I shake my head, pulling away from him. I wipe at my moist cheeks, sniffling, feeling Bruno’s gaze on me as I attempt to pull myself collectively. My eyes sear from extra tears I maintain again and I absorb one other deep breath. “I want one other favor from you,” I discover myself saying, my voice uncooked from crying as I raise my gaze to fulfill Bruno’s. He seems at me expectantly, all ears, and my coronary heart jumps. There’s a hollowness in my chest as I inform him, “Promise me you’ll kill the lads who killed my father.”

I see the shift in Bruno’s expression like he hadn’t totally anticipated me to say that, however on the similar time, he isn’t shocked to listen to these phrases come out of my mouth. His arm drops from round me, his jaw working, and I stare at him, feeling dread lock up my throat when he doesn’t reply instantly.

However then, the person who I do know has the blood of many individuals on his palms, tells me, “I can’t promise you that, Diana.”

His phrases really feel like a blow, and I attempt to not flinch as I gape up at him, damage and offended all on the similar time. “Why not?” I ask harshly, enamel grinding.

Bruno doesn’t look pleased to be denying me, and I wish to know why he’s doing it within the first place. He shakes his head, jaw tight. “What number of occasions have I informed you? I don’t talk about my enterprise with you.”

This time, I do flinch, and I see him catch it. His throat works as I take a step again from him, my anger nonetheless current, but the ache of my ache takes over. Pissed off, damage tears burn my eyes. Are we significantly again to this? He informed me somebody purposefully murdered my father, and he’s telling me he gained’t talk about his enterprise with me? It was my dad who was killed!

“Bruno—”

“I do know what I’m doing, Diana. You could belief me,” he says tightly, and my jaw drops in a scoff, gazing him incredulously. Earlier than I can say something, although, he continues, “I’m upping the safety round the home. Certainly not can you allow this home, with or with out the youngsters. Until and provided that it’s an emergency, and even then, you name me and I’ll assign some males to go along with you.”

I’m already shaking my head, and I see the irritation flashing throughout his eyes. “Are you kidding me?” I burst out, respiration closely. “You’re holding enterprise secrets and techniques from me when it entails my dad, and also you simply count on me to blindly comply with your orders?”

“Sure, as a result of it’s on your personal safety—” Bruno begins by way of gritted enamel, however I minimize him off.

“Fuck my safety!” I exclaim. I inhale sharply by way of my nostril, attempting to quieten down as a result of the youngsters are within the kitchen down the corridor, and I don’t need them to listen to this. Obvious up at Bruno, I hiss, “What about my dad? Who protected him?”

Bruno’s expression is thunderous, and if I used to be anybody else, I’d most likely be shaking in my sneakers. However I’m so damage, so pissed the hell off, so devastated that I don’t care that he’s essentially the most harmful man within the metropolis. Proper now, he’s somebody I’m so offended at that I don’t care he’s a legal, a boss. On this second, he’s somebody who’s hurting me, and he ought to realize it.

“This isn’t a fucking negotiation, Diana,” Bruno snaps, his voice sharp like a razor’s edge. He takes a step towards me, darkish eyes glued to mine, the warmth of his highly effective physique radiating into mine. “Want I remind you of our deal?” My coronary heart launches itself into my throat. “I discovered who killed your father, and now I count on you to carry up your a part of the deal, too. Keep right here. Take care of my kids. Take heed to what I fucking say. That’s it.”

He doesn’t give me a second to reply. He lays these phrases down like they’re the legislation, and he turns and walks out of the home, the door slamming shut behind him. I don’t react to it. I simply stand there, frozen, feeling like a whole fool.

My father was murdered. What had began off as a concept to make extra sense of his loss of life has confirmed to be true, and the grief and anger run amok in my physique.

And Bruno. . . None of this meant something to him, did it? His phrases echo in my head, making me dizzy and intensifying the damage. He doesn’t care about me. Possibly he by no means did. And I used to be simply an fool, falling for a person who noticed all of this as a part of a deal we made months in the past.

My tears return anew, and I do know I’ll have to tug myself collectively quickly, however for now, I permit myself to sink to the ground and cry.

Chapter 20

BRUNO

The timber and residential buildings fly by as Leo drives down the streets to the assembly with Alexei Antonov. The automotive experience is silent, permitting me to get misplaced in ideas which have consumed me for days. Ideas that each one embody a blonde-haired, blue-eyed lady who I haven’t spoken to in what appears like without end.

In actuality, it’s solely been a number of days, however that’s simply how deeply she’s dug herself beneath my pores and skin.

I haven’t even seen Diana these previous couple of days. With this Russian enterprise, I’ve been busy placing my plan into motion and ensuring all the things is working easily. I come residence at daybreak, solely to depart a number of hours later for work to do it over again. All I can consider, proper now, is the final dialog Diana and I had—which, actually, was an argument.

I had been harsh together with her, I do know. I additionally know she deserved to know what I used to be doing when it comes to bringing her father’s killers to justice, however sharing my enterprise isn’t one thing I’m used to. I didn’t do it with Maria however giving Diana particulars about how I might avenge her father wasn’t one thing she wanted to know. I ought to have informed her I might be caring for it, however I do know she wouldn’t take properly to me telling her that I used to be arranging a gathering with the Russians to settle issues diplomatically.

I had seen the look in her eyes when she wished me to vow her that I’d kill the lads who killed her father. I had seen the fireplace, the anger, and the ache that made these blue eyes blaze. She would have hated the mere concept of me sitting down with the murderers and negotiating a diplomatic dialog. She wished their blood, and I couldn’t promise to ship it to her. Not when the specter of struggle looms over us. If I outright killed the lads, a struggle would escape, and it could put everybody at risk—together with Diana and my kids. I wish to maintain them as distant from the road of fireplace as attainable.

A part of me believes that if I had simply informed Diana all of that, she would perceive. She’s not an irrational lady. However in that second, her anger and grief have been consuming her. She wouldn’t have seen rationality. I might know; the look in her eyes is identical one I wore after Maria’s loss of life, regardless that hers had been a matter of medical points. This was completely different, however the ache was the identical for each Diana and me.

I’m pulled out of my ideas when Leo pulls the SUV in entrance of the bar lounge we’re to fulfill the Russians in. It’s in impartial territory, simply outdoors the town, giving neither of us a home-field benefit.

“You prepared for this?” Leo asks as soon as he kills the engine of the automotive. I see different automobiles pulling up as properly, my males who’ve accompanied me. It’d be naïve to fulfill an enemy with out some backup, whether or not it is a diplomatic assembly or not.

I exhale sharply, jaw working. “Let’s get this shit over with.”

Minutes later, we’re within the backroom of the lounge, cleared out only for us. Alexei Antonov sits on a sofa, smoking a cigarette, whereas a person I acknowledge as Luka Belsky, Alexei’s second in command, sits subsequent to him. A couple of of Alexei’s males stand guard by the wall behind him, simply as mine do on the other wall as Leo and I sit down on the sofa reverse of the Russians.

“Bruno,” Alexei greets me with a leering grin. He grew up in America since he was fourteen, so his accent isn’t as thick as a few of his males’s. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless barely noticeable. “I have to say, I’m shocked you wished a sit-down assembly.”

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