Page 123 of The Mafia Enforcer's Temptation

A strong hand yanks me backward, a gasp knotting in my throat.

“You’re a hard girl to grab, lass.” A rough Belfast accent grates against my ear.

I whip my head around, rage burning in my blood when I see his face. Holy shit. I recognize him. Hank. Hanlon. The man who must have set up the Semtex bomb. “And you are?”

He laughs. “You’re definitely your father’s daughter. A Pakhan without a bratva. I knew him well, Ava. And we had a deal. He was an honest man, said he’d wait until I served my time. For the cause. The Irish cause is everyone’s because we all want freedom, don’t we?”

I don’t say a word.

Freedom? Or anarchy, but I can see what he’s doing, building himself into a pillar of nobility, and using my father’s reputation to do it.

Maybe Dad did have some kind of deal, but I don’t need to honor it, and my uncle definitely didn’t. Even with the laws set in place within the bratva, if there’d been evidence of a deal for this man, then I suspect it might have been honored.

He smiles, and it’s not a pretty smile. It’s hard, jagged, and full of sharp teeth. “But ye’d know all this, wouldn’t you? Marrying one of mine. A Murphy, even. A good and noble family. I don’t want to hurt them, on account of their da.”

I just say, “Your point?”

“I just want you to know how much I’d like to utilize your bratva. The bratva. So small and yet so important.” He pauses, his hand tightening around my arm. “I’ve met your sister.”

Alarm bells blare between my temples.

“I don’t?—”

“You have a sweet little half sister, Eleanor Tatiana. She’s enjoying my Angie’s company.”

The smile’s still there, just below the surface. He watches me closely, waiting for me to ask who this Angie is, but really, why would I care? The person’s name doesn’t matter. Him having her does. And if he’s telling the truth, and there’s no answer from the Sheepshead Bay mansion where Tatiana lives with Iosif…

Air abandons my lungs. “You took her? From Iosif?”

Now the smile grows. “It’s a sleepover.”

I don’t trust this man at all. He’s exceedingly dangerous. And if it’s true that he has Tatiana, I need to be careful.

“You know, at first I thought Romanov had all the power of Volkov. After all, he had the crest. He should’ve moved it for that ridiculous photoshoot, don’t you think?” He sighs. “I thought maybe he wanted to shake things up, that he’d want to share the spoils of the routes with me. But then you and the Murphys showed up.”

“You want the routes, I can take you on as a client.”

“No, you stupid girl, that’s just a bonus. I want all that money and all the secrets that make up the Estevez Cartel. I could milk them dry, use them to do my bidding. I could do great things controlling a cartel. Your father held that over them and stupidly did nothing with it.”

“H-how do you know that?”

“It’s amazing what you can find out when you wave some cash around at greedy fuckers who’ll divulge anything to get their hands on it.” He pulls me in closer. “If I had that power, that cartel would have no choice but to band with me. I know the documents are somewhere, and you must know where as the daughter. The new Pakhan. I’ll have them, and your routes, with or without you.”

“I don’t know where anything like that would be kept. I doubt those documents even exist.”

He studies me. “I think you’re lying. Would you be willing to bet your sister on that? What about your lover? I’d hate to hurt the Murphys, but…”

He’s a fucking psychopath. But I only meet his stare and ignore his taunts. “As I said, I don’t know where those documents are, or if they exist.”

“They exist. Trust me. I have it on very good authority from an ex-cartel member that they do.”

I shiver, I can’t help it. The way he says ex, I know he means he killed them. “I don’t know the first place to look for them.” I force myself to think. “Maybe out in Brooklyn, but I don’t have keys to that house.”

“You have the Murphys. Use them.”

Dammit, I wish I had that gun. I wish… No. Wishes get me nothing. “Is Iosif alive?”

“He was. I think. My men are very enthusiastic.”