Vengeance Unleashed (The Wanted Men Series Book 1)

by Nancy Haviland

  Sighing deeply, he sat back in his chair. “Your file said it was just you and your mother.”

  Her heart squeezed. “Yeah. My father left us when I was a couple of months old. I recently met him for the first time.” And might see him again if she could keep things friendly until Gabriel got there. If he really was on his way. “Like you, he wasn’t at all what I was expecting.”

  “No?”

  She carefully shook her head, uncaring that he was only half listening to her. “I also learned why he left me and my mom. It wasn’t what I’d thought. At all. I really misjudged the situation completely.”

  He shifted, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “I can relate. With me and Gabe, I’ve…fuck.” He frowned then cleared his throat. “I think the position I put my brother in when we were growing up was unfair.”

  Eva just stared at him as he looked at her like he was expecting her to know what to say to that. Was this happening? Or were the drugs fucking with her?

  “Why did you do it then?”

  His shoulder rolled in a shrug. “Maybe he was an easier target than the person I really wanted to hurt?” Another shrug. “I dunno.”

  “Who did you want to hurt?”

  “Albert Moretti.”

  Their father? “Why?”

  “He was an asshole.”

  “Seems like we both have some daddy issues,” she allowed, thinking how normal he seemed to her just then. “My mom died a couple of months ago, and I just learned she was murdered because of some grudge against my father. Deep down, I know it wasn’t his fault. He didn’t issue the order to kill her. He loved her and retaliated on her behalf, but it’s still hard to separate his involvement from the loss I feel.” She looked up from the dirty table to see him watching her. “You probably understand that. I mean, Gabriel was the one who delivered the explosives that killed your girlfriend, but he was only following orders. Your father was the one pulling the strings.” Please see that and leave the man I love alone. “I know Gabriel would never have left that truck there had he known a woman was in that building.”

  Stefano’s face darkened as he got up and started prowling around the room, running his fingers through his hair. “You think I don’t know that? But it doesn’t change the fact that, because Gabe was such a robot, never questioning his orders, he blew to shit my chance to get away from this fucking family.” He swiped out a hand to send a stack of warped Time magazines flying to the floor from their precarious position on a small bookshelf.

  He turned on her, his face raw with emotion. “You were supposed to be my revenge for losing Adrianna. My way of making my brother suffer like I did. And it worked. I called him after Furio got you. The way he sounded when he realized he’d lost you…”

  He seemed to deflate and came back to fall into his seat. He sat forward, hanging his head so that she couldn’t see his expression anymore. “The agony in his voice. I can’t get it out of my fuckin’ head.”

  Agony. Because Gabriel felt responsible? Or because he felt something deeper for her?

  “The fucked part? Even though the point of all this pissing around was to hurt him, succeeding didn’t do shit for me.”

  He raised his head, and aside from confusion, Eva saw a marked difference in his eyes. Not just that they were brown where Gabriel’s were a beautiful green, but the soullessness she’d noted when first meeting him was gone.

  “That’s actually really good to hear.”

  “Yeah. His father would be real proud of me admitting I’m a fuckin’ pussy.”

  She tipped her head as the pronoun he’d used more than once registered with a tingle across her nape. “Why do you keep saying ‘his’ father?”

  His scowl returned. “Because the narcissistic asshole who let me live in his house didn’t sire me.” He sneered through the overenunciated word. “He married my mother when she was already pregnant. Promised her he’d raise me as his own. Asshole let me know good and early the favor he was doing by allowing me to be a part of his family.”

  She cupped a hand over her mouth, her heart aching for the child he’d been. “Oh my God, Stefano. I’m so sorry.” Learning the reasons behind someone’s behavior sure went a long way toward understanding it. Who wouldn’t have lashed out when constantly reminded of the fact that they didn’t belong? Not that that justified him ruining Gabriel’s childhood, but still, she was sympathetic. “Did you ever meet your real father?”

  “He died when I was little,” he said dismissively. “How’d you find yours?”

  “Gabriel actually brought us together.”

  Stefano went still, his eyes rising to meet hers. “What? Explain that.”

  “Uh, well, my father’s in the same…business?”—she shrugged—“as you guys, and he asked Gabriel to watch over me because he had to leave the country for a while.” Was she supposed to speak so freely about their business? She wasn’t sure, so she left it at that and felt a moment of satisfaction at the wary look that entered Stefano’s eyes.

  “Who is your father, Eva?”

  She glanced at the door, wondering absently why Furio knew who her father was but Stefano didn’t. “Vasily Tarasov.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Eva’s reveal had Stefano laughing in a loud burst. “Finally! The missing piece of the puzzle.” Respect gleamed in his eyes but was soon replaced by worry. “And I’m so fucking dead.”

  “Why didn’t Furio tell you? He knows.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “He mentioned it at the hotel.”

  Stefano pursed his lips and let out a sharp whistle that had Furio and Alesio immediately falling into the room as though they’d been leaning against the door.

  As Alesio looked between her and Stefano with an unreadable expression on his face, Furio threw up his hands.

  “You haven’t even fucked her yet?” he barked. “What the hell have you been doing?”

  Stefano stood. “You know who her father is?”

  Furio turned enraged eyes on her. “You stupid, fuckin’ bitch,” he snarled.

  Eva barely had time to regret knowing how to speak when Alesio’s shout had her surging to her feet. Gabriel’s cousin flew through the air, aiming for Furio. Eva understood why only when she saw the gun Furio was holding as he ducked to the side to avoid being tackled, at the same time bringing his elbow down so hard on the back of Alesio’s head Eva was sure she heard something crack. The younger man fell like a bag of bones.

  Looking to Stefano, sure he’d help his cousin, she was momentarily stunned to see him with his hand on his chest. Blood was seeping through his fingers. “Oh my God!” She rushed forward, but never reached him because her hair was grabbed from behind and she was viciously yanked back. She grunted, landing hard on the dusty sofa cushions with Furio’s face looming over her, his mouth twisted in an evil sneer.

  Pressing the gun into the base of her throat, he didn’t even look over as Stefano stumbled back into the wall and slid into a crooked sit. “After all my hard work, all he does when he gets you alone is have another fucking therapy session. You two want the truth? I’ll play.” He straightened, but kept the gun pointed at her. “Where should I start? Oh, I know.” He looked at his boss. “You weren’t the only one dicking Adrianna.” His smile was satisfied. “Yeah, I was in there, too. Sometimes only minutes after you finished with her.”

  Stefano tried to say something but only coughed weakly, his skin losing color at an alarming rate as blood dripped off his wrist to land in small crimson splashes on the dusty floor.

  “How the fuck did you manage to screw everything up?” Furio said, turning to her. “If you’d have shut your fucking mouth, they’d have killed each other in a matter of minutes, and I would’ve been set!”

  Eva looked between him and Stefano, trying to figure out a way to calm Furio down while getting to Gabriel’s brother whose eyes had just slid closed.

  “The time was right for the Moretti boys to pay for what they took away from me,” he hissed befor
e clamping his fingers around her throat. “Adrianna was mine. Her old man wanted to merge with the Moretti family, sure, but once that asshole—” He nodded toward Stefano. “—served his purpose, it would have been me and her who ruled. It should have been easy! This should have been easy! But Gabe fucked shit up. Again!”

  Fireworks exploded behind Eva’s eyes as she clawed desperately at his hand, trying not to pass out.

  He watched her struggle then laughed, baring his teeth and snapping them close to her fading vision. “I should have taken them out when I hit the old man. Then I wouldn’t have had to run the show while toeing the lines that fuckin’ pussy drew in the sand all these years.” He shrugged and shook her. “When I’m fuckin’ you, I want you to call me ‘boss.’”

  As darkness began to close in, Furio released her with a rough shove that left her gasping for oxygen.

  He placed his gun on the table, the barrel facing her, and went for his belt while rubbing his obvious erection in a grotesque way. “Let’s get in a quick, hard one before Gabe gets here. I’ll give it to you good. Just like I did his other girlfriends. But I won’t kill you like I killed them.” He smiled when her eyes widened. “Yeah,” he drawled. “That was my work. Gabe thought Stefano killed them, Stef thought Gabe did—”

  While he basked in his own glory, Eva threw a punch, aiming for his throat. It connected with a satisfying sound, but even as Furio choked and cursed, he proved he was used to fighting by shaking it off and backhanding her already-damaged cheek. Before she could recover from the explosion of stars that filled her head, she felt the weight of his body come down on her, along with a sharp pinch at her collarbone.

  “Bitch. You’re gonna pay for that,” he rasped, slicing a blade through the front of her t-shirt.

  She welcomed the ear-splitting crash that came from behind her like she’d have welcomed an Uzi and a thousand rounds.

  TWENTY-SIX

  “Furio! Get the fuck off of her!”

  As Gabriel finally burst through the door and into the cabin, leaving the boys to finish up outside, he took in the scene with one sweeping glance.

  Gun on the table, within reach.

  Stefano, on the floor, unmoving in a pool of his own blood.

  Alesio, unconscious with no visible signs of injury.

  Eva…

  Jesus Chriiist. He tried so hard to remain detached, knowing he had to keep his head in the game, but his efforts stalled when he saw her in Furio’s arms, a knife pressed to her throat. Her face was cut and bleeding, the skin of her slender neck marred by reddened welts.

  The focus that descended then came from the soul, landing on the threat to his life—her—with a pin-point precision. Gabriel didn’t say another word as he turned his body just enough so he could palm the blade he’d hidden in his waistband. The power that flowed through his arm as he flung it was direct and swift, arrowing the weapon directly into Furio’s shoulder. Surprise flared on the cunt’s face when his arm jerked back and he lost the grip on his knife, and by that time, Gabriel was right there to see it up close and personal.

  As he pushed Eva to safety on the sofa, Gabriel smashed his forehead into Furio’s nose. Next, he yanked the blade out, hoping for a steady blood flow to follow, and cracked his elbow into that shaved temple, causing Furio’s head to snap sideways.

  Eva moved and he looked over to see her reaching for the gun. “Don’t touch it,” he barked as her hand closed over the metal. “Don’t!” His roar had her snatching her hand back and the gun fell to the floor as she met his eyes with a look of utter confusion. He would not let her have a man’s death on her conscience.

  “Gabriel!” she screamed just before his distraction cost him a solid right to the jaw that had his brain sloshing against his skull.

  “You know I’m gonna fuck her, Gabe,” Furio taunted as he bounced back on his heels. “She’s gonna lie in a pool of blood while I bury my cock inside her. Just like your other bitches.”

  Rage screamed in his head as Gabriel lunged, slamming a startled Furio into the wall with a thumb embedded in his bleeding shoulder. The howl that came from Stefano’s underboss was the last sound Gabriel allowed him as he wrapped his arm and wrenched so hard on Furio’s neck he was surprised the guy’s head didn’t detach from its base.

  Letting go, he dropped his kill to the floor and stepped over the body to get to Eva. But before he could fall at her feet, she shuffled over to kneel next to Stefano.

  Clearly having been hovering, Vasily and Alek burst in, the rest of the boys hanging back behind them as Gabriel went down next to Eva—

  “Aw, Jesus Christ, baby,” he whispered through an aching throat. Up close, battered, a small slice on her neck that could have been so much worse…Gabriel let out a moan so agonized his boys cursed and shuffled behind him as he drew the cut sides of her shirt together.

  “It’s okay,” she said, her voice all crackles. “We have to—”

  A hand appeared to stroke her hair, and without thinking, Gabriel bared his teeth in a step-the-fuck-off-or-lose-a-limb snarl.

  “Relax, son,” Vasily murmured before switching to speak softly in Russian as he placed his lips on the crown of his daughter’s head. “Yuri, get over here.”

  Dr. Yuri Davidenko, Vasily’s pet, er, private physician, came forward. Gabriel hadn’t seen the MD in a while, but he was still the same handsome sonofabitch he’d known before leaving New York. Totally at ease in his role—the letters after his name were a mile long—he knelt between them, placing a black medic bag on the floor.

  Pushing all hands away and blinking as if she were having a hard time focusing, Eva reached out to the man lying so still on the floor. “We have to help him.”

  Gabriel tried to pull her away. “Eva, we need to see to you fir—”

  “No! Not until—” Her words choked off and she shook her head, bringing her fingers to her temples almost immediately. She raised cloudy eyes to him, imploring, “Please, Gabriel. Help your brother.” When he didn’t react fast enough, she grew more agitated. “Now!” She looked at Vasily and then Yuri. “Help him!” she suddenly shouted with authority, sounding every bit her father’s daughter.

  Nodding around a surprised look, Yuri got his ass in gear. “Pulse is weak,” he murmured after doing an ABCs check.

  “Do something,” Eva moaned behind the trembling hand she cupped over her mouth. “Oh my God, please. Save him! Hurry!”

  “Sweetheart, you have to calm down.”

  “He didn’t kill those women, Gabriel! You heard him! Furio did! Your brother wasn’t going to hurt me. He wasn’t! He’s not what you think.” She started to cry. “You’ll understand when you hear the truth. I promise! You don’t understand what happened—Hey!”

  Maks pushed the plunger on the syringe he’d inserted into Eva’s vein without her noticing, and for once Gabriel was glad for the guy’s initiative. The needle was removed just as she swatted at it.

  “Stop it! You don’t know what…you don’t know…” She tried to continue even as she lost steam. “There’s more to the story… He was just a child… Not evil… I want him… Gabriel…”

  “Uh, what was that last part?” Maks murmured with a touch of misplaced humor as Gabriel reeled.

  She wanted Stefano? What the fuck?

  Her hand lost its grip on his shirt as the meds did their thing. “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Relax, baby,” he said tightly as he put himself in position to take her weight when she went limp. “Just relax.”

  “But Stefn’o…” she slurred. “Not…yur’…br’thr…”

  Her head lolled before she could say anymore.

  Not sure what the fuck was going on, and not willing to leave her on the filthy floor while he found out, Gabriel took her into his arms and brought her back to the not-much-better couch.

  “She is only partly right. You are half-brothers.”

  He looked over to where Lucian was standing near Stefano’s feet. The Romanian’s brow was
down low, his expression grim.

  Gabriel straightened. “Care to explain that?”

  “Your mother was pregnant when she married your father. Stefano was not even four years old when Albert Moretti shared with a friend that he regretted the promise he had made to his wife to raise her bastard as his own. Once you came along, Stefano’s life went from bad to worse. Apparently, he was often reminded that he did not belong.”

  Gabriel’s gaze landed on the man lying in the dirt, fighting for his life.

  Or was he fighting?

  Nearing his limit, he watched Micha take over from Yuri, starting an IV on a man warping into a rejected child in Gabriel’s mind.

  Vasily scrubbed his face in exhaustion. “That explains a lot.”

  “Why have you never told me this?” Gabriel asked Lucian while Yuri began treating Eva.

  “If I revealed even a portion of what I know, I would have more enemies than Satan himself.” His careless shrug said that would be but a mild inconvenience. He scanned the room and met every eye in the place. “Many of you would agree that some stories do not need to be told.” He came back to Gabriel. “Would it have changed anything if you had known before now?”

  He thought about that for a second. “Fuck. I don’t know,” he answered honestly, wishing he could say it would have. But who knew?

  “One cannot always force a conclusion to a situation when they tire of it. Believe me,” he tagged on as he turned away.

  “I wish we were at the clinic, or even on the jet,” Yuri muttered. His accent was thicker than Vasily’s, but his English was perfect.

  The tattoos on his hand stood out as Vasily brushed the hair from Eva’s forehead. “Do what you can until we get her home.”

  As Yuri lifted one of her lids and shined a penlight in her eye, Gabriel questioned that. “Home?”

  Vasily’s focus didn’t waver from the patient. “We’re keeping with the plan and taking her straight to the airport from here. ‘Home’ refers to my home in Old Westbury. Not yours.” He held his hand up as though he could see Gabriel opening his mouth to protest. “One word and I take her to Moscow instead. She can convalesce in the lakefront dacha that used to belong to my mother.”