The Russian Fighter (Mafia Men #1)

The Arrangement

Chapter 22

Edited

"Give me the gun, Kora."

I shook my head. "Everyone. Needs to stop. Shooting. Fucking. Guns."

"Look at me, baby." This from Maksim.

"Shut up," I ground my teeth.

Vitaly had words to say to that. "Stay out of this. Kory, look at me."

I did for a second, returning to Igor when he moved.

"I need you to put down the gun."

"No," I shouted. "I'm sick of this life. I will never be a princess. I will do everything for me and my family to get out. The only reason we became a Vory was to be free. I want their freedom."

Vitaly opened his mouth, but it was Igor who stepped up to the plater. "I will make you a deal. As my granddaughter I want to have a relationship with you."

"You missed eighteen years to do so."

"And I have done everything to find my son. To find you."

I moved closer, jarring him. "Don't. Bullshit. Me. I've gotten enough of that shit since I could walk."

"I swear," he stared at me, unweaving. "Why do you think Boris has not killed you? Why he had Vitaly keep an eye on you? Why you both met in the first place at the beach?"

My heart dropped.

"What are saying?" I glanced between Vitaly and Igor, stopping on my ex; my first love. "Tell me you weren't there on purpose."

Vitaly stopped coming towards me. He became silent.

"Tell me," I pressed louder, tears rushing down my face. "Was it all a lie? Is that why you left? You were feeling guilty for playing me?"

"Kory," he started. "At first it was."

"Oh fuck," I said, my anger rising.

"But after the first time meeting you I couldn't do it. Everything we had was real. I loved you. That was real. This is real. The boy I was with you, that was me. That's why I had to leave. And-"

"Why you kissed my cousin?" I cut him off.

"It was the only way to make you hate me."

"And your brother? Was that a set up, too?"

"The arrangement," confessed Erik, "was my doing. Before Vita left, he told me of what he was doing. Of who you were. I took your sorrow as my time to shine, so I pretended to play the good brother. Comforted you in hopes you'd put out."

"You just wanted me because of my bloodline," I stated.

He shrugged. "Our children would have the purest of both Italian and Russian. Most families of the Familia would consider us the most powerful of the Mafia. And yet, you would never let us go further. You were too strung up on my bastard brother who wasn't even of my own DNA."

"And I fell for it," I said, lowering my aim.

"You're too gullible, Korina. Don't be so surprised. We had fun while it lasted; though most of my time was spent fucking Isabella."

I leapt across the table and attacked Erik with the gun. I only had time for the point to knock against his face before Konstantin was there to pull me away, banding his arms around me in a vise so as not to let me free. If he did I was going to claw Erik's eyes out.