Prologue
Aiden
9 years ago
“Boss, you’ve got to get back here,” Sasha blurts.He’s speaking so fast I can barely make out his words.
“What’s going on?” I press the phone to my ear and pick up my pace.
“Your house is on fire.”
Fuck! Fucking fuck. I jump in the car and gun the engine, tearing out of the parking lot as fast as I can.
“Are Gabriella and the baby safe?”
“I don’t know. Vincent and Caleb went over to check on them, but I heard gunfire.I’m in the pool house.”
“What the fuck happened?” I bellow, as if I don’t already know what happened.
I know, and it’s my fault.
“Men came in and started shooting up the place.”
“Jesus Christ.”
No one can just get onto my property and start shooting up the place.It’s a heavily guarded fortress with armed guards at the front, back, and sides.Anyone who would attempt it has a death wish.
Or has more power than me.
Shit.So ... it is them.
The Order.
It fucking must be them.
This means theyknow the truth.They know what I did, and this is my punishment.
This is what you do to get to a man like me.
Me, Aidan Romanov, the infamous Sovientrik of the Voirik Bratva, one of the most powerful groups in L.A.
You get to me by going after my weaknesses.
My woman and my child.
Clearly, I was being watched, and those fuckers have just been waiting for the right moment to strike.
I thought keeping Gabriella and Aleksei in the house would be safer.But, like everything else lately, I am wrong.
I’m fucking wrong.
Sasha winces in pain. “Boss, I’ve been hit.I’m not going to make it. I’m not—”
He doesn’t get to finish. The echo of a bullet pierces through my ears along with his shouts of anguish.
Then the line goes dead.
I run every traffic light and get to my house in ten minutes.The blaze of the fire was visible from way down the road.Now that I’m here it looks like a miniature version of the sun.