We push through the crows and the church doors are slammed open as our cars are pulled up to the front. Screeching tires, dust, screams from people behind us that my men are holding off as we rush into the car, slam the doors and pull away quickly.
1 reach over and pull the seatbelt on my Ariana as the sounds behind us fade away and we’re left with the heavy breathing in the car.
“That was fucking cool!” Hudson is the first to speak. There’s a long silence before I start laughing hard and Ariana looks up at me through her long lashes and breaks out in a smile and everyone starts laughing as well.
“You’re not mad?” She asks me.
“No, Angel, you went, you said what you wanted to and you stood your ground. I’m fucking proud!” I kiss her forehead. “But next time, give us a heads up, that was a little crazy.”
She goes to wipe the tears from her eyes when she looks at her hand that she’s had held in a fist.
“What’s that?” I ask seeing her open hand with a piece of paper.
“L.don’t know. Someone shoved it in my hand when you dropped me back there…”
She opens it and the car goes silent again.
“What is it, Don?” Jeremy asks as he looks in the mirror at us.
“It’s the name of a hotel? What the hell?”
I look at Ariana who is pale as fuck and shaking.
“Angel? What is this? What does it mean?”
“I know who killed my brothers.” She whispers.
She wouldn’t tell us anything more, just that we needed everyone together for her to tell this story.
Ariana.
We file into the house. I ask everyone to go to the living room. My guys look at me and then to the guards.
*Everyone. Because I’m only going to tell this story once and everyone here needs to know what we’re going up against. I take a seat in one of the club chairs and my guys take the love seat across from me while the guards line themselves around the room.,
“Honey, what does this note mean?” Tony asks as everyone watches and waits for my answer. I take a steadying breath and look up at him.
*A year before I ran away, I was 17, and my father had given me a mission. One of many missions. The men I had eliminated for him before were lowes class scum, drug dealers, people my father could easily gain from their deaths…but he had grown tired of the little amount of he was making off each job and decided for a larger target. He had arranged for me to be sold off into marriage, but he still wasn’t happy with the wenwand he would get for the price of losing his assassin. He wanted me to be married and then to kill him so he could take everything… It was the night briose that wedding and over the three months we had been engaged I had grown a liking to him…I didn’t want to kill him anymore. He had shown and promised me a better life and I want it, so I would not kill him, but one of his guards had discovered messages from my father trongling everything and be turned on me. I tried to explain to him, but no one wanted to listen, no one gave a fuck what I had to say and they Graded them and there that they would take my head and send it in a box back to my father. I barely made it out of there alive…I thought…I Shanghai kified kun, I thought I put a dagger in his heart but i must have made a mistake in my haste to get through his guards and him to my awa, kulty”
“Who was the max, Aria? Lurkan ake and the way he says my name has me shitting fucking bricks. I remember when he wouldn’t listen to er, when furtured on me as well and I stand to defend myself quickly, but this time Luca and Tony stand and hold my hand.
“Landa Iking cane ber? Laca say
Tes sorry. Few sony, Anget, please. You must understand I don’t like to hear about how you loved another and were going to marry him.” He kuck down at búa hands upset with tarif and I squeeze Tony and takes hands to thank them for their support.
hapter 60
“Alexander Ivanov…” I say with a wavering voice.
I feel the shift in the room and everyone goes ridged.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Boss…who is that?” Brody asks.
“Alexander Ivanov, I found out through our engagement is the head of the Russian Mafia. He was crowned young as his father had been killed and needed a wife to bare himself an heir. That is initially why he accepted my father’s offer for marriage between our families, because at the time not many families with ties to this life had daughters his age, and those that did not want to hand them over to him.” I say.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s a fucking animal.” Luciano says. “His father was killed when he was six and the remaining made men threw his mother out and raised him with a ruthless and brutal sense of ruling. He kills without mercy, without thought. He takes what he wants and gives nothing back.” Luciano says running his hand through his hair as he gets up to pace the room.
“He wasn’t like that with me though…not until he found out what my father had planned.” I whisper.
“So he’s alive. What does he want? Because he can’t have you.” Tony speaks up as his grip on my hand tightens.
“He probably wants me dead…I mean look what he did to my brothers and they only had a hand in helping me scout him.”
“Fuck! Go up to our room, Angel. I need to talk with the guys and figure out a plan.”
“I’m not going anywhere! This is my mess and I want to help!”
“Princess, please…Let us protect you. We’re here, all of us, we want to keep you safe.”
1 let out a long sigh and bite my tongue with what I want to say and turn to leave the room. Fucking protective ass, stupid, bloody, fucking sexy men. I roll my eyes and mutter to myself up to the room.
I don’t even notice until I’m inside the room that there’s a massive bunch of red roses laid out on the bed. Wrapped around the stems is the necklace that Alexander had gifted and ripped from my neck that night as I stabbed my knife into his chest. There’s a card tucked into the flowers and I carefully take it out to read but with it fall a bunch of photos. The photos are of me and my guys… Inside this house. Oh fucking shit balls. My hands start to shake as I read the note.
“My darling. I see you have been having fun. Play time is over. I want what was promised to me. I will be coming to collect. See you soon. Alexander.
Fuck! I drop the note and run to the door and pull it open. Screaming when Ramen and Brody turn around.
“Donta? Are you okay?” Ramen asks frantically.
“Get my guys, now!”
