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Said phone suddenly rings, making me jump. Then my eyes land on the screen.

It’s his sister, Gabby.

I hit the answer button.

“Asshole!” she's already barking. “Where the fuck have you?—”

“Gabby?” I interrupt. “It’s Milena, hi.”

“Oh—is my brother with you?”

There’s a tense note in her voice that makes me shiver.

“Gabby, what’s?—”

“Is he with you!” she screams.

“No,” I say quietly. “Hewas. He… He went out for coffee. But that was hours ago, and he left his phone here…”

“Fuck!” she blurts, sounding scared.

“Gabby!” I choke. “What the fuck is?—”

“I don’t know,” she replies. “But something’s wrong. No one can reach him. Not me, not even Dom.”

A cold sensation finger-walks up my back.

“Milena… Where are you, exactly?” she says quietly. “Are you at your house?”

“No, I’m?—”

“Are you with your father?”

I frown. “Gabby, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” she chokes. “But two nights ago, your father and like twenty of his men were parked outside our house. And when Nero came home, the two of them hadwords. I don’t know what about, Nero wouldn’t tell me. But…” She takes a shaky breath. “I mean,Milena,” she mumbles. “How often is a Bratva kingpin okay with his one and only daughter shacking up with an Italian guy likemy brother.

That cold sensation creeping up my spine wraps around my throat and pierces into me, slicing toward my heart as I start yanking on some clothes.

“I’m scared, Milena,” Gabby whispers. “Like,reallyscared that?—”

“I’m going to get him, Gabby,” I hiss. “Right now.”

37

NERO

Life,they say, is pain. At least, I’ve heard people say that.

But I can say with full authority that there ain’t no pain like the kind that gets doled out by a furious Russian guy who thinks you’ve kidnapped his only daughter.

I mean,I did.

But I’m guessing the details of how that whole thing has evolved in the last, oh, twelve hours will meanfuck-allto Marko Kalishnik right now.

That is, if Icouldeven tell him.

I grunt into the dirty rag stuffed into my mouth, my head wrenching to the side as his fist crashes into my cheekbone. Black spots dot my vision and pain explodes through my face. I swear my jaw dislocates and then slips back into position.