He rubs the back of his neck, a nervous habit I remember from years ago. “It’s a drive, and on the back of the lock, there’s a code.”
My jaw tightens. “A code to what?”
“Secrets, Drago. Everything we’ve learned all over the years. And access to a fuck ton of money. It was meant to be a safety net if anything happened to me. Something that could save her life.”
“Jesus.” I hiss. The word scrapes out of me as the weight of it lands. “Usually, people need to know what they’re in possession of for it to be useful. Now she’s just wearing a ticking bomb.”
Is he fucking serious?
“Why!” I shout, the sound tearing out of my chest. “Why give that to your daughter? Why not let me guard it? You know I’ve spent nearly my entire life protecting her.”
“No one was supposed to know about it.”
The restraint I’ve been clinging to snaps as I step closer, every instinct screaming. “Lev. Who the fuck else knows about that necklace, because it’s someone. You knew it was identifiable; that’s why you wanted her pictures taken down online. Now tell me who the fuck knows.”
He goes pale. “The Butcher.”
The world tilts.
Fuck.
“Vanos is dead, Lev. Ghosts don’t actually haunt from the grave.” I stop in my tracks. “But, their fucking daughters can,” I finish.
I slam my fist into the wall beside me, the impact jolting up my arm as a raw scream rips out of my throat. The pain barely registers.
“He had one made for his daughter, too. With everything for his empire.”
The realization hits like a controlled detonation in my skull.
“Tatiana has the same fucking necklace,” I mutter, trying to comprehend what the fuck I’m hearing.
The one woman we need to stay away from. One I worked for for years, stupidly protecting her. And then she left me for dead at the hands of her brothers. She is evil, and I don’t want her near Lily.
Lev’s voice shakes. “What the hell do we do, Drago?”
I close my eyes.
Behind my lids, I picture Lily’s throat. And not just how perfect my hands would look wrapped around it, but the way that chain rests against her skin. How easily it could become a death sentence.
“I’m going to have to cut a deal with the devil, Lev. We’ve got the Preacher to focus on; we can’t take on Tatiana at the same time. I’ll sort it.” The words taste like ash, because I know exactly what that deal will cost me.
Her family already tried to kill me once. Left me bleeding, broken, and discarded like I was nothing more than collateral damage in their rise to power. I survived it, but survival came with scars that never faded. And I won’t let history repeat itself.
Tatiana might be able to outsmart the rest of them. She might move pieces on a board that none of them even realizethey’re standing on. But I spent ten years in her fucking home. I lived under her roof. I watched how that family breathed, how they lied, how they buried bodies and called it loyalty.
I saw everything. It was my mission from Lev to see it all, to gather the intel.
I know her better than she thinks I ever did. Better than she knows herself. I know more about her family than she does, more than she wants to remember. Secrets locked away behind power and pride.
We all have skeletons. And her father had more than most.
I’m prepared to lay every single one of them out in the open if that’s what it takes to keep Lily breathing, to keep her untouched by the monsters that raised us. I don’t care what it costs me anymore. I crossed that line the night I carried Lily’s shaking body out of hell and swore she would never be alone again.
Tatiana will have to drain every last ounce of blood from me to stop what’s coming.
Hurting me was one thing. That created a feud. A quiet, festering kind of hatred that waited in the dark.
But going after Lily?
