Page 11 of Thorns of Blood

Yet, I was terrified of bringing Emory DiLustro into Amara’s life. I didn’t want to lose her or risk her looking at me differently. I wanted to remain her whole world, just as she was mine. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be much left for me after I executed my revenge.

A small, weak voice startled me out of my thoughts. “Mother Liana?”

“Yes, my treasure?” I met her deep blue eyes, dull from the pain. The sight gutted me, but the knowledge that I could end it by having Emory brought to me terrified me even more. What if I lost my daughter to her birth mother?

“Do you miss the cold?”

I sighed tiredly. I did miss the snow, the ice-capped mountains, and the frigid air whipping at my skin. When Kian had offered a way out of the hell Perez kept my daughter and me in, I’d even considered returning to Siberia, but I knew it’d be the first place people would look for me.

So we stuck to Venezuela, where Amara was safe, and I worked my way through my revenge list. There was only one person left—The Mistress—but she’d soon regret the day she was born. She would experience firsthand what Liana Volkov’s wrath was all about.

“Do you miss it, Mother Liana?” Amara’s weak voice repeated, reminding me she was still waiting for an answer.

“Sometimes,” I responded truthfully, pacing while cradling her in my arms. “But being with you is the most important thing to me.”

“You have to promise me something,” she murmured, her eyes darting back to the vast blue horizon.

“Anything, my treasure,” I vowed.

“When I’m gone, you’ll go where there’s a lot of snow.”

Intense pain sent sparks through my body. Just the thought of being without her rattled my teeth, and I feared what would become of the world.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I told her, my voice sharper than I intended. “I won’t let anything happen to you, my beautiful Mara.” I resorted back to the shorter version of her name, making a promise to her and myself. “If it’s the last thing I do, you’ll have a long, beautiful life ahead of you.”

This little human was my last connection to humanity. Yes, my twin was somewhere on this planet, but that chapter was over and done with. She’d hate the woman I’d become. The mirror image of our mother.

“I can feel it,” she murmured, her eyes fluttering shut, those dark lashes stark against her pale hollowed cheeks.

It was precisely at that moment I decided to make a deal with Atticus Popov and have Emory DiLustro brought to me.

And to do that, I’d betray the only man who’d ever helped me.

FIVE

GIOVANNI

Afew weeks had gone by since I visited Louisa in Portugal.

After handling the business for the Omertà, I returned to Boston, which I considered home more than any other place.

“How was the trip?” Mateo Agosti, whose advice I always heeded, asked as he sank down in the armchair across from mine, a glass of scotch in hand. He might not be my biological relations, but we were still close.

I gave him a tight smile. “Which one?”

Taking a sip from his drink, he shot me a look. “The one for the Omertà and the visit to Venezuela for the cartel. Unless you handled something else?”

I finished half of my scotch in one gulp. “I went to Italy beforehand, then to Portugal.”

“Why Portugal?”

“Trust me, I’m asking myself that same question,” I muttered.

“Why?”

I shook my head. “I met with Louisa Volkov.”

“A good ally to have on your side.”