Page 154 of Mafie Queen

“You were never going to win this war. But thank you for playing the game.”

He spits a mouth full of blood at my feet while I hold back a cringe of disgust.Can we not at least be dignified in battle? By the Devil's pitchfork, that is just disgusting.

“I won the fight with your father.”

My jaw clenches as he advances towards me, but I block his hits easily, which means the drugs are starting to work. I could have taken Adrik easily, but making sure the driver of his boat slipped him a little revenge cocktail felt like a punishment that fit the crime.

After all, he drugged her, made her climb a cliff, forced her to her knees to be used by a predator, and so much more. This is the least of what he deserves.

“Didyou win that fight?” I ask, placing my hands in my pockets to refrain from tackling him to the ground and ending it all here.

He scoffs. “He’s dead, so I’d say so.”

Adrik tries to circle me, not even noticing the way he stumbles on the flat surface.

“Ishe dead though?”

He looks at me with horror in his eyes, and I give him a cruel smile that could rival the Joker’s. You don’t just assassinate the former leader of the Bratva with a single bullet. He’s much too strong for that.

“I would run if I were you, Adrik.”

I hate to do it, but for phase three, it will work better if he is already afraid. He needs more adrenaline pumping for the full effects. So, I let him run off as I say over the comms, “Ready phase three.”

Chapter 56

As soon as Alexi started to head to the cliffs, I left the surveillance room and positioned myself for phase three. Havoc stands by my side in the heavily wooded forest with a gun in his hand, his eyes scanning our surroundings constantly.

I reach for his free hand and squeeze once before readying an arrow in my bow. Twigs snap in the distance, and Lev’s voice comes over the comms.

“Ten yards southeast and closing.”

“My job,” I say as I walk to the table and point to the wooded area not far from the security building, “will be to take this path down to the treeline to meet with Havoc.”

I move both of our pieces on the map. “I will wait for Adrik to stumble our way, then hit him with an arrow that has been dipped in a nice hallucinogenic drug. But, I won’t strike anything fatal.”

Havoc steps up to the table then.

“We will wait and supervise him so he doesn’t kill himself while on his fun little trip, then I will deliver a second, lower dose. Laney and I will herd him towards the airstrip.”

“That’s when I’ll come out of hiding,” Evie says. “I want to see his face just before the drugs wear off, and I want him to be more scared than he has been in his entire life when he looks at me.”

“I will remove his guns while he is seeing shit,” Havoc adds.

“I’ll be watching you guys the whole time,” Arrow says. I feel bad he can’t be more a part of the plan, but he knows it’s too soon.

He may be walking and even driving, but his endurance lasts long enough for him to walk to and from the bathroom and sometimes the kitchen. It’s not enough to be out in the middle of this.

“Let us know if anyone is at our backs or if any of our people need backup?” Havoc asks. I know he’s giving him more to do to help him feel like he’s part of this, and dammit, I love him for it.

“You know I will.”

“Right,” Evie says. “Lizz will then move with the rest of her team to clear out the landing strip while Damien and Havoc’s team handles any stragglers on the beach.”

“And then we move to phase four.”

Adrik stumbles into sight, looking panicked and much worse for wear. His shirt is torn, his nose is gushing blood, and he only has one shoe. I snort under my breath at that. I wonder if he lost it on the cliffs, or if Alexi got him to take it off somehow.

Shaking my head, I line up my sight with the man whose mere image was enough to frighten me only a few months ago. He had me under his thumb for a while, controlling my movements. He threatened my sister in the most vulgar of ways. Threatened to send me into sex slavery just to pay for what I cost him.

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