Page 87 of In Her Blood
“Sorry,” Romeo said, his voice atypically cold, “I was just remembering the way my mother fuckingsobbedthis morning when she learned she has a niece. You don’t mock that.”
Tears pricked Evelina’s eyes without warning.
Dante moved forward, dipped a hand into his pocket, and pulled out a slim packet of ordinary-looking matches. “I’m afraid my brother makes a good point. You’ve violated my cousin’s space, stolen and I assume destroyed a portion of our family’s history, and made a mockery of the pain my aunt and mother share.”
The gunmen shuffled sideways as Dante stepped down on Pavel’s shoulder and struck the first match. “So what happens next, Pavel, is going to be very uncomfortable for you. Because you’ve forsaken your right to a quick and merciful death.”
Pavel made a strained sound of protest, but Dante ignored him and his flailing arm. The match descended, and Evelina realized only after Pavel’s next scream split the air that Dante was burning Pavel’s eye.
Beside them, Grigoriy went pale and attempted to push himself to the side.
Evelina let herself tip into Otto’s warmth. A strange sense of rightness, almost like the pain of relieving an overused muscle,built inside her as she watched her cousin take a small piece of vengeance of her behalf. On behalf of her mother. On behalf of the forced separation that had kept them from knowing each other for decades. On behalf of their own mother.
Otto’s arm slipped fully around her waist, low enough to avoid grazing her wound, and he tilted his head to press a kiss to her hair.
Eventually, Pavel collapsed.
Dante stood and stepped off the unconscious form of the man, letting his latest matchstick fall as he walked away. He met Evelina’s gaze and inclined his head, as if he were passing control of the scene back to her.
Evelina studied Pavel briefly, noting what she could see of the genuinely horrific welts and burns across his eyes. Blood had soaked the majority of his shirt. Something else had soaked his slacks. She crinkled her nose and turned her gaze to Grigoriy, who looked shaken. He looked like a shell of the bear who’d tried to present himself as so overwhelming and powerful when he’d loomed over her.
She nodded. “Let’s wrap this up, gentlemen. It’s been a long day.” Grigoriy and Pavel were the only ones who didn’t know—technically—the rest of the plan. They were in the life deep enough that they knew what mattered for them.
They weren’t surviving the day. They weren’t surviving the hour.
She spared no final words for Grigoriy, just one last stare, angled purposefully down her nose out of spite. Then she turned her back as the first match was lit.
Mikey assured that he had control of the distillery’s CCTV system. Anything that implicated their direct presence that day would be wiped well before the warrants could be written. And between the plentiful barrels of liquid accelerant, the actual fire fuel someone found in the basement, and their careful use of the guns Grisha’s men had brought in making the shot that would fully cripple Grigoriy, if anything pointed back to anyone it would point back to what remained of the Morozovs.
She felt no guilt about that. Not after all they’d done.
The distillery would be lost, burned hopefully to the ground. It had never been in her name and she wouldn’t miss it. The choice would likely bring an increase in unwanted attention for a while, but Dante had assured her he could help her through that as long as she had the strength of will to stay the course.
As far as she was concerned, there was no longer another course to choose from.
It was dark before they finally retreated to the massive hotel suite where the De Salvo brothers were staying for the night. As Evelina understood it, their respective guard were scattered in all the nearest and adjacent rooms. She’d never felt as though she wanted for anything on a material level, but even she doubted she could have pulled off such a demand without weeks of preparation.
“How is your father, Otto?” Dante asked as they settled in the seating room.
Otto spread his arms across the back of the loveseat, then promptly lowered one to lay it over Evelina’s shoulders. “Cranky,” he replied. “The bump on his head is okay. Doc didn’t see signs of anything too serious.”
“Good.”
Evelina leaned into him, a soft smile building on her face. She really was glad Iouri wasn’t terribly wounded.
Romeo kicked his feet up onto the coffee table, drink in hand. “Enough about work for one day. Let’s talk about family.” He raised his glass. “They’re not all in the room with us right now, but they’re always why we do this shit, aren’t they?”
“Indeed,” Dante agreed, another shadow of a smile lifting his lips. He locked eyes again with her after a brief glance at his brothers. “And that extends to you now, Evelina. From today onward, you will always have our support, and our protection.” He extended his own glass. “Welcome to the family, cousin.”
Chapter twenty-nine
New Perspective
“Can I ask youone more quick thing before you go? It’s kind of … personal.” Evelina fought not to wring her hands with the flare of nerves twisting inside her. She’d managed to convince Otto to hang back in the car and she wasn’t going to get a better opportunity. But what she had found herself obsessively curious about over the past day was so difficult to ask, considering how long she really hadn’t known these men.
It was also their fault.
Romeo had busted out the baby pictures shortly before they’d all called it a night the night before, and as a result, she’d been left with swirling chatter in her head that threatened to contradict things she’d always taken as fact.
