Page 74 of Hateful Vows
“Casio, I’ll make this as painless as I can. You’re ex-communicated, and you better pray Cian Moore is as indulgent as I am. I should kill you for the slight but your records speak for you. I guess the girl is Irish?”
“We met one night and I didn’t know she was pregnant, but…”
“Listen, no offence but I don’t give a shit about your life story. Right now, you’re keeping me from my wife and for that alone, I want to rip out your throat.” He gulps but bows his head in submission again. “You can never return to London nor contact your family. They will be told exactly what you did and it will be up to them to contact you, if they wish.”
“Will you… kill them?”
“Cazzo!” I slap the back of his head like I would a rowdy teen. “Who do you think I am? I’m not about to punish your innocent wife who you’ve been cheating on for years, and your two sons, who are some of my best soldiers.”
I stand and walk out, energy buzzing inside me like a live-wire.
Tino follows me outside, scanning our surroundings like he always does. The five soldiers move around the car, opening the door.
Their protection isn’t enough.
One by one, without a sound, their bodies slump to the floor. Like hooked by an invisible line, Tino jerks, the last one to fall. I whirl and unholster my gun, ready to fire at the attacker, but see nothing moving in the shadows.
“Tino!”
I point at the empty street. Shift my focus to the roofs.
Then run to my best friend.
A pool of dark liquid seeps from underneath his still body and I fall to my knees. I shake him. “Tino!” My cries echo in the empty street, but he can’t hear. His open eyes stare at nothing. Even through my misty eyes, full of tears for the man I considered another brother, I can’t miss the red dot on his forehead.
I fish my phone out of my pocket, dialling Irina, but a sharp sensation at my neck has me frozen in place, thumb hovering over her name.
Then, my vision brightens to a kaleidoscope of light and nothingness.
THIRTY
ALEKSEI
“Where’s Dante?” I ask Irina when I reach the Italians’ headquarters.
She barely looks up before answering, looking like the businesswoman she is in a burgundy silk dress that fits her curves perfectly. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
“He left for Ireland. We think one of his men might be the traitor we’re looking for, so he followed.”
“Did he take enough men?”
This time she looks up, a satisfied tilt of her lips. Coming from her, it’s almost a smile and it makes my heart jolt in my chest. I’m not someone who asks about someone else’s well-being. That’s the problem between us; Irina knows me probably better than I know myself.
“Tino and five of his soldiers,” she supplies.
“That’s not nearly enough.”
“Careful,Lyosha, I’m going to start thinking you care.”
And there it is.
We haven’t spoken about what happened. She might have convinced herself it was just sex but nothing that could ever happen between us would ever bejust sex. We have too muchhistory, too much pent-up frustration and unsaid words to be as primal as fucking each other for the sake of fucking.
“I do care,” I tell her.
She scoffs before looking down her nose at me. It doesn’t matter that she is seated and I’m standing. When Irina Ventura sends you a scathing look like she is right now, you better pray she doesn’t find you to reap your soul. I never cared before. I never dared to look too closely at her violent tendencies and how they mirror my own. Now all I want to do is stare and bathe in the blood she’ll spill. Even if it’s mine.
“You never did, before.”
