Page 97 of Villainous Kingpin
I stared out into the horizon, trying to find calm. Or my voice. Something. Anything. I was so sick and tired of this constricting pain in my chest. I kept thinking it would ease up - next day, I’d tell myself. Here I was six months later, and it hurt just as much as it did the first day. If not worse.
“I choked up,” I whispered, unable to meet his eyes. “Derek swapped the music. It was-” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “The song meant something. It brought back memories and I just fucking choked. For a moment, I forgot I had a skating partner.”
I peered at him from the side. He met my eyes and nodded, as if he understood. Somehow I thought he did.
“Your uncle’s worried about you,” he said.
“He worries too much,” I mumbled.
“He hired Morrelli to dig up all the info on the friend that you were with when Davina was kidnapped.”
I closed my eyes for a moment remembering that day. Ironic. That day I decided I’d stay with him. That very same day I left him.
“Will he tell him?” I rasped.
“I wiped the surveillance of the ice skating rink. All the other city surveillance was already wiped out.”
I put my hand on top of Sasha’s big, tattooed hand. “Thank you,” I whispered. I knew he didn’t approve. I knew this was not how those men had each other’s back. Yet Sasha still did it for me.
“Wyn, I think we both know you’re not alright.” He took my hand between his two big palms. My hand looked too small in his, but it wasn’t that which fascinated me. It was that his touch felt safe. “I have yet to see you smile.”
“I smile all the time,” I protested weakly.
“Fake smiles are your specialty,” he agreed. “I saw your old skating tapes and the new ones. You don’t smile anymore.”
“Maybe there’s just nothing to smile about.”
“Maybe,” he answered pensively. “Or maybe it’s time you tell your mother what it isyouwant. Or tell me it’s okay to kill that bastard. Tell us all what will make you happy, help you heal and move on.”
My nose and my throat were clogged from the tears that threatened to spill. I fought them desperately, trying to keep my composure. But it was for naught. I fell apart and buried my face into Sasha’s jacket. After six months of trying to be strong, I lost my battle and broke down in public. I ugly cried, sobs shaking my body.
“I don’t know how,” I gasped out, my words full of despair. I knew what I wanted.Bas.Always Bas. “I feel so goddamn broken. One moment I had it all and the next moment-”
I couldn’t finish the words and I buried my face deeper into Sasha’s chest. It hurt so bad.
“I thought Mom loved my dad. She didn’t,” I cried, none of my words making sense. “Gio said she was his brother’s, but he wanted her. I don’t know anything anymore.”
Sasha cupped my head and his pale blue eyes bore into mine. “Forget your mother, Wyn. She needs to handle her own ghosts, not put that on you. Forget everyone. Do what you want. Be happy for you.”
I swallowed. Bas made me happy. With him, I felt content just being the average me. Not the skater. Not Uncle’s daughter. Not anyone, just me.
I sniffed. “You said Gio shot my mother. He ruined her career. And then there is this Russian mafia shit. But Bas, he never told me any of it. I-” My words faltered for a moment and then they rushed out. “I don’t know if he used me. Or what mother’s deal was with Gio’s brother. I want to ask her, but how do you bring up something like that? Whenever I ask about the past, pain crosses her expression and it guts me to cause it.”
He held my gaze. “Are you sure you want to know?”
I nodded. Not knowing was what got me here. It made me blind and vulnerable to the DiLustros. Albeit something deep down told me that no amount of knowledge of DiLustro and my family’s history, I’d have still fallen for Bas.
“Your mom had an affair with Gio’s brother. He was married and leaving his wife wasn’t an option. For a while, almost a year, she lived in Chicago. A seventeen-year-old girl living with a married man in an apartment. They were happy from what I heard. Liam wasn’t. Your mom eventually left DiLustro and got married. She had dreams of figure skating, and so did the man she married. Unfortunately, Gio had your mother in his sights too. He went after her, unwilling to accept rejection. I don’t know all that happened there, but I know she was pregnant with you when she got hurt. Your father died, and officially, your mom and her newborn died too. Your uncle set her and you up with new identities.”
“Gio DiLustro shot her,” I whispered, dread filling my veins. “He told me himself. He gloated about it”
Silence lingered with my admission.
“I tell you this, Wyn. If they lay a finger on you, they're dead.”
The conviction in his voice was firm and cold. These kinds of statements by Sasha made me realize he was a feared man in the underworld. Despite his casual attitude, he’d be the one to kill a person with a happy smile on his face. It was terrifying.
“You know, it makes no damn sense that Uncle and Mom let me skate and compete if we were supposed to be in hiding.”
