Bloodlines: A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance (The Snake Eyes Series Book 4) (13 page)

“And he took it,” I seethe.

Fox nods. “Killing Hans Petrovin was just the beginning of a slow build. They knew you’d lean on the Zappias for help. Giovani would use his power to whittle your family’s influence down to nothing but he wanted to honor the truce. Worst case scenario — you’d all be working under him when the Italian mob took over Russia, but then… yesterday, he changed his mind and wanted you out of the picture entirely.”

Yuri shakes his head. “We grew up with Gio,” he argues. “He’s our friend. Why would he send an assassin to kill Luka?”

Fox glances at me, reading my expression before I can hide it. For a moment, I wonder just how powerful Snake Eyes really is. Mine and Sofia’s secret child might not be as secret as we thought.

I tilt my head. “I might have an idea…”

“Like what?” Yuri asks.

I bite my inner cheek, hesitating to say it but I don’t have much choice here. “I’m the father of his son.”

“What?”

Fox smirks. “That would do it.”

Yuri steps closer to me, growing a several centimeters taller in anger. “What did you say?”

I look up at him and nod.
“Lucian.”
I say my son’s name and my heart lurches. “He is mine.”

He blinks at me with great confusion. “How is that possible?”

“It’s a long story, brother.”

“Tell it quickly.”

“Yuri…” I sigh. “Sofia came to me and asked for my help.”

“Why?”

“She wanted to destroy the Zappia family from the inside,” I explain. “Humiliating Gio was the only way she knew how.”

“When?”

“The night before the wedding.”

He scoffs. “Why didn’t you say
no
?”

I cast a sideways glance. “You wouldn’t have said
no
either, Yuri.”

Fox shifts on his toes but I catch his amused eyes before he turns away to gather his gun case from behind a shelf.

Yuri shakes his head. “You’re a damned idiot, Luka,” he says. “Did you even think of the consequences?”

“Of course, I did.”

“Bullshit,”
he sneers. “If you had, you
never
would have done it.”

“I couldn’t ignore her.”

“Why not?”

I pause, overwhelmed by how difficult that question is to answer. “What’s done is done, Yuri.”

Anger trembles his face as he backs away from me. I don’t blame him at all. I’d probably have the same reaction if I were in his shoes. He stomps towards his gun and Fox watches him closely as he picks it up off the concrete floor.

“It’s safe to assume that’s why Giovani wants you dead,” Fox says, relaxing his tension as Yuri hides his pistol away in his belt.

I nod as a sudden fear twists my gut.

If Gio knows, then that means—

Sofia.

He won’t let something like this slide. Sofia sought to destroy him — or
tear him to shreds
, as she so eloquently put it that night. He was willing to kill me over what we did. There’s no doubt in my mind that he won’t do the same to her. Or worse.

I reach into my pocket for my handkerchief and I toss it at Fox. “Come on,” I say, taking fast steps towards the car. “We have to go.”

Yuri stands still. “Where are we going?”

“Back to the Zappia estate.”

“Wait…” Fox says, shaking his head as he wraps the handkerchief around his bleeding bicep. “You can’t go back there. If he sees you, he’ll know I failed and that will get back to my squad. They’ll come looking before we even get out of Italy.”

“I’m not leaving them behind.”

“Luka…”
Yuri says. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

Fox follows me towards the car. “You don’t understand. The faster we leave, the better off we’ll all be.”

“Except
Sofia
,” I point out.

“Even if you could get inside, you’ll never make it out again,” he says. “The Zappia estate is notoriously guarded and you can’t take out that many of them by yourself.”

I smirk. “Then, you’ll help me.”

He hesitates.
“No.”

“Yes.”

“That isn’t part of the deal. I agreed to give you the list,
not
take part in murder and kidnapping.”

I spin around to stare him down. “I agreed to send you home. Until then, you will be useful.”

“By killing dozens of mafia guards?”

“That’s what you do, isn’t it?”

“Not anymore.”

“What do you want?” I ask. “You want money? I’ll pay you; ten thousand American for every kill. Easy money for a guy like you, yes?”

“I’m escaping Snake Eyes because I
never
wanted to be a killer,” he says, furrowing his brow. “This isn’t about
money
.”

“No, you’re right,” I say. “It’s about
family
and I’m not leaving mine behind to be slaughtered in their sleep by a fucking rat like
Giovani Zappia
. You want to go home?
This is how you get there.
”

He inhales a deep breath, letting go of all the tension in his face. “Fine,” he says.

I watch Yuri as he passes around us with his head down. “Yuri—”

“I won’t take part in this,” he bites, keeping his eyes low. “You do what you want. Leave me out of it.”

I follow him to the car. “Brother—”

“Don’t call me that,”
he says. “No, you don’t get to be my
brother
right now, Luka.”

He yanks the car door open but I slam it closed. “You’d take
Gio’s
side
over mine? After everything he was planning to do to us?”

“You got in bed with the Zappias
first.
”

“And I’d do it again,” I growl. “It might not look like it, Yuri… but I did the right thing.”

“For who?” he asks. “The way I see it, what you did helps nobody but yourself. You betrayed their trust, you betrayed our family, and, in the end, every drop of blood shed over this will be on
your
hands. Did you even consider that?”

“Yes.”

“Then, why do it?”

“You saw how he treated her — how they’ve
always
treated her.”

“So, what? That wasn’t your problem.”

“I made it my problem.”

“You certainly did.” He scoffs as he pulls the door open again. “And here I thought you were the smarter brother.”

I let him lower himself into the car and he jerks the door closed behind him.

There was only one way this could end. Gio may have been content with whittling the Lutrova influence down in the beginning, but now…

Sofia said she wanted to start a war and that’s exactly what this is.

Still, I meant what I said. I’d do it all over again if it meant looking into that boy’s silver eyes one last time.

I look over my shoulder at Fox. He stands there, calm and silent, with a blank expression on his face.

“You have something to say?” I ask.

He shakes his head once.

Fox Fitzpatrick.
He’ll prove his usefulness but that’s as far as I’ll let this go. I don’t know what to think of Snake Eyes nor do I know where to even start with dealing with them. The only thing I know is that I have to keep this problem contained and he already knows more than anyone ever should.

Viktor Lutrova was right.

Never let a snake loose in Moscow.

I open the driver’s side door. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 15

Sofia

My heart stops as Gio’s red breath grazes my ear. “That’s not—”

He raises his palm and holds it near my face to frighten me. “I don’t want to hear another lie from you, Sofia. The next words out of your mouth will be the truth.”

My eyes fall to Rosalie once more. She sobs quietly in the chair across the study, pained and tortured into total silence.

Gio grabs my chin and forces me to look at him instead.
“Say it,”
he growls.

Tears fall down my cheeks, spilling onto his fingertips and he squeezes me tighter. “Yes,” I whimper.

“Yes,
what
?”

“Lucian…” I choke. “He is his...”

Gio releases me and wipes his tear-stained hand on my sleeve before stepping back.
“Luka and Lucian…”
he slurs. “Did you think you were being
clever
?”

I shake my head.

“Why would you do this?” he asks, his voice cold as ice. “Did you want to hurt me? My family gave you everything. We brought you in, we gave you a home, we gave you—”

“I never asked for—”

He lashes out, slapping my bruised cheek to silence me and Rosalie cries out in horror as I fall down to my knees. As cruel as Gio can be, he’s never showed his worst side in front of her. I’d hoped she’d never have to see it.

Gio turns away from me and kneels down in front of her.

“Rosalie…” He reaches out and she flinches as he wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. “I want to thank you once again for informing me of what you saw.”

She nods, gazing down at him with respect.

“You’ve been…” he offers a kind smile, “a
worthy
member of the Zappia family.”

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“But we have
rules
,” he says. “You know them well. Don’t you, Rosalie?”

She tilts her head and an even greater fear enters her eyes.

He stands and lingers over her shoulder as his hand enters his pocket.

“Gio…”
I whisper.

His fist slides out and my blood runs cold. He palms a short, glistening blade and points it in my direction.

“We have
rules
,” he repeats. “This is what happens when you break the rules.”

He lowers the blade to Rosalie’s neck.

I jut forward, extending my arms to her but I’m not close enough to stop it.
“No!”

The blade slides along her throat, opening a deep, crimson wound from ear-to-ear. She slumps forward and I catch her in my arms as she tumbles from the chair, wheezing and gasping for air.

“No! No!” I cry.
“Rosalie…!”

I lay my fingers over her neck, pressing hard to stop the blood from pouring out but it pools through my fingers; an unstoppable deluge of red.

Rosalie claws at my sleeves, trying to hold on but more of her strength disappears with each passing second.

“Rosalie, I’m so sorry…”

She quakes in my arms, letting out one final cry before her eyes close.

I lay my head against hers as her hands fall, limp and lifeless, to her sides. My tears mix with the blood on my hands and I cradle her closer to me, refusing to let her go.

“A Zappia woman must never betray her life maiden,”
Gio says, his voice stiff and rehearsed as if he were reading out of a sacred text.

“Shut up.”

“To do so is punishable by death—”

“I said,
shut up.
”

Gio leans down and rests the blade against my cheek. “I would be more
respectful
right now, if I were you,
Sofia
.” He drags the knife’s side over my skin and I feel her warm blood stain my face as he rises to his feet. “Get up.”

“No.”

Rosalie, forgive me.

“Stand up, Sofia.”

“No.”

I pull her closer. It’s always been me and Rosalie, ever since our parents died. She’s all I have left…
She’s all I have…

Gio grabs my arm and forces me off the floor with one quick jerk. Rosalie slides from my grip and settles on the floor beneath me. I cringe at the sound and the blood.
Oh, god… There’s so much blood…

“Sofia—”

I lay my red-soaked hands on his chest and shove him away, leaving a bright smear on his perfect, white shirt.
“Let go of me—!”

He takes me again, digging his fingertips into my skin. “One more outburst like that and it’ll be
his
blood on your hands.”

Lucian.

“Where is he? What did you do to him?”

“He’s safe,” he answers through his teeth. “Whether he stays that way is up to you.”

“Do what you want to me but
please
don’t hurt my son…” I beg.

Gio shakes his head. “I’m not going to hurt him, Sofia. I will raise him as mine, I can promise you that. But
you
? No, you will suffer for what you’ve done.”

“Just kill me now. Get it over with.”

“Why would I do that when you deserve a fate far worse than death? I have something better in mind for you.” He lays the blade on my cheek again. “First, I’m going to cut out your tongue so you will never speak your own name again.”

I cringe away but he holds me against him, forcing me to look into his black eyes.

“Then,”
he continues, “I’ll pluck out your eyes to cast you into darkness. I’ll throw acid on your pretty face so no one will ever recognize you again. I will
destroy
you in every way I can think of and
then
…” He smiles. “I’ll sell you to the underground where you’ll live out the remainder of your days with the rest of the ugly, diseased
whores
.”