Kristina, Joey, their families, Patty and his family, Quinn, Sportsocity…
It’s all hanging by a thread, and Savio is hovering over me with big-ass scissors, ready to cut.
This security job bullshit was all a ploy to keep me close and under his control while he figured out how to chip away at my life and expose my vulnerabilities.
For years I’ve been on my own, making moves for myself without having to worry about anyone yanking the rug out from under me.
If they so much as tried, they’d die.
I was my own liability.
Now I’m everyone else’s unless I deliver.
“Eddie Lugo pretty much threatened a lot of lives unless I give him a piece of one of my businesses.” I press my foot on the gas, maneuvering my car through the side streets of the West Village in the direction of my apartment.
“Why did he mention Savio?” Her eyes narrow, zapping me with an accusatory stare that ices my blood. “You work security for him. How would he fit in with this Lugo guy? And how did Savio fuck him over?”
I bring a hand to the back of my neck to loosen the imaginary noose wrapped tight around it but it’s impervious to the touch, like it knows I’m powerless to stop any of this.
I’m drowning in lies, consumed by anger, and riddled with guilt.
That’s when the realization fights through the angst.
My mission was always to take Savio down, to crush him like a cockroach.
And now he’s got so many bullets being fired in my direction that I can’t focus on destroying him…I have to save everyone else and get them out of the line of fire.
He knows it, too.
Every single thing that’s been thrown at me has been a distraction of epic proportions to keep me in check.
Fury rises high in my chest like molten hot lava, ready to spew.
Savio has been waiting a long time for this.
Eight years, to be exact.
Ever since I walked away from him and his toxic lair.
My temples throb, blood rushing between my ears, drowning out Kristina’s frantic questions as the events from the last week loop through my mind.
He sent me to the Ivankovs under the guise of providing protection.
Yet he is the one they need protection from.
Now we’re playing a vicious game of Russian Roulette.
Except he’s the one pulling the trigger.
The big question is, how many more chances do I have to figure out the truth and beat him at his own game without getting my head blown off in the process?
“Tell me what’s going on!” she bellows, grabbing the sleeve of my jacket once I pull into a parking spot in the deck underneath my building. “Because I put a lot of trust in you, Massimo. A fucking ton of trust! And right now, I am seriously questioning that!”
My pulse hammers against my throat. I slowly turn, my lips twisting into a grimace. “You’re paying me to protect you and your sisters, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. You don’t get to ask me about my personal business, do you hear me? This is up to me to fix.”
“Well, it doesn’t look like you’re off to a great start,” she sneers. “Considering the fact that that disgusting man seems to have your balls in a vise. And you brought me into it. The guy who’s supposed to be protecting me. He practically had his hands down my pants!”
“I would have killed him if he hurt you,” I growl.
“But you didn’t,” she seethes. “And I want to know why. What does he have on you? Does it have something to do with Savio?”
My gut feels like it’s being plugged with the sharpest nails imaginable.
“Stop asking me questions!” I yell, slamming my fist against the dashboard.
“Then just answer one of them, dammit! Why are you shutting down like this?”
I grip her shoulders, held captive by her turbulent green irises. “My business dealings aren’t up for discussion. Bringing you to Lugo’s place was a mistake. A big fucking mistake.”
“And now I’m on his radar too. Another fucking lunatic on the hunt.” She shrugs off my hands. “I’d be better off alone than with you over my shoulder.”
A ball of fury knots in my core, threatening to explode at any given second. “You don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, I do.” She narrows her eyes. “You’re not the only one who made mistakes, Massimo. And I regret that my biggest one was you.” She pushes open the door of my car and jumps out before I can grab her and rushes to the exit of the underground parking deck.
I run after her, reaching for her arm and yanking her backward. She trips, collapsing against my chest. She tries to shove me away, pushing with all her might, but my feet remain rooted to the concrete beneath them.
“I never should have put any bit of faith in you. Or anyone, for that matter!” she screams. “I wanted to believe you were on my side, especially after…” She shakes her head. “I just keep making more and more mistakes that are getting my sisters and me closer to the hell we’re trying to escape.”
“What the fuck do you think is gonna happen to you if you run, Kristina? How far do you think you’ll make it?”
“I’d be better off on my own than with a liar,” she hisses. “Because by not answering my questions, you’re just implicating yourself. Do you get that?”
“I told you to trust me.”
“Trust?” She lets out a dry laugh. “That’s rich! You work for a seedy, lying bastard who screws over other bastards, and then traps you in the crosshairs. What part of that association makes you or him trustworthy? And I’m supposed to rely on you both to watch over me and my sisters and our interests? Seriously?”
“Fuck the association, Kristina. That seedy bastard I work for wants to make sure his partner’s legacy stays intact because there are enemies everywhere who want to destroy it.”
“And having you with us is supposed to keep those enemies away from this ‘legacy?’”
“Yes,” I grunt.
“Is Lugo one of those enemies?”
“No. He’s just a greedy sonofabitch who is trying to make a name for himself and needs cash to do it.”
“Cash that Savio promised him?”
“In exchange for his cooperation.” I can barely squeeze out the words, my throat is so tight, constricted by the deception.
But I have no recourse.
No options.
Lugo made that clear.
Savio isn’t the only one holding my balls to the fire.
And one false move will result in a shit ton of casualties.
So much blood.
I’m already a casualty cursed to live with the fear of what might happen if I make one misstep.
I can’t let anyone else suffer that fate.
“My father’s enemies,” she murmurs to herself, her voice trembling as we move into the elevator. “My God, there are so many just waiting to attack us, aren’t there? Whoever murdered my parents — if they were rivals of the syndicate or the Che—” She blinks fast, stopping herself mid-thought with a quick shake of her head. “I just can’t…” Her breath hitches, angst lacing her next words. “There is too much danger, too many risks to me and my sisters. And now this guy Lugo is making threats, too? He can easily—”