Page 60 of Forgotten Vows
The other men on the roof that the Dubinin guards had cornered were my objective.
Recalling the fear on my son’s face, I hurried to the top level of the school and strode toward the masked men. Or formerly masked men. A Dubinin soldier glared at them as they kept them under gunpoint. He held two masks. Instead, they wore red cuts and swollen contusions.
Down on their knees, they glowered at me as I approached.
“Who sent you?”
The one on the left sneered as he moved quickly. Stooping to grab another gun from a holster at his ankle, he reacted swiftly at my question.
I raised my gun and killed him with one clean shot between his eyes.
“Talk. Now.” I shifted my arm to aim the gun at the other man.
“Fuck you.”
I gestured for the closest man to beat him. It would’ve been my divine pleasure to take out my anger on him and force the answers out of him physically, but time wasn’t on my side. I told my son I would meet him and his mother at home, and I would.I intended to get answers, right the fuck now, and go check on them both as soon as possible.
Blood dripped from the man’s pulpy face once the soldier was through with one round of beating him.
“Who sent you?” I repeated.
He spat out blood a couple of times and cleared his throat. “I was hired by one of your own.” He spat again, struggling to breathe without wheezing severely. “One of you Dubinin motherfuckers.”
A mole?It happened. But dammit, I was careful. I trusted my family. Luka did too. Regardless of his personal opinions about Raisa being a Petrov, he would never tolerate a mole or rat in the family. Ever.
“He didn’t tell me his name,” the thug said. “I don’t have any identification about him. All I know is that he doesn’t want a Petrov-Dubinin alliance or heir to skew the lines of power.”
I growled, more furious than before.
“He and another aren’t happy about the changes. They want the Dubinin power to stay within the family.”
And that was something that was already being challenged and shifted with Luka taking Gabriella, a nobody and not a Mafia princess, as his wife. He’d married an “outsider” and this issue was already being dealt with.
I shook my head and raised my gun to kill him.
“Clean this up,” I ordered without emotion as I turned to leave.
Knowing that more trouble awaited me from within the organization, I strode to the stairs to hurry home. I needed to check on Lev. On Raisa. But once I was through with seeing that they were okay, I was speaking with my uncle.
Right before I’d set out to find this goddamn mole and end this threat.
I endured too much missed time with my future to tolerate anything standing in the way of peace now.
26
RAISA
Luka didn’t wait.
With Allan’s news that someone had broken into Lev’s school, he stood and was on the phone. I thought his expression was fierce and no-nonsense before. But right now, he was the epitome of a boss. A ruler. A leader who would take charge.
I slumped to the floor. The news literally knocked me down. Of all things that could happen, this was what I feared the most.
Losing my son.
Knowing the source of all my joy and happiness was threatened.
“No. Please, no.” I could barely breathe through the panic attack. Maybe this was it. A heart attack from the biggest loss of my existence. “No…”
