Page 134 of Ruthless Sin

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“He wants to come for your woman? He comes through all of us first.”

Cassia speaks.

“The second leak,” Marco says. “Andrei was reception. This one is inside the group itself. Romanian. One of the women from Tuesday group. Alexei’s network took her cousin three weeks ago. They’ve been threatening the cousin for intel. She gave them what she had.”

“Pull her in,” Cassia says. “Medical hold. Giada handles her. The cousin goes to Naples under the same shell that took Andrei’s sister.”

“Do it,” Dante says.

Marco’s gone.

The meeting moves to logistics.

Perimeter. Surveillance. Intake. Medical. Household. Comms.

I sit at the table and listen.

The cross is on the table in front of me.

Yelena’s cross.

Bloodstained.

Hand-carved.

The last thing she wore.

Now a declaration of war.

I look at Dante.

The man who just mobilized an entire family to protect a woman I lied to.

He catches my eye.

Nods once.

We got you.

I nod back.

The meeting continues.

This time I’m not alone.

23

MILA

Mama is dead.

Yelena is dead.

I keep saying it in my head and my body keeps not believing it.

I’m on the edge of my bed in the dark. I’ve been here since I came back from the shower the morning he told me. The shirt of his is on my body. I haven’t taken it off. The chain at my throat is under the cotton. My hands are shaking and they haven’t stopped.

I’m not okay.

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