Page 31 of Until Retribution Burns (Beauty in Lies 3)

At the back of the file room in the basement was a small passageway that led to the escape tunnels that had been carved beneath the suburbs of Chicago. The elaborate maze made me remorseful that I lived on an island, because if anyone ever managed to attack us there, we would be limited in terms of our escape options if we needed to.

"What did Isa mean when she said I had no clue what she's seen?" Matteo asked, watching his men comb through the documents.

"She killed Maxim Kuznetsov," I said. Matteo raised his eyes, nodding his approval as he no doubt pictured something similar to what Ivory had done. Murder in self-defense wasn't murder at all.

What Isa had done was different.

"Slid the knife right into his heart while he stared up at her like she was the angel of death," I murmured. "I know you'll disagree with me on involving her in that, but she needed it even if she doesn't know it yet."

Matteo shook his head, a smile tugging at his lips. The Bellandis protected their women, shielding them from the violence and consequences of the men’s actions at all costs. I was sure my willingness to show Isa the darkest depths of my soul seemed unfathomable to him.

Their women were made of sunshine and everything light, keeping their husbands from falling to the darkness. Isa was a queen of nightmares, finding her home in the darkness with me.

"Ryker says you're dead set on killing all of Pavel's sons," Matteo observed. "Are you sure that's wise at this point in your endeavor? You don't want to make too many enemies too quickly."

"They have to die," I said evasively. I wouldn't explain my reasoning, not when there was little chance of making him truly understand without revealing information better left in the past. "Pavel will suffer watching all his children murdered by my hand, and then I'll finally allow him to die."

Matteo nodded as if he'd already known the answer, watching one of his men wince as he opened a folder and sorted through the undoubtedly gruesome photos that he'd discovered.

On one wall, Matteo had taped the pictures of Isa that I'd sent before we departed for Chicago. Several of her from various stages of her life lined the walls, making it easy for Matteo's men to identify her in case they came across a photo rather than her name. "Viktor Kuznetsov has a house in Brighton Beach," he said, and I turned my eyes to his sharply.

I’d thought I had documents of all the Kuznetsov properties around the world, monitoring them to know when any of the assholes left their fortress in Russia. "It will take some time to find out if he's there or when he might be. I'll put my contact on it. Would you have a jumping point for entrance?" he asked, raising a brow at me as we finally moved into the file room and each picked a box off the floor to sort through.

"Mariano and Luca Rossi are in New York. That should be close enough to work," I answered. "If they aren't willing to help, then Calix will have to do."

"As long as he doesn't have any sign of you flying into the city, either should work." I nodded my head in agreement, turning my attention down to the box in front of me. File after file stared up at me, filled with every sort of horror a person could imagine.

The sales of people. Information for blackmailing the police or government officials. It was endless.

It was also nothing new.

* * *

Inever wanted to touch another piece of paper or folder file by the time Matteo and I decided to make our way up the steps and rejoin the land of the living and light. The ghosts that lurked in those folders would haunt a better man, staining him with the taint of their gruesome and untimely deaths.

The things Franco Bellandi, my father, and Pavel Kuznetsov had done for the sake of their own greed and violent vices knew no limits. Depraved didn't even begin to cover it.

The kitchen was empty when we emerged into it, and Matteo didn't hesitate to make his way back to the main living space and out the side doors. In the garden beside the house, we finally found our women. Isa sat on a blanket on the stone pavers that wound between the garden beds, her legs curled underneath her as Luna hung off the back of her shoulders like a monkey.

"Auntie Isa!" the little girl squealed, rubbing her cheek against my wife's as she turned her stunning eyes back to look at her. "More!"

Isa giggled, lifting a cookie off the plate at the center of the blanket and feeding it to the monkey of a child. Brio sat facing her, a cookie happily clutched in his tiny hands and munching away as he smiled at my wife as if he adored her already.

"She'll make a great mother," Matteo said, chuckling at my side when he looked at my face. I'd always known I wanted Isa to be the mother of my children, an instinctive need to claim her fully and completely. "Here's hoping it makes up for having you for a father," he said, knocking into me with his side as he moved to go and claim his wife.

Isa continued to feed Luna cookies, pulling the little girl over her shoulder to sit on her lap so she could talk to both the kids. From my spot by the door, I couldn't hear exactly what she talked about, only see the motion of her lips and the sweet smile that consumed her when she stared back at their happy faces.

It was at that moment I realized the desire for Isa to be pregnant with my child so quickly was only partially because of my need to claim her. I also felt the overwhelming desire to be a father, to watch her snuggle and feed our own child that she looked at with all that love in her eyes. Before Isa, I’d thought I would go my entire life without providing an heir to my father’s legacy, out of spite. There had never been a desire for children or a long-term relationship with any singular woman.

With a single glance, Isa had taken everything I thought I knew about myself and stripped it away, replacing it with the overwhelming urge to have it all. My Empire, my wife, and the children who would make our lives complete.

I moved as if in a trance, my feet carrying me to close the distance between us before I even consciously registered what I was doing. Isa turned a startled glance to me, the smile fading off her face at whatever she saw in my expression. Sitting on the blanket beside her, I snatched a cookie off the plate and popped it into my mouth to occupy it so I wouldn't say something to scare her off. I couldn’t throw a wrench in the relationship that had only begun to bloom, instead choosing to appreciate the unguarded moment watching her with Luna and imagining it as our child one day soon.

It didn't matter that Isa was so young she'd only just become legal. All that mattered was the sight of a toddler on her lap with chocolate-stained lips, who smiled and blabbered on about the flowers, pointing out colors even as she butchered the pronunciation of the names and Isa corrected her in that quiet, encouraging way I thought all mothers should have.

"What's got you so quiet?" Isa asked finally when Luna stood from her perch on Isa’s lap and made her way to her father. The fact that she hadn't abandoned Isa the moment he emerged spoke to just how enraptured Luna had been with her.

Nobody was more exciting than Matteo, in Luna’s world.

She reached forward suddenly, a massive smile on her face as she grasped Brio beneath the armpits and lifted him into the air. Perching him on her lap, she bounced him playfully. "You're good with them," I said, choking back the threat of unusual emotion as warmth bloomed in my chest. Isa blushed, her hand trailing toward her stomach as she followed the line of my thoughts.

It was only a matter of time.

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