Page 36 of Destined Connection (Connections Duet)

“Is this it?” I questioned.

“No, there’s more. Lorenzo found several cameras and pieced all the footage together. You are viewing the current footage, and then it dates back.”

“I know all of this, Gio. What I want to see is in the past, you know, the brutal part? Here, fast forward to what I need to see.” He hesitated at first and then did as he was told. He turned the laptop around and pushed it forward to me. He started the clip, and I didn’t miss the timestamp in the bottom corner of the screen. It was the same day as my mother’s murder.

I have never felt more rage as I watched the horrifying images of my father ordering Andreas Shirmanov to rape my mother. Then, as if that was not horrifying enough, he says he plans to sell my sister. I wanted to spill blood and make that motherfucker pay. The next set of images was beyond brutal andan act I would never be able not to see every time I closed my eyes. My mother fought for my sister as any good mother would. She put herself literally in front of the bullet that ultimately ended her life but saved my sister.

“He never knew she was there,” I whispered as Gio sat silently. I looked back to the screen in torment. Sabina has been carrying the weight of the world this entire time on her small shoulders, and I wasn’t there for my mother or sister.

The footage showed the beginning, middle, and ending, with my father staging the scene for me to discover when I arrived home. I closed the laptop and then handed it to Gio. Once the evidence was secure, I flipped over my desk in a blinding haze of anger.

I smashed every photo I kept here except the one of my mother holding Sabina and me in front of the piano. I’ll never forget this day for as long as I shall live. My mother was happy only when she played the piano and we were in her arms. So why did I stop doing that? It’s because my father wanted it, and my mother knew this. She couldn’t change me but could prevent the same thing from happening to Sabina.

I know there are so many missing pieces to this story that only Sabina can tell me. I reached for the bottle and took a long swig of the scotch that pleasantly burned my throat. The broken glass crackled under my feet as I paced the destroyed room.

I bent down, picked up the largest piece of jagged glass I could find, and twirled it between my fingers. I took another drink and then another until I felt the warmth coat my face. I held the damaged photo in my hand along with the glass, and as Gio watched, I ran the glass down the palm of my hand and shouted out my sister's and mother’s names. The blood dripped down to the photo I now let fall to the floor.

I clenched my blood-covered hand over my heart. “I will avenge you, Mother. I will avenge you, Sabina. I will not fail youagain.” I said, taking one more drink before throwing the bottle against the wall.

“Gio, he’s dead.”

“Long overdue, sir,”

“Agreed. I will kill him slowly, painfully, and viciously. He has not begun to know what true brutality is.”

“Who else knows of this,” I questioned.

“You, me, and Lorenzo. It will not go any further than the three of us.”

“Thank you,” I said, exhaling a winded breath. “Secure what we have and check and re-check the library to ensure we didn’t miss anything.”

“Will you be alright, sir?”

I picked up the photo and answered, “No, I don’t believe I will ever be again. You leave my father where he is, as I will deal with him when I return.” After I cleaned and bandaged my hand, I made a call. I waited for the secure connections to engage, and then his voice came on the line. He seemed surprised that I was calling him.

“Bourne,” I sighed, not able to say anything else. I was still reeling from everything I’d learned.

“You know, don’t you?” he questioned.

“Yes, and I need to speak with my sister.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Bourne

“Out of the question,” I gnashed my teeth together as I said the words.

“Why? Are you afraid I will expose you as the man playing us both in the name of revenge? Come on, Bourne, you know it, and so do I.”

“You do not know shit! And don’t ever presume to when it involves your sister or me.”

“As if kidnapping Sabina makes you an expert on my sister. She is a Santoro with my blood running through her veins, and you will never be able to change that fact.”

“The same blood your father left your mother in after he put a bullet between her eyes? The same blood would have been spilled again had your father’s plan worked to sell your sister to Andreas Shirmanov. Does the name ring a bell? If it doesn’t, it should. From the moment she shared the story of her mother’s murder and the mention of the man who was with Marco on thatnight, I knew who it was. Andreas Shirmanov was the younger brother of Pavlo, who was second in command in the Shirmanov Family. The Shirmanovs had their dirty hands in drugs, guns, human trafficking, and much more.”

The family reigned supreme in the Russian Bratva until Valentin Vasiliev dismantled their organization piece by piece. It was Pavlo’s wish one day for his only son to take over as Lucas did for Marco, but he was reckless and killed himself, which ignited the chain reaction for Pavlo to seek revenge. However, it was short-lived when Pavlo staged a coup blowing up around him. Valentin later discovered his own father’s sins, which did not end well for Alaric, who later died from a heart attack, but I suspect if Valentin had his wish, it would have been a knife to his treacherous heart.

After I was through shoving the ugly truth down his throat, I was met with silence and knew Lucas had ended the call. I tossed the phone on the desk and received a text message.

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