Page 19 of Darkest Game (The Dark Mafia #3)

Chapter Ten

Irina

T he moment I see Mikhail’s house come into view, I know I’m safe.

The dogs go running towards the house after I open the door, looking happy and free for once.

“You need to control those beasts,” Mikhail says, following me to the door.

“They’re not beasts. They’re just dogs.”

“I don’t want them biting Natalya.”

“Or biting Sasha,” Nico adds, bringing up the rear.

I pull both the dogs close to me. “They’re not going to bite anyone. They were kept prisoner just like I was. This is their chance for freedom.”

Mikhail relents and doesn’t complain about the dogs as he opens the door. I try to contain the dogs but they both go running straight into the house and knock a vase off that was on the sideboard table in the foyer.

Mikhail gives me a withering look and I shrink in on myself.

“Sorry,” I whisper.

He sighs. “No. It’s… fine.”

“Dogs?” Natalya asks from the other room. “You got us dogs?” She enters the foyer and stops when she sees me. “Irina? Oh my god.” She runs right to me, wrapping me in a fierce hug. I hug her back with everything inside of me.

Ana and my mom come into the foyer and join the hug.

“Sasha is at our place,” Nico explains. “But I’ll bring her over. I know she wants to see you.” He leaves the house.

“Oh my god,” Natalya says, gripping my face. “Are you ok? You’re… what are you wearing? A shirt? Did they keep you in this?”

“No. It’s… it’s Liam’s shirt. Liam O’Connor. My… husband.”

All the color drains from my mom and sisters’ faces.

“Your husband?” Mom demands.

“It’s a long story. But I was forced to marry Liam because of his boss, Jack Finnigan. He wanted to make Mikhail and Nico suffer by making me one of them.”

Natalya turns to Mikhail. “Is Liam dead?”

“No. We couldn’t find him and Irina really wanted to come home.

I didn’t want to keep her in a position of danger any longer so we left.

” His eyes flick to me, silently asking me questions.

“I’m sure Irina wants to settle back in.

We can talk more later.” He heads to his office.

I know Mikhail wants to know why I tried to spare Liam’s life.

I’m still wondering that myself.

But deep down, I know it’s because Liam didn’t have to save me the way he did. He could have easily let Jack have me. Could have easily let all those other men have me. But he chose to save me time and time again. How can I not be affected by that?

“Are you hurt?” Mom asks.

“No. I’m fine. A bath would be nice.”

“A bath is coming right up.” She leaves, motioning for Ana to come with her, leaving me and Natalya alone.

“You would tell me if you actually got hurt, yes?” she asks.

“I’m fine. I promise. I wasn’t raped, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Some of the tension leaves her body. “That’s good. That’s great. I never wanted you to have to face that kind of pain.”

“Liam saved my life.”

She stares at me with wide eyes. “He what? He’s the reason you were taken in the first place.”

“He… was. But he also saved my life when he didn’t need to.”

“Irina… it almost sounds like you’re trying to defend him.”

“He is my husband.”

“No. He’s not.” Her tone speaks to no disagreements. “He forced you into that marriage. When Mikhail kills him, you’ll be free of him. Now, come on. Let’s get you into that bath so you can relax.”

I want to tell Natalya that I’m not sure I do want to be free of Liam. The reality is, I want to see him again. But I know that Natalya won’t understand so I choose to remain quiet and follow her upstairs to the bathroom.

Liam

I make it back to my nightclub where my right hand guy, Jimmy is in the office, looking over the books.

“Liam?” He scrambles to his feet. “I haven’t heard from you for the past few days. Are you ok?”

“Got married,” I say as I grab a spare shirt from my desk and slip it on. “Killed Jack Finnigan. And now his wife is hunting me down. We need to go after her. Elaine Finnigan. She keeps escaping me before I get the chance to kill her and it’s very inconsiderate.”

“Wow. Um… that’s a lot of info.”

“Then process it and then help me. We need to end her life.”

“Hold on. If you’re married, where’s your wife? Who is your wife?”

I hesitate but Jimmy needs to know everything. “Irina Petrov. Jack made me marry her. But Mikhail and Nico found her and brought her back home. It’s where she belongs.”

“Even though she’s your wife?”

“I was forced to marry her. Neither of us wanted it. It’s better this way.”

He nods, looking uncertain.

“What?” I snap.

“It’s just… you don’t look like it’s better this way. Why did you kill Jack?”

“Because he wanted Irina for himself and I wouldn’t let him have her. I didn’t want her to get raped. She didn’t deserve it.”

“So you ended him for that? Liam, it sounds like you like your wife more than you’re admitting.”

“Just fucking help me take down Elaine Finnigan. Nothing else matters.” Or so I tell myself. “Start calling all my loyal followers. Have them meet us at the club tonight. Shut the club down. I’m not in the mood to entertain people tonight.”

“That will cost us money.”

“I don’t care,” I spit out. “Shut it down. And call every man who will work with me. None of Jack’s followers can find out. They’ll warn Elaine. And I need her dead.”

“Ok. I’m on it.”

I leave my office and grab a bottle of gin from the bar and sit down at it and pour myself a glass.

Then I promptly chug it back. This is all fucked.

I never wanted any of this fucking drama and now I have to deal with Elaine wanting me dead and my strange feelings for Irina, who I shouldn’t be having any feelings for in the first place.

She has to mean nothing to me because if she means something to me then I would have no choice but to go get her back and that would only lead me more into war with Mikhail and Nico and they already want me dead.

But then I’d have Irina at least. Fuck. This is all messed up.

“Liam.” Amanda’s voice startles me.

She’s wearing her skimpy dance outfit that she always wears when she performs at my club. “I haven’t see you for a few days. How have you been?”

“Amanda. Hi. We’re not opening tonight so you can go home.”

“Oh. But I make most of my money from tips.”

I walk behind the bar and take out a few hundred dollar bills and hand it to her. “There. You’re paid for the night. Go home.”

She slips the money in her purse. “Are you ok? If you’re not opening tonight, we could go back to my place. Have some fun like we usually do.”

“Fun?”

“Sex. Obviously. Are you ok? Normally you’re always down to fuck.”

Shit. She doesn’t know. When I first told Irina that I would still see other women after we married, I meant Amanda. I didn’t want to give up the good sex we always have.

But now that I’m thinking of Irina, she’s the only woman I have on my mind right now. No other woman will do.

Even though Irina isn’t mine any longer. She belongs with her family now.

“I’m married,” I tell Amanda and watch as her entire face changes expression.

“What? Married?”

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t even know you were engaged.”

“I wasn’t.”

She squints at me. “Was it a stupid night in Vegas kind of thing?”

“Sure. Yeah.” Let her think that. It’s easier than trying to explain how I was forced into my marriage by Jack, who I ended up killing on my wedding night, so he wouldn’t rape my wife.

“Is it serious?” she asks.

“I barely know the girl. But I am married now and I have that to deal with it so we can’t be together.”

“At all? Or just for now?”

I hesitate. Irina and I do not have a future. But when I think of her, she’s all I can think of. She’s the kind of woman that makes you lose your mind for.

“I can’t make any promises,” I say. “For now. But… this might be the end for us. So if there’s anyone else you like, go for it. Don’t let me stop you.”

“Wow. Huh.” She huffs. “You’ve changed. You barely seem like the man I know and it’s only been a few days since I last saw you.”

“A lot can happen in a few days. I’ll see you around, Amanda.”

“See you around.” She leaves the club, thinking I got married from a drunk night in Vegas, and just made three hundred dollars without having to do any work. She’ll be fine.

As for me? Fuck. I’m a total mess right now. I’ve always been calm, cool, collected. Now I’m a raging fucking inferno.

Jimmy rounds up my closest allies – ten men in total – to discuss our plans to go after Elaine.

“Where could she be?” Mark asks. He’s the idiot who stole Irina in the first place when it was supposed to be her sisters.

“Start looking up all the properties Jack or Elaine own. Chances are, she’s at one of those. We’ll start looking at them all. We’re going to find her, kill her, and end this fucking war. I’ve barely slept in days and I’m fucking tired.”

And angry that I lost my wife to Mikhail and Nico.

There’s no point in denying that I wanted to keep Irina, even if it was a stupid idea.

But I have to let her go. I’m only going after Elaine so she can’t keep coming after me and Irina any longer.

That’s it. And then once Elaine is dead, I can wipe my hands clean of Irina and move on. Maybe Amanda will take me back.

Fuck. I don’t want Amanda. I feel it in my gut.

“Get to work,” I snap at the men and they all do as I say.

It takes us around a few hours to compile a list of properties owned by Jack and Elaine and once we have that, we take off to find her.

The first few places we check are empty. An empty apartment. An empty business building full of offices.

The third place we check is a hair salon that looks abandoned. Mark opens the door… and that’s a mistake.

The building explodes into a gush of fire, sending Mark flying backwards. I land on my back from the force of the explosion but fortunately, I’m far enough away from the blast to not have been burned.

But Mark is not so lucky. A couple of my other men are also hurt.

I crawl over to Mark and see his lifeless eyes. “Fuck. She had it rigged with a fucking bomb.”

Jimmy comes over to me, having been behind me when the blast went off. “Are you ok, boss?”

“I’m fine. But we need to get out of here. Mark is dead.” I stand up and stumble away from the hair salon. “Elaine can’t keep getting away with this shit. She needs to die and I need to personally be the one to kill her.”

“What are we going to do with… the bodies?” He nods at Mark and the other two men who didn’t make it. Fuck. Now I’m down more numbers.

If Irina were here, she’d ask me where my humanity is. I just lost a few friends and I don’t even care. The selfishness in me is coming back.

All I care about is killing Elaine. Nothing else matters.