Page 145 of Bad Bishop

I looked down and saw my abdomen crushed between my knees, squeezed in an unnatural angle.

Everything was painted scarlet.

Everything.

My dress. My arms. My legs. My heart.

The once-white roses. The tiara of flowers.

It was my attacker who did this. I knew it.

I trembled, realizing I was losing blood, but I wasn’t sure where I was bleedingfrom. Everything was numb, and I became lightheaded. My eyes rolled inside their sockets.

Tierney grabbed my shoulders and shook me, her lips moving.

She was screaming.

I didn’t hear a thing.

Finally, Tierney stopped screaming and sagged beside me.

My eyes fluttered shut. Behind them, I saw the red and blue swirls of police and ambulances approaching.

The baby…

The baby…

My baby…

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

TIERNAN

“If you’re here to kill me, do it now,Koshchei. Long speeches have never been our style.”

Alex spoke coldly, and in Russian. I hadn’t heard Russian in so long I almost convinced myself I forgot it.

I set my gun down on his desk, pulling out a dull knife from my pocket, running the pad of my finger over the blade. “You wound me, Lyosha. Thought you’d want to catch up.”

He licked the corner of his bleeding lip, staring at me with those arctic eyes that watched me being raped and tortured. Starved to near death and dipped into ice water.

“I kept tabs on you over the years. I know everything there is to know,” Alex said matter-of-factly. “I’ve no use to catch up with you. I know your life better than you do.”

One corner of my mouth tilted. “Is that so?”

“It is.” He sprawled in his seat regally. “I know, for instance, that you recently got married. That you married her for territory, alliance, and to drag the Camorra into our war.” His pack-a-day voice was toneless. “I know you weren’t planning to fall in love, but that it happened, anyway. She was already in your system that first night, when she put a bullet in your shoulder.”

My smirk didn’t waver, but alarm bells began blaring in my ears.

How the fuck did he knowthat? It was a very specific piece of information. One I hadn’t shared with another soul.

Alex continued, cracking his neck. “I know your father is barely functioning. He never forgave himself for what happened to you and your sister. He is letting you lead the operation, but you wish you had an equal, an adviser, someone to strategize with. Fintan is still struggling with alcohol and gambling. He’s a decent guy, but useless. I know Tierney is chummy with SSA Tom Rothwell. You should take care of that. Once he sinks his teeth into something, it’s impossible to shake him off.”

My pulse drummed against the side of my neck. Lyosha knew things that could ruin us completely, and he just…sat on this shit? Impossible.

How did he get access to all of this information? There was a mole inside us. I needed to find it. If it wasn’t too late.

“I have friends in every snake pit, Tiernan.” He studied my face with amusement. “Yours included. Hungry dogs are never loyal.”