She gets up and lets him lead her upstairs, sparing only one glance at me before she’s gone.
The moment I’m alone with Viola, I grab the gun and pick her up by her throat, pinning her to the wall. "Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“Kage,” she croaks as she tries to pull my hand away.
I let go only to hold her in place by her shoulder and put the gun to her head. “I’ve almost killed you before. Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn’t do it now.”
“I’m not the problem here, asshole. It wasn’t my idea, and it’s not my gun.” She pushes at my chest, but I don’t budge.
Where Saxon managed to get ahold of a firearm is the next problem I’ll be dealing with, but right now I’ve got a Familia princess that needs to start explaining herself before his gun becomes lodged in her fucking throat.
“I don’t give a fuck whose idea it was,” I growl. “Why in the world would you let her play Russian Roulette?”
She puts her hand on the gun and pushes it away from her head. “The gun was empty, jackass."
What? I push the button and move the cylinder so I can check, and sure enough, there’s nothing in it. Viola puts one hand on her hip as she glares at me.
“I told you, I’m not the goddamn issue here. And whatever we have to do to fix her needs to be done now, before she plays with someone else and I’m not around to take the bullet out of the fucking chamber.” She pulls a single bullet out of her pocket and holds it up before dropping it onto the floor in front of me.
She turns around and marches up the stairs, while I’m left to think about how the hell I’m going to bring Saxon back from the edge.
If I even can.
MY EYES MOVE ACROSS the screen as I scour my resources for anything I can find on who tried to kill Saxon. All last night, I tried to get her to talk to me, but she wouldn’t budge. She told me that it’s not mine to worry about, which is fucking bullshit. She is mine to worry about, and everything pertaining to her goes right along with it. So, if she isn’t going to tell me, I’ll have to figure it out myself.
Beni taps three times on the door jam. “Boss?”
“What?” I ask, not bothering to look away from my computer.
“Raff is here. Should I let him in?”
My head whips toward him. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
“I’m not sure, but I can ask,” he suggests.
“No. I’ll find out myself,” I tell him. “I have some shit to sort out with him anyway. Let him in but don’t let him past the foyer. I’ll meet you there in a minute.”
Beni nods and leaves my office, heading for the front door. I clean up the papers that are scattered across my desk and collect them into a single pile. Then, with the press of a couple buttons, I lock my computer with its newly changed password.
By the time I get to the foyer, Raff is standing there, waiting patiently next to Beni with his hands inside his pockets. When he sees me, he gives me that same warm smile he always has, but it doesn’t feel like it used to.
“My office,” I tell him.
Turning on my heels, I walk back to my office with him following behind. Beni keeps an eye on him to make sure he isn’t up to anything, and when we get inside, I shut the door. Anger simmers beneath the surface, primed for the smallest infraction, but I do my best to contain it.
“You shouldn’t be here. Your right to just show up unannounced was revoked when you betrayed me and chose blood over the Familia.”
He nods. “I know.”
My brows raise. “You know, and yet here you are.”
“Well, I was hoping I could stop by not as a consigliere, but as the man who helped raise you. Besides, I found something of Silas’s I’d like to give to Saxon.”
I lean against my desk, resting my hands on the wood and crossing my ankles. “Oh, so you’re not here to finally come clean about what a cheat my father really was?” His shoulders sag. “Yeah. Vladimir kindly shared the details about him and Dmitri’s wife, and got a front row seat to the angry outburst it caused.”
He sighs. “Kage, I wasn’t trying to hide things. I just never saw a point in tarnishing your view of him.”
“But you did,” I argue. “You did keep it from me. And I’ve spent the last twenty-four years thinking he died an honorable man.”
“He was honorable,” Raff counters. “Don’t act like he was running around, fucking any wet pussy he could find. His relationship with your mother was rocky for years before the affair. The only reason they stayed together was for you.”
“She was raped because of his actions!”
“And he beat himself up over that until the day he died!” Raff pauses and takes a deep breath. “Your dad loved you more than he loved anyone, and no matter how many wrongdoings he committed, it doesn’t change the fact that he was a good father.”
My grip on the edge of my desk tightens. “I’m going to find him.”
“Kage.”
“I’m going to find him,” I repeat. “And when I do, he’s going to wish he never so much as spoke of the Malvagio name.”
He shakes his head. “You know, I’ve always said your obsession with avenging his death was unhealthy. You could get yourself killed.”
“Then so be it,” I answer. “It’s not just his death I’m avenging anymore. It’s my mother’s, and making him pay for the hit he put out on Saxon as well.”
“That was Dmitri’s doing?”
Pressing my lips into a thin line, I internally chastise myself for saying anything. Raff was outcast from the Familia. That means no longer having a front row seat to information and plans.
“You can give me what you’d like to give Saxon, and then I think it’s time you go,” I tell him.
He nods and pulls out a pocket watch. It’s silver, with the initials S.K. engraved on it, and the chain it’s connected to has two charms hanging off of it.
“I had no idea I had it until I was cleaning the other day and found it in the couch,” he explains. “He must have lost it at my house the last time he visited.”
“I’ll make sure she gets it,” I assure him.
He thanks me and goes to walk out the door, when he stops and his eyes narrow on the stack of papers on my desk. “What’s that?”
I follow his eyes and then shake my head. “You know I can’t discuss this with you anymore.”
“No,” he says. “I know that tattoo.”
Picking up the picture—a freeze frame of the video from the moment Paolo was killed—I look it over again. “Where?”
“Right there. On her left wrist.” He points to a spot that I assumed was a shadow. “Silas and I took Scarlett to get that tattoo for her twenty-first birthday.”
No.
It can’t be.
No mother would do that to her child, especially not Scarlett.
I rush around my desk and quickly put in the password to unlock my computer. Opening the video, I let it play and focus on the left wrist. Sure enough, the tattoo is there. I zoom in and play it again, pausing it when she’s in a position that makes it most visible.