“Brazil.”
My eyes widen, and my jaw slackens more than it already is.
Brazil?What the fuck am I doing in Brazil?
We were in San Francisco.
“What the hell am I doing chained up in Brazil?” I spit, seething. I want to unleash, but I can’t.
I can’t unleash for myself, my own sanity. Besides, it’s not like I can do shit while being chained to these poles.
“You’re going to do whatever Jude wants you to do.”
The moment I hear that name, it tells me everything I need to know.
Jude Kuzmin is the guy my grandfather appointed C.E.O of our family company, Markov Tech. My grandfather wanted that role separate to the ownership because of the varied responsibilities. So while I’m the heir to the company and the ownership passed to me after my grandfather’s death, Jude still had a good amount of power and control. He, however, wanted everything. He wanted the entire legacy and me out of the picture, but not before making use of me. It was too late when I realized what he was up to or that he had an ace up his sleeve in the form of my best friend.
I don’t know when or how Jude got to Robert, but he fucking did, and that means this is the beginning of the end for me.
“What did you do, Robert?”
“Something for me, for once in my life.” His answer holds no emotion and is as cold as his eyes. “Something that will benefit me for once.”
“What did he promise you?”
Everyone has a price, and Jude knew what Robert’s was.
“Everything.”
“It’s a lie. He won’t give it to you,” I growl.
“Oh, but he already has, Eric.”
That shuts me down, and the smile that inches across his face seals my doom.
It tells me I’ve lost, and there’s nothing I can do.
The fucked-up thing about it is, this is my fault.
I started to rebel long before my grandfather died. I didn’t understand why he would turn his back on the Bratva and want to keep me out of that world.
Then to add salt to my open wounds, my father was the same. For whatever part he played as my father, he wanted me out too. Out of the Bratva, and the Italian mafia to which he belonged.
But you can’t tame a wild bird and make it something it’s not. So, when Jude took an interest in my talents, I was enticed. I never knew he was using me to get to my grandfather’s weapon designs. Not just any weapon, either. It was the weapon of all weapons, and he wanted to sell it to the Order. A group of fucking terrorists who work for crooked politicians. I got myself mixed up with them through him.
That was what I was trying to escape. With the plan I had, the only way they could have gotten to me was by doing this.
Getting my friend to betray me.
I look at him now, and everything else makes sense. He must have been playing me long before now. I can’t believe I never saw this coming. I’ve always known what kind of bastard he was. I just never thought he’d be that way with me.
“How could you do this to me! I trusted you. We’re supposed to be friends.”
He laughs, and the hollow sound bounces off the walls. “Yes, I think we were at one point. Maybe in our younger years. But then things changed when you thought it was okay to make decisions for the both of us.”
“Jude is fucking evil!” I shout.
“You’re so full of yourself you can’t see straight. You act like you didn’t know what he was when he offered you power.”