Page 40 of Protected by the Sinner (The Sinner’s Touch #2)

“You’re telling me the order to kill my family didn’t come from the Sicilian capo?”

“Yes. Actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that, my son,” Ruslan says before taking a sip of whiskey.

“Believe me when I say I’d love nothing more than to wipe those Louisiana bastards off the face of the Earth once and for all.

But I consider myself a fair man, and for revenge to be effective, it has to be well-aimed. ”

I get up and start pacing like a caged animal. I’ve spent years waiting patiently, planning, when in the end, I could’ve carried out my retaliation long ago.

“Angelo was stealing from the capo—his own uncle—along with his adoptive father, Landon. They framed your father to take the fall.”

“I thought my father was betrayed by Landon and that’s why the order was given to have him killed. It never crossed my mind that someone from the inside—”

“Angelo knew he’d never be the capo’s successor. Even though his uncle didn’t have any male heirs, that bastard couldn’t run his own backyard, let alone a criminal empire. He was probably trying to stash away enough money for when Roberto Brambilla died.”

“And he must’ve realized his uncle would find out he’d set my father up, so he had to eliminate him.”

“That would make a nice story, but unfortunately, that’s not how it happened.

The truth is your father wasn’t important to them.

He was just a contractor for the Sicilians.

Angelo knew that if the capo got his hands on your father, they’d make him talk.

He’d spill the truth. Angelo didn’t want to take that risk.

Killing your father was the logical step.

Dead men don’t talk. And they don’t need to be interrogated. ”

“He ordered the death of my entire family. Not just my father.”

Ruslan doesn’t answer, and I know why. That’s how the mafia works. They don’t leave anyone behind who might come back for revenge.

“What he didn’t count on was Landon saving you to fulfill his wife’s desire to have children.”

The pieces fall into place in my mind, fast. Only one is missing. “And where does Amber fit into all this?”

“You already know what motivated her: saving her sister. As for her involvement with Angelo, he probably found out your men were watching him and decided to make the first move.”

“Why use her and not just kill me?”

“You and I never made our relationship public, Beau, but trust me, down in the underworld, they know you’re my protégé.

Loved as much as my blood grandsons. Even though we belong to rival organizations, his capo would never order your death without a serious reason.

That would ignite a war between the mafias.

And Angelo didn’t have that kind of reason.

He doesn’t know why you’re hunting him, but he’s done so much shit in his life, it could be anyone from his past. I think he sent Amber to scout you out.

Look for a weakness. She was a kind of recon soldier.

A means to an end, not the weapon itself. ”

“I know.”

“You do?”

I nod. “I think I always knew. But it’s hard for me to trust when I’ve lived alone my entire life.

I fought an internal war because those photos were proof she’d betrayed me, but I know her.

Amber’s full of mystery, hot-headed and mouthy, she’s got a temper and doesn’t take crap from anyone, but she’s not disloyal. ”

“She’s your Iris,” he says, referring to his late wife. Ruslan had lovers all over the world before her, but once he laid eyes on Iris, he told me he never wanted anyone else again.

“Yeah. She’s my Iris.”

There’s no point denying it anymore. I’m crazy about her. That’s the only reason I didn’t cut her out of my life the moment I thought she’d betrayed me.

It wasn’t because of the baby. That was, for a brief time, the excuse I gave my pride, which couldn’t accept forgiving someone who might’ve gotten me killed. Anyone else, and I’d never forgive them.

“Has she gotten her memory back?”

“Only the distant past. This Amber is different from the one I knew. She says what she feels, what she wants. She doesn’t hide or protect herself.

I’m following the doctor’s instructions, but even so, I feel like I’m failing her by not telling the truth—that on the day of the accident, I found out about her betrayal.

She doesn’t even realize she was just a pawn in Angelo’s game. ”

“This situation needs to be cleared up soon, or it’ll snowball.”

“We can’t talk about how we met until she remembers everything. I’ll do anything to make sure she doesn’t suffer.”

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

I don’t like talking about my feelings—and more than that, I don’t want to share Amber with anyone else. So I change the subject.

“Her sister’s coming to see her. Maybe when they’re face-to-face, her memory will return. And then we can finally come clean about our story.”

“I’m becoming an old man who talks too much.”

“You’ve never been discreet, and you’ve always been old—at least since I met you.”

He laughs. “I think I was born old. It’s the price you pay for being Pakhan.

I carry many lives on my back, and just as many deaths.

But if you want my advice, don’t let her slip away.

I would trade, without a second thought, all the women I’ve had—and God knows there were a lot—if I could spend just one more week with my wife. ”

I think about what he’s saying. About how I almost lost her too. I’ve been given a second chance, and I won’t waste it.

“What about Angelo?” he asks as he gets up.

“In order for his death not to be seen as a declaration of war against you, you’ll have to expose him for what he is: a thief and a traitor to his own family.”

“If that’s the plan, then I’ll have a very small window between making his theft public and killing him. Once the Sicilians find out what he did, it’ll be a race to see who gets to execute him first.”