Anton tricked me, used me, sent me to sabotage my uncle for nothing but his own disgusting gain. His poison was love and lust, and now it mutated in my veins, becoming as bitter and intoxicating as the toxin stowed in my bag.
I was returning to him as a weapon. I'd deceive him the same way he wrecked me with his lies.
It was time for the bastard to pay.
8
Disconnect (Anton)
It was nine o'clock. Second day since my girl went missing, and I was ready to wring Daniel's neck for the dozenth time.
The fucking bug hadn't lived up to expectations. Sabrina and Gioulio's voices were garbed, and the last thing we heard before it went dead was crashing and arguing. Fuck.
“Back off, Anton. Don't make me hit you again brother,” Lev growled, putting up his fists in warning.
Asshole. We were roughly the same strength, but he wasn't fighting for her the way I was. Fuck, Daniel was pretty strong too, especially when he knew he'd be fighting for his own life if we didn't find out what the hell happened – and soon.
“Shut the fuck up! This is his fault, and you know it. You're a cocksucker for protecting him.” I stormed to the other side of the great hall, pacing from end to end like a caged tiger.
“You're not in your right mind, brat. That bitch got underneath your skin. Fuck, for all we know, she was playing you the whole time. You let her go, she dumped the bug, and now she's probably given us up to the fucking Italians.”
That did it. I spun, came pounding right at him. Our bodies slammed together like colliding trains and Daniel was dragged into the melee.
Too bad we'd all gotten that Ivankov gene for big muscles and fists of fury. Two against one. I didn't have a chance, but I fought like a goddamned devil.
All I knew was the sweet crunch of my knuckles slapping flesh and bone. I swung, kicked, and thrashed 'til my arms went numb, same as I always did in a brawl like this. Except it never got that far.
Daniel got a choke hold not long after I pounded his face, hard enough to leave a black eye. Lev tackled me while I was struggling to get my brother's arm off my throat. He slammed both fists into my stomach. The wind was right outta me like a ton of bricks landing on my chest.
I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Daniel maintained his death lock, leaned down, and whispered in my ear.
“Don't make us knock you unconscious, brother. Calm the fuck down. Stop taking this all so personally. She could've done it to anybody.”
Damn if I didn't start struggling again with what little energy my body had left.
Sabrina hadn't stabbed me in the back – I wouldn't fucking believe it! There were a thousand reasons why that goddamned spy chip he put on her could've went dead, and these assholes were fixated on only one. Betrayal.
“Come on, Anton. Knock it the fuck off. We need you to save that shit for later if the Ligiotti's goons come storming in here.”
“They won't!” I snarled, feeling my ribs creak when I spoke. “Your heads are so far up your asses you'd think your own guts were trying to strangle you. There's nobody coming. We're the fuckups for laying here like rats while they've taken her, taken my girl.”
“Your girl?” Lev wiped his bloody nose. “Prison fucked you up, brother. Dunno why the hell you can't see it. You went head over heels for the first piece of * that landed in your bed, and she fucked you over. You should've let us handle her.”
My fists slapped the floor. I fought like hell to get up and bust his fucking jaw for saying that, but Daniel held me down, giving the back of my skull a good crack against the hard floor.
“None of us are thinking rationally. That goes for you too, Lev.” He looked up, as if trying to smooth shit over. “What we need here is patience. We've got to buckle down and wait instead of tearing each other to pieces, dammit. Just wait, brothers. The crew we sent out to the city will tell us something soon.”
Bastard. Always the voice of reason, even when I'd just come within a hair trigger of fracturing his damned eye socket. My fists were still seething, ready to beat and blind and kill, when he finally let me up.
Breathing without his fat arm around my throat was amazing. But it still wouldn't come easy, not even twenty minutes later when I sat in the chair, rolling out the latest knots in my arm with the table's edge. I'd never breathe easy 'til she was back in these arms, safe and fucking sound.
She shouldn't have gone out with nothing more than a secret bug and a burner phone. And I was the asshole who sent her, the fuck who'd let my brothers get away with this bullshit compromise, tracking her like a goddamned animal.
All three of us eyed each other like hungry wolves hovering over a lone rabbit.
A knock at the door shattered the tense silence. I was the first one up, beating my brothers to the big door.
It swung open, revealing old Grigor in his prim suit. I nearly bowled him over heading for the small, broken looking thing behind him.
“She just showed up on our doorstep,” I heard him say, and then I stopped listening to anything at all.