Page 82 of Final Installment
The door opened again, and Luka steeled himself for the pain that was sure to follow.If Zec had worked over Skender like that, whatever awaited him was bound to be a hundred times worse.
But the man who walked through that door was the one Luka suspected least.
He thought he’d known what betrayal was when he believed the man behind all of this was Zec.He couldn’t have been more wrong.
“Kristo?”Elona choked out his cousin’s name in utter disbelief.
Kristo, his face freshly shaved and his hair cut even shorter, shrugged as if he’d just revealed himself as the prankster behind some big joke.“The one and only.”
Elona’s panicked gaze jumped between his face and his cousin’s, as if she wanted him to argue and say that it was all a mistake.He couldn’t do that.Like her, he was reeling at the betrayal.
“All this time,” Luka said finally, his heart breaking.He took in the red soaking Kristo’s gray T-shirt.Skender’s blood.His cousin’s knuckles weren’t busted or swollen, but the shirt had large sweat stains from exertion.What had be using on the kid?A baton?Something worse?
“Not the entire time,” Kristo corrected.
“Abu Dhabi?”he guessed, certain that rotting in prison for two years had been the catalyst that turned his cousin against him.
“No, actually,” Kristo replied.“It was two years before that when you laughed at me in front of Besian and Zec and all the other captains.”
Luka searched his mind for the memory.“I never laughed at you.I never bullied you.I loved you like a brother.”
“But not really,” Kristo cut in acidly.“When I suggested I marry Rina, you cut me down so quick.”
“That?”Luka asked, aghast.“That was—I thought you were joking!”He recalled the poker game evening at Zec’s seaside villa.Paolo Barella, the Raffaelli capo with the birthmark on his face, had been there playing that night, too.
Had he been complaining about Rina?Probably.She had been an absolute pain in his ass around that time, always trying to break the rules and push the boundaries.Vaguely, he remembered Kristo offering to marry her.He’d laughed thinking it was an outlandish joke.
“I wasn’t!”Kristo shouted.“I could have kept her in line.It would have cemented my position in the family.It would have proven how essential I am to you.”
“You were essential to me!”Luka shouted right back.“You had a position.Right next to me.As my friend.My confidante.My brother.”
“But not good enough for your sister.”
“You’re our cousin!”Luka exploded with disgust.“Our mothers were sisters!”Staggered by his cousin’s crazy reason for the betrayal, he shook his head.“All of this because you thought I was making fun of you?”
“No, not just that.”Kristo glanced back as the door opened again.This time Liliana entered.She seemed shaken, her brown eyes wide and her expression skittish.She looked as beautiful as ever in her cream dress.It was the sort of outfit she would have worn on a date.High end.Hugging her in all the right places.Showing just enough cleavage to tantalize.Gold jewelry but modest.Makeup artfully applied but looking barely there.
Except, on closer inspection, Luka noticed the blood spatter on her skirt and across her neck and chest.Had she been the lure to get Skender of out his safe house?Had she partaken in his vicious beating?Or did she stand by and watch while Kristo mauled the young Dushku scion?
Her nervous gaze met his.She glanced away quickly, her face reddening with shame.She didn’t want to be here.She wasn’t this person.Luka had cared for her once, still did in an affectionate way, and he knew that she wasn’t evil.Misguided?Desperate to be loved?Yes, but not cruel.
“Did you really think I was going to let this go?”Kristo draped his arm over Liliana’s shoulders.She only barely managed not to flinch, but her eyes shuttered and opened quickly, revealing her fear of a man she had once loved.“That I would do my two years in that shit hole and come back to find you fucking my girl and not kill you?”
Luka swallowed his shame.He could feel Elona’s disgusted gaze boring into him.“I shouldn’t have done it.It was wrong.I crossed the line.”
“But that didn’t stop you from continuing to fuck her, did it?”Kristo demanded, spittle flying from his lips.“You didn’t even have the decency to stop when I was back in your house, living under your roof, eating from your table.Or maybe that’s who you really are, Luka.A taker.A spoiled little prince who doesn’t give a shit about the people beneath you.”
“That’s not true,” Luka argued.
“It is.”Kristo turned his attention to Elona.“I’m sure you let him fuck you in that hotel room.”He read the truth on her face and laughed caustically.“Don’t be embarrassed.”He grabbed hold of Lilian’s sleek ponytail and gave it a vicious tug.“You’re in good company.”
“Stop!”Elona scowled as Liliana cried out in pain.“You can stand there and give your stupid villain speech, but it doesn’t change anything.You’re just a sad, pathetic backstabbing killer.”
“Is that right?”Kristo dropped his arm from Liliana’s shoulders.“Who do you think made me a killer?”He reached into the back of his jeans and produced a handgun that he pointed right in Luka’s face.“Him.Right there.The man you swear up and down you hate but secretly you want to fuck.The man who ordered me to kill your father—and make it hurt.”
To her credit, Elona didn’t flinch.She kept her steely gaze on Kristo, and his cousin seemed almost taken aback.Almost.
“Your brother was with me in Abu Dhabi.Did he tell you that?We were there for a football match.Didn’t expect to see each other there, obviously.Carlo Raffaelli is a soft touch.”Kristo turned his attention back to Luka.“Turns out, he was letting the kid travel out of Italy all the time.Right under our noses.”
