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All of my life, I’d fought this craving deep in my veins, had dimmed it with drugs and alcohol, but its call had always been present, an undercurrent in my body that threatened to pull me under.
My monstrous side had come out to play but the revelry had only just begun.
She rose from the hood, making herself taller than me. A flicker of anger lay in her eyes. “I’m not like other girls.”
Something dark lurked behind those brown eyes. I had a feeling he could switch
from easy-going to ruthless brutality in a heartbeat.
“Give me a sec. He’s in the cage with Nevio.” My nephew was only six, almost seven, but Remo and he often trained in the cage, mainly to control Nevio’s outbursts and his hyperactivity.
“I don’t underestimate either of you. But you better not underestimate me either. I’m a Falcone, winning runs in my blood.”
“Eventually, you’ll have to put the past to rest, Dinara, or it’s going to swallow you.”
Greta.” I kissed her cheek and she beamed up at me. “Thank you.” She was the complete opposite of Nevio: shy, careful and peace-loving.
“Cake before lunch? What kind of anarchy is this?” I asked, sinking down on one of the empty chairs between Fabiano and Savio.
“Seems like you aren’t a stranger to dancing with death.”
My head
was a mess full of whirring thoughts, a thunderstorm slowly building up and about to unleash its destructive power. Deep
“Adamo’s not the hero in this story. Nor are you or my father. I’ll be the hero in my story.”
The siren’s call now rang in my blood. My dark craving was a strong opponent, my greatest foe, but also balm and friend in my hardest hours. He made the unbearable bearable, if only for a few hours.
“Are you the wolf in the sheep’s hide, Adamo?”
“Maybe you want to be. But we are who we are. I am a Mikhailov and you are a Falcone. Our paths aren’t on the light side.”
“Are you pissed?” I asked eventually. “Life’s too short to hold grudges.”
“Let me decide that for myself. I doubt there’s anything that could make me see you in a different light. And if its darkness you harbor, I have more than enough of my own, so I don’t shy away from it.”
“That day changed me. It awakened a side of me I thought didn’t exist. The tattoo in its disfigured state is my reminder and also a warning of what lurks beneath.”
I’d woken with nightmares every night. I’d never had my power stripped from me like that before, rendering me at the mercy of someone else.
“I left the past behind me. I don’t need revenge. I don’t care what happens with the Outfit.
We carry our names as burden and shield. The only way for us to be anonymous is to take on a new name and become someone else.”
“Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.”
“I took drugs to cover up old pain. But they made me numb in every sense and so I tried to feel something, even if it was pain, as long as I decided what it was.”
“The truth about me that your brother hides will change the way you look at me. But tell
Remo, I gave him permission to share it with you, if that’s what he needs.”
“I fear you’re using me against my brothers. You should know that I’m loyal to them.”
“Don’t ever try to be good to people who hurt you. They don’t deserve it.”
“Nothing can break you unless you allow it. If you ever return to Vegas, you’ll get your chance to end it.”
“Become the nightmare even your worst nightmare fears, Ekaterina,”
“You better keep your promise,”
“It’s not a promise I made to you, Grigory. That promise is for Ekaterina.”
“My daughter won’t ever set foot on Vegas ground again. I’ll make sure of it. Eventually, you’ll have to let me dish out my revenge.”
“She won’t ever be touched by violence or darkness again, Falcone. I’ll protect her from it until my last breath.”
“A look I usually only see in Remo’s eyes. The hunger for blood and violence. The need for death and destruction. As a baby and younger child, you looked exactly like Remo. And on occasion a similar temper would shine through.”
For the first time, Remo’s twisted psycho logic made sense to me in all its brutal enormity.
“What she needs will take you on a path you swore to never wade on. It’s a path all of us Falcones are well acquainted with. It’s paved with blood and death, and once you’ve walked it, no other path will ever suffice.”
As if a blood-thirsty part battled with your conscience. You reminded me of myself. My father thinks I belong in the light, but I don’t fit in there.”
“Even back then I saw your strength, even if you couldn’t. That you are here today, shows I was right. Maybe you changed on the outside, but deep down you are the same resilient child that survived.”
“Oh, I know, but I have a feeling you might be in need of his help again soon for a path you can’t walk alone. He’ll do what you ask of him because he cares for you and because it’s a path he can’t resist. You should be sure that what you want from Adamo doesn’t end the day you reach the end of that path, because if it does, you better end it now.”
“I’m a Falcone. Twisted shit is in my blood.”
“It’s my revenge. I should do it. With you at my side, I can do it.”
“One monster killing another, a terrifying sight, hmm?”
“To think that I’d ever fall for an Italian mobster—” She snapped her lips shut, eyes going wide.
“I never thought I’d fall for a Bratva princess either,”
People finally had a reason for the nickname they gave my brothers and me. The monsters of Las Vegas.
My monstrous side had come out to play but the revelry had only just begun.
“I couldn’t have done this without you. I can’t go on without you.”
Their screams will drive away the ghosts their actions left in your soul.”
