I shook my head. “I can’t wait.Shecan’t wait.” With my phone in hand, ready to call up whatever crews I could, I realized this was the day I’d call war.
“Wait.”
This time, I stopped. At the sound of my father, my boss and Pakhan, giving me an order, I went still.
Fuck.
I turned back to him, furrowing my brow and regretting every drop of alcohol I’d consumed. “Where’s Anya? Is she back? Is she?—”
He held up his hand. The sober seriousness of his granite expression calmed me. If she had been hurt, if my sister was lost to us like Sofia was lost to me, then he wouldn’t be this chill, this calculating and in charge. He’d be furious, unable to console.
“She’s back. Claire is with her. George is talking her down from the panic.”
“Giovanni’s got her. He took Sofia.” I licked my lips and dismissed the need to drink something before I’d lose my voice.
“As he should.”
I ground my teeth.
“As he believes he should. She is his niece.”
“She ismine.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “She ismineto protect.”
Oleg inserted himself between us, holding his phone up and indicating for us to shut up and listen. “He’s been having her beaten,” he narrated.
I growled, fisting my hair and bending over.
Sergei put his hand on my back as I straightened.
More sounds of pain cut through the feed. My father clenched his jaw, listening with us.
Roberto Giovanni lashed out at her. Furious and losing his temper, he degraded her, called her filthy, horrible things, and demanded answers of why she’d ever try to defy him and choose his enemy. Listening to the asshole talk to my woman like that was one of the hardest things I could do, but surrounded by my family, I endured it for as long as I could stand it.
“You will never leave. You will never see the light of day outside these walls, you slut. You will stay here, in this fucking cell, until you have that bastard. And on that day…”
Sofia cried out, and I tensed.
“On that day, I will kill you,” he growled like the monster he was. “I will take this bastard and use it against those fuckers. And I will kill you to erase the shame of your turning traitor.”
The sound of a slap followed.
“I didn’t intend for you to be useful likethis, you stupid whore. I never expected you’d spread your legs and beget a bastard like this! But heed my warning now. You will give me this bastard and lose your life.”
The slam of a door came seconds later. And the soft, weak sobs from Sofia filled the feed. Each shaky inhale sliced my heart. Every tearful hiccup crushed my soul.
“She’s pregnant?” my father demanded.
I nodded. “She told me yesterday. At the end. She told me that she just took a test.”
My father wiped a hand over his mouth. Then he cursed as he set his hands on his hips and shook his head. “That’smygrandchild he’s talking about.”
“That’s my woman he’s plotting to kill,” I shouted, desperate to get her back.
“For fuck’s sake, Andre.For fuck’s sake,” he growled.
“I have to get her back,” I said, hating how many precious seconds were wasted here while he pinned me with his furious glare.
“And cause war? And incite Giovanni to fucking come at us like never before?” He exhaled a hard breath. “What the hell are you proposing? Showing up at his door and knocking to ask for her hand? For his blessing? He won’t let us set a single foot on his property. He won’t listen to a single thing we say?—”
