Page 41 of Nikola

And even though I could guess the reason she’d stopped texting, the irrational side of my brain was starting to panic. Of course I knew she was just fine surrounded by her family in Italy.

Still, I stalked her fucking Instagram. I, Nikola Nikolaev, had to lower myself like some love-stricken loser and resort to social media to see what she was up to during her visit home. There was a short reel of her playing the piano with her mama. A selfie with her cousins who would one day rule the Yakuza. A post of her shopping with her aunt Reina, surrounded by piles of pink material.

It didn’t seem she followed through with her boyfriend search since she mostly hung out with her cousins. Good fucking thing.

My phone buzzed again and I swiped my phone open, finding the legacies group chat.

Gabriel: Happy Thanksgiving, motherfuckers. I located an organ smuggler in Miami.

Matteo: Hope you ended him.

Me: Question him first.

Matteo: Wow, Nikola being reasonable? Must be the spirit of the day.

Kostya: I doubt it. He’s probably hoping to torture the fucker himself.

Me: If we don’t get a handle on this shit soon, we’ll have a big problem on our hands.

Gabriel: I questioned him, but only learned he was part of the organization.

Meaning he was part of the Belles and Mobsters Agreements, where unknown threats worked to bring back the whole fucking ordeal, but instead of matching belles to ruthless, sick men, they were ripping out their organs and selling them on the black market. It was ironic that the very thing our parents fought to eliminate decades ago had returned to haunt them, now threatening us in a whole different way.

Matteo: Don’t let Hannah catch wind of that or she might leave Ireland and have a go at him herself.

Kostya: How is she?

Dominico, her brother, answered.

Dominico: She’s still recovering. She won’t talk about what happened during her captivity, but she sure as fuck liked torturing Marco King’s offspring. The fucker should’ve thought twice before messing with her.

Initially, we thought that he was the one running the organization, but speculation now was that there were a lot more leaders to consider here since the operation was still ongoing and threats lurked all over the world.

Me: Gabriel, did this guy you captured say who’s running it?

Gabriel: He didn’t have much information.

Me: I captured one useless organ trafficker on my territory about a month ago and another a week ago, but they didn’t give me anything useful either.

Kostya: And you didn’t call me, cousin?

Me: Slipped my mind.

For more than one reason, and they all revolved around Skye. Fuck, would I ever be able to think rationally again? I’d been spiraling out since our encounter on Halloween.

Kostya: Funny. It slipped my mind to let you know I’m having lunch with Skye tomorrow.

That couldn’t be right.

Me: You mean Thanksgiving dinner tonight?

Kostya: No, I mean lunch tomorrow.

Something about that didn’t sit well with me. A volatile feeling spread through me, filling me with fury and jealousy, and for the first time in my life, I found myself contemplating torturing a member of my family.

“Hello? What the fuck are you typing on that phone that’s so important? I want in on whatever’s going on.” Marietta’s voice brought me back from disturbing images filled with blood, of Kostya with Skye.Fuck!“Hey, hey… Earth to Nikola.”

“What?” I snapped.