“She’s been working with the Russians,” Cara spits out between clenched teeth and despite the fear in her eyes, there’s hatred there too.
Hold on to that fire, Cara.
“I know,” I reply and Blair wails louder. It’s a pathetic sound that drives the thumping in my skull louder. “I learned yesterday that they had been blackmailing her. But how did this…?” I take a step closer to Cara, indicating to the room and instantly the three guards raise their rifles at me.
I step back.
Okay, so there are rules here.
“Tell him,” Cara barks, and her throat bobs violently.
Fuck. I need her in my arms, away from those bastards, away from all of this. The rage burns hotter through me, cracking the stone with each subtle shift closer I take to my wife.
“I-I—,” Blair blubbers but words fail her as she collapses into cries that grate at my ears.
“You bring this hell to my home and you can’t even tell him the truth!” Cara snaps and while the strength in her words is admirable, I catch the subtle shake in her thighs as she tries to hold herself together.
Blair’s sobs trail off into a whimper and my hands curl into fists.
“Samuel,” Cara begins, pulling my focus sharply to her. “Samuel isn’t real. Blair made him up because she knew it was the only thing in the world she could say to get you to be alone with her. So that the Russians could kill you.”
“What?” The world deafens slightly as the word slips from my lips and copper coats my tongue as the blood trickling down my face finally seeps past my lips. My heart pounds painfully, twice in a row, and the edges of my vision fuzz.
He’s really not real.
“It was all a ploy to get close to you, to try and kill you and Dante and Sienna from the inside. Blair wassupposedto be sneaking a Russian assassin into your life,” Cara continues and she speaks in a rush as if stopping for even a second will rid her of the confidence to speak. “They found her in Italy after you were made Underboss, the only outside connection they could use and she wanted to make you suffer, as revenge so she came back and… helped.”
A ploy. Just another one of Blair’s lies.
It’s notalla shock, some of this I’d already learned from Sienna thanks to Feliks but Cara’s words slide deep, rusted nails piercing right down into my soul as I drag my gaze back to Blair.
Samuel isn’t real.
A lie to get Blair back into my life so she could open the door for harm to befall those I love? My head swims as rage bursts my chest open andpainI did not expect pierces into my heart. I can’t decipher what hurts the most; the fact that Blair targeted me in theoneplace that she knew would hurt, or that I fell for it.
I believed her. Amid the doubts, I believed she had my child because my desire for a family ran sodeep.
And she knew.
Words fail me. I can barely suck in air around the iron cage that locks around my chest and for a long moment, I’m drowning. Boiling water floods my lungs, making my head swim, the throbbing in my skull reaches blinding heights.
Until I catch Cara’s eyes.
Her tear-filled eyes lock on me, wide but warm and apologetic that she had to bring me this news. Her lips move but the words don’t penetrate the cage, not until I see her lips form my name.
Fuck!!
The eruption in my chest eases a fraction as Cara continues to look at me, her eyes soft and safe. She’s clearly been doing her own investigation into this and, in some way, has been working to protect me.
And she carries my child.
My legacy… my everything.
“You’re poison,” I spit at Blair, the words narrow and hard as I force them through gritted teeth. “Is this the next stage then? Pulling thesebastardsinto my home after faking your own death?”
“Actually no,” booms a voice from my right, and my focus pulls to the doorway, where a man steps through. He’s shorter than the guards, older too with wiry grey hair sticking out in all directions and an equally wiry beard hanging in strings from his chin. His Russian accent makes my skin crawl.
“Who are you?” I bark. The man runs a greasy-looking dishcloth over his thick, stubby hands which he then shoves into the pocket of his worn leather jacket. His narrow eyes pierce into me from a sun-tainted face and his yellow teeth bark at me each time he talks.