Page 57 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

L ars

Santo fills me in, and I sit opposite him feeling like a fucking fool. Mouth agape. Heart raging. Mind trying to make sense of it.

I hear it all.

How Ella isn’t who she said she was. How she is the daughter of a respected don. Mafia born and raised.

How her half-brother has waged terror on the family.

Yeah, I know him.

An entitled brat who has no respect in the underbelly of St. Boniface and the surrounding counties.

“He promised her to Viktor Olicheckoff as part of an alliance,” Santo adds .

That detail shoves a stake right through my gut and conjures a rage in me like I’ve never known.

She must’ve been terrified.

My fingers tighten into fists, my short nails biting into my flesh.

“Why didn’t she tell me?”

I’m looking at Santo but I’m asking myself.

Did she try to say something, and I was so caught up in my fucking feelings, I missed the clues?

My mind spins rapidly, flicking back the pages of the last couple of weeks. But I can’t recall anything.

“Ella is fiercely protective of her sister, Lucretia. She’s young and suffers from PTSD after their mother was murdered in front of her. Luca used Lucretia’s frailty to ensure Ella would do everything he told her to do. If she didn’t, he said he’d feed Lucretia to his men.”

Venom boils in my veins.

“If she’d said something, I would’ve helped,” I say.

Helped?

No.

I would’ve gutted her half-brother with a spoon and then hand-fed his innards to him.

“Luca knew Ella was a fighter. Knew she might say something. So he upped the stakes and sent Lucretia out of the country. Ella knew if she didn’t do as she was told, she might never find her. It was the perfect insurance for Luca to get what he wanted.”

“Which was?”

“To be king.”

My eyes flick to his. “And how the fuck do you fit into all of this?” I demand.

“Angelo was my family. My best friend. But Luca got to me too.”

“How?”

“He threatened my daughter and her kids. Knew everything about them. Where they lived. Where she worked. Where they went to school. He said he’d kill them if I didn’t help him. And I believed him. You look into his black eyes, and you realize you’re looking into the eyes of a soulless man.”

“You didn’t warn Angelo?”

“Luca went to my daughter’s home. Took photos in her bedroom. Sat on my granddaughter’s bed. Knowing he had contact with the Bratva, I couldn’t risk it. No matter how powerful Angelo was, the risk was too great.”

“What did Luca want in return for letting your family live?’

“He wanted Angelo gone. But he needed help.”

“You helped kill Angelo Moretti?”

“No. He and Viktor took care of that. But he wasn’t killed in a car bomb. Luca killed him the night before, and then he and Viktor set up the car bomb. My role was solely to make Ella believe it. ”

“Why?”

“Because Luca knew the only way he could get the syndicate behind him was to make them believe they were under attack from an outside enemy. Unite them in fear and lead them to victory. It was nothing but smoke and mirrors. There was no enemy, and when some of the men started to question him, he either killed them or made them rich.”

“Sounds like a lot of theatrics. Why not just kill him and assume command? It happens all the time.”

“Because Luca Moretti is a psychopath, and it wasn’t just about gaining control. It was about executing revenge.”

“For what?”

“Angelo was going to name Ella as his successor. He still had many years left in him. But he wanted to bring her into the business. Make her ready, and that takes time. Years of mentorship and focus. Luca already felt abandoned by his father so when he found out their father chose her over him again, he lost his mind. Abandoned any desire to impress his father. Instead, he let his psychopathy come out to play and decided to kill him.”

“And Ella was in his crosshairs because their father chose her over him,” I say, starting to see the full picture.

“She’d had him all her life, and Luca hated her for it.”

I grit my teeth so hard they almost shatter.

Luca made Ella’s life hell because his feelings were hurt.

Motherfucking pussy .

I want to kill him. Then I want to bring him back to life just so I can kill him all over again.

“And what did you do when this was happening?” I bite out.

“I died.”

He tells me how he escaped the car bomb that would’ve killed him if he hadn’t stepped out of the car after forgetting something. If he had stayed, the car would’ve erupted into flames before he could escape. That split-second decision saved his life.

“Then how do you know all of this when you’re supposed to be dead?” I demand.

“A select few of the syndicate are still loyal to Angelo. They’re old school. They’ll watch and wait for the inevitable to happen. Luca Moretti is too unpredictable and too arrogant to realize he’s built his rise to glory on a house of cards. One sand shift and it will all come crashing down.”

I’m that sand shift.

I’m going to make sure his world doesn’t just come crashing down.

I’m going to chop it up into a million tiny pieces.

Starting with him.

I think of Hellbringer back at the clubhouse and imagine bringing it down on his flesh.

“Why are you following her?” I demand.

“I promised her father that I’d always watch over her if anything should happen to him.” Remorse is heavy in his tone. “I betrayed her father, and it’s something I can never forgive myself for. If I could at least watch out for her…”

“Does Ella know?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because they tried killing me once. It was a miracle I survived. Until I figure out a way to get her out of the clutches of her brother and Viktor Olicheckoff, I figured it was better to watch.”

“No, it wasn’t.” I can’t believe this guy. He knew what she was going through. Why she would keep her silence. Her silence from me. And he didn’t step in and at least let her know she wasn’t alone. “You could have come to the Knights. Told them everything.”

“The Moretti and the Knights have never held an alliance.”

“But we’re not enemies. You stay out of our way, and we stay out of yours.”

“For that reason, I didn’t know how the Knights would react to knowing who she was. Telling you would’ve put you in a position to take advantage of the situation. Maybe even hurt her?—”

“I would never fucking hurt her,” I growl, the fear in my gut getting the better of me. “You should’ve fucking done something.”

“I did what I thought was right.”

“You were fucking wrong. ”

“You don’t know these people like I do,” he says, and I can see the regret etched into his face. It haunts him.

“I don’t need to know them to kill them,” I say through gritted teeth. I bring my face close. “Ella is everything to me, and I don’t care what it takes, I’m going to get her back. Now where the fuck is she?”

“Viktor has taken her.”

I think about the supposed Olicheckoff compound Bear and I visited yesterday. “To the Bratva compound?”

Santo looks around the shithole of a motel room. Nothing looks disturbed. No turned-over furniture to indicate a struggle. But her phone is sitting on the small dresser under the window. “No. He would’ve taken her to the Moretti estate.”

“Why the Moretti estate?”

“My guess is he knows about you and Ella.”

“How?”

But I already know the answer.

Someone inside the clubhouse has told him.

Santo looks concerned. “He paid for a virgin bride, son. Now he’s going to hand her back to her brother.”

“Then that’s where I am going.”

“You can’t go alone.”

“Just watch me. ”

“They’ll see you coming, and you’ll be dead before you reach the front door.”

“He won’t kill me. They’re not ready for war with the Knights. They would’ve made a move by now if they were.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No, I need you to visit the clubhouse. Find Beast. Tell him I sent you and let him know what’s happening.” I pause. “And tell him we definitely have a rat inside the clubhouse and to keep every card close to his chest.”

“What are you going to do?”

I look Santo in the eyes. “I’m going to walk right up to the front door and tell the asshole I’ll shoot him in the face if he doesn’t hand over Ella.”