My throat feels thick. I want to say I love you back. I want to say a world of things.
“You wanted to go, right?”
Standing there, I see a possible life with him flash before my eyes. I see a life with a man who sits on top of a violent machine. I see myself looking the other way from a zillion crimes.
And maybe I have my career, but what kind of mockery would that be, involved with a mafia boss? Of course he’s right. Of course I have to go. Right?
His dark eyes are deep with soul and sadness. “You need to go rebuild the sandcastles that jerks like me kick down.”
My voice trembles. “Right.” I kiss him again.
A droning voice over the loudspeaker announces that my flight is in preboarding. I pull out my ID, telling myself it has to be like this. “Let me know what happens with Kiro.”
“Of course,” he says hoarsely.
I want to say more, but he turns and walks away, dark and lethal in his suit, just the way he came back into my life. But so different.
The security line is short. Before I know it, I’m up at the front, untying my shoes.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Aleksio
I’m halfway back to the hotel when my phone rings. Relief jolts through me for a moment because I have this idea it might be Mira, calling to say she’s not leaving.
It’s my investigator. At least I’ll have some good news, I think.
It’s not good news.
“I’m sorry, Aleksio,” he says. No greeting, just the apology.
“Let’s hear it.”
“I’ve been running every image through every motor vehicle database out there. I subcontracted it to my guy in D.C. to run it through the State Department database. I expanded it to my Canadian contact. We’re all coming up empty.”
“You said we could find him if he had a driver’s license or a passport.”
“Maybe he doesn’t have a driver’s license or a passport. Maybe he modified his appearance for those visits. Maybe the software doesn’t have enough data points.”
The road unfolds ahead of me, a bleak gray ribbon through tall pines. “Okay. What now?”
I don’t like the long silence that follows. “All we have is the man’s picture,” he says finally. “He’s a needle in a haystack the size of North America. Worse than a needle. A ghost in the haystack.”
“And?” I try not to sound impatient, but he didn’t answer my question. “What now?”
“I can keep looking, of course,” he says. “I can keep trying new things, but I’m not going to lie to you. We’re looking at months, probably years. We may never find this guy.”
“Keep looking,” I say. “He exists. He’s out there. Whatever it takes.”
Viktor and Yuri are in the pine-and-waterfall lobby when I get back. Viktor puts away his phone and his strange obsession for Valhalla for once, which I take as a good sign until I realize it’s probably because of the torment on my face.
I take a seat and tell them the news about Kiro.
The trail is pretty much dead—that’s what the investigator said in so many words.
“No,” Viktor says. “He needs to look again.”
“Viktor…” I stare up at the shining blue sky beyond the glass ceiling, imagining Mira’s plane up there in the clouds. And Kiro…who knows where he could be?
A waitress comes over, and Yuri orders vodka—no, not three glasses; a bottle and three glasses.
“He gives up too easily on our brother. He needs incentive, I think.”
“It’s a computer search of image databases,” I say. “You can’t just make the computer give better results. And nobody’s giving up, it’s just…” I’m about to say “more impossible,” but I amend it to “harder.”
“We will never give up,” Viktor says, in a tone like he wants to kill somebody.
“Never,” I agree.
“And we will destroy Lazarus without Kiro. I will squeeze his skull until his eyes pop out, and then when we find Kiro, he’ll have a place in the world. We take it back for Kiro.”
Our vodka arrives. Yuri pours.
Viktor lifts a glass. “We get bloody. Nobody’s stopping us now.” With Mira gone, he means. “When we’re done with them, they’ll pray for death.” He drinks. Yuri drinks.
I stare into the clear liquid.
“What is it, brat?”
“I can’t drink to that. Getting bloody just to get bloody. Violence and vengeance.”
Viktor looks at me like I just announced I hate vodka and hundred-dollar bills.
“Don’t worry, I’m good for my word,” I say. “I’m committed to taking back what’s ours and destroying the vile parts of it. I’ll do what it takes to get Kiro back if we ever—when we get a lead. But violence and vengeance…”
I meet Viktor’s scowl.
“She thought I was worth saving,” I continue. “It did something. It changed something in me…” I’m just as surprised as Viktor appears to be. But it’s true. Things feel different.
“Changed something in you?” Viktor spits out. “More like ruined you.”
I think back to that moment in the hotel, staring into Lazarus’s eyes. I could’ve executed him right on the spot. My greatest enemy. “Ruined me for some things.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fine. To her, then.”
I eye him suspiciously. He shrugs.
“To her.” I drain the glass.
He pours another.
“To Kiro,” I say. “We’ll never give up. And Yuri. To brothers of all kinds.”
“Brothers with beat-up faces. The best kind. Skol.” We throw back the cool-burning alcohol. I hold my glass out for more. He pours.
“Back to taking the empire the smart way,” Yuri says. “More boring. Still effective.” Again we drink.
Viktor catches my eye. He looks concerned.
“I’m fine,” I say. A lie.
That’s when I catch sight of dark hair across the lobby. Mira. She’s heading to the elevator banks.
She turns to me as if she feels the weight of my gaze. And then she smiles. Her smile is like the sun.
I think it’s a dream. A mirage, maybe.
I stand, glass cool in my fingertips, as she turns and starts toward me, past the grand stone waterfall, dark hair catching the light from above.
She looks so beautiful, I think it can’t be real. I feel something cool dribbling over my fingers.
“You are spilling it, brat.” Viktor takes my glass from my hand. “I would not like you to waste good vodka. Even on a spoiled mafia princess.” A joke, I suppose. I’m barely comprehending. I’m already gone, moving across the gleaming marble floor. I stop in front of her, speechless.
She just grins. She’s happy. The haunted look is gone.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. “I got a bluebird on my shoulder?”
I go to her and yank her in for a kiss. She’s warm and real and everything I love.
She pulls back with a mischievous expression. I think she’s going to give me shit for drinking vodka at two in the afternoon.
She doesn’t.
“You and your fucking English toffee and selfless gestures and you expect me to get on a plane? I love you, Aleksio.”
My heart twists. “You said love wasn’t enough. The whole thing with the sandcastles?”
“Yeah, you’re still kicking down sandcastles, but some of them need kicking down. I want to kick them down with you—like that Valhalla, for starters.” She gets a serious look here. “But then let’s make our own life, our own rules. Build something better than what our families built. Together. What do you think?”
“Yes. Fuck yes.” I brush the hair from her forehead. I love her like this. A rebel and a warrior. I grab her hair and kiss her.
And somewhere out there baby animals are laughing, and it doesn’t have to mean everything is doomed. It can just mean something stupidly normal.
Like happiness.
Like forever.
; Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed your time with the Aleksio and Mira and Viktor and the gang as much as I did!
Viktor’s story is out 7/26/16:
grab Wicked Mafia Prince here.
Kiro’s story is out 9/13/16:
find Savage Mafia Prince here.
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Books by Annika Martin
Dangerous Royals
Dark Mafia Prince
Wicked Mafia Prince
Savage Mafia Prince
Criminals & Captives
PRISONER (Book #1) by Annika Martin & Skye Warren
US | UK | AU | CAN
Taken Hostage by Kinky Bank Robbers
The Hostage Bargain (Book #1) US | UK | AU | CAN
The Wrong Turn (Book #2) US | UK | AU | CAN
The Deeper Game (Book #3) US | UK | AU | CAN
Kinky Bank Robbers 1-3-book bundle US | UK | AU | CAN
The Most Wanted (Book #4) US | UK | AU | CAN
Writing as Carolyn Crane
Sexy, gritty romantic suspense
Against the Dark (Book #1 of the Associates)
Off the Edge (Book #2 of the Associates)
Into the Shadows (Book #3 of the Associates)
Behind the Mask (Book #4 of the Associates)
Plotty, twisty-turny urban fantasy
Mind Games (Book 1 of the Disillusionists)
Double Cross (Book 2 of the Disillusionists)
Head Rush (Book 3 of the Disillusionists)
Plus assorted shorts and single titles
More about Carolyn’s books: authorcarolyncrane.com
Acknowledgements
I am so grateful to be surrounded by such an amazing community of readers, bloggers, and author pals. You’re always there with me in my crazy writer cave, and I want to kiss you all!
Special thanks to author Joanna Chambers, who read this many times and brought so many expansive, creative ideas to it. And to author Carolyn Jewel, who patiently read and helped keep the early draft from seriously going off the rails. Author Katie Reus read it twice and brought her amazing sense of hero goodness. And author Skye Warren was there through early and late drafts with amazing insights and added immense goodness. Editor Deb Nemeth provided brilliant developmental editing and copy editing. Sadye of Fussy Librarian did an incredible job of proofreading and so far beyond. (Any mistakes are my own last minute changes.)
I’m also massively grateful to Heather Roberts of Social Butterfly PR, who came through with great beta-read catches and ideas, not to mention book launch magic and incredible patience with my occasional cluelessness. And thanks to BookBeautiful for the fantabulous cover and BB eBooks for the wonderful formatting, and super gratitude also to Christin Ostheimer who reached out with much-needed Russian help! (Any remaining mistakes are my own). I’m humbled, also, to all of you bloggers and facebook book lovers who got in on this release. You have these amazing communities you have created out of love and passion and friendship, and I’m honored that you’d share them with me.
Last but not least, I want to thank my reader friends in the Annika Martin Fabulous Gang. This is my first year of having a facebook group, and you guys are my bright spot on the web. I’m honored to know you. Seriously!
About Annika
I love writing dirty stories about dangerous criminals, hanging out with my man and my two cats, and kicking snow clumps off the bottom of cars around Minneapolis. I’ve had tons of jobs: factory worker, waitress at a zillion different places, shop clerk, advertising writer. Animals are a huge passion of mine, especially whales and lost dogs. I like to run and read books in bed, and I spend way too much time in coffee shops. In my spare time I write as the RITA award-winning author Carolyn Crane.
Dark Mafia Prince: A Dangerous Royals romance Page 22
