I’d finally found a weakness worth exploiting.
What happened in the dark that evening proved that she was just as attracted to me as I was to her. Good. That meant I could make her suffer a little. Now that I’d discovered the attraction between us was mutual, I was going to use that to my advantage.
Henceforth, whatever actions I would make would be justified because it wouldn’t be me forcing myself on her. It was going to be a battle of two adults lusting over each other.
This should be fun.
Sitting in my office this evening, my mind flashed back to the moment the lights came back on. The look on her face when she saw me seated in my chair across the table, as though I’d never left, was priceless.
I saw the confusion in her eyes. She wasn’t sure whether what she experienced in the dark was real. And she sadly couldn’t bring herself to ask.
Me?
I just sat there that night, watching her struggle to make sense of what had happened. She didn’t ask. And I didn’t bother to answer. So, we sat there in the awkward silence, eating, with her shooting occasional glances at me.
That…was the moment the game began. At least for me, anyway.
The door creaked open, the sound pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Boss.” It was Konstantin.
I looked up at him without a word.
“There’s a new development.”
I squinted my eyes a bit, knowing what this was about.
Just yesterday, he’d caught another traitor, a man named Mikhail Sokolov. Like Bogdan– the idiot who planned to sell my ledger to a rival group—this moron also thought he could double-cross me.
Mikhail was one of my most loyal foot soldiers, yet he chose to betray me. That’s why trust was a luxury men like me couldn’t afford in my world. Anyone could turn against us at any moment, especially if they had the right motivation.
Some men turned traitors because of greed—money. Others did the same out of their own personal grievances. I once had a soldier who turned on me because, according to him, I was too ruthless and had no regard for the lives of men.
Of course, he was with his maker now, together with every Tom, Dick, and Harry that had betrayed me. Loyalty was non-negotiable, and the punishment for treachery was death.
The only reason Bogdan was still alive after trying to sell my ledger was because I found him useful. The idiots he had a deal with didn’t know that I was using him to get to them.
Mikhail, on the other hand, was definitely going to suffer the same fate as the others. Death.
Konstantin and I went down to the basement where the moron was strapped to a chair. The room was dimly lit, the air thick with the smell of sweat and blood.
Mikhail’s hands and feet were bound with tight ropes that dug into his skin. His body was marred with deep, fresh cuts, his face battered beyond recognition. His breathing was coming in short, labored gasps, his eyes red and swollen.
“Tell him what you told me,” Konstantin said to him.
Straining, he managed to look at me as I towered over him with a blank expression.
“He has my family,” he began, his voice frail and weak. “He said if I didn’t steal the information he wanted, he was going to kill them.” He coughed up blood, and a thick crimson thread lingered on his lower lip.
“He who?” I questioned.
He glanced at Konstantin, then returned his gaze to me. “Rocco.”
My brows knitted in anger, with my fingers curling into fists on both sides. The fact that he got involved with the man made my blood boil, and all I wanted to do was blow his brains out.
Rocco Alessandro Romano was the head of the Italian syndicate. He controlled smuggling, high-stakes gambling, and underground markets. The man was a big shark, feared and revered by many in the criminal underworld.
Fun fact: The cocky son of a bitch had a personal vendetta against me. Years ago, I disrupted a high-value shipment meant for the Romano family. It ended in a disaster that caused the family some serious damage.