Page 55 of Undeniable

“Luca! STOP!” She wails.

I rush into the kitchen to see Luca’s hand buried into Tasha hair with a gun pressed against her temple. Ashlynn has thick black lines running down her face from her tears as she tries to talk Luca down.

“What the FUCK are you doing?” I roar.

Luca whips around to face me, dragging Tasha with him. The first thing that I notice, is the pure undiluted rage spread across Luca’s face. A look I have only seen once before, when Ashlynn was kidnapped. The next thing that I notice is that instead of fear, anger or sadness splaying across Tasha’s features like they are on Ashlynn’s, all I see is resignation. I am instantly on alert as I take a step closer to them.

Luca sneers as he presses the metal barrel deeper into her head.

“Tell him!” He shouts at Tasha, only inches from her face. “Let me hear that dirty little fucking mouth tell him the truth!”

“Tell me what?” I snap as I flick my eyes between the two of them, slowly inching my way closer in hopes that I can reach the gun before Luca does something stupid.

Tasha won’t look at me. Her eyes are trained on the ground, head sagging until Luca yanks her back up to look at me. Pain spreads across her face and it takes all my restraint not to beat the living shit out of him for touching her.

“Tell him you fucking bitch!” Luca spits once more.

A pained sob from Ashlynn tears through the silence as Tasha’s eyes finally meet mine. I see so much playing in those beautiful blue eyes that I don’t even know where to begin.

“Baby,” I say gently. “What is going on?”

“I haven’t been honest with you, Gio,” she says, her voice breaking softly.

My brows furrow as the anticipation inside of me begins to boil.

“I-I wanted to tell you. I didn’t know how. You weren’t part of the plan. I wasn’t supposed to get involved with anyone, let alone you. I just wanted to survive, and then you showed me that I wasn’t even living till now,” she continues.

Luca scoffs as his jaw tightens, his eyes burning a hole into the side of her head, no doubt right where he wants to put the bullet. I am close enough now though, that I feel confident in my ability to rip the gun away from him if need be. I am hoping it won’t even come to that though.

Tasha closes her eyes for a moment and blows out a harsh breath, as if letting all of what has been weighing her down rise from her shoulders before she looks straight at me, her face a blank mask.

“My name is Katerina Natasha Chernoff.”

The bouquet slips from my grasp to the ground as the whole world stills for a minute while I try to let her words compute, but they just don’t. No. Her name is Tasha Jacobson, why is she lying? Chernoff? Did she say Chernoff, as in…

“You are his daughter, aren’t you? One of the few that disappeared after we annihilated the Chernoff army all those years ago?” I ask, almost in disbelief.

She keeps that impassive look firmly in place as she gives me one short nod. Daughter. His fucking daughter. The man that took my wife from me, the man that took my sons mother from him. All this time, I have been the biggest fucking fool.

“Tell us where that fuck Dimitri is and what they know and then maybe I will only give you a quick bullet to the head,” Luca grits through clenched teeth as he sends a scathing look my way.

I know what he is thinking. I brought the enemy here. She broke bread with us, played with our children. Hell, who knows what she has overheard and relayed to them. It is all my fault, she played me, and I never even saw it coming.

“I told you. I haven’t been in contact with my family since I ran away years ago. Only my cousin,” Tasha says sharply.

Luca scoffs. “Who happens to be one of the highest-ranking members in the Chernoff family.”

“He doesn’t support Dimitri. Most of the men don’t, but there are many that do. The others, they are just trying to survive. The same as me.”

“Bullshit,” Luca growls. “I am sick of your fucking bullshit.”

I see Luca’s trigger finger twitch and I panic.

“Stop!” I shout. Luca looks towards me with a thunderous look that promises hell to pay for the interruption.

“Holy fuck, Giovanni. Wake the hell up. She used you. It was all an act to get close to us, and it fucking worked. She doesn’t love you. She deserves to die.”

I turn my gaze to her, a hardness settling over my own face and voice as I speak.

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