Page 10 of Fierce Sinner

My head is foggy. The fucking whiskey. I’d finished half a bottle by the time she walked in. That’s why I can’t think straight right now.

I’ve got work to do.

I curse as I leave the bedroom and go to my office. I’ve got my hands full, but it’s a blessing. A blessing that will keep my mind occupied while I put these feelings in their proper place. A place in a box bound in chains, where there’s no danger to my heart.

I shut my office door behind me and bury myself in the details of the businesses that keep our operations running smoothly. Hotel chains. Transport companies. The trappings of success that provide perfect cover for what we truly do.

It is the way I run things in the Bratva; find ways to stop people from asking questions. Questions lead to complications, and things get messy when there are complications. Fuck knows, I have enough of those right now.

I’m still thinking of this when the door opens, and Ludis walks in.

“I thought you might be here,” he says.

I shrug in response as I lean against the chair. “Where else would I be?”

His eyes slant to the door, and I know what’s going through his mind.

“I hope you’ll be calmer now that she is back,” Ludis says as he takes his place across me. I tense when I hear this.

“What are you talking about?” I ask as I feign attention to the documents he drops on my desk.

“When you discovered she was missing,” Ludis says with a knowing look which I ignore. “No offense, Boss, but you seemed pretty fucked up.”

It’s an impudent comment and I meet it with a cold stare, inwardly cursing the emotions I allowed to get the better of me. I wasn’t thinking at the time.

“Get to the fucking point,” I snap.

“Is there something we should start worrying about…Boss?” Ludis asks. I stop checking the files and stare him dead in the eye. I hope for his sake he isn’t insinuating that I have gotten weak.

“Like what?” I question. Ludis frowns. He gives me a wary look. He really should know better than to be pursuing this line of questioning. There is a terse silence before he raises his hand in a gesture of submission.

Good. He’s my blood, for sure, but I will fucking piss on him if he gets out of line.

“I apologize, Boss. I wasn’t thinking.”

I stare at him for a while, knowing exactly what is happening. He thinks I got weak because of Aurora. And he’s fucking right. I need to fix things before others notice. No Bratva can survive with a weakened leader. Why do I need this fucking woman so much?

This is more than just a fucking a need.

I don’t know where the thought comes from, but I clench my fist as I recall the hell I went through when I thought Aurora had been taken.

Ludis drops his hand, and the move brings me back to the moment.

“I thought I should remind you about Leonardo’s dinner party,” he says.

Fuck.

With all that’s been happening, I completely forgot about the ball Leonardo Dinara organizes once every year. It couldn’t have come at a worse time. Still, I know the benefits attached to attending, though I’ve always wondered what the old man thinks he’ll achieve by organizing a formal ball for every prominent figure in the mafia.

Dinara’s no fool though. As the head of a powerful consortium, he isn’t part of any one syndicate, but he has a finger in a lot of pies. He’s a good man to know. Perhaps it is why no one questions these annual gatherings. I assume he is trying to make mafia leaders feel like we have a civil side to us. Aside from that, the allegiances forged at these parties can be incredibly lucrative.

I scoff as I think of this.

Criminals acting civilized while we do business.

Everyone in the underworld is dark. It’s the only way to survive the game. Bloodthirsty killers can don tuxes and sip all the champagne in the world, but it doesn’t change what we do. What we are. The only reason the party doesn’t end in a bloodbath is that Dinara has security like Fort fucking Knox.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I go in unarmed. I’m no fool. And I’m sure other attendees of the party are doing the same thing. The good thing is that Leonardo’s pact ensures that even if you sneak your weapons in, they must remain invisible.

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