I creep into the middle of the barn, aiming at the door, preparing myself for when the bullets start flying. He hasn’t won this. Not yet.
I should’ve known he wouldn’t risk his kid. Not if it came from her. The woman who made him… different. The woman who bewitched so hard I was forced to lie, tell him she’d died, so she couldn’t tempt him back here. All of that work, that grind… it won’t be for nothing.
I will get out of here, and I will kill my cousin.
CHAPTER 25
RAFAEL
Dante stands at my side with blood splattered across his face and knuckles. He scratches at his scar with the muzzle of his revolver. “Enzo says we’ve got eyes on the Hungarians moving through the forest. We can drop them now.”
“Tell him to announce themselves. To explain their situation. And to give them the chance to give up their weapons.”
Dante tilts his head at me. “Uh, okay.”
I ignore his hesitation. Sometimes the soldiers, even the best, don’t understand this part of the game. Which name rings out? Who can inspire fear? They expected an easy massacre, but there’s more to being a leader.
“Are you in there, cousin?” I call. “You should make this easier on yourself.”
After Dante has barked into his walkie, I tell him, “Have half the men watch the trees, just in case. The others should watch the barn.”
He nods. “Boss.”
“Can you hear me, cousin?” I yell.
A beat of quiet, then Tony shrieks,“I can hear you and I’ll fucking kill you!”
“You believed that was my son,” I growl. “You thought it was… my child, Tony. You understand what that means. For you.”
He tries to sound tough, but I can hear the quivering in his voice. “I’ve got friends, Rafe!”
“I’m about to show you who your friends are.”
I grind my teeth, cracking my knuckles, glancing at the dead men on the grass. I dropped one with my bullet, and Dante dropped the other with that cruel knuckle duster he keeps at his side like a loyal pet.
A few minutes later, someone whistles from the tree line. It’s Enzo. He gestures behind him, and my men – the ones we hid in the forest – walk down with a line of Hungarians between them.
My men fan out, watching them, more watching the barn.
“Sergei Sokolov,” I say, addressing the man at the front. He’s lean and on the older side, with silver threading his temples.
“Hello,” he says shortly.
“Thank you for giving up your weapons.”
He clenches and unclenches his fists. “You had the drop on us. We came here too fast. We didn’t plan properly.”
Excuses, excuses…
“Your leader seems to think you’ll be loyal to him,” I say, raising my voice. “Don’t you, Tony?”
“Sergei, you out there?” Tony yells. “Shoot them down! Kill every single last fucking one of them!”
I shake my head. My own damn cousin. He thought that was the real Theo in there. He was going to use my son, hurt him, break his mother’s heart too. Ava would’ve been devastated, just like that one moment in the hall, when she saw me with the fake baby and thought it was Theo.
It was sick, I told her, because it is. I don’t want to even think of the idea of our son as bait, as part of a trap. But the facthethought it was real and still…
I’m shaking, pumped with adrenaline.
