Page 31 of Twisted Embrace

“You can’t lose control, Dar.”

“I want the fuckers responsible found! And I want their heads on a silver fucking platter.”

“Don’t worry. I assure you blood will stain the city streets. I’m having my men check for additional information. At this point, all arrows point to Petrov, but I have a feeling he’s being used as a puppet.”

“We need to make certain before we start a war. What are you thinking?” Dar lifted a single eyebrow.

“This has the smell of the Volkovs. Have you talked with Mattia?” The man had a man inside the organization, something their father had done years before, the forethought risky but already providing enough details to make it worthwhile.

“He’s attempting to pull his man out for a meeting, but that could be dangerous for all involved.”

“True, but at this point we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

Dar flexed his hand, his entire brow furrowing. “They don’t like defeat.”

Which was what happened before.

I glanced at his bloodied knuckles and sighed. “No, they don’t. By the way, Lucia would be angry with you for hurting yourself. Get your hand looked at.”

He shook his hand and snorted. “I’ve had much worse. What happened?” He asked the question as he glanced at the cut near my eye.

“We’ve both have experienced worse horrors and the woman is… a fighter. She has a damn good swing.”

Chuckling, he rubbed his eyes. “The situation with the Bratva princess should prove to be interesting.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“I need to get back. Lucia is starting to come out of the effects of the anesthesia. What are you going to do about the woman?”

“She could be valuable to us.”

“Understood. However, even the others in the Five Families could break the alliance in order to claim her as a prize.”

“Then I will kill them,” I blurted out without thinking.

He lowered his head, staring at me intently. “If I didn’t know better, brother, I’d say you had feelings for this woman.”

“As I said, she’s valuable.”

“Yes. So you’ve said. While I’ll leave the decision what to do with her in your hands, might I remind you that there is only one way that you will be able to keep her safe. At this point, she will be seen as your weakness.”

Even as I took a deep breath, the illusion that we were capable of shutting out the reality of the brutal world that we’d been born into was strained more than usual. How could a woman I’d just met be considered a vulnerability of any kind? “What do you propose?”

“I’m not proposing anything. This is your call. If it were me, I’d slit her wrists and dump her in the Hudson River.”

“I think when your wife recovered and found out, she’d do the same to you.”

He grinned a few seconds later although it was short lived. “Yeah, maybe. It’s a risk keeping her, but a thought I had could work.” When I continued to stare at him, he laughed. “Marriage.”

“Who the fuck would we saddle with marrying her?” A twinge of jealousy rode my system harder than I’d experienced. “She’s a hellcat and will be difficult to handle. Very few of our men could deal with her continuous insolence. If you’re suggesting Mattia, I doubt he’d be amiable to being farmed off to someone he’s never met.” Mattia was his adopted brother, flesh and blood of the man Dar had once called his father. The ugliness of how he’d come to be adopted in the first place continued to be a blur within the entire organization, my father to blame.

“It can’t be just anyone, Enzo. You know that. The Five Families won’t have any qualms about hunting her down or anything else. They’ll explain away their decision by expressing their concerns regarding the health and welfare of every family inside of Italy. Rightfully so, I might add. You might consider her valuable, but if the information is proven to be true, then we need to proceed carefully. That’s why I’m suggesting that you’re the only logical choice.”

I narrowed my eyes, realizing he was serious. “You’re out of your mind. I can’t be saddled with a wife.”

“It could be in name only. You could have all the mistresses you want. I couldn’t give a shit what you did in your private time.”

“I wonder how Lucia would feel hearing you talk like that.”

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