Bloody, weak, still reassuring Katya even though he'd been bleeding out.
“Even if he could, who'll talk sense into Katya? The one person that could is unconscious.”
She was quiet for a while, then she sighed and stood up. “This was really obvious, but I just didn't want it to be on the record that I didn't try. Plus, I really liked Yuri. They should pay for what they've done.”
She looked at her phone.
“But you should go back in, I'll go get the food.”
When I returned, Katya was sitting by the bed, holding Yuri's hand. That was the position I had left her in.
Going to stand by her, I put a hand on her shoulder. “Arianna said you were summoning demons in Russian.”
She was quiet, unmoving.
“I want to flay that bastard. Hear him scream. I want his head on a spike like we're in the Middle Ages.”
Yuri's chest rose and fell very slowly.
“You’re a part of our family now,” Dom said leaning on the wall close to the window, looking outside. “Yuri is a part of our family.”
“This is grounds for war,” Frankie continued the point Dom had been trying to make. “We wouldn't be the ones that started it, they threw the first blow.”
I understood everything they were saying.
I gave Katya's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
“We won't take this sitting down. None of their establishments will be safe, not from me,” I said as a promise.
“I want to kill him myself.” Katya turned and looked up at me. “I’m the one that gets to dismember Maxim Triev.”
I nodded my agreement.
“I'll hand him over on a golden platter.”
Her lips twitched slightly before she turned back to her father.
The war I had been careful to avoid was here. Every fucking thing with a Triev's sticker on it was going to burn down.
I did not start this shit, but I had every intention of finishing it.
Chapter 20 - Katya
Paulina's apartment was on the top floor of a high-rise building.
As an actress and a model, she made a lot of money and got to have plenty of fun, at least until recently.
The war we were raging on the Trievs had gotten very hectic, and they must have had iron connections in the police force—especially since the former commissioner that Alessandro had ties with was disposed of and replaced.
The police were breathing fire down my back, interrupting some of our businesses as much as they could.
But now, they'd stretched that fire to Paulina and Sam, which was incredibly distressing for them as workers in the entertainment industry.
Paulina is an actress and model on the rise of her career, and Sam is a hair and makeup artist.
They were both in Paulina's apartment, gathered in the kitchen, looking visibly distressed.
“What happened?” I asked, going to them to cradle them against my chest.