Chapter 27—Lukiyan

The condition is called a progressive cardiac conduction defect. PCCD for short.

It’s a rare genetic and hereditary heart rhythm disturbance condition which can lead to a complete heart blockage the heart essentially stops working.

Those with the condition must be on continuous treatment.

Those with the condition as severe as Persephone’s have a shorter life expectancy.

I can completely understand why everyone was so fascinated with her because people who have the condition aren’t advised to undergo strenuous exercise, let alone get accepted into Juilliard and a place with the New York City Ballet.

I stare at the computer screen showing Persephone’s medical records.

These records, of course, aren’t listed in her general records. Families like the Vittorios have whatever kind of privacy they can pay for. So they can keep things secret.

But they can’t hide from people like me. I’ve been leaving all tech-related things to Aleksei, but since this was personal I looked into it myself.

More than ever he can see my fascination with the maiden, so he would have looked into it for me, but I guess I’m not ready to talk about her yet.

Not when guilt is weighing heavily on my mind.

I’ve been awake for a few hours now, just sitting in my father’s office. I should probably start calling it mine now since it is.

He’d want me to call it mine.

Talking about the dead yesterday weighed on me more than I showed. But sometimes you have to push aside your own feelings when others need you.

Yesterday Persephone needed me. I spent the whole day with her, and the night too.

It was nice and normal. It felt freeing in ways, but what happened to her stayed with me.

While she bared her soul to me, I wanted to look into what she went through.

That’s what sent me down here before sunrise.

I’ve never seen medical records that look like hers before. There are pages and pages and pages in several files ranging from the time she was born, right up until years after her sister’s death.

I know it was hard for her to talk about and I appreciated that she shared her bad experience with me.

I’ve finished looking through the files now and I feel just as awed as her doctors were that she achieved so much.

Across from me is the letter I shouldn’t have read.

It’s from Athena to Persephone. It reads more like a suicide note.

I saw the envelope weeks ago when I first looked through her duffle bag.

I didn’t read the letter, although the envelope was already open. Reading it then would have felt like I was invading more than I already had.

Today it was calling to me as loudly as my curiosity to check her medical files.

I’m sorry I read it now because it makes me feel worse than I already do. Like I was the villain to the wrong woman.

I plan to give it back to her when she wakes up, but as I look at it again it’s like her sister is speaking to me.

It says:

My sweet sister, If you are reading this, I’m gone. I’m not alive anymore, but I am free.

I don’t want you to be sad, and I don’t want you to feel mad at me.

I didn’t leave you because I don’t love you.

Please never think that.

I did this because I could no longer live in this world without my baby girl.

Everywhere I looked I saw her. I kept hearing her calling for me, so I decided to go to her.

I made that decision and also found a way to save you.

I know you feel guilty for Mom’s death, but please don’t. We put you in the safe room because we both wanted you to live.

I’m doing the same thing now.

No one can dance the way you can.

It’s like music was made for you.

So please accept my gift of my heart, my sweet sister and when you dance, think of me.

I am always with you.

Love always and forever, Athena As I read it again, I know what I must do.

I’ve always known what to do. But I just wanted to hold on to the one good thing that ever happened to me for a little longer.

A hurried knock on my door snaps me into focus.

“Come in,” I call out.

Aleksei pushes the door open and the instant I see his face and the Manila envelope he’s carrying I know he has news for me.

“We got something. Two somethings.”

“What are they?”

“Judas. I just intercepted a message to Emilio. He’s going to be staying at the Grand Elk. He’ll be here tomorrow at lunchtime. He’s meeting Frankie on Wednesday to hand get the device.”

Tomorrow.

I set the letter down, my brain processing this moment.

This is it. This is the chance I’ve been waiting for.

I’ll get to kill that motherfucker.

“Let’s get there tomorrow and kill his ass.”

“My thoughts exactly. I know what room he’s staying in so I’ll get everything set up so we can move in.”

“I need to make the kill,” I cut in and he nods. “Thank you Aleksei. I couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Don’t mention it. Ready for the other news?”

“Give it to me.”

“Guess who’s bestest friends with an Order member?”

He opens the envelope and takes out a picture.

When he sets it down before me and I see Antonio talking with a baldheaded guy, with the Order tattoo on his arm, I smile to myself.

“Well hell.”

“Yes. What do you want to do? The street guys picked this up a few hours ago. They said he might be there again tonight, but they’re not sure. The Order guys are getting a drug drop.”

“Let’s go there tonight. If I take him down, that means I won’t have to worry about Emilio anymore.”

“And what about after we get Judas?” He raises his brows. “Is the plan still to kill Emilio then?”

I know what he’s asking me, and I’m going to answer because he deserves some explanation.

“I made a deal with Persephone.”

He doesn’t look surprised. “You care for her don’t you? Don’t lie to me, I’m calling rank here as your superior and your oldest friend, so give me the truth.”

I smirk. As Sovietnik his authority is as powerful as the Pakhan in his absence. As my oldest friend, though, his authority is as powerful as family to me.

“Yes.”

“And what are you going to do about her?”

He’s asked me that question before. This time carries more weight.

“I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”

We’re silent for a moment then he nods. “Okay, at least it looks like we’ll get what we came here for.”

It does seem that way.

Now to plan and give Emilio a call. He’s still in Minnesota.

I’ll take great pleasure in informing him that his beloved son-in-law to be is the motherfucker who wanted him dead.

I would never have guessed Antonio was involved in this because the fool would have gotten the empire and the seat in the council with his marriage to Persephone. But if Emilio died, he’d get all of that quicker.

Now he won’t get anything.

Was he to be blamed for the past too?

Something feels off, but I guess I can clarify everything when I see him later.

I see the truth for myself. It’s before me.

Antonio just walked into the clearing outside the old warehouse at the docks and joined two bulky looking men. I have the place surrounded with both my men and Emilio’s.

Emilio’s men don’t know that my guys are here. They’re on the rooftop with Aleksei. I wasn’t going to go on a heist like this without my own backup. We work differently in the Yurkov to those in the Camorra.

We’re like Spartans. We train as one, move as one, kill as one.

I’m hidden under the archway in the warehouse opposite the clearing.

Antonio is talking to the guy who looks like the leader.

I’m waiting for a clear shot on one of them to take Antonio in. Emilio wants him alive so he can question him then kill him himself via the Camorra methods of punishment.

He’ll have his throat cut and his head severed from his body.

His family, if found innocent in his dealings will be disgraced and exiled from the organization. If found guilty, they’ll be killed by firing squad for their treachery and for the murders of loved ones past and present.

I’m here doing this, but I’m here for Persephone.

This way ensures she never has to be anywhere near this bastard ever again.

In this life or the next, because he’s going to hell. I’m taking him there.

Aleksei is supposed to give me a signal then I’ll move in with the team behind me.

I have a communicator in my ear waiting for it.

“I’m going to take a shot on the tall one,” Aleksei says into my earpiece. He’s referring to the leader. “Get ready to move.”

“Believe me I’ll be ready.”

Seconds later, Aleksei takes the shot and the bulky man goes down.

I move in just as Antonio pulls his gun and is about to run off.

The men move in shooting at the Order members and all hell breaks loose.

When Antonio sees me coming after him, he looks like he’s about to shit himself.

“Well look who the fucking rat is,” I taunt firing a shot at his legs. I said I wouldn’t kill him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hurt him really bad or shoot off his dick the way I wanted to when he hurt Persephone.

“And you think you’re the knight in fucking armor?” He jumps behind a stone pillar to shield himself.

I do the same then continue my pursuit toward him when I get a clear path.

He runs into the warehouse behind him and I follow, bounding forward as fast as I can.

I catch up with him inside, leaping through the air like a wild beast and knock him down to the ground. The dim overhead lights snap on, lighting us up as we tumble in a heap of flying fists.

He’s surprisingly fast and agile. More than I thought.

Antonio manages to flip me onto my back and land two punches to my face, but I regain my composure and do the same to him. Before he can get anymore smart ideas I land a fist in his face, stunning him.

I give him another round of punches, knocking his fucking teeth down his throat.

“You motherfucker, it was you all along,” I shout. “Emilio’s going to kill your ass.”

“Keep going Lukiyan, you know this is really about the girl,” he sputters.

Yes it is. She’s the main reason I’m here beating his ass.

“Keep pushing me, you stupid cunt.”

“She’s mine,” he chokes out, through bloodied teeth. “She was always mine and I will never allow you to have her. You are scum.” He has a death wish talking that kind of shit to me, but he doesn’t know who I am.

His words, however, trigger memories of when people used to call me scum.

I might have been a kid and the years that passed saw my life getting better, but being pushed around by adults who should have known better is not the kind of thing you forget.

“We’ll see about that,” I growl.

His face becomes a bloody mess but I keep going until I hear the click-clack of the hammer cocking on a gun by my ear.

“You might want to stop, dog,” comes a voice from behind me.

I stop and freeze, waiting for a chance to get myself out of this.

I never heard them coming, but then again, they could have already been in here.

Antonio could have run in here because he knew I’d be following him straight into a trap and I did it leaving my back up outside.

“Drop your weapon and get up,” the man snarls.

I follow the order, dropping my weapon as I stand. I just need a moment of reprieve. Then I can teach these bastards a lesson. They’ll all be dead in two minutes.

Looking over my shoulder, I find a blond man with a knife scar going across his cheek. He’s aiming a Beretta at me with a wild smirk on his face. Another three men join him, training their guns on me.

Their presence gives Antonio a chance to get up.

“Hands behind your head,” the blond man barks.

I lift my arms and do as he says. He taps the side of my pockets while the others come closer with their guns. The fool takes out my wallet, and I fume inwardly as he flicks it open revealing a picture of Melissa.

“Girlfriend?” he asks in a mocking tone. I don’t answer him, and that pisses him off. “She looks like she’d be a good fuck.” He tosses my wallet to Antonio, who catches it. I notice his face pales even through the blood and bruises I just gave him.

Something like recognition forms in his eyes, and I wonder if that’s what it really is.

Did he know Melissa?

If so, have I compromised myself by having her picture in my fucking wallet?

“Interesting thing,” the man behind me intones in a sing-song voice. “We noticed—”

I don’t give him a chance to finish his sentence. I move so quickly and grab his gun that none of them see me coming. I flip it around and kill the asshole and his friends.

More men, however, storm the place.

Whirling around, I follow Antonio, who is hightailing it out of the warehouse and way ahead of me.

He runs through the open doors to the left and jumps onto the closest boat.

I curse myself when the motherfucker starts it up, and the engine roars to life.

He’s getting away. I can’t allow that to happen.

I push hard, trying to catch up with him.

I nearly do until something sharp rips through my side, and I realize I’ve been shot.