The eyes staring back at me are exactly like my own in shape and color, but that’s the end of similarities. Nothing but death and darkness stare back at me. He wanted me to fail. He wantedto show me that I was nothing, that I don’t deserve to breathe the same air as him.
I won’t give it to him. No matter what. I saw what happened to my mother the moment she broke. The moment she knew her life was done. I have her face, and when he looks at me, I know he pictures her, sees a way to punish her even from the grave.
Except she gave up. I won’t, and I won’t be the one to allow him to win. Not again. Not ever.
Others might be terrified of him, and while I count myself in that group, the only thing that matters is on the outside. What he can see, and what I can piss him off with every day for the rest of his miserable life.
He might be the boogeyman to the rest of the Bratva, but to me, he’s the devil that sired his own downfall. One day, he’s going to fall and it will be at my hand. I just have to get strong enough to make it happen.
So I need to be the best at what I do. I need to be the one that outshines them all, but I won’t be doing it alone. When my father finally looks away, I look at the girl next to me. My father won’t go down easily, so it might be better to have a back-up. She’s exactly the kind of one I need.
A plan starts to form. Now I just need to make it work.
4
ALONZO
Hades snarlsas Titus tries to get close to him. Titus stops, but he doesn’t look away from the dog. I don’t try to interfere. I need to see what Hades would do. We don’t have a lot of time before we land, and we’ve spent a good chunk of the flight making our plans and pouring over what we can find on the Belovs.
Titus moves closer, his steps sure, but still cautious. Hades’s snarl doesn’t lower, but it doesn’t get higher either.
“Try giving him the command again so he knows I'm his friend,” Titus urges me.
“Hades, friend.”
Hades’s growling stops, but he doesn’t turn his head from Titus. Titus reaches into his pocket, the movement steady, until he pulls out a couple pieces of the deli meat the stewardess brought us earlier.
Titus tosses one of the meats to Hades, but it drops in front of the dog, who doesn’t even look at it, eyes still on the manthrowing them. “Well, that’s a first,” Titus huffs. He nods at me to give another command.
“Hades, eat.” Hades looks at me but doesn’t glance at it. Damn it. Frustration grips me, but I remind myself this isn’t going to be easy. His trust in me is limited, and for the men with me, it’s nonexistent. “Hades, eat.” I point at the food.
We do it a couple more times before he finally seems to clue in to what I want. He gulps down the deli meat, looking at me expectantly. I nod at Titus, who tosses another one, and Hades once again stares at it, then at me. This time, he eats it on the first command. Progress.
“I’ll hold onto it so you’ll have to release him,” Titus tells me when we’re down to the last piece.
“You sure? He might attack you, and I don’t know if I can call him off.”
“He’s not going to bite me without a command or unless he feels I’m threatening him,” Titus reasons. “Right now, I’m giving him something good, and I won’t stare straight at him. Your woman trained him very well. He’s not an attack dog unless she told him to be. Other times, he relies on his size and his snarling and teeth snapping to get the point across of how dangerous he is. Release him, and we’ll see what happens.”
“I don’t know if you’re stupid or brave,” Ivano mutters. “We’re in a fucking plane with a deadly dog that could kill you in seconds. We’ve heard of it happening.”
“I’ve worked with K9s for a long fucking time, so have some damn faith, would you?” Titus gripes. He holds out the deli meat, waiting patiently as I give Hades another command, while also saying friend and touching Titus’s hand myself.
It takes far longer for this one to sink in, but finally, Hades moves forward, sniffing the meat and then Titus’s hand. We collectively hold our breaths until Hades nudges his hand and takes the deli meat.
“Thank fuck,” Ivano breathes.
Titus spends the next few minutes working to gain Hades’s trust as much as he can, and I watch them, ready to step in. I’m not a trainer like Titus, but I know what to do. Though I’ve never had to deal with such a big dog before. Thank fuck I’m as big and strong as I am.
Eventually, Hades relaxes, and he allows Titus to pet and praise him. “I think we can make this work,” Titus says, clearly pleased. “What language of command does he know?”
“Fuck, I don’t know how many specifically, and if it’s only a few in each or all of them in each language. I’ve heard Rori talk to him in English, Spanish, German, and Czech. I’ve also heard her talk in French on the phone, but she hasn’t said anything to Hades in that language.”
His brow arches. “Impressive. All common languages, but the question is which ones she uses for what. I’ve heard of some trainers teaching their dogs control based on the language the command is given in. English is just a basic command, but German or Czech is urgent, and you expect them to obey instantly and be ready for anything that might come next.”
“Come to think of it, she also gave him a command in Russian once,” I say, a vague memory forming. “It was just after I went back to get them from Amara’s salon when we were attacked. It made Hades go on instant alert. But that was the first time I heard her say anything in Russian. I just assumed that it was another language she knew with her family’s connection to the Belovs.”
“It’d make sense she trained him in Russian if she is one,” one of the other soldiers, David, points out. “And if her father is the Bratva Butcher, then it’s got to be her native tongue.”
