Page 126 of Mafia Obsession

Daria responds, “We go through a lot of guards. That’s why we give them code names. I keep a dozen trained at all times to replace the ones who…don’t make it out of a situation.”

“What is happening?” Lourdes asks through clenched teeth like she’s at the end of her sanity.

“Here.” I hand her the letter that’s got my hackles raised. “It had this thumb drive taped to it.”

With shaking hands, she reads the note and gasps.

It’s on letterhead from Kirill Volkov.

Just four words:Give her to me.

“Her? Who is her?” Lourdes asks.

“You.”I drill her with a stare.

“Me?” Lourdes staggers back. “What’s on that thumb drive?”

“We’re going to find out.” I hand it to Daria. “Go through this, right here, right now.”

She sits at a terminal and pops it into a drive. After a few clicks, she announces, “It’s a video.”

When Lourdes tries to look at it, I pull her into my chest. If a video came from Kirill Volkov, something gruesome is on it. Someone is being killed. Maybe her father. I can see Yuri Volkov gutting her father and putting him into a car with the brake lines cut.

Lourdes shakes in my arms. I’m about to kiss her when Daria interrupts me.

“Ares, you need to look at this.” The alarm in her voice sends chills through me. “Just you.”

I hold Lourdes’s chin. “Stay right here. Do not move from this spot.”

When she nods, I kiss her on the forehead. I move to the terminal, braced for blood and gore. Not…

“What the hell is that?” I say to Daria, not believing what I’m seeing.

“That’s exactly what it looks like.” Daria exhales.

“What?” Lourdes cries out. “I’m tired of being left in the dark.”

Fury racing through me, I look up at her. “Why didn’t you tell me your sister was engaged to Kirill Volkov?”

Her face goes absolutely white.“What?”

“Is Sandrine secure?” I ask Daria.

“Yes, Ares,” she answers, holding her phone. “I just checked the team over there. They say nothing’s been breached. I’m sending more men to watch the building.”

“Someone talk to me,” Lourdes grinds out. “What is on that thumb drive?

“A video of them,” I say softly.

She looks like her stomach dropped. “What kind ofvideo?”

“Not what you’re thinking,” I say quickly. “Come look.”

I hold out my hand to her. She takes shaky steps and then faces the monitor.

Kirill Volkov and Lourdes’s sister Sandrine are in a park somewhere in Chicago, Lake Michigan behind them. She’s showing off an engagement ring. He’s smiling, holding her, and kissing her. This has to be at least five years old. Christ, I can see the difference in Kirill. He’s only thirty-five now, but the man has aged with weathered lines in his face that I never want to see when I look in the mirror.

“Ares!” Lourdes snaps me back to the video.