Page 2 of Darkest Game (The Dark Mafia #3)

Denis’s guards leave after a few hours, meaning Denis is truly gone into hiding. But he could come back at any moment. Come back to ruin our lives. I don’t want to get too comfortable. Too happy. Because once I’m happy, it will hurt more when that happiness is taken away.

Mom finds Dad’s contacts in the office, including Mikhail’s number. They used to work together when my dad was still alive. I have to hope that’s reason enough to trust Mikhail. But it’s only Natalya I trust.

“Mikhail will be here soon to pick us up,” Mom says. “It will be better to get out of this house as fast as possible. I don’t want anyone trying to take advantage of us when we’re vulnerable.”

My mom always speaks of the outside world as a dangerous, deadly place and she would know better than I do.

When my dad was alive, he kept me sheltered.

All of my sisters sheltered. And when Denis took over, he literally kept me locked up.

I haven’t known much of the outside world.

It was fine when I was a kid but now I’m an adult.

A young woman. I can’t be so innocent to the way of things. I’m scared it’s going to ruin me.

But I’ll have no way of learning about how dangerous this life is if I never experience it and frankly, I don’t want to experience any more trauma for a long time.

Mikhail arrives within the hour. Natalya is with him.

The sight of my sister in the driveway makes me break out into a run until I’m in her arms. She squeezes me back so hard, it almost hurts, but I don’t mind it. We haven’t spoken in almost two years. Neither of us make any move to let each other go.

“I’m sorry it took so long,” she whispers to me.

“You’ll keep us safe? Mikhail will keep us safe?”

“Yes. I promise you that. You’re safe now.”

I finally let myself break down into tears because I know my big sister is here to catch me.

Mom and Ana also join in on the hug and for the first time in years, I feel safe.

Liam

I settle back in my seat behind my desk, feeling powerful. My nightclub is in full swing. Money is coming in. Drinks are going out. People are caught in lust and desire. I love nights like this.

As the head of my fraction of the Irish mob, I have a lot of privileges. After my former boss, Cillian Kennedy, died I took up the mantle and life has been sweet ever since then. Money and women and booze. It’s all ripe for the picking.

My second in command, Jimmy, brings a silver platter into my office.

On the platter are three perfect lines of coke.

I indulge here and there for the fun but I’m not a serious drug addict.

I need to keep my wits about me in this job.

If someone saw any weaknesses with me, they would strike and I can’t have that.

I have worked too hard in the past few years to get where I am.

Putting up with Cillian’s demands when he was still alive, forging my new path as boss, and fighting for power. It’s taken a lot and now here I am.

I snort a line and lean back in my seat. “That’s the good stuff, Jimmy. You can have the rest.”

“Thanks, boss.”

Within the mob, there’s multiple ranks of bosses. I’m just one of them. There’s a few others in the city who are technically higher than me in rank but we usually leave each other alone. I do my work and they do theirs and no one fights.

“Bring in Amanda,” I say. After snorting a line, Jimmy leaves the room and a few minutes later, a sexy redhead comes into my office. “Hey, baby.”

“Hey.” Her smile is sultry as she sits in my lap. Her hands rake over my tattooed arms. I’m not one for suits. I prefer the rockstar look – half button shirts and rings on my fingers. What can I say? It’s a good look on me.

“How are you tonight?” I ask, gripping her ass.

“I’ve missed you.” Amanda is a woman I regularly fuck but I don’t have a serious relationship with. Neither of us are looking for anything serious at the moment.

“Good,” I growl before bringing her lips to mine. I can feel myself harden, ready to fuck her, when the door to my office bursts open and in walks a man I’ve never seen before. “This is my office. Get the fuck out.”

“Liam O’Connor?”

“What?”

“I’m Jack Finnigan.”

Holy shit. He’s the top of the top of the Irish mob. I’ve only ever heard of him but have never seen him before in my life. He’s in a pinstripe suit for fuck’s sake. I’m surprised he doesn’t have a fucking fedora on too.

I nudge Amanda off my lap. “What are you doing here?”

“I’ve come to talk.” He gives Amanda a dismissive look and I wave her away. If Jack Finnigan is here then it must be serious.

“Have a seat.”

He remains standing. “I’ve been told that you bring the Irish mob a lot of money. That you’re a loyal follower. And yet, you didn’t hesitate to take over the second Cillian Kennedy died.”

“Well… yeah. I was next in line for the job after him. Who else was going to take over?”

“I had a man in mind but you seized the job for yourself.” He grips the back of the seat across from the desk. His nails dig into the leather.

“You don’t sound happy that I took the job. But I do a good job. I make more money than Cillian ever did.”

“You do. But I’m still jilted. You rushed into it without consulting me.”

“I wasn’t aware that I had to.” I know snapping back at the head of the Irish mob is never a good idea but fuck, I’ve worked hard to get here and I’m not going to let Jack Finnigan talk down to me like this.

“You’re a boy.”

“I’m thirty,” I say flatly. “I wouldn’t call myself a boy. I have facial hair and everything.”

His lips remain in a thin, flat line. “You think you’re charming.”

“I’ve been told that by others.”

“By who? The women you pay to fuck you?”

I chuckle as I light up a cigarette. “I don’t pay women to fuck me. That women who was just in here? She comes of her own accord. And trust me, I’m good at making her cum.”

“I have a mind to put you in your place.”

“With what? I do a good job. I make good money. Why are you so upset with me?”

He slams his hands onto the table. “Because this job was supposed to go to a man of my choosing. Not of Cillian’s choosing.”

I lean forward in my seat and set my cigarette out right next to his hand. “Then you should have moved faster. That’s not my fault.”

“I will concede that you have the job now and that you’ve been doing a good job of it. But I still need to put you in your place. You need to know that you work for me. So I’m going to have you do a job for me.”

“What’s that?”

“I want you to steal the wives of Mikhail Novikoff and Nico Bernardi.”

I wait a second for him to say more and when he doesn’t, I huff. “Seriously? Natalya and Sasha? I already kidnapped them around a year ago.”

He makes a show of looking around the office. “And where are they now?”

“They escaped,” I say flatly. “That Sasha girl is a fighter. She shot two of my men like it was nothing. I have no desire to go after her again, I can tell you that much. Now that Mikhail and Nico are working together, I’d rather stay far away from them.”

“Scared?”

A flicker of anger runs through my core. “Practical. I hate Nico for shooting Cillian point blank. And I hate Mikhail because he’s a pompous asshole. I would love to see them dead. But I’m not going to risk my life taking them down.”

“Which is why you’re going to steal their wives from them. It will drive them to the brink of insanity and then we’ll be able to kill Mikhail and Nico easily enough and seize even more power for ourselves.”

“How am I going to get Natalya and Sasha? Mikhail and Nico keep their wives locked away so no one can hurt them.”

“Figure it out. I don’t care how. Just do this.”

“And if I say no?” I ask, staring Jack down.

I light another cigarette just for something to do.

I’ve never really cared for the taste. I mostly do it because women have told me it looks sexy and I figure anyway I can have power over someone else, I take it.

And I can clearly tell that the cigarette smoke is pissing Jack off which just seems funnier to me.

“Then I shoot you right here in the head.” His threat his clear. Jack Finnigan seems like a man who doesn’t take no for an answer and I’m a man who knows how to survive.

“Fine,” I grit out. “I’ll steal them away. But give me time. It’s going to take a little bit to find the right moment.”

“You have until the end of the week. I want both Mikhail and Nico’s wives. You better not fuck this up, Liam.” He shoots me a glare before leaving. It’s not until he’s gone that I feel like I can breathe again.

How the fuck am I going to steal Natalya and Sasha? It was by some luck that I managed it before.

I call Jimmy back into my office and tell him everything Jack told me. “Find out anything you can on them. Where they’ll be. If there’s any opening I can sneak my way into it.”

“Sure thing, boss.” Jimmy doesn’t hesitate to start calling others who might have some answers.

I’m sure there’s a gap somewhere that I can exploit. There’s always a crack.

Irina

“We should have a celebration,” Natalya says after me, Ana, and our mom are safely in Natalya and Mikhail’s house. Sasha and Nico have arrived.

The sight of Nico makes me breathless but not out of attraction. No. Out of fear. He used to work for Denis and there’s still a part of me that’s worried he could strike up another deal with him again. If the need suited him.

We’re all seated around the living room. Me and Natalya beside each other while Sasha and Ana sit together. It’s obvious which sisters always got along more with which one.

Mikhail and Nico are on opposite sides of the room. There’s a tension between them but they seem to be working through it for the sake of their wives.

“A celebration?” Nico asks. “Like a party?”

“Yes. A party to celebrate my sisters being home with me, safe and sound.”

“That’s a horrible idea,” Nico says.

Mikhail shoots him a glare. “Don’t insult my wife.”

He raises his hands in surrender. “I just mean that we can’t be drawing a ton of attention to ourselves. Now that we’ve been working together, we have a lot more enemies who want to take us down.”

“I’m afraid he’s right,” Mikhail says to Natalya. “But we can still host a small get together here. At our house. We can invite just a few people. Nothing huge. What do you say?”

Natalya turns to me. “Irina, is that something you’d enjoy?”

“I’m fine without a party but if you want one, then I’m ok with it.”

“Ana?” Natalya asks.

“I love a good party so I’m in.”

Sasha laughs, nudging Ana. “You’ve never even been to a party so how do you know you’ll love it?”

“I just know.”

I smile as I look around the room at my sisters and mom. How happier we are without Denis controlling our lives. I’m ready for a new start. Ready to start the next chapter in my life.

Natalya claps her hands together. “A party it is. We’ll invite only people we know we can trust. If anyone finds out you guys don’t have Denis’s protection any longer, it could come back to hurt you.”

“They have my protection now,” Mikhail promises.

“And mine,” Nico adds. I get the sense that he doesn’t want to be left out.

Natalya holds my hand. “You’re safe now, Irina. I promise you that. Let’s just focus on celebrating our reunion.”

I agree. I am safe and nothing can change that.