Page 40 of Cruel Bratva King

“Answer me honestly, is that what this is about?” Her throat moved up and down as she swallowed. “Come to think of it, no one knows where exactly I am. Do you plan to kill me after I have the baby?”

Guilt—an emotion I’d never felt before—slashed through me. I remembered something my father always said.Where words fail, actions speak louder.I’d never been one to explain my feelings in detail, but I could show them to her.

“Would you like to go somewhere?” I asked.

“Where’s that?”

I tried to force a smile despite my anger. Giulia was going to pay for what she’d done, but Lilianna was all that mattered right now. “Somewhere I’ve been wanting to take you to.”

***

It was almost noon by the time we arrived at my parent’s beach house in Michigan City. They used to bring me and my brothers here whenever my father had enough time for family. I hadn’t visited here since they died twenty years ago. It was just too hard to be here when they weren’t.

“Where’s this?” Lilianna asked. “It’s a vacation house I used to come with my parents and brothers when I was younger.” I climbed out of my seat, rounded the car, and opened her door.

She climbed out and started looking around, taking in the environment. “It’s beautiful,” she commented, her voice almost a bare whisper. “I envy that you could come to a place like this when I was little and you had such good parents.”

“There’s not much to envy when my parents died the way they did.” I’d tried to bury the memory of my parent’s death somewhere in my subconsciousness, but it was still a ghost that haunted me every night.

Lilianna looked at me with concern. “I don’t know if I should be asking, but how did they die?”

I was drawn back to that evening twenty years ago. We were on our way back from a social event when we got the news that Giovanni had destroyed one of our shipments, and ten of our men had been killed.

“Sergey, you’ll be the head of the family after I die,” my father drawled from where he was seated in the backseat with my mother. “You should take this more seriously. The Italians won’t stop until we’re all dead.”

“That won’t happen, otets. I’m working on bringing down the Italians for good this time.”

“It’s taking too long. I’ll handle it myself. At this rate, I may not live to see those bastards leave this city, and we need to get rid of them before you become the head of the family. They’ll give you less problems that way.”

“You don’t need to do that, papa. I’ll take care of it soon.” I rested back in my seat. “And there’s still years left before I become the head of the family.” Dad was only forty-nine. He was going to be the head for the next fifteen years at least before he passed the throne down to me. I had all the time in the world to take care of the Italian bastards.

“Syn, we’re filthy men whose hands are drenched in blood. Death doesn’t relent; it follows us around.” He took a more serious tone. “This won’t do. Arrange a meeting with the brotherhood for tomorrow morning.”

“Papa—”

“Do as your father says,” my mother chimed in, placing a hand on my shoulder. “Your father has dealt with the Italians for years before you were born. He knows them better than you do.”

My mother’s warm touch on my shoulder was the last thing I felt before total blackness enveloped me.

“Syn. Syn. Wake up.” It was my mother’s voice calling my name. I tried to move, but I was in too much pain. My back felt as if a dagger had been plunged into it. I was hanging upside down, my legs swinging freely.

There was the smell of gasoline and blood, the sound of whirling tires, shattering glass, and footsteps. And it was cold, as if I’d been submerged in ice.

When I tore my eyes open, I was staring into my mother’s lifeless brown eyes.

Chapter 18 - Lilianna

Someone once said every villain had a backstory, something that changed them and made them into the person they became.

The same could be said for Sergey. He wasn’t born the monster I thought him to be. Once upon a time, he was an innocent boy with a heart as pure as the driven stone. A boy who probably would’ve chosen to be a doctor or a lawyer.

Unfortunately, his fate had been decided before he was even born. He was doomed to this world without a chance of ever escaping. I could only imagine how he would have turned out if he wasn’t cursed to the dark underworld from birth.

I can only imagine.

A soft wind stirred my hair to my face, blocking my view of the water. Sergey reached to my face and tucked the hair away. His eyes peered into mine, and they were immensely beautiful. Not dark or wicked, beautiful, just like tonight was.

A blanket of stars adorned the pitch-black sky, and a sickle moon beamed from above. The surface of the lake glinted with the luminosity from the moon, shimmering like the soft violet of twilight.