“Has she always been a spy?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you send her? Why her? I need to know everything.”
We retire to the office where the lights aren’t as bright, the space offering comfortable warmth as I drag my weary body to the sofa, Biscuit in my arms.
They explain to me how they needed to infiltrate one of Petrov’s closest allies because access to Petrov himself was impossible to get to. The man responsible for flesh trade in Europe is elusive, well-guarded and more importantly,paranoid. It also seems like the Moretti have a personal vendetta against him and want to be the one to get rid of him. The Butcher was my family’s next best target, as the alliance goes after each of Petrov’s allies to weaken him.
Diane is the perfect Trojan horse. I wince as Aleksei tells me that she started at the bottom of one of the brothels the Butcher owned in Split, and soon climbed up the ladder, gaining the favours of multiple men. She even got invited to one of The Butcher’s parties and used her time in his home to gather more information on the number of men armed in the house, how people used as slaves are taken in and out of his headquarters, then shipped across Europe.
It’s not enough to storm the place and take his whole organisation down but it will help The Morettis save as many people as they can while we continue to gather forces and make new alliances to blow the whole system to the ground. The main problem remains that without severing the head of the snake, it will be for nothing.
“Why didn’t you ask Toma for help?” I ask, his name ashen on my tongue.
“Because we don’t know where his allegiance lies.”
“He helped rescue you,” I counter, pinning Dante with a dark look.
“It’s not enough. He ran right back to his brother just a few weeks ago and we don’t know why.”
I grimace, then swallow. Threads of information weave themselves together. The sudden shift between how he loved me openly and with maddening obsession to the cold, ugly words he said. He admitted that his brother called. His brother attacked my flat. I was the target.
“You know why, Dante. Did he know about Diane?”
“Yes.”
It’s not hard to understand Toma. Everything he does is for me. Despite the horrendous way we parted, the hurtful words he said, the memory of how he doted on me, of the force of his devotion makes me smile sadly. I have been keeping my own set of secrets from my family. “His brother threatened me. Toma believes the only way to get The Butcher off my back is if he does whatever he wants.”
The air shifts, vibrating with violence as all three pairs of eyes set on me.
“What do you mean?” Aleksei asks.
“My flat got broken into by one of Toma’s brother’s men.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Dante growls.
“I was a little heartbroken. And with the exams, I… I don’t know, I just didn’t think to tell you, I guess. He said Petar called him back to Split. He would have never left me unless he thought his brother could get to me.” I start to think out loud. “I told him about Diane. How she was like a mother to me. If he knew she was there, he might have left to protect meandto protect her.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Because I already lost two parents. And because he loves me.”
I hate the way he spoke to me the last time I saw him. But now, I’m mad for what he saidandfor not involving me in his plans. That stupid, selfless asshole.
“Do you think Petar’s still after me?” I ask my family.
“It’s not impossible. The reason why your father is extracting Diane today is because she reported that the Croatian Bratva has been acting strange. They’re being more closed off. Something’s brewing. And she thinks it will happen tonight. While their focus is on that operation, we take her out, unscathed.”
I sneer at him. “She still had to fuck her way to the top. Unscathed isn’t what she’ll be.”
“She volunteered.”
I shake my head. Sometimes I forget that being at the head of the Cosa Nostra still means using people like pawns. I hate it.
“We have to tell Toma,” I tell them, resolve like steel when I speak.
“No. We can’t trust him.”
