Page 93 of Corruption

“What the fuck is this all about?” I demand. “Because we both know it’s not about a girl you threw out and weren’t interested in even to have an heir. If you were, you would have already gotten to that. Wouldn’t you have? You would have been smart enough not to scare her and try to rape her on the first night. You would have wooed her into the spider’s web. But you didn’t.”

Riding over here to confront him finally gave me time to think about it.

If Nadia and I had found the proof that Kiya wasn’t Adrian’s daughter, it would have only benefited us. It would get Kiya out of marrying my brother and keep her from telling Addy and Adrian that we all lied about who killed my father because ending her engagement to my brother would have no longer been a motivation.

But for Vaughn to just throw Kiya away even if he found out she wasn’t really his is just nonsense and a waste of leverage. Whether Adrian Fantoni fucked Kiya’s mother or not is irrelevant to him claiming her. To him treating her like a daughter. He says she’s his daughter and makes no effort to keep that quiet. Even if we found out otherwise, having her be his daughter benefits us more than ousting him. There would be nopointin ousting him. Especially since unless Adrian wanted to risk his credibility, he’d never oust himself.

Which means my brother is angling for something that doesn’t have to do with the brotherhood or even the Italians. My brother wants something more personal than that. It’s the only answer.

Vaughn replies, “Of course not. Because I’d always intended Kiya for you from the moment I laid eyes on her. Don’t get me wrong. She would have been a nice fuck if she’d just submitted to it, but I’d always planned on leaving her on your doorstep. She’s exactly your type. A girl who needed to be saved from my clutches. A girl you could protect, and then when she showed how feisty she could be, I knew it was a matter of time before you could no longer resist. How angry did it make you on New Year’s Eve? To see my lips on hers.”

I clench my jaw to keep from lunging across the table to kill Vaughn. But if I try to make a move, he’ll call all his men in. And I’m not the Viper. I’m not even Adrian Fantoni. I can’t take Vaughn and his most elite men at once.

Even if I could, acting now would keep me from learning what the fuck my brother’s angle is.

“So all this? This entire convoluted plan so I would fuck your future wife, get her pregnant, and then give you the reason you needed to kill me?” I ask. “If you wanted to kill me, you could have just blamed Dad’s death on me instead of covering it up.”

“I could have… but then, it would have put Nadezhda on the execution block.”

“What does Nadezh—”

Nadezhda. Vaughn calling my wife that suddenly puts everything into focus.

I wasn’t always the one who called her Nadezhda. Before I called her that, Vaughn did.

“So that’s your angle. Nadia. So predictable. You’re doing all this to get back a woman who decided she didn’t want you anymore. A woman who decided your older brother was better,” I taunt. “So unoriginal.”

“You’re one to talk. You waltzed all the way here to kill me for touching your littleKitten. Nadia’s littlepretty girl.You’re so predictable. Always coveting what you thought was mine. Scheming to take it.”

“I never schemed for Nadia. You were going to let her be killed. You were going to let the girl we grew up with and who you know would never betray us die. She went to you hoping you’d come to me to settle things quietly, and then you betrayed her. Serves you right. Besides, you were always so desperate for Dad’s approval and for my inheritance. I would have thought you’d deemed it a worthy trade-off.”

“It might have been if Father hadn’t decided he was going to give it back to you. After he decided my vision for the future of the brotherhood was callous and too risky and would put the brotherhood in danger. You were going to get the girl and the seat even after your betrayal. I couldn’t have that.”

I frown. “The girl and the—”

“That’s right. Father was going to give you your inheritance back while he was still sound of mind and before his dementia could deteriorate him.”

“That doesn’t make sense. If that was his plan, why did he—You’re the one who told us he was going to have us killed.”

Not just him. But one of my father’s guards who grew up with us and then became Vaughn’s captain when our father died. We had no reason not to believe it. There was no reason not to trust him.

“Luckily, Nadia’s rose-pollinated wine got to him first after I was such a good brother and warned you both.”

I stand to my feet. If what he’d already done wasn’t enough, he schemed to kill my father and then couldn’t even do the dirty work himself. He lied to Nadia and I, using people we thought we could trust and who we thought had no reason to lie to us, and it got my father killed. It’s no great loss. I never much cared for my father. He was too stern and only cared about his ambitions and legacy in theBratvaand was going to die soon enough as it was. But at the very least he was principled. At the very least, he wouldn’t have schemed to have his family killed for no reason. He kept the brotherhood together for forty years. And now my brother’s scheming has risked all that.

Before I can do anything, though, Vaughn stands and cocks his gun at me while looking at his phone.

“Congratulations. You’re the father.” He smirks. “You were, anyway.”

I duck a split second before he pulls the trigger. Before he can get a decent aim again, I round the table to where my brother is and slam him into the wall. The gun goes off as we grapple.

“So this is what it comes to? Brother against brother?” Vaughn asks.

“And whose fault is that?” I ask, ready to punch him only for my punch to be held back by his men coming in and dragging me away from him.

But even though I’m going to lose this fight doesn’t mean I’m going out without a fight, especially not when my brother has set me up. I manage to take out two of his guards before I’m overwhelmed and forced to my knees. Vaughn raises his gun to my head, but his hand doesn’t even get halfway there before fire rains into the room. Onto his men, more specifically.

As soon as I feel their grips loosen, I spring out their hold and twist Vaughn’s wrist to snatch his gun and point it to his head instead.

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