Page 67 of Savage Bratva King

He did what I asked him to do. He planted the seed for Xander Amory when he had the head of one of his men delivered to him in a velvet-lined casket with an apple in his mouth like a stuffed pig. He opened the floodgates, showed the Sicilian a way in, and waited for him to bite.

Which he inevitably did. In typical Amory style, the severed hand delivered to my home belonged to the future son-in-law of the Chicago police commissioner. The same police commissioner who raided my warehouses a couple of nights ago on a tip-off from the Sicilian mob. The same police commissioner who is determined to clamp down on organized crime in his city commencing with the Ivanov family.

“We had no choice.” I down the liquid in my cup and refill it. The buzz is nowhere near strong enough yet.

“Bull-fucking-shit, Leo.” Victoria’s eyes harden. “You had plenty of choices, but you can’t see beyond this ridiculous vendetta against Amory. You don’t even care that an innocent man was murdered last night.”

She’s angry, I get it. When our parents call in Victoria, we all know that shit is going down. But this is what she’s paid to do: keep us looking visibly legal, keep us on the right side of the police commissioner, and clear up the mess. My sister is the only person in the world I can trust with this, but Andrej is right, no one can resolve issues on the spot the way Victoria can, which is why I kept her in the dark.

“Firstly, the guy wasn’t innocent.”

“True.” Andrej inclines his head. “No one ever is.”

Victoria inhales deeply and flashes him a warning look to keep quiet if he knows what’s good for him. “Go on, Leo.”

“He wasn’t receiving handouts from the Italians for no reason.”

Her expression remains neutral. “And secondly?”

“Secondly…” Fuck, I’ve lost my train of thought, and I can’t tell if it’s the hangover or the mental image of Gianna watching me lick out her pussy on the floor of my study last night.

“Please don’t try telling me that you do care.” Victoria is still waiting for me to give her something she can work with, and until she gets it, she’ll be in full-on Rottweiler mode.

I rest my elbows on the table and lean forward. “Xander Amory knows that I’m holding Gianna, but what has he done about it?” I don’t wait for my siblings to respond. “He’s biding his time. All Andrej did was give him a little push in the right direction.”

“Which direction is that?” Victoria asks.

“Straight into a blackout tunnel. Now all we have to do is block both ends and trap him inside.”

“Wonderful imagery there, brother,” Andrej says. “Anyone would think you’ve been reading the classics in your spare time.”

“Andrej!” Victoria snaps. “If you’ve got nothing constructive to say then keep your fucking mouth shut.”

“Whoa, sis.” He raises his hands in mock surrender. “If I’d known you were going to be this antsy, I’d have brought the swear jar. I could be on my way to Vegas now with a pocket full of cash.” At Victoria’s pursed lips, he draws an imaginary zip across his mouth.

“Leo, please continue.”

“Xander will try to pin the murder on us. It plays straight into his hands if the commissioner takes us down. The war will be over, and he’ll declare himself the victor.”

“Okay.” Victoria stares at a spot behind my left shoulder while she processes the information so far. “That would never work. He’s not exactly Mr. Innocent; he wouldn’t risk bringing the spotlight down on his own head at the same time.”

She’s intelligent, my sister. She graduated from Harvard with the highest honors in her year, but it’s her natural intuition that sets her apart from her peers. This is why I could never run the family business without her.

“The victim wasn’t his intended target.” That gets her full attention.

“Who was?”

“A mole.”

“A mole?” She shakes her head. “Come on, Leo, you’ve got to give me more than this.”

“I will when I’ve figured it out.”

Victoria addresses Andrej. “Did you know about this?”

Andrej makes an exaggerated display of unzipping his mouth. “I don’t know who it is either, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Victoria’s shoulders slump. “What the fuck, Leo. Why didn’t you mention this sooner? What are you going to do about it?”

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