Sweet Collateral

I take a seat at the breakfast bar next to Samuel with Gio on the other side. Nero pauses, turning to face me. He’s wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and it’s a testament to how rattled he is because I’ve never seen the Italian out of a suit. He’s a mafia boss. A cold killer. He’s the guy I hired to kill my father; a powerful cartel boss. And yet right now, he looks exactly how I feel. Helpless, pitiful…broken.

“Rafael, do you have contacts in Russia?” he asks.

He was grasping at straws. “I supply the Bratva with coke, but so do the other cartels. They’re business acquaintances only.”

He clenches and releases his fists before resuming his pacing. “We know where she’s heading, but we’d never get there in time. I just need to get someone to stop her.” He slams a palm against the breakfast bar. “But we fucking have no one.”

“Let me make a call.” I slide off the bar stool and go into the living room. Morning light heats my face as I stare at my phone. Do I try and help him? I let Una go last night because I knew it was her and only her who could get Anna back. My fingers tighten around the phone until my knuckles turn white. I’m not a man of morals. I understand only business and violence, and selfish need. Anna is the most selfish and absorbed need I have. Nero is my greatest business ally, and Una…well, she is something they both love. Where does that leave me? If I loved Anna, truly loved her, surely I’d save her sister? It’s what she would want, isn’t it?

I rest my forehead against the cool glass of the window, hoping to slow the whirlwind of useless thoughts firing through my head.

“Are you going to call Dimitri?” I glance over my shoulder at Samuel.

“I don’t know. I doubt very much that he’ll help.” There’s a moment of silence. “Would she hate me for letting her sister go?” I whisper.

“Does it matter? You love her. Do you really care if she hates you as long as she’s safe?”

“We’ve only ever known basic survival, Sam. The cartel was our salvation.” I look at him. “I feel like I can’t fucking breathe without her. I should be better, but I’d sacrifice a lot more than her sister to have her back.”

“Good. Because you’re probably going to have to.” He holds his hand out for the phone, and I place it in his palm. “I’ll call Dimitri.” He eyes me meaningfully, and I nod, walking out of the room. It’s best that it’s out of my hands.

The office door bursts open and Nero walks out looking like he’s about to end the world as we know it. Him and his men have been in there for hours.

“Una called,” he says through gritted teeth.

“What did she say?”

He glances at me, his expression ice-cold. “Goodbye. So now we do things the old-fashioned way.”

“What did you have in mind?”

A slow, wicked smile pulls at his lips and it’s weirdly settling. I understand that vicious glint in his eye all too well. “Blood, war, carnage. We’ll bring the Russians to their knees. Let’s see how long they keep hold of two women when their women are dying, and their businesses are crippled.”

A sense of relief rises in my chest, a spark of hope chasing away the helplessness that I’ve been feeling ever since Anna was taken. Action I can do. Waiting I cannot. But I have to give Una a chance. She sacrificed herself for her sister, and even though I have no faith that the Russian will stay true to his word and release her, I have to give it a second. Don’t I? The problem is, Nero is looking at me like he’s ready to set the world on fire and laugh as he watches it burn.

“What do you need?” I ask.

He takes a tin from his pocket, removing a cigarette and placing it between his lips. His lighter clicks, the flame dancing over the end. “I need you to take down their business. All of their drugs come from Mexico.”

I scrub a hand over my jaw. “They deal with several cartels.”

“Then do what you have to in order to cease their supply.”

“What about their guns?”

His lips twitch, though any trace of humor is completely absent from his expression. This is the Nero Verdi that even the Italians are terrified of. He carries a certain madness that’s so very unpredictable. “They buy from the Arabs. I have a man there.”

“Get me the times and places of the shipments and my men will handle it.” Subtly, my men will handle it subtly. If I’m careful, I can work this to my advantage. I just have to have zero culpability. Nero will cause enough problems that they’ll be focused on him, and as such, they’ll assume that any missing drugs or guns are due to him. I just want to get my girl and get out, but Nero and I are bound in this situation just as surely as the two sisters we’re fighting for. We have been since the moment he asked me to take Anna, perhaps even long before then. He did kill my father for me, after all, and that kind of favor brings with it an unbreakable loyalty.