Page 119 of Lies He Told Me (Bratva Crime Syndicate 1)

My feet beat a familiar path over the marble floor. Failure after failure is all I’m getting from my men. An entire night of failing, and now that it’s morning, more failing.

No Joy.

Not a trace.

Can’t find her.

Haven’t heard anything.

I should go hunting for her myself and yet, there’s work to be done.

The door creaks open. It’s Ludmil, looking like shit. “Still no sign of her.”

I turn away. “Come back when you have her.” I continue pacing. He doesn’t leave. “What?” I ask.

“Just … the search isn’t turning up anything, and … it’s risky right now, is what it is. Our men are spread thin.”

I stop. Turn to look at him hard. Most men would wilt under my stare. But Ludmil doesn’t waver.

“We’re giving the Skull Kings a prime opportunity to strike us back hard and bad,” he continues. “If they get us when we’re spread thin, distracted…”

He’s right. I know he is. But I’m not telling either of them that. “Perhaps you didn’t understand me the first time,” I repeat icily.

Ludmil says nothing, just offers something to me.

It’s Joy’s ring. The one I gave her. The one she must’ve taken off. Abandoned.

So that’s it then.

She really left—for good this time. She’s really gone. I don’t know why this makes the reality sink in so suddenly and so viciously, but it does. Before this moment, finding her felt inevitable. But seeing the ring here without my wife attached to it feels gut-wrenching. Nauseating.

“Boss …” Ludmil begins.

“No need,” I cut him off. “Forget her. Reassemble everyone. I want defensive positions so we’re ready if the Skull Kings try any retaliation.”

Before he can respond, a ringing noise pierces the silence. Ludmil checks his phone and his face drops.

I understand what it means, even as I hate to. “It’s too late, isn’t it?”

Ludmil exhales. “They’ve hit Radovan.”

“Notify the others. Have everyone pull back to headquarters if they can,” I say, although it’s not what I’m thinking.

What I’m thinking is:It’s too late already.

My madness over Joy may have just cost me my kingdom.

* * *

The next few hours are what happens when a man like me—a man with a lot to lose—makes a fatal tactical error. Astronomical losses. Generals, good men, getting cut down in droves. Skull Kings popping up everywhere I don’t want them to, with guns blazing, lips sneering.

I give the orders I need to, the only ones I can. Then I go to the rooftop to think as the sun rises up.

All around me, the city looms. Half-lit silver towers, impassive to the bloodshed taking place at their feet. The air is clear and cool, giving away nothing of the destruction I know is happening.

I look at it, this sea of towers reaching for the clouds. This city that I conquered, so many years ago. My empire. The one I built from the ground up, through blood, pain, sacrifice.

Now, I’m set to lose it all.

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