He nods and takes off to obey my orders. Beni takes the driver’s side while I hop in the passenger’s side. The SUV peels out of there, making sure we don’t have to deal with cops or other Bratva scum who are brave enough to try to rescue their boss.
“Is this really necessary?” Vlad complains, uncomfortable with how he’s tied up. “I told you I’d go willingly.”
I scoff. “And I’m supposed to believe that bullshit?”
“You should,” he says. “I’m tired of running. I’ve known you were coming for us since the day you took your place as Don. Damn near fourteen years of running and hiding from you is plenty for me.”
“Should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” I tell him.
He chuckles dryly. “If I had known you’d grow to have more brain and brawn than your father ever had, trust me, I would’ve.”
I roll my eyes. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”
“Fine. Don’t believe me. It’s no skin off my ass.”
WE PULL INTO THE abandoned industrial park and around to the back side of the building. Roman, Cesari, and their chosen few are already waiting, and Nico isn’t one of them. Good. The last thing I need is him fucking something up. He’s been better since I damn near killed him, but this is too important to trust him with.
Ro and Ces come to the SUV and open the backdoor, pulling Vlad out and carrying him by his arms and feet. Beni opens the door and we go inside and down the stairs. The basement is still stained with Evgeny’s blood, which is exactly why I wanted to bring Vlad here. I want him to imagine what will happen to him, based on the evidence of what happened to the one before him.
The mental torture is always just as important as the physical kind.
My men put his wrists in the chains that hang from the ceiling, and I grab a metal baseball bat off the table, feeling the weight of it in my hand. I grip the handle and swing it around as I turn to face Vlad. He looks at me like I’m a goddamn amateur.
“Really?” he drawls. “Out of all the weapons you have, you’re going to choose a damn baseball bat?”
I smirk. “Yep.
With all my strength, I tightly grip the bat and swing it full force into his knee cap. It shatters on impact as he wails in pain and falls, only to be held up by his wrists. He bites his lip and stands up on the other leg, only for me to deliver the same blow to the next one. With no way to stand, he’s left with no choice but to hang there, completely at my mercy.
“I bet you didn’t think this would be your fate when you killed my father in cold blood,” I sneer. “Right in front of his child, no less.”
He takes deep breaths, probably trying to ease the pain and take it like a man, but I’m not having it. I rear back and kick him directly in the center of his chest.
“You fucking answer me when I speak to you.”
In his mid-70s, I wouldn’t be surprised if a heart attack takes out this man before I do, but the one thing he doesn’t get to go with is honor. He may be ready to go, accepting that he’s not going to make it out of this room alive. But that doesn’t mean I won’t make it as brutal and as painful as possible.
“It was the only chance we had,” he says. “We tried to take him out for years, and that night, we were out for a few beers and stumbled across the two of you. It was the only time his guard was down.”
His explanation is a theory that Raff and I have had for years. My father may not have been a good man, but he was protective of me. Running or trying to fire back would have meant jeopardizing my life, and he wasn’t about to do that. So, he took six to the chest.
“For what? You got nothing for his death.”
Vlad looks up at me, his eyes narrowed. He’s trying to get a read on me, but all I want is answers before I take his miserable ass out of this world.
“No one told you,” he concludes.
“Told me what?” I demand. When he doesn’t answer right away, I pick up the bat again, this time swinging it directly into his stomach. “Told me what!”
He groans in pain and then coughs as he tries to recover from the blow. “Your father was having an affair with Dmitri’s wife.”
My whole body goes ice cold. “No.”
“For three years, he was fucking her behind your mother and Dmitri’s backs,” he admits. “When Dmitri found out, he strangled Natalya and tried to kill your father but was unsuccessful. So, he did the only other thing he could to get back at him.”
I shake my head, not wanting to hear what’s next, because if this is going where I think it is, there is no coming back from it. It will mean that not only did he steal my father from me, but my mother’s death was also a result of something Dmitri did.
The fact that my mother was raped was no secret. I was there that night, when multiple men busted in the front door. I still remember the horror in her voice, screaming for me to go hide as she was being thrown to the floor and pinned down.
After that night, she wasn’t the same. Some days she wanted to do everything in the world with me, and others, she wouldn’t get out of bed. The highs were super high, and the lows were terrifying. And it stayed that way until the day she took her own life, leaving me to find her body.
“That was Dmitri?” I growl.
Vlad nods once.
Picking up the metal chair in the middle of the room, I pick it up and throw it at the wall. The sound of it echoes through the room but it’s quickly drowned out by me flipping the table. All of the different knives and various weapons scatter, but Roman and Cesari are quick to kick any away from Vlad.
The more the pieces fall into place, the angrier I become, fueling my fire against Dmitri so much more.
He stole my mother’s happiness.
He took my father’s life.
He tried to have Saxon killed, killing my baby instead.
When I get my hands on that son of a bitch, he’s going to experience all the pain the world has to offer. I’ll have Antonio keeping him alive, just so I can make sure he gets everything that he deserves.
Beni comes over and puts his hand on my shoulder. I’m about to shove him off, to tell him to let me deal with this. But when I see the look on his face, I know it’s serious. He pulls me to the side and shows me his phone—the notification on it sending fear straight through me.
SHED DOOR OPENED. 5:57 PM
“Do you think he escaped?” I ask, thoughts of Saxon immediately flooding my mind.
He shakes his head. “I’m not sure, but the live feed of the cameras doesn’t show her anywhere.”
I glance at my watch.
6:13 PM.
Fuck!
Turning back to look at Roman and Cesari, I point at Vlad. “Watch him. Make sure he doesn’t fucking die.”
With that, Beni and I book it up the stairs and out the door. That Bratva shithead isn’t in any condition to fight, but if he managed to catch Saxon off guard, there’s no telling what he could’ve done. I never thought I’d say this, but I hope Viola is still there.
DESPITE MAKING THE HALF-hour drive in a matter of fifteen minutes, it’s one of the longest drives of my life, coming second to the night Saxon was shot. I jump out of the car before Beni even has it in park and run toward the house—not even stopping to acknowledge the two men guarding the house. The front door is locked, and I fumble to put in the code to open it. When I finally get inside, the whole place is deadly silent.