His deep, dark pools swirled with regret, his jaw clenched, but his reasoning showed that he respected me and trusted me. “Yes. I want to know.”
They both exhaled before Nicu’s emotionless voice came out, “They want you to have his baby within the first year of marriage in order for the power to stay in his court.”
The walls felt like they were closing in on me; my stomach dropped, and my knees got weak. A baby? That meant that their father was planning to rape me. My mind went to what happened to Ion’s mom and knew he was more then capable of making that happen.
A sickening chill ran over my body, when a set of strong warm tattoo-covered arms circled my waist. Cezar’s voice came from right behind me. “That will never happen. We’ll kill him before he even tries.”
Leaning back into his warmth, clutching to Ion’s hand, I tried to borrow their strength to remind myself that I wasn't alone.
Nicu’s fingers ran through my hair, and I looked up at him. Determination was set. They all were. I needed to trust them. “What do you want to do?”
“We need to kill him tonight. I’m sure he’ll invite us all to dinner. He probably wants to pick at you and see how scared you’ve gotten after your outing with Cezar.”
My lips quivered at the thought, almost laughing out loud, but I knew what he wanted. Nicu wanted me to act afraid, and I could do that. It wasn’t even that much off base of how I was feeling now.
“He’s all about the theatrics, so he’ll probably be waiting for the big reveal at the end of dinner,” Ion surmised, his face pinched at the thought.
Nicu nodded, “My thought is, I’ll have my men on standby, waiting for a text from me to come in the service entrance through the kitchen; they’ll take out the four of my Father's men stationed around the room. This will give us the opportunity to take him off guard and then kill him.”
He lowered his forehead to mine, closing his eyes. “When you hear the men come from the kitchen, you duck under the table and stay there until one of us gets you. I don't want you catching a stray bullet.”
“I can do that.”
Chuckling at my response, he lifted up, looking at both brothers, “I don't want to take any chances, so as soon as you have a clean shot, take it because he’ll take his.”
This was incredibly risky; one of them was most likely going to get shot by their father, and I trembled at the thought. “Can’t we just… poison him or something?”
Cezar kissed my shoulder, tightening his arms around my waist. “He has been micro-dosing poison since he was a child and also forced us to do it too. One of the other crime families are poison masters. He said he would never allow the family name to perish in that way. It was to be a bloody show or nothing else.”
“Nicu,” Ion spoke up, “what do you think he meant by flying someone from America to verify her?”
Verify me? For what?Confused, I looked to Nicu for answers, but he stared back at me like he was trying to figure it out himself.
Cezar stiffened behind me, whispering out, “M says thechovihanimust live, or else all is lost.”
Chovihani?Why does that word seem familiar? Didn't my mom's voice also mention that in one of my dreams? A warning flashed in my head, telling me this was important and that I needed to remember. Closing my eyes, I pictured my mom in the kitchen. I was at the counter doing school work, nodding along like I was listening, but I wasn't.
Thinking really hard, I tried to remember the words that she said.Think, Kazia, think.Faint whispers of her words danced on the edges of my mind, right out of reach.
Sound or smell. Thinking back to one of my elective classes on the human brain, I remembered the professor telling us about how to recall old memories by a sound or a smell.
Thinking about those old memories, I focused on the rumble of a bubbling pot boiling, the faint sounds of the wind chimes in the background. Her scent of jasmine mixed with the sage she always had in the house.
Keeping my eyes closed, I heard her voice, but it felt like I was underwater. I pushed myself closer to the memory, trying to pull out the words that I knew.
“I was wrong… training needed… in the blood…chovihani…”
A knock at the door pulled me out of my head. The guys huddled together, whispering, looking like evil villains plotting.
“He wants you all downstairs for dinner,” a sharp voice called from the door.
All three of them looked at me; their pinched, concerned faces gave them a menacing look, but I could read past that now. I could see how much they cared, and it didn't scare me anymore.
“I guess we’ll find out later about that, but now,” Nicu held out his arm for me, “We need to get ready for war.”
Stepping up next to him, I weaved my arm through his. “Are your men ready?”
Nicu shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Just texted them. They’re on their way.”
