Page 56 of City Of Thieves

I feel her pain like it’s my own.

“Fuck!”

Threebrothers. There were three fucking brothers all along.

“Fuck!”

Reeling backwards, I flex my aching hand as I weigh that last revelation and find it measured in betrayal.They’re not working as a family unit. They’re all driving knives into each other’s backs.

Vasily lied about Oleg’s whereabouts in New York and then led me right to him because that’s what black sheep of families do.Hewas the wind that set the sails of my brother’s execution in motion. Oleg created the storm that raged across the Atlantic, bringing the painting to London. But there’s no doubt in my mind that it was Konstantin who orchestrated the entire voyage.

But why?

Swinging back into the car, I slam the door shut. All the while, I can sense her watching me like a rabbit would a hungry lion.

“What else?” I demand harshly.

“Your hand…”

“Fuck my hand. Give me something more.”

Anything.

After a beat, she reaches into her purse for her phone. “Konstantin switches up his burners frequently. I can give you the last number he used, but I need you to promise me something first.” She hesitates again. “Listen, I know you don’t owe me a thing, but you’re the only person I can ask. The only person Itrustto make it right.”

There’s that fucking word again.

“Please help me get Anastasia back, Renzo. I’ll tell you everything I know. I’ll hold nothing back. I’ll do anything to hold my daughter again. To make her safe…”

Something about her impassioned plea seeps into my skin, filtering through to a part of me I thought was dead and buried a long time ago.

“Tatiana.” Leaning over, I palm the back of her neck, bringing our heads together, my decision a foregone conclusion already. “When I get my hands on Konstantin Belov, you’ll have your daughter back the next day. I fucking swear it.”

I watch the emotion flitting across her face at the prospect of her nightmare ending.

It makes me want to destroy the fucking earth to make it happen.

“No more ice,” I murmur. “From now on, if you’re honest with me, I’ll be honest with you.”

“I turned myself into that woman to keep everyone out.” Her eyelids flutter shut.“To keep what’s left of me hidden and protected. For so long I wasn’t allowed choice…power—”

“But you are now.” My grip tightens. “Do you want to taste them,dolcezza? I can give you that right now.” Confusion blankets her face, but I’m determined to address some of the wrongs she’s suffered. “Remember when you held a blade to my throat this morning?”

“Renzo…” My name catches in her throat as I move my hand to the slender curve of her neck, pausing to feel her pulse dance against my skin before sliding my thumb across the underside of her chin.

“Who held the power in that moment, Tatiana? You, for wielding the blade, or me, for surrendering to it?”

“I could have killed you.”

“Not if I’d killed you first.”

There’s a flash of caution in her eyes before it’s swallowed up by intrigue.

“It’s a rush to taunt death...” The space between us disappears as I shift forward to press my palms against the window, caging her into the passenger seat and forcing her spine against the door. “At any moment you could have slit my throat, but even in your hand, I controlled every stroke of that razor.” I watch her gaze fall from my eyes to my mouth. “So, I’m asking… Do you want that same power now? Do you want to touch it…? To fuck it?”

“Yes,” comes an almost lyrical response.

Without breaking eye contact, I reach one hand inside my jacket and pull my gun from its holster. Curling my finger around the trigger, I trace the cold steel of the muzzle around the contours of her mouth. “Then wrap your lips around my gun...andsuck.”