Page 193 of Inevitable Endings
To the rats, to whom I thought were my Russian brothers.
To the Vor v Zakone who turned their back on their own blood. The ones who held secret meetings behind closed doors and carved up the Bratva throne like it was theirs to take.
They will die slower.
Because betrayal from the inside isn’t just disloyalty.
It’s heresy.
And I am the priest.
I will kill them like brothers who forgot my face.
They won’t just die.
They will be disavowed.
Erased from the code.
Removed from the blood.
They will be the cautionary tale Bratva children whisper about in the dark—how the dead man came back, not for justice, but for balance.
Because I am not returning to the council.
I am coming to dismantle it.
To remind them that rats don’t get trials.
They get buried.
And when I’m done, when Lorenzo’s breath is a gurgle in his own throat, when the Vor v Zakone are bones in the dust, I will let everyone else kneel in the blood I’ve spilled.
Kneel because they’ll know nothing else. Kneel not to worship—to survive. And then...Diablewill be spoken again. Whispered from lips that once swore I was dead. The name they tried to erase from Bratva history will be carved back into its spine, with fear.
And after this?
The rest will fall in line.
The loyalists still hidden, the half-men watching fromshadows, the infiltrators who thought they could fade into ranks without consequence, they’ll be dealt with.
The balance will be restored.
Chapter 73
She Brought the Reaper with Her
Isabella
The building is cold. Colder than outside. The stone walls trap the chill like it belongs to them, like this place remembers what it means to house betrayal.
The floor beneath my heels is uneven and damp, and the corridor ahead stretches long and narrow like a throat ready to swallow me whole.
But I don’t shake.
Not now.
The vest under my dress is snug. Custom. Thin enough not to show, tight enough to remind me of what waits beyond that door. A loaded pistol is strapped to my thigh beneath the slit of my dress, metal warming against my skin. I practiced the draw with Aslanov last night, once more.
