Page 159 of Mafie Queen

“You got me good, Son. You’ll still lose soon enough.”

I sheath my sword and kick him again.Could I end this all now? Sure, but that wouldn’t be much fun.He played with me for years, so it’s only fair I return the favor.

I let him get to his feet as he continues to cackle. Asshole doesn’t know when to quit. He puts himself in a sloppy fighting stance and hardens his face right before he throws a punch. I block it easily, dancing around him and landing three hits to his gut before moving back out of range.

He looks stunned for a moment. I've never full-on sparred with my father since I started working with Dimitri. Within the first two weeks he realized he would lose, so my father gave the excuse about how ‘I wasn’t worth it’.

Coward.

That manic grin still crosses his features, making the hair on my skin stand to attention.

“You won’t kill me, Son. We are family. Blood, through and through.”

Just like that, the dam holding back my rage and aggression crumbles. I fly at him, my fists landing so hard I know I've broken bones in both his body and my own. Any attempt he makes to hit me back is so insignificant I don’t even feel it. I hardened myself to his abuse a long time ago, and to me, his punches are as weak as a toddler’s.

I pull back to dance around his battered body. My ring glistens with his blood, and his face shows imprints of it that I created just for my man and my little Shadow.

I hit him again, and again. So many times I lose count and can hardly breathe from the exertion.

I don’t stop until long fingers brush against my shoulder. I can taste blood, my lip is bleeding. I spit it on the piece of shit laying in the sand, groaning.

“Family isn’t who you share blood with. Family are the ones you’re willing to spill blood for.”

Lev pulls me back a step. We must have moved up on the beach as we fought, so we’re no longer in the water, but his skin and clothes are still wet. Lev walks up to him then, followed by Ivan approaching a second after.

Using the stem of a metal brush Lev said was his mother’s favorite, he drives it into Rostya’s arm, making him howl in pain.

When Rostya notices Ivan, his whole demeanor shifts, as if he fully forgot about the piece of metal sticking out of his arm.

“Traitor,” he seethes, as he pushes himself to stand. Rostya looks like shit and still thinks he’s in the position to throw venomous words.

Ivan doesn’t even blink as he lands a hit to his nose, blood cascading everywhere in a flash. Rostya’s head jerks back as he grabs his face with a wail.

Pathetic.

Alexi comes out from the shadows behind us, but we have been saving this special moment just for my father. Nessa makes her way down the beach, her red hair catching my father's attention.

“You’re supposed to be dead,” he exclaims.

“Foxes are hard to kill, Rostya. I heard my father still paid you though, so I don’t know why you’re complaining.”

She stands next to us with confidence, and Alexi moves to her side as if they are a unit. I smile at seeing this side of my people come together. We all came to this island broken, looking for something we didn’t have a name for.

It was soon after, with Evie, that we figured out what our souls craved. Family. One that understands you and loves you for exactly who you are. One that never makes you choose between love and life. But most of all, one that mends the pieces of your soul you thought were irreparable.

“So this is it?” My father asks, throwing his arms out wide in challenge to the group of us. “This is all you’ve got?”

A figure emerges behind him, waiting for just the right moment to reveal themselves.

“No, my friend. This is only the beginning.”

Rostya stiffens, turning slowly as his eyes bug out of his head.

“Boris?”

“In the flesh.”

My father nearly topples over, shock overtaking him as he all but falls to his knees. “I killed you.”

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