Not even ten minutes after we got home, Curtis came blazing into the house, having rushed over as soon as he heard the news.“Angelica? Mother?” He let out a sigh of relief when he saw us sitting in the living room. “Are you both okay?”I nodded and so did Crystal, though she didn’t look okay. She was pretty shaken up by the incident.Maverick walked in after Curtis, hurrying as fast as he could—which was much slower than Curtis thanks to his age.“Hey, Ricky.” I waved when he was close enough.“She’s fine if she can still make fun of me and call me that god-awful nickname.” He grumbled.I smiled. I was starting to understand Maverick. Although he still suspected I was a fraud and my marriage to Curtis was fake—which, to be fair, he was right about—he didn’t exactly hate me. His ability to joke at my expense proved that.Curtis took my hand and checked me all over to make sure I was okay. Satisfied with my condition, he checked Crystal over and pulled her into his arms. “Do you want t
I felt like crap.First, I sought out an enemy of my husband to help me dole out revenge, then I found out I was already entangled with him by merely existing, and now I was taking a secret note from him without my husband’s knowledge.If there was an ounce of romantic feelings between me and Yakov, I would consider this cheating.However, I doubted Yakov saw me as a woman. He probably saw me as a task he was meant to complete. The feeling—or lack thereof—was mutual.Even so, the sooner this alliance ended, the smoother everything would be. The last thing I wanted was another fight with Curtis.So, promising myself it would be the last time I kept any secret communication with the Bratva, I peeked at the content of the note.It was an address, followed by Yakov’s incomprehensible words, “two floors underground.”This was where he had said I would find my gift. If he could simply speak in a comprehensible language, I would appreciate it.….The good news was Curtis was way too busy to
LyraThree days ago.I did not expect to meet the Mafia Boss again. Since I failed to complete his task in Arcron, the worst-case scenario I expected was to be cornered and killed out of the blue—the best one being him forgetting I existed.No such luck.I was scribbling down my dream from the night before—which was insanely odd this time. How could a woman I had only seen once be featured in my dream? Anyway, putting aside how insane it sounded, I was just finishing up writing when I heard a knock on my window. I peeked out and my heart almost jumped out of my chest.I opened the window frantically. “What are you doing here?”The man squeezed into my room, looking comical as his huge suit-clad frame made its way through my window. “You’ve been away from work. This is the only other way I could think of.” He frowned.And who was to blame for my absence at work? I had taken a week off to give him time to forget about me. It turned out, that was useless.“If you’re going to sneak into
AngelicaI had to knock the guard out for this kind of conversation. I stared at the man in the cell like he was a ghost. Well, he was a ghost.“Uncle Nikov?” I asked in shock. He wasn’t really my uncle but I called him that as a child. He was Papa’s best friend. “How did you end up here? I have so many questions.”“Fergus kept me as a trophy.” He hissed.What do you know? Fergus’s enemies kept piling up in numbers. Was he addicted to causing trouble?Uncle Nikov spent the next ten minutes filling me in on how he ended up here.Right before tragedy struck, Spider had been fussy as hell, so he’d decided to go to our house to find something to feed him and one of Lyra’s toys for him to play with. The cathedral was actually an abandoned cathedral that came as a freebie when my parents purchased the land where they built their house, so the house was only a short distance away. He heard the gunshots on his way back and found the nearest exit to push Spider through, then he called for rein
I had a million questions and Spider knew that. He didn't keep me waiting. "When I went to Arcron, I found out she was alive." He said. I wanted to slap the hell out of him. "You told me she was dead." "The Viper made me, okay? I didn't have much choice." He defended himself. You always have a choice, I wanted to tell him, but I hadn't been making the best choices either. "She was adopted by a wealthy family. They call her Eloise now. She works here to calm herself down after the craziness of her home and school life. The customers all love her." I could totally see that. She was speaking to everyone with a friendly smile and although there were so many of us, she managed to make sure everyone's needs were met. She returned to our table and once again looked like she wanted to bolt away. "Would you like anything on today's special menu? We have a buy one get one free cappuccino offer." "Put it all in one cup for me," I asked. I needed a humongous amount of caffeine to deal wi
Curtis “Where have you been?” I asked when the front door finally opened. Angelica had been out since this afternoon and her phone had been off. I knew Spider had something to do with the fact that she somehow disappeared off the road and couldn’t be traced. She walked over to the couch where I was sitting waiting for her and leaned down to kiss me. “I went out for a walk.” “A walk? It hasn’t been two days since someone tried to shoot you!” I didn’t mean to yell at her. I just couldn’t believe how carefree she could be right now. Both the hitman and their mastermind had vanished into thin air. They could be following her every move for all we knew. She planted her butt on my lap and wrapped her arms around me. “Some things are inevitable, Curtis. Even if we find out who did it, they will still come after me. Why not enjoy what’s left of my life before it’s over?”She was serious and that was concerning. “Who is after your life?” “Many people.” She shrugged like it meant nothing.
We rushed to the hospital as soon as we heard the news, not because we cared about our father but because the whole family was under suspicion and no one wanted investigators crawling into their business. The only one crying about his death was Millie. It was s surprise. Didn’t she only want him for money? Was she heartbroken that there was no longer any chance of her getting any now that he was dead, or did she actually care about him? It didn’t matter. What mattered was what the doctor had to say to Giancarlo and me—he assumed us to be father’s closest relatives, being his eldest children and all. “He did not die from his injuries.” He told us when it was just the three of us in his office. “He had multiple new injuries but after looking into it, we believe they were inflicted post-mortem.”“Who would do that?” Giancarlo asked. The doctor studied us as if trying to gauge whether or not to tell us everything. “I have only heard rumors about this person before but…come with me.”
Angelica The events from the day before flooded my mind as soon as I woke up. First, I took Spider to the secret dungeon to meet Uncle Nikov, then I found out Lyra was alive and being used by The Viper, then I realized that meant Spider had been double-crossing me all along—all in one day. I groaned. Why did everything have to be so complicated? As much as I would have loved to crawl back under the covers and pretend none of it was happening, I was sure I had awoken to a gentle knock on the door. It took until I got out of bed to realize Curtis’s watch was not on the nightstand where he always left it when he came to bed. He didn’t come home last night—not that it was any of my business. Remembering the knock that had woken me up, I opened the door and smiled at the sight of Crystal, carrying a small tray with a bottle of wine and two stem glasses. “Hi, Crystal. Is it your birthday?” “No. I’m sorry if I woke you up. I just assumed you were awake seeing what time it is.” I had no