Page 185 of Born in Depravity

He held out an empty glass and poured two fingers of Scotch for me.

I took a long sip.

“Is everything going okay with Gabriel?” I asked.

“Yes, there's nothing to worry about. And with the list, we can start attacking Agnello’s operation, delaying his merchandise.”

I smiled and raised my glass to that.

I had my own reason to want Agnello dead. But I needed answers from him first, and he wasn’t going to give me those answers without motivation.

Damien clinked his glass with mine. The cross tattoo on his forearm caught my eye.

I knew it bothered him to not know the identity of the man who’d sold him to Agnello. Unfortunately, men who participated in child trafficking were pretty common in our world, and even more common among Agnello’s associates.

Even with our resources, our hands were tied when the only thing we had to go on was a tattoo.

I took another sip of my drink, savoring the burn as it made its way down my throat.

I’d known the man since I was sixteen and forced to work in the brothel. Perhaps he’d seen something in my eyes when he came there, or perhaps he recognized the same darkness in my eyes reflected in his eyes.

Whatever the reason, he got me out of there and I helped him build this empire that we’d amassed today.

Aside from Nikolay, Damien was the only other man I would die for.

And now Catalina was added to the mix, but unlike my brothers, she couldn’t protect herself. She was defenseless and weak.

I rubbed my chest, my grip on the glass tightening just thinking about her being taken away from us.

Damien watched me closely, though he didn’t comment.

Nikolay came out then. He stood across the island from us and grabbed a glass for himself.

Nikolay wasn’t as hard to read as Damien. But he was more hot-headed. More explosive. His first instinct was to kill first and fuck the questions.

By the time Damien had found him fighting in cage matches for the bloodthirsty son of a bitch, Luca Monroe, to pay off his ex-wife’s debt, his body count was already nearing the triple digits. I had only been with Damien for a few years then.

The brotherhood was barely gaining power then. We didn’t have the kind of connections we had now.

There had always been something wild about Nikolay, and I wondered if it was because of his time in the ring, or if he had been born with it.

His darkest time was when we finally got him out and he realized his bitch ex-wife, Alina, had cheated on him with the Agnello bastard, and he had helped her leave with their two twin boys, Konstantin and Dmitriy.

He had been searching for them since.

We all had our own reasons for wanting Angelo Agnello dead.

But we didn’t want to get to him by hurting his daughter. Not anymore. Somewhere along the way, she’d become less of a pawn and something so much more.

I finished off my drink and slammed the glass down on the counter. Nikolay eyed me before offering that signature side smile of his and finishing his own glass.

He looked up and cursed softly under his breath.

Damien and I turned and I felt all the blood whooshing in my ears.

Catalina stood by the doorway, a shy smile on her face, and in one of the sundresses Nikolay had brought her.

This one was bright red with a square neckline and large straps that held it up. The hem flared out and reached down to her knees, just teasing a small sight of her shapely legs. A small bow on the waistline completed the look.

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