“Ready for what? What the fuck is going on that you had to fucking tranq my dog and me?”
“You should probably work on that impatience and temper of yours before you get on your knees and beg, big guy. Also, that is not your dog, it’s Rori’s. You’re just dog-sitting him until we can get this entire business sorted out.”
Alright, this woman is insane.
She must realize my thoughts because she heaves out a hard sigh and straightens away from the wall. She crouches down to give Hades a gentle stroke on the side of his face before getting back to her feet. When her head turns back toward me, the jovial woman is gone and in its place is the hardened assassin. Her eyes have gone cold, her smile sharp, and her demeanor fluid and authoritative.
How can she change so easily? It’s like a second skin to her. Unease builds, but I force myself to ignore it.
“You being here is going to cause a hell of a lot of trouble for me, but I’ve decided that instead of killing you for interfering in a perfectly laid out plan, I’m going to pivot and consider it as a new possibility,” she says, advancing. I hold my place, but my brain is screaming at me to be cautious. Ready to move. “You really should thank me for that, because I’ve been close enough to kill you and your men so many times that you never had an inkling.”
A shiver works its way down my spine. How close is close? “You’ve been following us? Why? You have Rori, so what the fuck do you have to worry about us for?”
She gives me a you’re-an-idiot look. Do women practice that shit in the mirror?
“Because I knew that you wouldn’t follow fucking instructions and stay the fuck put. If you had, I would have eventually returned Rori to you when she was finished with everything, but no, you had to play white knight and fuck it all up.”
“How the fuck did you know where to find us in the first place? We were careful.”
She snorts. “Yeah, right. How I found you isn’t the important part. The important part is that you’ve now inserted yourself, and you either fall in line or you die. Simple, really.”
I give her a bemused smile. “Is that right? And what’s to stop me from killing you?”
“Because we both know that killing me won’t happen, and even if you manage to get the drop on me—again, very unlikely—you will never find Aurora O’Brien again. I always cover my bases, Mr. Cattaneo.”
Rage has me clenching my fists at my sides, my body itching to launch itself at her and get the information out of her one way or another. “Where is she, Tatiana?”
Again, she ignores my question. “In three days, Rayea Antonova will walk into the Belov estate, ready to marry Simeon Belov and take her place at his side as his wife. She will follow all their rules, she will be beaten until she complies, and Aurora O’Brien will cease to exist.”
“Over my fucking dead body.”
“I’ll make that happen if you don’t shut the fuck up and let me finish,” she tosses back sharply. I manage to swallow back my retort, barely. “Good boy. As I was saying, she is going to take her place and be the Belovs’ own personal hitman. The exact reason she was married to the younger brother in the first place. They wanted a couple of heirs out of her first, but since that didn’t happen, her true purpose was put aside. That is going to change. Unless it’s stopped.”
“By killing the Belovs?”
“Yes. They have also called in the Bratva Butcher to ensure her compliance. If not, then his orders are to leave no trace of her behind.”
My blood runs cold. “He’d kill his own daughter for not going through with a wedding and being a hired hitman?” I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but there must be some shred of love in him for his daughter.
“He has others he’ll gladly sacrifice for the connection to Timur Belov and their resources.”
“He has more than one daughter? All of them trained like Rori?” Why have we never heard of more?
Tatiana gives a humorless laugh. “You Italians do love to stick to your own corner, don’t you? You don’t pay attention to anything outside of your own borders and walls. You think that the Butcher would only allow himself to have one child? A girl child at that?”
Shit, this isn’t going to be good news. “How many does he have?”
Her lips curl into a cold smile. “At last count, he has twelve sons and eight daughters. One of those daughters is your lady. She was the first, actually. After she was gone, he realized his…mistake in only having one child. Especially when people were asking for them. Wanting their skills in their own armies.”
“He has twenty fucking children?” My mind can’t compute a man having so many children. “And they’re all trained?”
She shrugs. “Most. A few of them he killed because they were too weak or fucked up one too many times.”
My gut sours thinking of the horrors those children probably suffered before their own father ended their suffering. How do we not know about this? “How old is the youngest?”
“I believe he just had another boy two weeks ago. He’ll start training as soon as he turns five. I believe there will be four of them who will be turning five, actually.”
I can’t wrap my mind around it. How is that even possible? Why would he want so many children? “Is he trying to build his own fucking army?” She stares at me, and my stomach sinks.“That’s it, isn’t it? He’s having children so he can train them and sell them off to different families. Some kind of way to keep his power over every major family.”
