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“ P roperty of the Souls? Do you even know the girl?” Burlusconi tosses my phone back at the desk and looks furious as he paces my office floor.

“One of my members spoke to her yesterday regarding his brother; other than that, she was just a whore.”

“A whore who works for the fucking Russians, Raze!” He slams his fist on my desk. “They’re going to come at you for this. They’ll think you were acting on my order. My family is now in danger.” He breathes heavily through his nostrils.

“We can protect them and ourselves. You don’t need to worry about that,” I assure him, though I ain’t feeling all that confident. This is the worst thing that could have happened.

“And where is Dev now?” Raoul asks, trying to calm himself down so he can think.

“He managed to climb out the girl’s window, but it’s only a matter of time before her body’s found.

There were witnesses who saw him go up the stairs.

It’s gonna be easy to pin this on him.” I look down at the picture Dev sent me after he called.

The girl is young, even younger than Peyton, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Long Beach’s mystery murderer is behind all this.

“I need to find out who’s doing this; it’s getting outta hand,” I admit. Finding out who this sick fucker is is proving to be way beyond the club’s resources.

“We’re gonna have to arrange a meeting with their leader, explain that there’s been a mistake.

You must know how to contact this Prizrak guy they all suck up to?

” I look back up at him, knowing he ain’t gonna like my plan, but I see no other option.

“We can strike a deal with him, use the weapons we took from the Irish as leverage.”

“The weapons that were probably already his?” Burlusconi looks at me as if I've lost my mind. “Raze, are you forgetting that no one knows who the Prizrak is; no one's ever seen him, not even me. He doesn't do meetings.”

“Well, maybe a dead whore with our name etched into her stomach might change his mind. I’m all about standing up for my actions, but we didn’t do this.

Someone out there is trying to screw me and my club over, and now you’re being dragged into it too.

We need the Russians to know we’re innocent of this.

We started the war with the Irish when we killed all of Quinnell’s men; we don’t need to extend it to them. ”

“You didn’t start the war.” Burlusconi sits down and looks tired all of a sudden.

“What are you talkin’ about?” I pierce him with my eyes, sensing that there’s something more to this.

“I caused the war. A few years ago, it was arranged by my parents that I would marry Brian’s daughter.

Our families were going to unite and rule the West Coast. But Eva came back into my life, I wasn’t expecting her to.

I wasn’t prepared for it, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her go again.

” He closes his eyes and scrubs his face.

“I spoke to the girl. Briella Quinnell didn’t want to marry me; she wanted to see the world and be free.

So we made an agreement that would buy her more time, I took over from my father, and I renegotiated with Quinnell.

Promised that my brother would marry his daughter to uphold our side of the deal.

” He leans forward to take the whiskey I pour him.

I’ve had many meetings with Burlusconi since I took over as president, and I’ve seen him open up the way he is now.

“Prizrak called me on my wedding day, he spoke to me for the first time and the last and told me we didn’t need to be enemies. It was obvious he had an interest in the Quinnell girl.” He knocks back his drink.

“Briella?”

“He said now that I wasn’t in possession of what he wanted, we could be allies; informed me that he would be passing stock through my city from time to time. That was over three years ago, and I haven’t heard from him since.”

“But….” I wait for him to continue because I can sense there's more to his story.

“Quinnell was keen to have our families unite. A date was set for Rhett to marry Briella. It was supposed to be six months ago, but it didn’t happen.” Burlusconi shrugs his shoulders and helps himself to another drink.

“Why not?” I’m pissed the fuck off that he’s been keeping all this from me. Burlusconi may call the shots in this city, but my men put their lives on the line for him. When we got into it with the Irish, he should have made us aware.

“The girl vanished. Gone without a trace on the morning of her wedding. Rhett was, of course, relieved. He never wanted to be tied down to a wife, and although I know Briella would have planned all this, I think her father believes that it was our doing. He’s convinced himself that we didn’t want the alliance. ”

“And did you?” I ask, hoping he’ll give me an honest answer.

“Quinnell needed us more than we needed him,” he admits. “If we want to keep the Russians on our side, we need to find that girl and offer her to Prizrak. He wants her more than he wants power.”

“You want me to send Brian Quinnell's daughter like a lamb to the slaughter?” I check I’m hearing him right.

“We’re already at war with Quinnell. And we have to protect the people we love. We’ve all had to make sacrifices, Raze.” Burlusconi stands up from the table, leaving me with something to think about.