“The don. Marco Leone.” His hands grappled at the front of his throat to no avail as his voice grew reedier.
“What is your position with him?”
“Who the hell are you?” He struggled, attempting to kick back at me, but I easily sidestepped the badly aimed blows.
Kirill stalked to the front of the cunt and raised his steel blade that gleamed as lethally as his grin.
“You!” The Italian tried to lunge forward. “You’re the one who gutted Bastiano.”
“Da,” Kirill answered coolly.
The bastard wrangled even more, twisting and turning.
It was like keeping a savage animal on a lead, and I knew with one look Kirill would gut this fucker too.
But I wanted this one.
I controlled the man, almost bending him in half backward with quick hard tugs of the bolas. “What is your name?”
“Augustu.” His voice came out wheezy, fingers grasping at the leather slowly choking air from his throat.
My tone turned totally lethal. “And what is your relationship to Lucia?”
“Get bent, figlio di puttana.”
I torqued his neck to the side, and his breath rattled in a staggered pattern.
He fessed up then. “She’s my detail. A real headstrong bitch. Thinks she has enough brains to run the old man’s business for him.”
That was all I needed to know.
With a vicious grin, I wrenched his head back, eager to drain the life from him.
He started grappling against the bolas again, twisting in my hold to no avail.
An extra brutal tug on the dangling ball-ends of the boleadoras was enough to snap Augustu’s vertebra.
Suka.
He slumped to the floor as soon as I let go, sprawling across the tasteful tasseled rug.
I didn’t much like the idea of his dead body stinking up Lucia’s apartment, but presumably someone would come searching for him, or her, soon enough.
I left him where he fell, wound up my bolas, and stepped over him.
Kirill looked on approvingly, sheathing his KA-BAR. “Feel better?”
“Da.”
“You’ve got that delivery with a new group of Italians tonight, right?”
“Yes.”
Nothing further needed to be said.
Grabbing a few final items from the bathroom and making sure we had all of Lucia’s meds, I zipped up the bag. “Let’s get out of here.”
After checking to see that Lucia had behaved herself during my absence, I made sure she had something to eat at The Sickle.
She seethed—silently—the entire time.
Which gave me a chance to think about what I would tell her, if anything, and how much I needed to know about those prescriptions.
I brought her home, and during the short drive she continued to fume without saying a single word.
She kept a grip on the door handle like she’d bolt at any moment, jet black hair shimmering over her shoulders and changeable eyes glaring straight ahead.
I pulled into my parking spot, gathered the bag from the back then opened her door.
Lucia turned her nose up at the hand I held out to her and, as soon as she spotted the designer bag, she screeched like a harpy. “You stole my stuff?”
“Didn’t steal it. Brought it back for you.”
Her foot stomped down with bone-jarring force. “This is ridiculous! You could’ve just taken me back instead of breaking into my home.”
I lifted out her dainty little keyring and jingled it. “Didn’t have to break in.”
Lucia made a swipe for the keys, and I captured her around the waist.
Her struggle halted immediately, but I wasn’t fooled.
I expected it when my gorgeous Mafia prize gnashed her teeth at me with a wildness that made my cock hard.
A laugh rumbled up from my chest as she fought against me even more—fists hitting, feet kicking, curses flying in her foreign language.
With Maksim and a couple more soldiers coming to guard her while I completed the weapons deal tonight, I only had a little while to get this lioness of the Leone family in line.
“Are you done yet?” I held her caged completely against me, my erection brushing against her belly.
With the fiercest of glowers, she shoved one last time at my shoulders. “No. I hate you, Arkady Krasnov.”
Hate didn’t make a difference to a man like me.
She still reacted in a specific way I was beginning to tease out of her one touch at a time.
Whether Lucia realized it or not, she had leaned more softly into my body. And, after her last punches, her hands settled on my shoulders.
I will tame this beauty.
I’ll take care of her.
Where did that idea come from?
Enough of this weakness.
I wouldn’t let her corrupt my mind or play with my feelings.
I jerked her after me, unceremoniously towing her into the house, down the hallway, up the stairs, into my bedroom.
I let her go to place her bag on the bed. Then I reached inside to fish out a handful of pill bottles. “Want to explain all this?”
Subtlety was not my strong suit to say the least.
Lucia flinched, lips puckering.
Then she drew her shoulders back and thrust her chin forward. “I’m not about to tell you a damn thing.”
6
Lucia
I ALMOST BACKED DOWN when such a formidable scowl dropped over Arkady’s usually aloof expression.
But damn him! He had no right. Now he knew about my prescriptions too?
I couldn’t believe he’d gone to my apartment like he could just trespass in my space. Worse yet, he’d invaded my privacy where I didn’t need anyone nosing around.
I clenched my fists, meeting his scowl with a fierce glare of my own. “You have no right to demand any answers from me.”
He scoffed. My wants and wishes clearly meant nothing to this Bratva underboss.
Meanwhile, Arkady had deserted me at The Cat and the Sickle, leaving me to fret and fume in his absence. He’d all but abandoned me to the care of one hulking bodyguard, the bossy Bratva heiress, and the coldly gloating pakhan while he and Kirill went off on some unknown errand.
An errand to break into my apartment!
It didn’t matter that he’d had my keys. He’d stolen those too!
From the opposite side of the bed, Arkady asked, “What does Augustu mean to you?”
He switched tracks so suddenly I was left speechless and sputtering. “Au . . . Augustu?”
A tic at the back of his jawline was the only response I got to my question.
“He works for my father,” I admitted slowly.
I didn’t particularly like Augustu. He was slimy, a little creepy. Always watching me with a leer on his face as if he were imagining me naked.
“Worked.”
“What?” I blinked at Arkady.
“Unless he can do his job from beyond the grave.”
Shock swirled inside of me. “You killed him?”
He had killed my father’s favorite? Augustu who aspired to become a capo?
I didn’t know whether to be scared witless or grateful when Arkady nodded.
“He was looking for you and snooping around your place.”
“So were you!” Verging on hysteria, I pointed at Arkady, my voice pitching higher.