Page 26

A dull ache in the back of my head filled my awareness first, followed by a bitter cold that seemed to bite down to my bones.

Slowly, my mind filled with distorted images…seeing Esidor’s face, being grabbed by Giovanni, and being hauled out of the lounge’s back halls while I lost consciousness.

But surely that didn’t happen…right?

I couldn’t pull from any memories after that point, and that thought alone forced more awareness back into my body.

Peeling my eyes open, I noticed the dark gray floors beneath me first, then saw the chair under me and felt my hands where they rested heavily in my lap, bound with zip ties.

Blinking through the haziness that lingered in my head, I glanced around, realizing very quickly that I knew exactly where I was…it was my property, after all.

One of the warehouses—the main hub.

Finding myself there, propped in the chair in the center of the quiet room with a single light on above my head, I knew at once that I hadn’t imagined anything.

I really had been taken by them. My brother and cousins.

Somehow—impossibly—Esidor was alive.

In a flurry of panic, feeling my pulse pounding in my ears, I moved my stiff arms, trying to reach for my pocket to grab my phone.

“Don’t even think about it.”

The sound of that cold, all-too-familiar voice startled me, making me forget all about my phone. Whipping my head around to my left side, I watched as Esidor approached me slowly with my two cousins in tow.

My entire body went cold at the sight of him.

A difficult combination of anger and disbelief moved through me, and I could hardly find my voice again.

Being able to see that walk of his, watching him breathe and blink, all felt like too much. Especially after everything, it was impossible to process.

But as my eyes flickered over to Giovanni and Vinny, noticing the neutral expressions on their faces, my heart clenched, and my anger mounted.

They blindsided me so completely. It was obvious then they had been working against me from the beginning, pretending to be loyal to me, all while scheming in the background.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I managed to get out finally, gritting my teeth. “You two went behind my back and stole from the Novikovs. You were the rats, weren’t you?”

At that, an almost satisfied smile settled on Giovanni’s lips. Vinny looked somewhat uncertain, but he kept quiet.

“It only took you how long to figure it out?” The former said, crossing his arms over his chest while he held me in his gaze.

The confirmation only made my rage spike. “You’re the reason we were even on their radar in the first place…you caused everything.”

“Did we steal those firearms to give ourselves a head start? Yes,” he continued, sounding confident in his words. “Did we make you join that ridiculous marriage pact with that Novikov? No. We had nothing to do with that—that was all you. But it ended up working in our favor, surprisingly.”

That molten rage trudged through my system, threatening to burn everything in its wake.

“You betrayed me….”

“Ah, careful now. Don’t go throwing blame around, Aria,” Esidor said with an almost mischievous lilt to his voice while he kept his hands behind his back. “If anyone here can be called a traitor…if anyone here is guilty of betraying someone, it's you.”

My brows furrowed at that, not understanding what he was implying. My hands trembled faintly just from the sight of him. “What?”

He let some of his smugness falter while he stepped a bit closer. “You betrayed the family, our very name, the moment you teamed up with the Novikovs. The Russians .”

The word came out with nothing but pure vitriol, reminding me all over again how that stupid ideology had always been ingrained in him for no reason at all.

“And what the hell do you know about that?” I snapped, struggling to manage the pain and anger while it hit me in waves.

Esidor smirked, but the gaunt look of his face made it even more sinister. He leaned a bit closer. “I know that you were careless enough to let their men trap you…you made that pact with him to save your hide because you were stupid enough to not realize you had fallen right in their crosshairs. You did it out of desperation, and because of it, you made a significant portion of the family ranks turn on you.”

Bristling at his accusatory words, I didn’t want to admit he had been right—I did crack under the pressure and do something stupid. But it wasn’t for nothing.

“I wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place if it hadn’t been for those traitors behind you,” I muttered back, burning gaze moving between the three of them. My jaw tightened. “I was doing everything I could to make amends with the Levovs and Novikovs after everything—to get them off our backs so we could operate properly. So that I could make everyone happy. But by hijacking that trade, you two idiots brought all of that crashing down. How in the hell was that my fault?”

Mutual anger moved through Giovanni and Vinny at my words, but before they could say anything, Esidor leered at me.

“It doesn’t matter now. What matters is how we move forward.”

“Don’t act like this is normal,” I muttered, holding his gaze with a heartbreaking tangle of pain and disbelief still in my chest. I swallowed hard. “How the hell are you here right now?”

At the realization that Esidor still hadn’t explained anything to me, he sighed and stood to his full height again. “If you really must know, then I guess I might as well tell you…first, I should say I was just as surprised as you at first.”

Both curious and frustrated by it all, the former won, and I allowed him to continue.

“It’s still a bit blurry…but I remember being there during the altercation. The Novikov and his wife…the gun firing. I remember some of the burning pain in my chest…then it just melted away. Really, I thought I was dead. But it seemed my time wasn’t over yet,” Esidor began, expression shifting subtly while he recounted the memories, regardless of how faint they were. “I woke up in a safe house somewhere with a few trusted men watching over me…to be perfectly honest, I forgot I ever planted them among the Novikov ranks. When the time came for someone to haul my body away and dispose of it, they were the ones who pulled me out.”

My face was strained while he spoke, struggling to piece it all together. “But how…how did you survive the wound? Everyone seemed so sure you were dead.”

“Luck…divine intervention…who knows,” he hummed, looking almost thoughtful for a moment. “But I do know the shot managed to just barely miss the really important stuff. Of course, just because I survived doesn’t mean I got up and walked away—no. Those first few months were hell. Between being confined to a bed and the constant blood transfusions, I would’ve preferred for that bullet to have met its true mark.”

Something in me almost felt vaguely bad for him, but after another moment of consideration, it fizzled away again.

“And now that I’ve been given a second chance,” Esidor murmured, letting that burning disdain he had for the others simmer in his eyes. “I’m going to get back at those bastards for ever thinking they could take me out…for assuming they could just erase me and not suffer the consequences.”

My heart clenched at his words, more than aware of what that could entail. Despite having the opportunity to start over and live differently, he wanted revenge. Given how hellbent he seemed, and how that wrath surrounded him, I knew he wouldn’t give up until he got what he wanted.

“Even after everything, you’re still going to keep trying?”

“Of course I am,” he muttered, looking irritated that I even had to ask. “Thanks to you and your charity work with our associates, it seems you’ve rallied quite the support. And I plan on using that to my advantage.”

Another wave of anxious prickling moved through me at the mention of it.

With all the work I put in, I did manage to gain some influence among the other families. With that support on his side, Esidor could do whatever he wanted with it under the guise of working alongside me if that was his plan. He could manipulate things far more than he already had and could risk everything in the meantime.

With a sly grin, Esidor hummed and leaned a bit closer. “I should thank you for bolstering our name—maybe you’ve been useful after all.”

There was no warmth in his words, and I couldn’t ignore the twisting in my stomach.

Daniil likely had no idea what happened to me…and I had no way of knowing if he even noticed my absence. I didn’t know how much time had passed since the event, but I could only hope he’d somehow figure out a way to find me.

I didn’t want anything to happen to him, his family, or the empire I worked so hard to save after Esidor ruined it with his negligence.

And yet, he stood to risk it all simultaneously, and I couldn’t do anything about it.