Cruel Paradise - A Mafia Romance Chapter 164

Adrik’s eyebrows come together. “Then…”

“You might be interested to know that I was just listening to the feed from this little microphone in one of the VIP rooms upstairs with all your buyers. Not to mention your investors. You know, the ones whose money you bartered away on Sopernik?” Adrik’s eyes bulge with horror. “And they weren’t the only friends invited to the party. I made sure that Conrad Steel of the Rabid Wolves was there, too.”

Beads of sweat are joining the dried blood on Adrik’s upper lip.

“The Wolves aren’t exactly known for their forgiving nature, are they?” I continue. “In fact, they insist on exacting their pound of flesh when deals go wrong. I’d say this certainly qualifies, wouldn’t you?”

“You fucking bastard.”

“No, I believe that’s your title. My title is pahkan,” I snarl. “And don’t you ever fucking forget it again.”

“Y-you can’t do this to me!” Adrik croaks. “You can’t—”

I throw him a disgusted look. “I’m not ‘doing’ anything, friend. It’s already done. I don’t even have to deal with you myself—they will do it for me. Good luck, Adrik. You’ll need it.”

I grab Emma’s hand and walk her away from Adrik and all his pathetic, wailing desperation. He’s roaring obscenities at my back but I block him out and focus on my woman.

She’s clearly on edge. Her palms are sweaty and the vein on her forehead is jumping around erratically.

“You were amazing.”

That forces her to take a breath. “Yeah? Thought I was gonna throw up most of the night.”

“You seemed so confident.”

“I didn’t want you to think I was chicken,” she whispers. “I wanted… I guess I wanted you to be proud of me.”

I lean in and kiss her hard on the lips. She’s tense, her shoulders still rife with tension. She relaxes only slightly as I kiss her. Probably because she’s as aware as I am that we have an audience.

I pull away and cup her face. “Kirill’s gonna take you home now while I clean up this mess.”

She frowns, her hand snaking around my arm. “You’re not coming back with me?”

“I have to handle things here. You understand, don’t you?”

She chews on her bottom lip but she nods all the same. “Okay. See you at home.”

“And Emma?”

“Hm?”

Her eyes dart to Adrik and then back to me. “The shit he said to you… about Jessica, about what you are to me—”

“It’s okay,” she interrupts quickly. “I… I know they’re not true.”

I nod and she leans up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to my cheek. Then she allows herself to be led away by Kirill.

Once she’s gone, I’m immediately in a less distracted headspace. I turn to Adrik, savoring this moment. The fucker is hissing and spiting, attempting to get free with pathetic jerking attempts that do nothing more than embarrass him.

“You gonna kill me?” he growls.

I shake my head. “I did consider that. Then I realized that ruining you is so much more poetic.”

“Motherfucker—”

I step forward and the insult dies on his lips. He can pretend all he wants but I can see the fear in his eyes. “You brought this down on your own head, Adrik. Who the fuck told you that you were a match for me?”

His nostrils flare. Sweat and blood mingle together, creating a stench that stinks worse than the bowels of New York City.

“This isn’t over, Ruslan.”

I palm his throat. His life’s pulse flickers against my skin. It’d be so easy to extinguish it. “Don’t push me, Adrik. Our history is the only reason you’re walking away from this with your life. You keep pushing me and I’ll claim that, too. Just like I’ve claimed everything else in your life worth taking.”

“‘Our history’?” he hisses. “How dare you talk to me about our fucking history when you don’t even know the half of it!”

I have no idea what he’s blabbering about and I’m not sure I want to know. I click my fingers and my men start dragging him out of the alley.

“Wait! Wait! Where are you taking me? Ruslan!”

“Apparently, you’re not taking this seriously enough. So maybe a couple of days in my cellar will put things in perspective for you.”

His eyeballs pop and spit flies from his mouth. To an extent, I sympathize—it’s hard to rein in an ego that size.

“You can lock me up all you want!” Adrik wails. “It won’t fucking matter! I’ll get out. You think you’re such a great fucking pakhan. Even your own vors aren’t loyal to you.”

That stops me in my tracks. I hold up my hand and the men dragging Adrik away stop immediately. I walk over to him, letting the force of my eyes burn through his false bravado. “You wanna tell me what that means?”

His jaw clenches. Then it clamps shut altogether.

I snort. “Yeah, I thought so. Get him outta my sight.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“I believe that you’re a desperate fucking coward who’s trying to sow discord in my ranks. That’s what I believe.”

Adrik smiles and something about that smile leaves me feeling uneasy. Before I can let the feeling take over, I turn my back on him and start to walk away.

“How can you expect your vors to be loyal,” he hisses, “when your own uncle is trying to dethrone you?”

I freeze.

I turn slowly on the spot.

One look at his face and I know…

He’s not bluffing.