Page 22 of Goodnight, Sinners

It was worth it. Bringing Shaun to Poland was worth leaving his post for a few days. If he was being honest with himself, Jozef had to admit he was more relaxed too, refreshed, and determined to make their new life work in a way he despaired of a few days earlier.

Chapter Eleven

“You can’t take off like that.”

Jozef stared across his desk at his second-in-command.

The moment Jozef was back in the mansion, Havel hunted him down and insisted on a meeting. Though he’d kept his distance while they were in Poland, he’d been furious at Jozef’s impromptu vacation.

Jozef understood. They were in the middle of a takeover, the Bratva were breathing down their necks, the Koba women were in the wind, probably scattered across Europe looking for allies. Jozef had abandoned his responsibilities to give Shaun some time away from the pressures surrounding them and the grim reality of living in the mansion again.

“We need to talk about this,” Havel snapped when Jozef failed to react to his demand. “I can’t protect you if you go off on your own. Our enemies could’ve been sitting at the gate, waiting for you to emerge without your usual entourage. Hell, you didn’t even try to cover your tracks into Poland. We were on your tail almost the entire way. The only reason we didn’t catch up right away is that damn Bugatti is faster than anything else we have.”

Jozef let out a growling laugh. When Shaun had fallen asleep, he’d let the car fly, opening it up to its full potential as it ate up the highway.

Instead of addressing Havel’s concerns, Jozef signed,my cousin is the Phantom.

Jozef watched Havel’s face closely. Havel was loyal to a fault. He was the one person besides Shaun that Jozef would rely on without a second thought. But Havel loved Jozef’s cousin with an unrequited longing that could twist his loyalties. Jozef knew, because he loved Shaun the same way. Though she returned his love, Jozef knew she didn’t feel the obsessive pull he did. If she asked him to kill Havel, Jozef wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Of course, part of the reason he loved Shaun was because she would never ask him to do such a thing.

Jozef knew he was fucked up inside. Accepted it in the way he accepted the mafia life as his only course of existence. It was the same for Havel. They were mafia through and through. They were brothers, but they were also twisted.

If Havel loved as deeply as Jozef, then their friendship and partnership could be in jeopardy. It was why Jozef was being blunt with his second-in-command and watching the other man’s reactions closely.

Though Havel had stood by when Jozef ordered Leeza’s death a few weeks earlier, Jozef had felt the other man’s resistance, his pain. It was the same thing Jozef had felt when he’d put a gun to Shaun’s head. The pull between worlds. To kill the woman he loved or to let her live.

“It makes sense,” Havel said, his face still in the same hard lines they’d been in when he confronted Jozef. “Saskia has been a sneaky thorn in the side of this family for years. She must’ve started young, though. The first rumours we had that the Phantom was active started a few years ago. She would’ve been around fifteen.”

Jozef was amused at Havel’s assumption. He hadn’t thought of Saskia, but the brat certainly had the potential to cause the havoc the Phantom had caused in the Koba family.

Jozef shook his head.Not S-A-S-K-I-A.

Havel stared at him. “Impossible.”

Jozef stared back, giving Havel time to absorb the new information. It took Havel about as long as it had taken Jozef to connect the dots. Leeza’s withdrawal, her secretive nature, her trips to the gun range. Her shopping getaways that failed to produce the expected purchases.

“I don’t understand,” Havel said, his voice low. “I thought I knew her.”

Jozef thought Havel was talking to himself rather than Jozef, but he caught Havel’s attention and began signing, telling the other man everything, including Leeza’s parentage.

The two men discussed the recent development at length, piecing together the story until they thought they came up with the complete picture.

“Why do you think she kidnapped Krystoff?” Havel asked.

It’s only a guess until we can get our hands on her, but I think it was for two reasons: to see if she could infiltrate the family with her newfound resources, and for revenge.

“Revenge?”

Jozef nodded.My uncle pushed her into a marriage she hated. We all thought her withdrawal was from a bad marriage, but I now believe it was so she could build her new empire.

“She was always smarter than we gave her credit for,” Havel murmured, still looking like he’d been struck with a bat.

Jozef couldn’t disagree. Leeza had been the quiet, obedient one. She didn’t get in trouble like her sister. As a result, she was often overlooked, left to her own devices. Even as a child.

Jozef remembered back to the day he accompanied her on a trip to the gun range and discovered she could easily out-shoot any man on the property. When Jozef had commented, she’d laughed it off and said she’d played too many video games with Saskia as a child. Jozef knew better now.

Havel asked the million-dollar question. “What are you going to do?”

Jozef made a decision that he’d been contemplating since discovering who Leeza really was. He couldn’t leave her to run loose. She was too dangerous now, and she carried the genes of her mother. Dasha had shown how the intelligent women of their family could go wrong. It would be a deadly mistake to underestimate Dasha’s daughter.

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