Page 28

The longer I had to wait there, sitting on the chair in the middle of the warehouse, the more men came in gradually.

It hurt to take stock of those faces, realizing which men betrayed me to follow Esidor along with my cousins. Knowing they had been following my orders as a ploy, only to turn around and stab me in the back.

My brother and the other two stood around, communicating with the others as they came in and seemingly coordinating something, but they kept their voices low.

They had plans...he’d had endless time to orchestrate some sort of bigger scheme during his recovery time, and as far as I could tell, he was preparing to get started.

Despite the zip ties around my wrists, nothing was keeping me in the chair. If I really wanted, I could get up and bolt, but given the number of armed men around me—all supporters of my brother—I likely wouldn’t make it more than two steps.

Despite brimming with anxious energy, I couldn’t move yet. I needed to be patient.

Even if it was near agonizing to feel as those men watched me with scrutinizing gazes, their disdain obvious.

They hated what I had done to the family and their ranks. They hated how I made them work alongside the Novikovs. That much was clear. But despite all of that, and despite Esidor’s claim that I ruined it all, I couldn’t help but feel that it was far from the truth.

I was taking the steps to make a change. I didn’t regret partnering with the Novikovs.

He had been the problem. Him and his ideals—his pride.

I wanted to scream at Esidor, to fight back and remind him who the real leader was while he stood there as if the title had never been taken from him. But the place I once commanded was no longer safe for me. It became enemy territory the moment he returned.

The sound of tires nearby claimed everyone’s attention, and a moment later Gabriel pushed the door open with a few men behind him.

My chest squeezed, but then my guard quickly went up again.

I hadn’t seen him since I was taken, and given all of the lies and deceit, I didn’t know which side he was on anymore. Silently praying he hadn’t been following Esidor’s orders all that time, I watched as he entered the room.

My brother seemed surprised at first, but then a look of expectation entered his features. “Ah, you changed your mind, did you, Gabriel?”

While he moved further with a scowl on his face, Gabriel pulled out his pistol as soon as the men behind him did. Of course, everyone on Esidor’s side did the same, causing a wave of cocking guns to echo within the warehouse.

Esidor’s expression clouded over while he realized what was going on, pulling out his weapon. While he knew the ranks had been fractured, it seemed he didn’t anticipate the others turning on him so blatantly. That they weren’t bending to his will.

“Not even for a moment,” Gabriel muttered, glancing over at me as if to reaffirm his stance before returning his dark eyes to Esidor. “You’ve betrayed your own sister…our real leader. I hoped for better from you, Esidor.”

My brother gritted his teeth, displeased by how everything was unfolding.

“Come off it,” he muttered, gun pointed right at Gabriel. “You and everyone else know my sister was just a placeholder until I came back. She was never meant to lead. She was meant to be sold off—that’s her worth.”

I bristled at the words, biting my tongue.

Given how the numbers were almost split down the middle, it seemed we were leading our own halves…and while I felt relieved to know I still had supporters, I wasn’t sure if it would be enough.

If the ranks were torn in half and made to fight it out, what would be left?

Something in me knew it wouldn’t be worth it.

Either way, we were fractured, and there was no coming back from it—not while Esidor was hell-bent on leading and getting his revenge.

“This is ridiculous,” Giovanni muttered, gesturing to the opposing crowd with his pistol. “All of you should be embarrassed…fighting for Russians and letting a woman call the shots.”

“I’ve been serving this family for more than half of my life, and neither you nor your father led as Aria has,” Gabriel returned, eyes set on Esidor before glancing to Giovanni and Vinny. “And you two…you’ve both disgraced the family name. You should be ashamed for ever deceiving her.”

Giovanni scoffed. “You’ve never had a backbone, Caruso. Always bending like a good dog regardless of who’s giving you orders. You’re no better than anyone else.”

“Enough!” Esidor yelled, voice bouncing off the walls. His previous smugness vanished entirely while the tension pulled even tighter. “I’m giving you all one last chance—either follow me or face the consequences for giving your loyalty to her.”

A spark of fear moved through me, wondering if it would be enough. If those supporting me could fend the others off.

Gabriel clenched his jaw, tearing his eyes from Esidor to offer me a reassuring look—telling me his faith was in me, and that there was nothing to worry about.

I wanted to believe him, but the room was stifling.

A civil war was the last thing we needed, but it was exactly what Esidor brought us.

Nobody dared to move, not when a single step forward could trigger an entire shootout. The moment was too volatile for any sudden shifts.

The shuffle of boots outside, along with more tires and slamming car doors, reached the warehouse, and my heart quickened.

For a moment, I wondered if more of our men were coming in, or associates deciding to take one side or another.

But the moment they forced their way inside, surrounding and parting my supporters down the middle, I knew it wasn’t more trouble.

It was the Novikovs. From the looks of it, Levovs too.

That was when he came in.

Daniil.

The relief I felt was immediate.

With his expression hard and focused, he looked every part the brutal man he had been before…the one who didn’t stop until he got what he wanted.

And he was there, rushing in with his gun cocked, aimed at Esidor and the others. His strong, sturdy presence cut through the room’s brutal tension, commanding every ounce of respect he deserved.

His eyes took in the entire scene before settling on me. That stoic look faltered only slightly then, as if trying to convey so many thoughts at once.

My brother’s face darkened at the realization that the scales had tipped in my favor—not his.

He was surrounded, and there was nowhere for him to go.

It was my game now.

Despite my hands being bound by the zip ties, I rose from the chair, eyes set completely on Esidor.

The panic and fear from before dissipated from my system, and a surge of reassurance took its place.

Something flashed in Esidor’s eyes the moment I stood up to him, and he turned his gun on me, aiming right at my chest. For a brief moment, his eyes gave way to a glimmer of uncertainty—a quick waver of his resolve.

Almost like for a fleeting moment, he had a heart again.

But it disappeared just as quickly, bringing in a new stubbornness he refused to let go of, and he tightened his hold on the pistol.

“So, you think you’ve won, then?” Esidor asked, voice intentionally quiet just for me, though his words dripped with venom. “You haven’t. You’re a traitor. A poison. You’ve made a mockery of this family with your bleeding heart. But that’s not how these things work…you can’t talk your way out, and you certainly can’t do business by making every family in this city your ally.”

The vitriol in his voice didn’t go unnoticed; I was well aware that he thought so little of me. Just like Dad, he only ever saw me as a bargaining chip, something to be sold off to the highest bidder.

I would never be a leader in his eyes. But it didn’t matter.

Regardless of the anger coursing through my veins, I kept my tone steady and calm. Unwavering.

“You’re right. I can’t talk my way out of this, and I don’t plan to,” I murmured, letting that fire and determination of mine guide me. “But I will say this—it doesn’t matter what you think of me. I’ve changed in ways you can’t even fathom. I’ve shaped myself and this empire into a new vision—one you will never understand, because in every way, it surpasses you and yours. You are just like the others…some man holding on to the past. I don’t know if you’ve realized this yet, Esidor, but that thinking is in the past now, and so are you.”

With Esidor’s mounting anger, it felt as though a shock of electricity moved through me—a surge of self-assurance I leaned into.

Hardening my gaze, I didn’t move despite the pistol aimed at me.

He could threaten me all he wanted, but I wasn’t going to bow to him. Not anymore.

“The moment you supposedly died, you took those useless, outdated ideologies with you, and in its place, I started something new. I brought us to where we are now,” I growled, firm with every word. I let my gaze roam the room, addressing everyone at once. “Because I’m the Pesci kingpin. I’m the one who calls the shots, I’m the one who forges alliances and moves everything forward. I make decisions that are right for this family, for this empire. And I’m also a Novikov.”

A heavy silence lingered in the warehouse, and at that moment, it seemed to be just me and him, with his gun in between us.

“If you cannot respect that or respect me, then I have no place for you. You are just in my way.”