23. Alexei

23

ALEXEI

“This is your final chance, Ricci, because I’m all out of fucks.”

“Please.”

“I no longer care if you live or die, so it’s up to you how you want to leave this world. You can either give me the information I know you have or you can stay here to rot and starve.”

“I-I…” Blood spurts from his mouth as he fights against his restraints.

I get in his face. “We know you sent that email.”

He reeks of blood and piss. It’s fucking pathetic. He’s been in this cell for three days and is yet to hand over any information, so my patience has officially run out.

“So, tell me what you know, and I can protect you. Because trust me, Ricci, you want to be on my side. These fuckers think they can mess with me, but they have no idea who they’re up against.”

He shakes his head, but remains silent.

“Very well. Goodbye.” I stand up and get out of his cell, pulling the door behind me .

Before it slams shut, he screams, “Okay.”

I smile to myself, but compose myself before going back in.

“What was that?”

Ricci’s throat bobs as he looks up at me, his left eye already completely swollen shut from the blow I gave him an hour ago.

“I’ll tell you.” He winces with every word.

“Let’s see if this information is worth your life.”

“Ivanov. He’s closer to this than you realize.”

“What the hell does that mean? My family has nothing to do with the Ivanov bratva.”

Ricci’s eyes flash with something like amusement, and my blood boils over.

I take out my gun and point it at his crotch. “Speak. Now!”

“There’s much you don’t know. So much your father failed to tell you.”

My chest heaves with every breath, my body a bundle of rage and adrenaline as I try to decipher what the fuck he’s talking about.

“I don’t appreciate the fucking riddles. You either tell me what you know or I blow your fucking cock out and leave you here to bleed to death!”

“Your father…” Ricci’s voice barely above a whisper now. “Wasn’t as faithful as you think.”

“What do you mean?”

Ricci looks up at me, and his expression is no longer one of fear, but one of pleasure.

“Let’s just say that Alexei Koslov senior didn’t keep it in his pants.” Ricci chuckles.

My father cheated on my mother ?

I barely register the fact that I’m aiming at his face and pulling the trigger. Not until his head rolls on his shoulders with a bullet wound in the middle of his forehead.

“How dare you speak of my father?” I put another bullet in his chest. “Fuck you.”

The fucker asked for it.

I don’t make the rules. If he wanted to speak ill of my dead father, then I’m going to make sure his body is unrecognizable by the time I’m done with it.

How dare he try and tarnish the reputation of the most faithful and noble man I’ve ever known?

I will make him pay for ever speaking such lies.

I punch his face. Again. And again.

I don’t stop until my arms are hurting, and I can hardly lift them anymore. Panting, I look at what’s left of the man who thought it was okay to insult my father’s memory.

Footsteps approach, and I glance over my shoulder to find Mikhail staring at Ricci with a mixture of horror and amazement in his eyes.

“What the hell happened?”

“He proved himself to be full of shit after all.” I wipe my face on the back of my sleeve.

I chose the wrong fucking day to wear white.

Mikhail stalks over to Ricci and nudges him with his foot.

“You really wanted to be thorough, huh?” He chuckles. “What’d he tell you?”

“Nothing worth repeating. Clean up the mess and dispose of the body.” My voice sounds foreign in my ears.

“On it.” Mikhail rolls up his shirt sleeves.

I don’t even give Ricci a backwards glance as I stalk up the stairs to the main floor of the warehouse where Danil is busy restocking the weapons in the hummer .

“Heard the shots. Ricci finally give in?” He tosses a few bundles of rope into the trunk.

I say nothing, not wanting to even think about Matteo Ricci again.

I need to get out of this fucking place and clear my head.

Why the hell would he say such a thing about my father?

Unless Gilanto had his claws in Ricci all along, and he wanted me to snap…

It has to be that. There’s no other alternative that I can consider.

Danil places a hand on my shoulder. “Alexei? Everything okay?”

I jerk out from under his grip.

“Everything’s fine,”

My phone vibrates in my pocket, so I pull it out and use it as an excuse to walk away from Danil.

“What the fuck .”

I blink. This has to be wrong. What the hell is happening right now?

I unlock my phone and dial Dimitri’s number.

“ Brat ! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you?—”

“Where the fuck is Bianca?”

Dimitri is quiet for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I just got a notification on my phone saying that she’s at some Gynecologist clinic on the Upper East Side.

Why would she be in the city when I specifically told my brother to keep her in the damn house ?”

“What?”

“Check her fucking room, now . ”

Dimitri huffs on the other end of the line, and I have to grind my teeth together to stop myself from losing my shit completely.

“You had one fucking job.”

“What did you want me to do, sit outside her door every hour of the day?”

“That’s exactly what I wanted you to do!”

“You’re fucking ridiculous.”

“You won’t be saying that if Gilanto’s got his hands on her.” My blood runs cold at the thought. “If anything has happened to her, Dimitri?—”

I don’t want to finish the thought. I can’t.

Dimitri is heaving on the line. “Is this why you came over?”

I blink. “What?”

A muffled female voice says something I can’t understand on the other end of the phone.

“Who is that? I swear to god, Dimitri.”

“It’s Zara.”

“Zara? What the fuck is Zara doing at the house?”

“She came over.”

I almost crush my phone in my hand. As if I didn’t already have enough to deal with, Bianca goes and does the one thing I ask her not to do.

Dimitri asks, “Why the fuck is Bianca at a gynecologist?”

“Why do you think?” Zara scoff.

Dimitri’s voice lowers. “Oh shit !”

“You have got to be kidding me.” I hang up the phone.

My entire body is shaking, and I want nothing more than to slam my fist into the side of Dimitri’s face.

He had one fucking job, and he couldn’t even do that .

“Danil, I need you and Mikhail to get a ride back to the house with Anton. I have an errand to run.”

I try Bianca’s cell as I speed through the city, but it rings out every time, making my temper rise even more.

My head is about to explode with everything I need to deal with. But my first priority has to be Bianca.

The fact that she felt the need to hide this from me has my gut twisting.

I thought our relationship was better than that, but perhaps it was all in my head after all.

If she really is pregnant…

My knuckles turn white as I grip the steering wheel and slam my foot down on the accelerator.

I can’t have her out alone in the city when she could be carrying my child. A child that would now be considered the heir to the Koslov bratva.

If this got back to Gilanto, I know he wouldn’t stop until he put a bullet straight through her womb.

He might even have intercepted her on the way to the doctor.

I know for a fact people like Gilanto have most of the medical professionals in the city by the balls. One phone call, and it could all be over.

It’s as if someone else has taken over my body, and I’m looking down on it from above. I don’t feel my hands as I swerve the hummer onto the sidewalk outside the gynecologist’s office. I don’t feel my feet as I rush up the front steps and barge through the double doors, almost colliding with a heavily pregnant woman .

“Hey!”

I’m already pushing past her toward the reception desk.

“Where is she?” I slam my hands down on the reception desk.

The young girl behind the counter jumps, her hands clutching her chest as she takes me in. “W-who?”

I know I look like hell with my blood stained clothes, reeking of sweat and piss, but I’m past caring. I need to see Bianca with my own two eyes.

“Bianca,” I snap.

“I… Uh, there is no Bianca?—”

“Screw this.” I push off from the desk, storming toward the examination rooms.

“Sir! Sir, you can’t?—”

I ignore her as I turn right and head down a narrow corridor.

Most of the doors on either side are open, and I glance in each, my stomach sinking further as they all come up empty.

Please be alive.

There’s only one more door at the end of this corridor. If she’s not in here, then there’s no doubt I’m too late. There’s no telling what Gilanto could be doing to her right now.

Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck as I reach for the handle and force open the door.

“Alexei?”

My eyes dart to Bianca lying in the examination chair with her legs up in stirrups. Her bright blue eyes widen as she takes me in.

“Does someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” I look to the doctor who is currently moving some probe-like device between her legs.

He looks over his shoulder at me, completely unfazed by my bloody appearance, as if this is nothing out of the ordinary in his line of work.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t be in here?—”

“It’s okay, Dr. Waite.” Bianca takes a deep breath, glancing at me. “He’s the father.”

Oh, fuck.