Page 100 of Violent Pawn

50

NERO

Being sober fucking sucks. It happens so infrequently these days, I genuinely forget what viewing the world without an alcohol-induced daze is like. Twice in the same week I’ve been battling that demon.

It makes being unwillingly dragged to the scene so much worse.

“What the fuck am I looking at?”

He grimaces. “You really need me to explain it?”

He doesn’t. The four dead bodies of our soldiers say enough.

I crouch by the nearest one, lifting the arm of a recently trained inductee, to study the stab marks up and down his chest. Four bodies, all with identical wounds. Elio and I check pockets and weapons, searching for anything to indicate their killer.

My head thumps the entire time, both from a hangover and from the hankering for more liquor. Elio showed up bright and early after receiving a call from one of the other soldiers who discovered them, and was his cheery asshole self at six o’clock when he dragged me out of bed sooner than my body could handle, all without a sip of anything that’ll make being alive tolerable.

Lucky fuckers, I think, standing from my crouch.

“Missing merch and dead soldiers.” They were here to oversee a drug delivery, which the buyers already paid for, so there was nothing to gain by killing our guys. They’re frequent buyers, too, and they’ve never resorted to violence. “They killed them and stole what they paid for already. Make that make sense.”

“Maybe this will.” Elio stands from the final body, gripping three bank notes valued at five thousand roubles each—equivalent to one hundred sixty euros.

“Maybe a bet? If Z was gambling with them, he likely had cash from his second home?” It’s a long shot since Zeno doesn’t really gamble, especially with the soldiers, but my head isn’t working well enough to be making sense of anything. Elio’s frown is expected and causes me to shrug. “I’m reaching. Makes no sense that our own guys, fresh inductees at that, would have Russian currency in their pockets.”

“Or be targeted,” he adds, scratching his chin. “What if the money’s a sign? How many of them are secretly pissed their Capo spends half his time out of the country, with the Russian Pakhan of all people?”

Good fuck, if this is all because of who he’s marrying, Zeno will lose his mind.

“There hasn’t been any strife that I’ve caught wind of.” I flick the money. “Maybe they’re trying to pin this on the Bratva?”

He rolls the cash between his fingers. “Two months ago, a weapons shipment went missing. Last month, that major deal with the Triad that Zeno was working on for a while randomly fell through. He assumed it was a business choice on the Triad’s side, but what if it’s more? Something isn’t adding up.”

Because this is exactly what we need after all the other shit.

“If they’re trying to set up the Bratva, they’ve underestimated Z’s love for Vanessa. He’d burn the entire Cosa Nostra before letting anything come between them.”

“Agreed, though…” Elio’s hand shifts to the back of his head before he grimaces and glances up and down the strip of warehouse. “Between us, Nero? I hate even considering this, but do we know for certain Vanessa isn’t playing the long game? A year hasn’t even passed since Zeno was attempting to murder her. A vengeful woman can hold a grudge.”

Well aware. I rub my chest, shattered by the lingering effects of another woman’s grudge. The headache, the blissful feeling when the alcohol sucks me into oblivion and makes everything a bit better—it all comes from her.

“I hear you, I do, but no, I don’t think so. She nearly exchanged the Bratva for his life. That seems pretty real to me. Even if it was initially a set-up, she wouldn’t let Lev near Sera. She’d want to be sneaky about how deep her deception went.”

He blows out a breath. “Thank fuck, because even asking that felt treasonous. Understand that everything needs to be examined objectively.”

Arguably, it is treasonous, but since Elio took the Capo role after Giovanni’s death, he comes from a place of care, not doubt.

“It’s why we have you, old man.” I slap his arm to cease his concerns and approach the four bodies. “Do you want to inform the families or should I?”

“So discord within my ranks,” Zeno summarizes later that afternoon through our phone call as I park outside the airport. “Because it couldn’t be a simpler answer.”

“I’ll find them,” I promise, intending to begin it as soon as I return from my unplanned trip that’s been in the works for weeks. Given that Elio got me before my hand found the nearest bottle, today may be a good time to take advantage of a daylong detox. “It has to be a team because no way is a single person stealing entire shipments of weapons and drugs and taking down four trained soldiers.”

“A team with means and resources—funds. They would have offered the Triad a better payday to convince them to back out of our deal.”

“No one in our ranks has that kind of money. Maybe an outsider? Either way, somewhere out there, a team of assholes is unimpressed with your upcoming marriage, and they’re making it known.”

A loud thump through the speaker suggests it’s his fist hitting something. “Nothing can be simple.”