Page 141 of Cinder
He swings around. “Who?”
“Viktor,” I say.
It’s not true.
I’mgoing to kill him.
With the ashtray.
In the foyer.
I just need to distract him long enough for me to reach it, so I can lift it up and smash it over his skull. Over and over, until his head cracks open like a watermelon.
“I thought your enforcer was going to do that?” he says, smugly. “Instead, he ran away with his tail between his legs like a little pussy.”
I’d like to see Luca say that to Lars’s face and see how much of a pussy he is when Lars removes his face with his bare hands.
“Viktor is already tired of your games. Once you hand me over to him, he will have everything he wanted. The transport routes down the east coast. A wife who knows more about the Moretti empire than you.” The table with the crystal ashtray is behind me. But it’s too far for me to reach. With Luca suitably distracted, I take a step back. “He’ll kill you and take over everything.”
Luca’s smug smile disappears.
Lost in his own narcissism, he didn’t consider this.
He was too busy amusing himself with his games to realize he was opening the door for Viktor to walk through and take over.
In his warped reality, he thought he was torturing me.
Getting his revenge on me.
And forcing Viktor to go along with it like some poor soul waiting for scraps at the dinner table.
But Viktor is a lot smarter than Luca.
He would’ve seen it as an opportunity to take over the largest organized crime syndicate in the country while Luca was distracted playing his silly games.
All he had to do was pretend like he was at the mercy of my brother. Play along with him until he was ready to strike.
And my brother was too stupid to see the opportunity he was handing him.
“You’re walking into a coup,” I say.
I don’t know if any of what I am saying is true.
But if Viktor Olicheckoff is any kind of pakhan, he will have seen this for what it is. An opportunity for a bigger slice of the pie.
I know I would.
And so would my father.
But Luca is too fucking stupid.
And no fucking leader.
“What are you talking about? The Moretti are far more powerful than the Olicheckoff.”
“Theyweremore powerful. Until our father died and you took over.”
I take another step back.
