Page 46 of Born into Darkness

I watch as the two men walk into the room—one with greying hair and a smug look on his face, the other with jet-black hair and a much more cautious air about him, both of them in suits, and both of them looking every bit like men who don’t bow easily. This is going to be a real eye-opener for them.

Lorenzo and his son stand in the corner so they can face all of us at once. I’m stunned by the hubris of these fuckers. They’d rather walk into this room, thinking they can sweet talk their asses out of this mess, than fight us. At least in a gunfight, they might stand a chance—a really fucking small one, but at least it’s a chance. In here? They were as good as dead as soon as they crossed the threshold.

TheJefeof the Amaya Cartel gives a soft laugh and looks around at us. “You boys have had your fun. You killed some of my men, and you’ve got your kids back. We’re even, so let’s talk business and figure out a deal.”

I let out a harsh laugh. “You came into our territory, kidnapped two of our sons, tortured them, and ruined my son’s hand. You’re a fucking dead man, Lorenzo.”

“He’s alive,” he starts to argue, but before he can say anything else, Mateo surprises the hell out of all of us by raising his gun and firing one shot into the side of his dad’s head. Before his body’s even hit the floor, Mateo is holding his hands up with his finger off the trigger, making it clear he’s not a threat.

“Jesus, kid,” Vitaly says. “And I thought I had daddy issues.”

Mateo looks at us and then runs his eyes over the dead body that’s off to the side. He gives Talia a nod. “Glad to see the knife helped.”

“It did. Thank you,” she says. She looks at her brother and uncle before putting her focus on her dad. “He saved our lives. Without that knife, Miguel would’ve killed us.” She points at the dead man, and there’s no way in hell Vasily doesn’t notice the very incriminating detail of the man’s unbuttoned pants. Talia’s sugarcoating it. He was going to do a lot more than kill her. “He also brought us extra food and water and did his best to keep the guards from hurting us.”

Vasily looks back at Mateo, clearly torn between wanting to kill him and wanting to let him live for saving his daughter. “Why’d you do it?” he asks, nodding at Lorenzo’s body.

“I don’t want a war with the Bratvas,” he says. “I told my dad it was a bad idea, but he wouldn’t listen. He became too emotional about it and wouldn’t see reason.”

“So just like that?” I ask. “Why not shoot him earlier and end all this?”

Mateo shrugs. “There was still a chance I could convince him to see reason, but it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, so he needed to go.”

“You mean it became clear about five minutes ago?” I ask.

“Yes,” Mateo says, not sounding even slightly affected by having to shoot his dad. “He was ruining the cartel.”

“Oh, your cartel is fucking ruined,” Vitaly says with a laugh.

“We’ve suffered a setback,” Mateo says in the world’s biggest understatement. “But we’re still the Amaya Cartel, and we can come back from this.”

“You think so?” Roman asks.

“I have no desire to interfere with your territories.” Mateo looks around the room. “You’ll never see or hear from my family again.”

“You shot our men,” Matvey says. “We saw you on the security footage.”

Mateo meets my brother’s eyes. “And you shot mine. I was following orders that day. Surely, you can understand that.”

Muffled groans of pain filter in from the hall, and when I look over, I see Lev grinning right before Sasha walks in with Volodya and his sons right behind him. All four of them look like they’ve been enjoying a literal blood bath, and as soon as Talia catches sight of his mask, she lets out a horrified, “Oh my god,” and clamps a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that wants to come out.

“Take your mask off, son,” Lev says. “You’re scaring her.”

Sasha looks over at Talia. The white of his mask is now covered in blood, his hair and chest are soaked in it, and the serrated knife he’s holding is coated in red and dripping spots of blood onto the cement by his boots. It’s an eerie sight to see, even if he is my nephew and I used to change his diapers. He lifts his mask, but the dead look in his eyes has Talia letting out another scared sob. He can usually hide the dark part of himself, but he’s killed too many people tonight, and there’s no hiding who he really is right now.

“Put the mask back down, Sasha,” Vitaly says, giving his nephew a grin. “You look scarier without it right now. Let’s cover the crazy.”

The corner of Sasha’s mouth lifts in the smallest of grins before he slides the mask back down. Lev looks over at Talia. “I promise he won’t hurt you.”

She nods, but she doesn’t look convinced and stays slightly behind her older brother. Her uncle and cousins aren’t looking any more sane than Sasha, but I guess she’s used to their brand of crazy. I watch Volodya nudge Valeri and say, “Twenty with a knife, fifteen with a gun.”

“Fucker,” Valeri mutters. “I was in here. I didn’t go running off into the woods like a fucking psycho.”

“Don’t be a sore loser,” Volodya says with a grin.

Dima looks at his phone and interrupts them by saying, “Bran says it’s quiet outside. We need to go.”

Tony spreads out the canvas stretcher and then helps Matvey and me lift Max onto it.

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