THE AIR STILLED AND IT felt like time had stopped. Smoke was eerily quiet beneath Gia, his body going rigid. If it wasn’t for the sound of his rapid heartbeat, Gia could almost pretend he wasn’t here with her and she wasn’t whispering her past deeds to him.

Gia closed her eyes, letting the memories she tried so hard to forget float to the surface. She was prepared for a tidal wave of emotions and for the past to pull her under, but they came at her slowly; the same way the ocean brushes up against the shoreline on a calm summer afternoon.

The first tease of a memory that touched her was when she first met Edwin and his friend Hunter. Gia remembered being so enamored with Edwin from the start. Her infatuation made her miss so many little things that should have bothered her. The way he would mistreat waitstaff—especially women—when he took her out for dinner. The way he always seemed to have a negative comment about women he didn’t personally know and the way he talked about Hunter’s conquests with Hunter. The women were no more than property or a piece of ass to them, and Gia had ignored it because Edwin had treated her differently. She had been his princess—put up on a pedestal—and she bloomed under the attention so much that she didn’t realize how long that fall was when he pushed her off.

“I had an ex, Edwin.” Gia felt a chill run down her back at the mention of her ex’s name. It had been the first time she spoke it in what seemed like forever, and she half-expected him to appear now that his name was out in the open.

Gia tried not to think about him at all over the years, but he would sneak in sporadically. A specific scent being carried on the wind or a certain song playing on someone’s car radio as it drove passed. It was a little reminder—a nudge that he had been a part of her life and what she did wasn’t a bad dream.

“He was a couple of years older than me.” Gia fought to find her voice. She hadn’t told this story to many people, only Otto and a handful of therapists she stopped seeing once they questioned what happened to him.

She felt Smoke pull her closer. His arms offered their own blanket of protection that had her body melting into his, despite her mind screaming the dangers of exposing her truth. “He had a decent job, no family but a best friend, Hunter. They both seemed harmless, and everyone I brought them around loved them, including my brother, and you’ve met Otto, he’s not a fan of most people.” Gia’s breath hitched as more memories flooded her mind. It felt like she was suffocating—could feel Edwin’s hands around her throat, throwing her right back to the first night he hit her.

“Are you calling Hunter a liar?” Edwin’s grip on Gia’s arms made her flinch. His touch was bruising as he held her up against the wall. “He saw you all over that guy, Otto’s friend. I told you I don’t want you fucking around them.”

“Hunter was clearly mistaken.” Gia tried to keep her tone even, not wanting to upset Edwin further. It made no sense why Hunter would say she was hanging all over other men and letting them touch her when she wasn’t.

“All I did was say hello to my brother and his friends. I’m not going to stop talking or hanging out with my brother. He’s my brother.” Gia couldn’t understand where this anger was coming from and who this person was standing in front of her. He had never so much as raised his voice to her before, but now he had her pinned to the wall in a punishing grip.

Edwin shoved Gia back, making her head connect with the wall behind her. She didn’t have a chance to cry out from the hit before she felt the back of Ethan’s hand stinging her cheek. “You stupid bitch. I thought you were a good girl.” He hit her again before throwing her to the floor. “You’re nothing but a whore like the rest of them.”

“Shhh, sunshine. I got you. You’re safe here.” Smoke’s soothing voice was the anchor she needed to steady herself in the present. She didn’t realize how strong of a grip the past still had on her—how embedded that time of her life was in her bones. Telling her truth was going to be harder than she wanted to admit. She thought she buried those emotions Edwin and his death had spurred in her.

“You were my good girl, Gia. I won’t lose you and watch you with someone else.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Gia.” She felt Smoke’s lips against the side of her forehead, and she felt herself seek out his touch, wanting more of it. She wrapped herself tighter around him. “I’m not sure what you’ve been through, and you don’t have to tell me, tonight or ever. I know things are weird between us right now, but know I always got you.”

It was the conviction in Smoke’s voice that almost brought her to tears. She felt his truth—knew it the moment he volunteered himself to be her buddy when she went outside the compound—even when he was the one to put the rift between them. Gia could put her hand to fire and know in her soul Smoke would never physically hurt her.

Smoke wasn’t without his faults, but he never hid them. The world got exactly what he showed. There was no pretending, no show to put on that said he was a good guy only to be the devil in disguise, and Gia realized that was why she’d been drawn to Smoke in the beginning. He didn’t play games. He was honest to a fault, except when it came to his feelings for her. There was no fear that the same hands he used softly against her in public would be the same hands he would use to beat on her in private. Smoke wasn’t a wolf in sheep’s clothing, he was a wolf who bared his fangs, so there was never a mistake about how sharp his teeth would be when they cut.

Gia felt the fog of the past start to lift. She could breathe evenly now that she no longer felt Edwin’s hands around her throat. She was firmly in the present and found her voice easier, the longer she held on to Smoke.

“The first time he hit me it was early on in our relationship.” Gia’s voice grew steadier. Her resolve to purge herself of this part of her history spurred her on. “His best friend, Hunter, whispered lies in Edwin’s ear that I was being a whore and hanging out all over my brother’s friends. I should have walked away after that first hit, but I found a million ways to make an excuse for him.”

Gia shifted out of Smoke’s hold and got to her feet. “To this day, I still can’t comprehend the game Edwin and Hunter played.” She started pacing the short distance between her bed and the door. The need to move as she spoke—as if it would help her speak and shed the skin of who she was when she was with Edwin.

“Edwin went a long time without hitting me after that first time. I thought it was a one off. We never spoke about it, and it never got brought up again. I could almost pretend that it didn’t happen.” Gia remembered being blissfully happy, easily falling in love with the good man Edwin pretended to be. Looking back now, even with a clearer head, she still couldn’t find what flipped the switch. Edwin went from being the best boyfriend Gia ever had to a literal nightmare she couldn’t seem to escape.

“And then one day,” Gia snapped her fingers, “It felt like it was every single day I was doing something to piss him off. If he wasn’t yelling at me, he was smacking me around. He even blocked a few calls and visits from Otto until my face healed up. I kept quiet, of course. I didn’t want my big brother to do something that would take him away from me and Nat.”

Gia abruptly stopped pacing and brought her hand up toward her chest, trying to calm her thunderous heartbeat. Her body shook. She could feel the sweat coating her skin, even as she felt her body grow cold to the touch. She knew speaking this out loud would make her have to acknowledge that it actually happened to her and it wasn’t something her mind made up to give her an excuse for pulling that trigger.

Any time she spoke of Edwin’s abuse with the therapists, she always left this part out. Even Otto hadn’t known the extent of what happened. She felt like if she voiced it, her world would change, even more so than taking someone’s life did. She was already a victim of domestic abuse; she didn’t want the added weight of being a rape victim. It would be too much for her to bear. The knowledge that she had lost her power and body autonomy in a matter of months because she couldn’t see the monster Edwin was made her sick.

She’d been around violent men before Edwin. She’d seen firsthand how guys like him treated women, but those men had never been like Edwin—not in appearance or stature. They’d been all-around mean, looking for ways to cut with a sharp tongue.

Edwin learned how to cut with underhand barbs disguised as soft touches.

Gia’s past was the exact reason she didn’t mind Sofia coming home and taking over. Why she encouraged Otto to switch sides if he could. It meant there would be a stop to what Boris was doing to women—women who had been just like her.

Women who had been made to feel powerless and like nothing more than a piece of property. Gia foolishly thought watching Sofia burn Boris’ organization to the ground would somehow heal her, cleanse her of her past and the sins she committed to make sure Edwin and Hunter couldn’t hurt someone else.

“One day Edwin was extra pissed off about something. I can’t remember what it was; I just remember the smell of liquor on his breath when he tried to hold me.” Gia tripped over her words, and her hands came down to her thighs as she tried to keep her breathing calm and steady. She wasn’t in that room anymore, and she wasn’t the same girl who wanted to believe the man she loved wouldn’t hurt her.

Smoke called her name and she could hear the worry in his voice. She shook her head. “Please,” was all she could manage. If she didn’t get this out now, she never would, and something inside of her was urging her forward, begging her to let Smoke help carry her baggage.

“Hunter was there. I don’t remember if he was drunk too, but when he reached to give me a hug, I remember he cupped my ass and Edwin didn’t do anything about it.”

Gia’s memories came at her in flashes. She could never remember how it started or why. She only remembered the pain and the betrayal she felt. They had broken something inside of her that day and in her fractured pieces they turned her into a murder.

“They held me down,” Gia’s breath hitched. “They took turns, and they weren’t gentle or quick about it. When they were done, they left me on the cold floor, clothes ripped to shreds, bloody all over and broken. Edwin even made me clean up the mess, wouldn’t even leave me alone to lay there.” Gia wrapped her arms around herself in a protective manner, as if she could block out the feeling of being violated over and over again.

“Edwin sat back with Hunter and watched as I scrubbed the floor, half-naked. You can imagine it took me twice as long to clean up because I was bleeding all over the floor. The asshole didn’t bother with lube,” she shrugged, “not like it would have made a difference.”

Gia chanced a glance at Smoke. She sucked in a sharp breath as his eyes darkened. His jaw ticked more than once, and she could have sworn she saw actual smoke coming out of his flared nostrils. He had a menacing air about him that made Gia want to instinctively take a step back and stay out of his path of destruction. She knew he would be pissed; for all of Smoke’s habits and faults, he never put his hand on a woman, and Gia knew one of the reasons he wanted to help Sofia was to stop what was being done under Boris’ rule.

“Don’t fear me, Gia.” Smoke’s voice was loud and commanding; rumbling through the room like thunder to match the wild beat of her pulse.

“I’m not scared of you,” she tried to sound sure, but her voice came out no louder than a whisper.

“You took a step back, and I can see the fear on your face. I may be pissed, but it’s not at you, sunshine. It’s for you. You got five minutes to tell me where your brother was during all of this and where those bastards are buried,” Smoke growled, and it made her spine go ramrod straight, her own anger sparking at the implication in his words.

Gia closed the distance just as Smoke stood to his full height. She could feel his fury and it fueled her, gave her strength to continue her story when any other time she would have been crippled by it.

She pushed at chest, not expecting to move him, only to get her point across. “You don’t get to judge my brother.” Otto hadn’t known everything, and he wasn’t around much, —thinking she was in good hands. He blamed himself enough for not being able to save Gia from her fate; she didn’t need Smoke adding to it.

“I told you, Edwin was good. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, loved his public persona. For the first time in a long time, I saw my brother breathe easier thinking I was in good hands. He wasn’t around when this happened, and he doesn’t know about this, only the beatings. I won’t expose that part to him.” Gia cursed when she felt the tears stream down her face. She went to wipe them away, but Smoke stopped her.

“Don’t hide how you feel, Gia,” he whispered, “you never have to shy away from what you feel with me. I’ll take your rage, your happiness, when you feel unbalanced and just meh. I’ll take your tears, your fear—whatever you think you can’t carry, I’ll carry it.” He leaned down so he was eye level with her. She saw the fierce determination in his eyes that told her he was ready to go to war for her, and that made her walls fall faster than she was ready to deal with.

They were supposed to be on opposite ends of things. Smoke made it clear there was no end that would be happy for them, and still he stayed. He was listening to her bare her darkest secrets, the ones she was secretly ashamed of. She couldn’t figure out why she never left, and while she knew better than to victim blame, that didn’t stop her from being harsh on herself.

Until Smoke.

She hated the tears she shed from that time in her life. Hated what happened to her and what she had to do, but he told her not to hide. He always had her back from the beginning, and even now he had her back from the time she stepped out of this compound to the time she put her head to her pillow, blurring the lines he was so desperate to create. She didn’t know whether to hug him or choke him.

“Can you tell me the rest?” he questioned, his voice soothing as if he was coaxing a wounded animal out of a trap. “If this is all you can spare tonight, that’s fine. You have a big day tomorrow, sunshine. I need you sharp.” He tapped her nose, getting a small laugh out of her that turned into a sob.

“After that night something snapped in me.” Gia released a breath, wishing the tears would stop falling. “Hunter and Edwin were in the house. I don’t remember what they were doing, but I knew with Hunter there, Edwin was going to be extra cruel that night.”

Gia remembered the way Hunter had watched her move around the house. It had creeped her out, setting her on edge. She felt it in the air; something was coming her way. She did her best to ignore both Edwin and Hunter.

“Hunter zeroed in on me, the intent in his eyes was clear. He pushed me up against the wall and started groping me. I told him no, I remembered whispering it before I found my voice and said it louder, but he didn’t stop. He never stopped, and Edwin just stood there, watching with greedy eyes. I tried to fight back, I tried to push him off, but he wouldn’t let up.”

Gia’s heart started pounding in her chest, and nausea hit her like she was back in that moment. The tears streamed down her face harder as she remembered the feel of Hunter’s hands on her body again, taking what he thought belonged to him. They were going to hold her down again, take turns brutalizing her until she was nothing more than a broken mess—no longer human, just a body for them to use and discard when they felt necessary.

“It’s weird. I can remember everything some days and other days, it’s so choppy I don’t think it happened to me and it was all a weird dream.” Gia stopped from curling in on herself in a protective manner. She would not shrink as she exposed this scab.

“I remember Edwin had come toward me, and I panicked, and then I remembered I still had a gun on me. I kept it on me as some false sense of safety. I only meant to flash it in their faces to get them to back off, but Hunter must have not thought I was serious because he lunged at me. He was so full of rage, and my finger slipped because I was scared. The bullet hit him square in the chest. I got lucky that I didn’t miss…or unlucky? I guess it depends on perspective. Edwin looked shell shocked, but when he came to, he called me a stupid bitch and lunged for me. This time my finger didn’t slip.”

The tears flowed freely on their own now. Her body shook, and it felt like she was purging something from her system. She dry heaved and flinched when she felt Smoke’s hands on her body. She didn’t mean to pull away from him, but a part of her was still stuck in that nightmare while another part of her wondered even with his past how he could still be standing in her room with her.

Smoke cursed. “I’m sorry. I should have asked before I reached for you.” She looked up at him with his hands in the air, his gaze softening. “I want to hold you, Gia. Offer you comfort, is that okay?” The question had her heart in her throat. She couldn’t remember the last time she truly cried, and as she stared at Smoke’s unwavering stance, she felt herself crumble, coming down like an unstable building.

Gia nodded and all but threw herself into Smoke’s chest. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck, letting go of the weight of that night and what she’d been through. It was a lifetime ago, yet the wound itself was still fresh from her subconsciously picking it at. She had no illusion that she’d ever truly heal from Edwin and Hunter, but she no longer wanted to deal with the crippling ache of that part of her history.

“Shh, sunshine.” Smoke pulled them back down on her bed. He reached for the throw blanket she kept on the bed and wrapped it around their body. She burrowed further into him, letting her body melt into his, seeking out everything he offered. “I got you, and I’m not going anywhere. Give me your pain, Gia. Give me your tears so you don’t have to carry this anymore, and no, you didn’t deserve what happened to you. No one does,” Smoke growled—the sound sent a shockwave of warmth into her body, and she held him tighter.

“Men like those pieces of shits seek out powerful women, hoping to break them. They didn’t succeed, Gia. You may have stumbled and lost your way, but you’re one of the strongest people I know, and that was before you trusted me enough to share this part of yourself.” His hand stroked her hair. She continued to cry with no clue how long it would be before she stopped.

“You’re still my sunshine, Gia. Nothing’s going to change how I see you, but I think I understand your fight a little better now.” He murmured against her skin, and she held her breath, not sure heart could take what she knew was coming.

“A better man will tell you to go sit in a fancy office with a doctor to help you shift through the pain and the loss of control that comes with something like you faced. A better man would tell you revenge won’t bring you peace, that participating in this war won’t ease that part in your mind that whispers you deserved what happened to you. A better man would take the gun out of your hand and hold you while he made false promises of better days.”

Smoke slowly pushed her on her back, stopping only long enough to make sure she was okay with what was happening. Her crying had lessened, but the tears still fell—slower, but they were still there—a leak she didn’t know how to stop.

He settled over her body, and Gia welcomed his weight. She clung to him like the lifeline he was offering himself up to be. She realized then that ever since the first moment they crossed paths, he’d been her compass, guiding her back to safety. There was no one she trusted more than the man who had death in his eyes.

“A better man would have given you up, Gia. I tried to be the better man, but we both know that I’m not.” He pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was soft and gentle. A deal being struck between two parties, and their lips were their signatures on the dotted line.

Smoke pulled back too soon for Gia’s liking. The need he enticed in her came to life without warning, and she wanted to finish what they started earlier. She wanted to create new memories to ease the sting of old ones.

“Not tonight, sunshine,” Smoke chuckled, easily reading where her mind went.

“And you say you’re not the better man.” Gia was surprised at the teasing tone in her voice and felt her lips pull back into a smile, mirroring Smoke’s.

“I’m not and you know it. I should be pushing you toward a non-violent solution to shed the hold the past has on you, and I won’t. I won’t tell you to be patient and that better days are on their way, and I will no longer stop you from participating in this war. I’ll put the gun in your hands and clear a path for you to slay whatever demons are haunting you. I will go through any storm with you and be your shield when you need one. You no longer have to hold yourself up alone. I got you, Gianna.”

The conviction in his voice, coupled with the way he looked at her as if he was in awe of her, cracked her open and settled her in the same breath. Smoke was finding his way inside of her, under all the broken pieces that had been left behind by life’s trials. He was helping her clear the debris to find the person who existed past what happened to her, and that scared her. The longer she looked at the man who had razor sharp edges that softened for her long enough to let her in, the easier she could see herself falling for him, and that was probably the most dangerous thing she could do.

If things worked out and they survived the storm they were in, they still had to work out their respective lives, him with the MC and her—she wasn’t sure what that looked like after this. But if they lost? It would be more than being run out of New York. If they lost, there was a possibility that she could lose him, and that would break her worse than her time with Edwin and Hunter ever did.

The sound of Sofia’s father’s voice boomed through the house. He was singing horrendously off key, and the sound of her mother’s laughter had Sofia laughing as she walked through the front door with Dom on her heels.

“Wow, he sounds really bad,” Dom chuckled as they walked toward the living room being led by her father’s singing.

It was an old Italian song that Sofia heard all her life. Her father constantly played it whenever he would dance with her mother, and that had been a nightly occurrence when she was little. It had been a long time since she heard this song, and while her father’s singing made her ears bleed, it made her happy. It meant things were quieting down in her father’s organization, at least enough for him to be home with her and her mother.

“Il mio piccolo amore.” Her father’s smile was wide, his eyes crinkling as he spun her mother around. He looked so much younger when he smiled. He was large and overpowering when he had a scowl and menacing look on his face but when he was like this? He lit up the room with a welcoming energy. He was the sun and everyone orbited around him.

“Vieni qui piccola.” Her father spun her mother again, leaving his arms wide open for Sofia.

“She’s not little anymore,” her mom chuckled, kissing him on his cheek before she walked over to where Dom and Sofia stood in the doorway. “Domencio, I swear I feel like you’re in my house more now than you ever were when you were younger.”

Sofia felt Dom stiffen behind her, and she had to smother a laugh with a cough. Their parents had pushed for the two of them to get together, but they hated each other. It wasn’t until after Dom’s mom passed away and the wedding talks stopped that they had found their way to a tense friendship. Tense because Sofia kept crossing a line Dom was insistent on putting between them.

Dom had already kissed her, and the memory of his lips and hands on her always managed to make her toes curl. She wanted Dom, but he kept denying her even though she knew he wanted her too.

“Sofia,” her father sang her name as he danced with himself. “You goin’ to leave me all alone on the dance floor,” he scoffed. “My own daughter leavin’ me out to dry.”

“Never, papa.” She laughed as she made her way to her father, and he swept her up in a massive hug before they started dancing.

“Your mother’s right, you know,” her father whispered down to her, “no more little one. No more wide-eyed little girl with missing front teeth, smiling at me like I hung the moon and stepping on my toes when we danced. Soon you’ll have a new man in your life.” Her father looked past her. Sofia knew he was looking at Dom. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask if that’s who he wanted her to end up with, but she couldn’t read the expression in his face. She couldn’t tell if he approved or if there was regret, and that made her pulse jump.

Dom’s father and her own father were best friends—thick as thieves. There was no one her father trusted more than Dom’s father. It was almost the most logical thing in the world for Dom and her to end up together; there weren’t many prospects for her because of her last name. Men either wanted to fuck her to get to her father or she had to worry about her father’s enemies using her to get to him.

Her father looked back at her, a smile teasing his lips. “Or a woman, whatever you’re into. I just want you to be happy and maybe have lots of grandbabies so I can spoil them.”

 

Sofia wiped the tears away as they slid down her face. She’d been bombarded with memory after memory of her time with her father after Boris left her alone. They kept her chained up and in the dark with nothing but her mind to keep her company, and that was a dangerous place for her to be.

Her time with her father had been short. She wasn’t allowed to keep in contact with him when she got to Colombia, and it felt like she was missing a vital part of herself. That night with her parents and Dom, laughing and dancing in her living room, was one of the last happy memories she had with all of them together. After that night, things had gotten tense with her father’s enemies and set off a chain reaction that led her to being locked in a cage like an animal for the second time in her life.

How she wished she could go back to that night, and even before that to truly soak up the good times that somehow in retrospect seemed few and far in between. As a child and adolescent she couldn’t wait to start living her own life and doing her own thing. If she knew this would be the outcome of her adult life, she would have slowed down for just a second to hug her father longer, have her mother’s hands play with her hair more, and keep Dom closer. Sofia never realized or would have imagined how fast that time went by, and now that it’s gone, she knew she would never get that back, even if she walked out of here with her heart still beating. Things would never be as simple as they were then. The weight of her last name would never let her rest.

The sounds of keys dangling had her eyes opening on their own before she shut them again. If someone was coming down here, they’d flash the lights on, and she knew it would take a moment before her eyes adjusted to the intrusion. She wanted to face whoever this was without looking disorientated.

Sofia held her breath and waited, listening for all the sounds. Boris and Bruno had on fancy suits when they came down to her earlier—clear signs of an upcoming meeting—and she wondered briefly who they were meeting with and if it had anything to do with what was going on outside of the walls she was trapped behind. She wondered about her Council members, doing her best to keep her mind off of Dom. If she thought she lost him, she wasn’t sure how her mind and heart would handle the blow. It would either cripple her to the point she crumbled or turn her into a tornado destroying everything in its path.

The lights flicked on, and her breath hitched, sending a tingling sensation down her spine. She wasn’t nervous, but there was something in the air that was making her tense. Her fight-or-flight instincts kicked in, and she had the sudden urge to jump to her feet and face off whatever was coming, but she couldn’t. Her body was too sore, and she’d still be struggling to stand by the time whoever was coming to greet her made it to the bars that kept her locked in.

She would never look weak in front of these men.

Sofia pushed herself slowly back up against the concrete wall, wincing when the chains rattled. It sounded louder than she wanted to. She prayed whoever was coming didn’t think she was panicking. She kept her knees into her chest, letting her arms rest across them. She slowly opened her eyes, letting herself get accustomed to the light. She shifted, turning just a fraction so her left ear was toward the door. There was more than one set of footsteps coming toward her. One that sounded familiar and one that was brand new.

Steady, Saffi.

Dom’s voice filtered through her mind, infusing her with a renewed strength as her pulse sped up. He really was her rock, an invisible force to keep her head on straight and not give in to the dread that whoever was coming down here was bringing down another member of the Council or they finally figured out new ways to torture her.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Sofia whispered under her breath as a pair of black shiny shoes came into view. Her gaze traveled up to a pair of black slacks on skinny legs, to a narrow waist and a white button down with the sleeves rolled up. The nervous energy she was feeling slowly slipped away as she got a good look at the newcomer. She was mad at herself for letting her nerves get the better of her.

“The Barbati whore all tied up with nowhere to go,” Fan Zhao chuckled as Boris pulled up beside him. “Not so invincible now, are we?” He leered at her the way men in this business tended to do.

She smirked at Zhao and flipped him the bird before her eyes turned toward Boris. It was a smart move on Boris’ end to recruit the remaining heads of the families. Zhao hadn’t been too happy with Sofia’s return, and this was expected. She’d done the same thing with Ethan.

“What do you plan on doing with her?” Zhao looked over her bruises and cuts. His gaze tried to linger on her breasts and in between her legs.

Boris clapped Zhao on his shoulder. “We’re having our fun with her. You’re more than welcome to join in on that fun, if you get us what we want.”

Zhao’s eyes heated, and Sofia fought not to roll her eyes, tried not to outwardly react. These men slung their dicks around like it made them all powerful. It was the same threat, the same overpowered tactics used to get those they saw weaker than them to heel, and honestly, it was starting to piss Sofia off.

What was the end game here?

If Boris wasn’t going to sell her, he needed to put a bullet in her. Nothing he or Zhao or Bebo or Bruno could do would make her break.

“Done.” Zhao licked his lips. “You just need to take care of Ethan or make sure he stays out of this. His reach is long and his pockets are deep. He didn’t care for much at the initial meeting, but he’ll care if he thinks you’re overreaching.”

Sofia watched as Boris’ eyes narrowed, and this time she couldn’t hide her chuckle. Even if she was locked up, telling them her plans gave her an edge. There was power in knowledge, and she was going to use it the next time they stepped foot in her cell.

Boris and Zhao started to turn, but Sofia stopped them when she called out their names. “Keeping me here won’t keep either of you alive long enough to enjoy your spoils of this war. You’ll eventually die, by my hand.”

Or someone else’s, like Ethan.