I say it calmly, and I make it sound as if the vow was the huge thing, and not creeping around the blood and touching their eyelids like that. I trembled when I closed my mother’s eyes, wanting to throw myself down next to her. And then pushing their lips back together, as is the custom. Konstantin made me do it. My father’s lips wouldn’t stay together, and I nearly lost it—it’s always the little things that put you over. Maybe Konstantin sensed it. He forced my father’s jaw closed for me and we got out.
“Why not kill me? You’re so white hot, you can’t even think straight right now, can you, Aleksio? Why not go for me?”
“You think I won’t?”
He tips his head like he’s just getting something. “Did she make you promise not to off me?”
Shit.
He smiles. “And you fucking went for it? You can’t let her take advantage like that.”
“Advantage? Jesus, you’re her father, and you let us cut her finger off. Why not just tell me about Vega on the lawn? You wait until we start with body parts? Don’t you give a fuck about your daughter?”
“What do I have right now?”
“What?”
“What do I have?” he asks. “Look where I am in this game we’re playing. Let’s compare ledgers, shall we? I bought the time I needed, time to find Kiro myself. Lazarus’ll beat you to your brother and put this prophecy to rest. What’s more, I’m free. I’m safe from you, aren’t I? And what do you have? You took Mira’s finger. Oh, I very much give a fuck about her. I wasn’t playacting out on the lawn, and I will make you pay.”
“Your daughter’s finger—”
“I didn’t think you’d do it.” He shrugs.
“We threatened to kill her if Kiro died.”
“Please,” he says smugly. “You won’t kill her. When Viktor said that, I knew instantly you hadn’t discussed it. More than that, I remember you and Mira together as children—probably more than you remember. You two had a rare kind of bond. I knew the more time you spent together, the safer she would be. Anyway, you’re like your father—I see him in you. Ruled by emotions. Soft when it comes to innocents. Mira’s finger. I’m impressed—”
“How the fuck do you look yourself in the mirror?”
“I’m not the fuckup here, Aleksio. You moved on me without the psychological advantage of the three brothers united. You put sentiment above strategy, and it told me how to play you. And you’re going to walk out of here leaving me alive because you still think you have a chance to rescue Kiro and you won’t leave Viktor to decide Mira’s fate. Lazarus is going to kill Kiro if he hasn’t already, then we’ll take you and Viktor and all his worthless Bratva orphans, and Mira will go back to her life. You’ll just be a sad and hated memory.”
My heart pounds. The text comes in. Viktor. He has the address. I am full of rage—he’s right. I feel Kiro in my heart. I love him. I know he’s still alive—he has to be. And I’ll protect him, and I’ll protect Mira, too.
The old man’s eyes sparkle. “You can’t win this war. You’ll go down just like your daddy.”
I stand and slip my phone in my pocket. “What do I have?”
Aldo narrows his eyes. He doesn’t get the question.
“You asked me what you have. Your fucking ledger comparison and all that. Well, I’ll tell you what I have. I have love, and I have honor. I have a family I’ll die for right on this fucking spot.”
He looks up at me with his poker face, and I don’t give a fuck what he’s hiding. Because for the first time since that bloody night, he seems small.
I turn and walk out.
Viktor drives like a maniac back out to the Stonybrook place.
“You got out alive, brat,” he says. It’s really all there is to say. We’re both freaked about Kiro.
We have a name and an address for Kiro’s adoptive family. The Knutson family in Glenpines Grove, a couple of hours northwest. Soybean and river country, that’s where the family that got Kiro lives. Being that Kiro is twenty, it’s unlikely he’s living there, but you never know.
If he’s there, he could be dead.
Because of me. My fucking sentimentality. Wanting my family.
The plan is to grab every piece of weaponry we have and get the hell out there and hope Bloody Lazarus doesn’t have too much of a head start.
We argue about whether to bring Mira along. Viktor wants her stowed in the house, but it’s too dangerous there.
“She is trouble, brat.”
“She comes.” I try to ignore old Nikolla’s words ringing in my head—you put sentiment above strategy.
“You think because she called out for you, that she loves you? That she’s yours? That there is something between you?”
I watch the strip malls blur by.
“She was on drugs,” Viktor says. “Drugged out of her mind. She would’ve called for the devil himself if she thought it would keep her finger attached.”
“How about you concentrate on getting us there.”
“You kidnapped her and fucked her face. You think she would go anywhere with you willingly?”
I have nothing to say to that. She has every reason to hate me, but she’s mine. The thought doesn’t even surprise me. She’s mine. She always was. And I’ll probably do some more things she hates today, but she’ll still be mine.
“We found something else interesting. Look in the back seat. Look at this file that I got from Vega.”
I twist around and grab the manila file folder. Official seal. State of Illinois Medical Examiner’s office. The tab says “Nikolla, Vanessa.” Mira’s mother. “What the hell?” I open it up, and I see. It’s from the coroner.
“Mira’s mother. What does this have to do with Kiro?”
“It has nothing to do with Kiro,” Viktor says. “Look inside. They say her mother died of cancer, don’t they?”
“Yeah, they say that. Mira was there.” I page through. It’s medical stuff. “Cause of death…what is this?” It says homicide.
“Pharmaceutical toxin. Untraceable. Interesting, no? That was the original report. She didn’t die of cancer—she was murdered. Aldo Nikolla must’ve paid a small fortune to get her illness reported as cancer. To make this the official story. The original coroner, you see his report there. Archie Vega was holding it for blackmail. His box full of secrets. Konstantin will enjoy this box.”
“Aldo Nikolla killed his wife? Mira’s mother?”
Viktor takes a corner without slowing down. “Mira will not like it, I think.”
I close the folder. “We can’t show her. It’s too much. We’ll hold onto it.”
“Why not show her? Think how this hurts the old man.”
“Showing her hurts her more than him,” I say. “And it won’t get us Kiro.”
He eyes me darkly. I eye him back.
“Do you still feel him alive, brat?” he asks. There’s so much vulnerability in his voice, it kills me.
“I still feel him alive.”