Page 93 of Iron Crown

But that would be a problem for a different time.

“I will not stop until you are paid tenfold for what you have done here.” Her eyes darkened, emptying of anything that could look like a soul, and I saw in her the same madness I saw in myselfwhen I lost Kira. It was devilish and cruel. “I will never, ever stop until you, your son, your wife, your–”

“I would watch your mouth.” My eyes flicked to the child who stood mute, her face pressed to her nanny’s thigh. “Do not turn this massacre into a downright slaughter.”

She laughed. It was a terrible, soft, and menacing sound. “You have left me with nothing to lose, Green.”

She pressed Morelli’s head to her bosom, his closed eyes, and slack lips on her breast. I tried not to look. I didn’t need sorrow to overtake me right now.

Morelli wouldn’t think that dignified.

“I have nothing left to lose,” she said again, her lips pulling back until her teeth looked like fangs.

I looked at the child again. I glanced at the nanny, who had a protective hand on the girl’s back. Did she forget she had a daughter? Or was she like my own father in his madness, who forgot he had a son?

Poor thing.

“Make peace, Cosima,” I said quietly.

I would not kill a child. I would not be a party to it, the same way I could not let Yuliya Vasilieva be killed all those years ago. Even that was beyond a monster like me.

But the threat of it… that was within my abilities.

“Make peace, and think about your own legacy.”

“What legacy?” She came to her feet, that same angry smile, promising retribution and pain to me and mine, still in her features.

“Your fucking daughter!” I snapped.

She paled, as if she had remembered the girl just then. Like she had forgotten.

“She’s the last thing you have of Giovanni Morelli!” I reprimanded, feeling the anger of her disregard in my fucking being. “Do not add her blood to all that was spilled today.”

It was a warning that I hoped she’d comprehend.

I wasn’t seeing Cosima Durante before me, though. I was seeing my own father in his insanity, who had forgotten that his son was what he had left of the woman he claimed to love. I was seeing myself in the girl who clung closer to a nanny than she did to her own parent.

Giovanna and I were one and the same. But did that also make me the same as Anton Vasiliev, the man who had tortured and killed my mother?

“Surrender now.” That was Kira’s voice beside me, and I felt the relief of it as if she gave me the sweetest of caresses. As if her voice touched my brain with the comfort of her gentle tone. “Surrender now, and if you get revenge later, fine. But do not sacrifice your child for nothing.”

I stared at my wife, perplexed. I would never allow them revenge later. I would rather kill them now!

I felt that in my soul… until I looked back down on Giovanna. Her round, frightened eyes were the same as the rest of ours—of mine, of Yuliya’s, of my own son— we didn’t ask for any of this, but it was ours all the same.

“Mercy.” I heard Morelli’s voice in my ear.

His three fucking wishes in his final moments…

They were sacred, and only now did I feel the full burden of it.

Cosima’s lips pressed into a flat line. At least she wasn’t imagining wearing my guts as garters anymore…

“No one will ever accept such a thing. Only my death will appease your Irish. My people will never accept surrender. They will never trust you, or your leadership.” She scoffed. “I would never trust you.”

“You don’t have to.” Kira stepped forward, like the warrior queen that she was, looking between me and Cosima, her eyes calculating something. I waited, wondering what answer my wife had come up with. “Rose and Dairo married, tying the Bratva and Irish together in an alliance.” Her rich brown eyes flicked to me, and for a moment, I thought she was begging me to just back her play. “Aoibheann and Jericho married, making the bond even stronger.”

I clenched my fist, my jaw tightening, until I started to give myself a headache. I could see the gears turning. I could feel her train of thought, and I did not like it. Not one bit.

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