Page 91 of Bitter Lies

I glance over at Carter, noting the lines of worry fanning away from his eyes, and then back to Drago.

“Let’s get down to it,” I start. Swallowing over a wave of revulsion when he starts to laugh again. “You understand that you aren’t getting out of here. It’s simple. What you don’t understand is that I’m not the type who is willing to play by the rules of your game. I might have your blood on my knuckles but I’m not the aggressor.”

“Yes, please use your psychobabble bullshit on me. I happen to know you graduated from a state school with a C average, Miss Balestra. And what have you done with your degree since then? A load of nothing.” Drago runs his tongue along his upper teeth with his lips closed before he spits again.

“Say whatever you’d like about me and my past. It’s all out there in the open. You’ve seen too much of me at this point for me to play dumb, and I like to think the same can be said of you. You’re too powerful to play dumb now.”

And there is no way he or his people will be let off easily after this.

I force my hands to my side to keep from punching him again, even when the smarmy look on his face has me seeing red. “Let’s be reasonable.”

“Reasonable?” Drago repeats. “Was it reasonable when your precious father shot my brother? Just business, he said to me. Just business. Yes, I understood. So it is just the cost of doing business to have Edward trapped now. Trust me when I tell you this, Bella. There is nothing you can do. He will die in the dark the way he deserves, trapped. He will make waves before anyone finds him.”

I shake my head as panic rises to grip me.

I glance up at Ricardo, at a loss. His walls drop, and for a split second, he lets me see what he’s really thinking. The fear and the trust that I’ll be able to get this done. My father needs us. Ricardo needs me. If I lose it now, then we’re done before we even get off the ground.

I inhale deeply through my teeth and count to five, then to ten, before a scene of calm pervades the panic.

“While you waste time trying to get me to speak, your father is slowly dying.” Drago relishes my fear. His nostrils flare as though he’s taking in a deep breath and savoring whatever scents he gathers. “Then again, that’s what you excel at, isn’t it? Taking up space, wasting time. Tell me how it feels now to know you will cause the death of the one person who loved you more than any other.”

His words stab at me, and I bite back a groan. Do not let him see how much he gets to you. Easier said than done.

I force myself to smile at him, my lips peeling back with a grin. “Care to try a different tactic? This one is getting a little old.” I crouch down in front of him to put us eye to eye.

“Is this supposed to scare me?”

I only smile wider. “Scare you? That’s not my forte.”

“There isn’t much you can claim as your forte. Aren’t you curious why I sold your contract to a man like Froderick?” Drago clucks his tongue. “The things you might have learned about yourself. Pain is his currency, but he would have broken you in the most exquisite ways. You would have found your forte in the pain.”

“I’ve had dirty talk more insulting than yours.” I need him to see it won’t be easy to get to me even when, underneath my skin, I’m shaken. I can make it through anything he wants to throw at me if it means my father will be okay.

I pause expectantly, but Drago isn’t answering. He’s not backing down, either.

“This could have gone so much better for you,” he says eventually. “You could have been saved. Now you will suffer in a slow, painful way, like your father.”

“Save your bullshit for someone who actually gives a flying fuck.”

I jolt at the sound of a new voice and something inside of me lights when Mia rounds the wall dividing the empty kitchen from the rest of the house. She has Rafel at her side and five different men behind her.

She fixes her glare on Drago.

I shake off the rest of my reservations. She’s a damn Valkyrie, delicate and full of vengeance.

“I’ve been personally involved in taking down one syndicate,” she tells him. “Yours will follow. You want to waste time? Fine. We’ll show you how we waste time.” She snaps her fingers and beckons for me to follow.

Ricardo’s hand drops on my shoulder, the snarl in my throat dying before it's even birthed.

“Carter, you know what to do. Rafel? The supplies.” Mia isn’t waiting for us. She assessed the situation with a single spearing glance and now she leads us back into the icy rain that’s started steadily falling since our arrival.

We stand for a moment under the portico above the cement slab of the front porch.

“We have his properties secured. So far, we’ve been able to take the main house, one of his safe houses, and a small property by the lake. We’ve made a sweep of the three, but none of them have turned up any hint of where Papa is being kept.”

Rafel and Carter march back into the house with their arms laden down with red plastic petrol cans.

“What are they going to do?” I ask dumbly.

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