Page 101 of Full Throttle

“I’m beginning to think I recruited the wrong brother,” he mused, clearly entertained.

My eyes shot to him. “No, you didn’t.”

His eyes flashed. “How can you be so sure?”

“Because you’re the reason Xander finally feels like he has a fucking purpose in this life,” I told him truthfully.

Collin’s brows slowly came together. “I see.”

I was done with that conversation. I didn’t want to talk about Xander. Fuck, I didn’t even want to talk about Kavi. I wanted to get the fuck out of here and race to Nik, to be with her before I had to leave—again.

“We know Kavi is in the Devils Den,” I stated, looking back to Ivan. Of course, the man was too worn down to hide his reaction.

Suddenly, that Bratva confidence shattered, and as the pieces fell down to the ground, Ivan started pleading for mercy. “Don’t. He’s just a greedy man,” he tried to reason with us, his accent thicker now. “I—I can convince him to leave the States—to leave the Italians and Oasis alone.”

“Too late,” Collin said calmly. “Your boss has made quite the mess.”

Ivan shook his head quickly. “No, I can. He’s compelled by greed. He doesn’t—I don’t even know why he wants to have power over here. Truly. He just wanted was what Romano had.”

“You mean what I have,” the Mafia King corrected him darkly.

“I’m sure if you just give him what he actually wants, he’ll give up the trading routes and trafficking. You can have all of that, Mr. Stevens!” he cried out, desperation consuming him now.

What Kavi didn’t know was the trafficking Romano used to be in control of was being shut down by Collin and the FBI. Both the Mafia and Oasis want nothing to do with flesh trading. We were happy to focus our energy on other products—and it was way more lucrative.

“I don’t negotiate with people who threaten the people I care about,” Collin stated, stepping up to Ivan, pressing the tip of the blade against Ivan’s mid-section. “And I definitely don’t show mercy to people who threaten my wife.” Those words came out as a low growl as Collin shoved the knife into Ivan, the man letting out a scream of agony.

Once the blade was inside, Collin looked at me. “I hear you’ve volunteered to go.”

I nodded.

“You aren’t going alone,” he told me, turning to grab another blade as Jer watched Ivan.

Dontell grunted from my side. “Fucking right about that.”

“But we can’t send in Oasis’ top racers, boys,” Jer added. “You’d be targeted. We have a lot of enemies.”

“I have a lot of enemies,” Collin said, turning to face us again. “We’ve been over this. Oasis is in this—”

“Because you’re not just a business partner—you’re family, Stevens,” Jer cut him off. He looked over where Leon stood, then back to where Dontell was standing. “We knew what we were getting into when we signed on with you. Let’s not have a repeat of that conversation. It isn’t needed. What’s done is done.”

We all grunted in agreement. There was no changing the past, only the future by protecting what we had in the present.

Ivan started crying, and Leon let out a growl of annoyance. Then he walked over, grabbed more tape and slapped it over the man’s mouth. “Shut the fuck up,” he ordered.

“I can handle myself,” I told them, circling back to Devils Den.

“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” the Mafia King chuckled, stabbing Ivan with a second blade. A muffled grunt came from the man as he thrashed in his chains. We all watched as blood began to soak his shirt.

“Look, it’s been a long morning. We’ll continue this at Oasis later, yeah?” Jeremy said.

I nodded.

Good.

I needed to tell Nik first anyways.

Collin, Jer, and Dontell stayed behind to finish off Ivan while Leon and I headed out. Once we were in front of our cars, he spoke. “You go in there alone and something happens, what are we going to do?”

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