Chapter 95 — Revenge Of The Mafia Boss

MYKAELA.

The bulletproof SUV rumbled along the narrow, rain-soaked streets as heavy clouds cast a dreary atmosphere over us. We finally reached Senjak.

The Internet said this was a residential part of Belgrade. This part of the city boasted affluent neighborhoods, some prime real estate, museums, and other landmarks of Serbian modern architecture. I thought Ilya would send a few of his security personnel to fetch us. But Magnus said this SUV would take us straight to the estate.

I looked out the heavily tinted windows, the tiny raindrops running across the glass. The backseat and the rest of the interior looked high-end. Obviously this was an expensive armored vehicle.

My brother didn't seem the type to disregard matters of security or take his for granted. Especially whenever he was in this country. I wouldn't be surprised if he was used to having at least five bodyguards escorting him and his wife.

I could already imagine my other brothers and Ilya waiting for us in his mansion, surrounded by armed guards and security cameras.

I couldn't specifically locate the property on my phone, but I could tell we were close.

Beside me, Lorenzio spoke in hushed Italian with his phone on his ear, his deep voice drowning out the heavy silence around us. We shared the vehicle with five people, including my suit-clad brother, Magnus.

Looking like a bona fide businessman on another business trip, he sat quietly behind the driver's seat looking quite busy on his phone. The calls he just received seemed non-work-related. He sounded like he spoke fluent Russian, and maybe some Serbian, as well.

Was he talking to Ilya? Or Alex, his younger brother? Well, half-brother. As far as I knew, Alex was the favorite son. The "rightful heir".

"Non puoi restare sola con lui," Lorenzio murmured to my ear as the tires hummed on the wet pavement. [You can't be alone with him.]

Alone with Magnus? Or Ilya?

"Ovviamente." [Of course.] I stroked Enzo's arm. I didn't know whether my brother understood some Italian.

Hopefully he wasn't a polyglot of some sort.

I glanced at Enzo's profile while an unsettling stillness clung to the air. Clearly I wasn't the only one acutely aware of the impending confrontation awaiting us.

Even though he tried multiple times to talk me out of doing this, his and my family's safety remained my primary motivation. This visit shouldn't take longer than a few days. If it did, Gaia would call the police and file a missing person's report.

I sat back as Lorenzio's warnings and reminders persisted, all in Italian, an attempt to shield our conversation from the quiet scrutiny of our tight-lipped companions.

Enzo's bodyguards sat behind us. Lele and Berto.

The gray-haired guy in the front passenger seat was my brother's security escort, sitting beside the mask-wearing and tattooed driver who was adeptly navigating the highways as if he lived in this city. Two more vehicles trailed behind. There were at least five guards in each car, most likely armed as well, their names probably listed on my brother's payroll.

"Mykaela?"

"Yes?" I sat up and slightly loosened my mask, waiting for my brother to shift in his seat to look behind and face me. Something in my stomach clenched at his somewhat commanding baritone voice and no-nonsense tone. Hearing him say my first name was something I just wasn't used to.

"How's Maximiliano doing?" Magnus asked.

Miles? "I, uh..."

Why was he asking about Miles? Did he know him personally?

"Fine, I guess. He just got out of rehab," I replied.

"We met in Nice, y'know. Did he tell you his father and Ilya are cousins?"

Nice?

What? Miles already met him in person? In France? When?

I reclined and stared at Enzo. When he averted his gaze, a ball of nerves and the urge to confront him about what I just heard settled in the pit of my stomach.

"Distant cousins, I should say," Magnus said.

"Cousins? Are you serious?" I blinked at the back of his head, my insides twisting into sharp little knots.

Magnus had a short haircut with faded sides, like in his photo on his dormant social media profiles. His hair wasn't jet-black, but clearly darker than Enzo's. Curly and still quite thick for his age. "Maximiliano never mentioned anything about a port deal? In Idstrom?"

"No. I..."

"How did you two meet?" was his next question, his tone seemingly genuinely curious.

"Through a friend," I muttered, trying my best to ignore Lorenzio's grip on my wrist. "I mean, it was one of his close friends. Paul. He was a model based in Italy when I met them."

"I see." Magnus nodded faintly.

The SUV cut through another wide intersection, the silhouette of the most urbanized part of the city veiled in gray clouds. We just drove past another bustling neighborhood in the middle of the busiest traffic routes.

I tried to quiet my brain amid the incessant patter of rain on the windows. But it was no use.

Mr. Falco and Ilya were related by blood? How? Was Magnus actually talking about Ilya, our biological father?

What on Earth? Was it bullcrap? Or was some of it true?

As shock began to numb my hands somewhat, I tried to swallow the clump of confusion and nervousness stuck in my throat, my brain scrambling to make sense of the chaotic thoughts running through my head.

Even though I just met him, I could tell Magnus wasn't a pathological liar. Or a sly, duplicitous, bloodthirsty criminal mastermind. A little intimidating and too businesslike, but I would be surprised if he and Stefano shared more than a few traits.

I would bet Magnus wasn't harmless or amicable to everyone he met. Yet I felt like I could trust him. Trust him with our safety and my secrets. Like he was someone I could trust with my life.

Weird.

There was just an air of self-assurance and undeniable authority about him that matched his mysterious, larger-than-life persona.

"Who told you they're cousins?" Enzo asked him on my behalf.

"Niccolo's got a copy of their rather interesting family tree," Magnus said nonchalantly. "You should have a look at it one of these days."

I understood Enzo's doubts about my brother's sincerity and friendly demeanor during our first dinner together, but I couldn't fathom why Magnus would make up stories about Mr. Falco and Ilya's apparent bloodline connection. Or why he was telling me and Enzo any of it.

What for? To convince us he was on our side? It didn't make sense.

Magnus wouldn't bother to show up at the estate today if he didn't have a soft spot for Ilya.

"Where's Idstrom?" Enzo asked, breaking off the tense silence, his fingers itching his shaved sideburns.

Magnus adjusted his posture and put his phone on his ear for a moment. "You know the Black Sea?"

All I could do was give him a nod when he glanced behind to regard us. I didn't know much about the Black Sea.

Geography was Miles' forte.

Magnus gave me a lopsided smile. "You and Ilya are descendants of Stefano's mother's aunt. Her name was Angelika."

What? "I, um... I only know Maxim's grandmother's name. Emira."

"Yes. Angelika is Emira's aunt," Magnus explained. "During the war, the Mihajlovićs found Angelika in a convent after her family got killed. They adopted her when she was still a teenager. Treated her like their own."

Mihajlović.

It was Ilya's real last name, if Niccolo didn't lie about that. Used to be my last name, too, shortly before Mommy changed my full name after Daddy Jim moved us out of Florida.

"She met Ilya's grandfather years later. Then Ilya's parents moved back here," Magnus went on. "Nicco probably told you the rest."

"Not really." I scoffed, the long pause after my mumbled response turning awkward.

Shit. The whole thing sounded like a messed up, convoluted movie plot. But something told me it wasn't all lies.

Magnus squared his broad shoulders before reclining in his seat again.

Did he make it all up? But why? I just couldn't come up with a sensible reason.

Maybe it was actually the whole truth. Ilya and Mr. Falco could be cousins who tried to do business together. But their deal turned awry and resulted in Ilya seeking revenge because of Stefano's dumb, messed up schemes.

Miles had mentioned his dad could have met Ilya a while back, as they shared a few connections in the black market when Miles was still in school. But he never said anything about us being related by blood.

Cousins!

What the fuck?

If I had known, I would never have acted on my feelings.

Ugh. We did more than kiss a few times. We even—

My stomach churned. I shuddered just thinking about everything we did in Umbria and how we almost...

Jeez. Thank goodness Miles knew better than to knock me up.

"Hold on." Lorenzio rested his elbow on the armrest, speaking in a louder voice. His dark brows and forehead creased, while his white mask still hid half of his nose and his whole mouth. "Stefano and Ilya started doing business together when they found out they're related?"

I held my breath and inched closer to him.

"Most likely the case," Magnus replied monotonously. "It was a typical shipping agreement, far as I know. SF Shipping was still in its early years then. With Ilya's help, Stefano pitched a port deal to the Russians—the Božićs. Ilya wasn't the top dog yet. Not even the second-in-line that time."

"Really."

"Some time after they signed that deal, Ilya found out Stefano's guys were skimming off the top. Stealing from almost every shipment."

Wow. Okay.

So Mr. Falco actually dared to steal from old-school Russian mobsters.

"Ilya hated him for it, 'cause he made it clear the Božićs especially hate swindlers and liars." Magnus restrained a laugh. "Ironic—considering their roots. But they believe they're real-deal entrepreneurs. Modern day industrialists."

"Oh." I pulled a face. "So, the Božićs scrapped the deal?"

"Ilya broke it off after he found out Stefano's guys messed with the shipments. Stole a few every now and then. Replaced them with the best-looking fakes." Magnus placed his phone on his ear again. "He warned Stefano and his goons to keep away from the Božićs' businesses and stay in Italy."

"That's when Stefano and his brother thought of starting a hotel chain?" Enzo squinted and clasped my hand. He sat right behind Magnus with the window to his left.

"I suppose." Magnus shrugged faintly.

"You know about Luxoria. Right?"

"Sure. It seems much smaller than SF Shipping, but, your brother definitely saw the potential in it. That's why he tried to buy out more than half of the shares. Correct?"

"Potential?" Lorenzio faked a quick, breathy laugh. "He and my uncle wanted to use the hotels as their main trafficking hubs."

"Smart investment."

Enzo scoffed. "Not the words I'd use, but, sure," he muttered as his grip on my wrist loosened. "Who told you about that port deal?"

"Nicco and I were chatting about it, some time after he met Maximiliano. Alex figured out the details."

Alexei, my other half-brother. Was he excited to meet me? Or the opposite?

"He's closer to Ilya than his brother," Magnus explained.

"Ilya forced Niccolo to spy on Stefano and his businesses by befriending Maxim?" Lorenzio's fingers pressed onto my palm.

"Blackmailed, I'd say. I believe Niccolo still owes the Russians roughly a million to this day." Magnus clicked his tongue. "I recently loaned him two point five to pay off the ballooning interest."

Okay. So my guess was right.

Niccolo did mean cold hard cash when he said he was indebted to Magnus.

"He tell you anything else about Stefano and Ilya?" Magnus turned his face away from the driver's seat to grin at me.

"Not much. Just, um..."

Enzo shifted beside me and scowled. "Did Ilya tell you to get rid of Stefano and the Falcos?"

"Few times. Not all of them, but, yes. Ilya wanted to burn SF Shipping to the ground."

Just SF Shipping? "But not anymore?" I chimed in. The coiling sensation in my stomach eased when Magnus chuckled.

"With Eleana in charge now, and with Ricchar and Amara Falco supporting her efforts, the company might just survive another few years."

I didn't doubt that at all. Unlike her dead husband, Mrs. Falco had a neat and proven track record, the integrity, acumen, and the drive to keep their family businesses going. "And, uh, Nicco sent me a copy of the original birth records. He said my real birth name was Sofija?"

"Yes. For some reason, Ilya keeps calling you Sofija lately. Every time we talk about you."

I made a face. They actually talked about me often? "He didn't, when I met him in that restaurant, in Gospodar Jovanova," I murmured as I stared at the gloomy stretch of concrete beyond the tinted windows. "Nicco was there."

"My guess is, he just didn't want to alarm you. Scare you off."

"I wasn't scared of him." Just dumbfounded. After meeting him for the first time, I felt more betrayed than terrified of Ilya. I barely slept that night, and not just because Leandro assaulted and mentally tortured me because he thought I was one of Ilya's spies.

Enzo crossed his arms and cleared his throat. "He told you his hidden tried to kill me and Ricchar's wife?"

Magnus glanced at him. "You two would've died if he actually wanted you dead."

What the heck? So that was merely Ilya sending a message to Stefano?

"I'm sure Nicco told you about Vlad," Magnus continued. "He and his pals are professionals. I mean, were."

Because Ilya had them killed after that ambush except Vlad? To tie up loose ends?

I winced and stared at the collar of my brother's dark suit. My neck, back and legs felt strained, but I didn't want to end our conversation just yet. I needed a few more straight answers maybe he could give me. A proper explanation for what caused that harrowing ambush in Umbria. "Did Ilya know it was Enzo and Cloe, not Leandro and Ricchar, before he gave those guys the go-ahead?"

"Sure. But he doesn't care." Magnus shrugged. "He's not the type to apologize to people he thinks are his enemies."

Clearly. I mean, why would he?

"Ilya thought Stefano was deliberately taunting him when he found out that you were living with Maximiliano in Brescia."

What? "N-No. That was just a coincidence," I managed to say without choking.

Or was it really just a coincidence?

"So it was Niccolo who first told him about Stefano pitching a merger deal to Leandro and Ignazio?" Enzo asked while his leg pressed against mine.

"Perhaps."

I stared at my clenched fist until my pale skin turned blurry, my mind racing like my heartbeat. I looked out the window beside me.

The sky finally cleared up. It might take me a whole week to fully process all these shocking revelations, but I appreciated my brother's candor and willingness to answer our questions. It almost felt like he actually cared about us in some way.

Awkward silence filled the dim space around us while the driver pulled up in front of tall, wide gates. Wrought iron. All-black with ten or so gilded Russian letters on the arched top. The gates looked like they were made of layers of reinforced steel. The light gray concrete fence looked even thicker. More imposing.

Magnus glanced behind and grinned at us. "We're here."