly across from ours would be a problem. They're scared now, of us joining with the Peraltas. It makes us almost invincible." I pull out my gun as the car rolls to a stop, but Tony's phone rings.

He pulls it from his pocket and answers it, and I listen to his side of the conversation.

"Hey… Yeah, why? Of course…. They are? How many? No, stay… We've got this." A dozen pairs of headlights join us, filling thestreet outside the old theater whose dilapidated marquee flashes with several bulbs broken or missing.

"Who was it?" I ask when he hangs up.

"It's Sal. He said Hector's men are fighting with us… At least forty of them." Tony's eyebrows rise, and he shrugs. No one expects the Peralta family to be very strong with the shit they've been through lately, but I am impressed. They won't be taken easily.

"Let's go" I bark, and I open the door and step out.

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