Page 5 of Darkest Game
“Which is why you’re going to steal their wives from them. It will drive them to the brink of insanity and then we’ll be able to kill Mikhail and Nico easily enough and seize even more power for ourselves.”
“How am I going to get Natalya and Sasha? Mikhail and Nico keep their wives locked away so no one can hurt them.”
“Figure it out. I don’t care how. Just do this.”
“And if I say no?” I ask, staring Jack down. I light another cigarette just for something to do. I’ve never really cared for the taste. I mostly do it because women have told me it looks sexy and I figure anyway I can have power over someone else, I take it. And I can clearly tell that the cigarette smoke is pissing Jack off which just seems funnier to me.
“Then I shoot you right here in the head.” His threat his clear. Jack Finnigan seems like a man who doesn’t take no for an answer and I’m a man who knows how to survive.
“Fine,” I grit out. “I’ll steal them away. But give me time. It’s going to take a little bit to find the right moment.”
“You have until the end of the week. I want both Mikhail and Nico’s wives. You better not fuck this up, Liam.” He shoots me a glare before leaving. It’s not until he’s gone that I feel like I can breathe again.
How the fuck am I going to steal Natalya and Sasha? It was by some luck that I managed it before.
I call Jimmy back into my office and tell him everything Jack told me. “Find out anything you can on them. Where they’ll be. If there’s any opening I can sneak my way into it.”
“Sure thing, boss.” Jimmy doesn’t hesitate to start calling others who might have some answers.
I’m sure there’s a gap somewhere that I can exploit. There’s always a crack.
Irina
“We should have a celebration,” Natalya says after me, Ana, and our mom are safely in Natalya and Mikhail’s house. Sasha and Nico have arrived.
The sight of Nico makes me breathless but not out of attraction. No. Out of fear. He used to work for Denis and there’s still a part of me that’s worried he could strike up another deal with him again. If the need suited him.
We’re all seated around the living room. Me and Natalya beside each other while Sasha and Ana sit together. It’s obvious which sisters always got along more with which one.
Mikhail and Nico are on opposite sides of the room. There’s a tension between them but they seem to be working through it for the sake of their wives.
“A celebration?” Nico asks. “Like a party?”
“Yes. A party to celebrate my sisters being home with me, safe and sound.”
“That’s a horrible idea,” Nico says.
Mikhail shoots him a glare. “Don’t insult my wife.”
He raises his hands in surrender. “I just mean that we can’t be drawing a ton of attention to ourselves. Now that we’ve been working together, we have a lot more enemies who want to take us down.”
“I’m afraid he’s right,” Mikhail says to Natalya. “But we can still host a small get together here. At our house. We can invite just a few people. Nothing huge. What do you say?”
Natalya turns to me. “Irina, is that something you’d enjoy?”
“I’m fine without a party but if you want one, then I’m ok with it.”
“Ana?” Natalya asks.
“I love a good party so I’m in.”
Sasha laughs, nudging Ana. “You’ve never even been to a party so how do you know you’ll love it?”
“I just know.”
I smile as I look around the room at my sisters and mom. How happier we are without Denis controlling our lives. I’m ready for a new start. Ready to start the next chapter in my life.
Natalya claps her hands together. “A party it is. We’ll invite only people we know we can trust. If anyone finds out you guys don’t have Denis’s protection any longer, it could come back to hurt you.”
