The next voice in his ear was the Russian pricks back in Chicago. They’d wanted their territory back ever since Vastyan’s father blazed through and claimed it decades ago to establish the Volkovs as the ruling family. He’d been a child at the time. Barely old enough to understand why one man had to die so another could thrive. But one thing he’d learned early in life—vengeance didn’t come with an expiration date. It bled through the generations like a virus.
“How does it feel being betrayed by your own?”
Matteo put the phone on speaker when the leader of the Ivanov family took over from Kamara. He recognized the voice instantly. It paid to know one’s enemies.
He tightened his fingers around the metal casing of his phone. “You fucking asshole, touch her and we’ll not stop until we find you. There won’t be anything left for your mother to identify when we do. We will finish wiping this earth of your entire bloodline.”
Matteo dropped his head to the back of the driver’s seat and let the memory ride out. He’d learned over the last few years the only way to survive his demons was to let them have control when the darkness grew to be too much.
“Is that no? Sevastyan Volkov is not coming?”
The sounds of her screams pierced his mind. “Matteo, please.” Her voice carried over the phone from a short distance.
“No matter. Our pretty informant here did what we sent her for. She told us everything we needed to know. Even how you like to share her pussy. There’s a little left of her body. I won’t mind getting my dick bloody before I finish her off.”
“What the fuck do you want?” Sevastyan jerked the phone from Matteo’s hand.
“To make you suffer as I have suffered. My family has suffered. To make you bleed as we have bled. To take back what is rightfully mine.”
The call dropped. They’d torn through the town looking for Kamara that night. Hours upon hours of searching until they’d come to an abandoned warehouse. He spotted Camera’s lifeless body and rushed to her. Bullets flew by him as he willingly fell into the trap. Death could have him.
“Kamara, baby. Look at me.” He picked her up and rested her limp, bleeding body over his lap.
Sevastyan, Roman, and Lucian stormed the warehouse, guns drawn. Bullets rained down on them from the fuckers hiding in the rafters. Men fell to their deaths around him as his blood brothers rid the earth of their souls.
That night he died along with her. That night he became a killer.
Until Rhia, he thought hell had to be this realm.
To be honest, he still did. He was done being a fucking puppet to women. God damn bleeding hearts were for pussies. He would walk in there, jerk her sleeping ass out of bed, and demand answers. This shit ended tonight.
He tore from the car, sheets of rain wrapping him in their wet embrace. He took the stairs two at a time and gave a single nod to Roman when he came to Rhia’s level.
“You up to date on all the shit that went down at the club?”
Roman nodded. “Just finished talking with Sevastyan. Who the hell is this mystery partner of Mikhail’s we’ve never heard of? This detective gonna be a problem?”
Matteo grunted, stealing the cigar from Roman and taking a hit. “Something tells me we are about to find out on both accounts. Nothing we can’t handle. One way or another.”
Matteo nodded past the patched front door that hung open. Rain fell heavier and he had to step closer to be heard. “Where the hell is she?”
“Hello to you too, brother.”
“Screw pleasantries, man. You take her to bed?” He hadn’t meant to ask, but there ya go.
Roman didn’t seem fazed by his question. He jerked his head toward the dark apartment. “Asleep. In a way, it’s why I’m out here and not in there with her. Of all the fucking things she wanted it was to be held until she fell asleep. Damn near broke my black heart. I haven’t heard fear in a woman’s voice since—”
“—don’t say it, hermano,” Matteo cut him off. “I don’t want to hear her fucking name. Let her be dead already, for Christ’s sake.” He’d had enough of Kamara in his head for one evening.
He moved past Roman but a strong hand gripped his shoulder, stopping him.
“Let her sleep, man. She’s had a hard fucking day as is.”
“We all have because of this shit and I don’t like being lied to and we need answers.”
He pushed past Roman and shoved the remnants of the front door aside. Answers he planned on getting.
“That makes four of us, asshole. But let them come from her. She has her reasons.”