Page 83 of Wreaking Havoc
He would be happy to take them off this realm.
But if Sascha wanted his turn at the helm first, to air some of that rage he kept bottled up so tightly inside, Kai would oblige.
“I’ll be right here,” he promised, planting a swift kiss to Sascha’s lips and winking at the camera monitoring the door before slipping into the shadows.
It was a bit of an uncomfortable fit. Shadow work didn’t come naturally to Kai—he wasn’t like Nightmare, slipping in and out with ease. But with a concentrated effort of power, he could hide in them well enough. It wasn’t true invisibility; if someone knew where to look, they would see him. But the average human’sgaze would skirt around him, only registering a vague sense of unease.
Sascha knocked on the door. A large man with dark hair shorn close to his skull opened the door. He glanced behind Sascha pointedly. “What happened to the bodyguard?”
“He went back to the car,” Sascha said easily. “Ivan was told to come alone.”
“And he sent you instead,” the henchman said, looking Sascha up and down with a sneer.
Kai would be happy to rip those eyes out of his skull.
In time.
The henchman led Sascha inside, and Kai followed, passing from shadow to shadow. There were nine men in the warehouse, with nine rotten souls. Hardly the entirety of the Caruso operation, but Ivan had assured them the head of the family and a few key right-hand men would be there, enough to strike a crippling blow to their dealings.
And seated in a chair in the middle of the room, surrounded by three men on each side with conspicuous guns, his legs crossed casually as he watched Sascha approach, was Luca Caruso, presumably. The acting head of the family. He was the only man in the room with his dark strands grown out—all the rest had it shaved down, like it was part of their uniform.
Kai was pleased that Sascha’s spine stayed straight, his steps even. The mate bond between them didn’t allow Kai to feel every little emotion—only the extremes would break through—but Kai could scent Sascha’s fear and unease on the air as they grew in strength.
But none of it showed on his face. Nothing these enemies could latch onto.
Kai was so proud of his mate.
“Sascha Kozlov,” Luca Caruso announced, a faint Italian accent softening his vowels. “So I see you are alive still.”
Sascha smiled sweetly at him. “Oh, I think you knew that already, Luca. I saw one of your men recently, all the way in Maine.”
“Did you? How odd.” Luca smirked. “He must have been on vacation.”
Sascha tucked his hands in his pockets, rocking back on his heels, the picture of ease. “Ivan says there’s a way to end this. He authorized me to make the deal.”
Luca cocked a brow. “Straight to business, hm? It’s very simple. A blind eye at the docks for some ongoing special shipments.”
“You have them ready to go?” Sascha asked, his tone light, as if it didn’t matter much either way. But this was the reason Sascha had insisted on showing his face—they needed to know whether the Caruso family already had people ready for shipment. If they did, it complicated their immediate future immensely. They would need to find out where, need to figure out how to free them.
But Luca shook his head. “It’s an expensive business. We needed to be sure your brother would play ball before investing. You know how it is.” He gave a tight smile. “Ivan has been a thorn in our side for a very long time.”
“I do know how it is,” Sascha agreed, his shoulders slumping briefly in relief before he straightened again. “And I just want you to know it’s nothing personal.”
Luca’s brow furrowed in confusion, and his bodyguards shifted in place.
“You wanted to get at my brother, so you came at me.” Sascha smiled again, the look full of tender understanding. Kai had no idea his mate was such an excellent actor. “I get it. I’m not even that mad, not at you. And maybe grasping at power is just one of those innate human traits. I can’t be mad about that either. But when you use that power to hurt innocents?” The smile droppedfrom Sascha’s face. “When you want to ‘invest,’ as you say, in pure evil? Well, I just don’t think that can be excused.”
In the shadows behind him, Kai licked his lips. The rage Sascha held so deep in his chest—rage at his father, at the brutality he’d always been surrounded by and never been strong enough to stop—was spilling into the air, a steady stream of glorious anger. Kai drank it in.
It was as delicious as he’d known it would be.
Luca uncrossed his legs, motioning to his men with two fingers. “I hope you realize how outnumbered you are, Sascha. I know you haven’t been very active in the business, but I’d hoped you were capable of simple mathematics. Ivan is going to be so put out when I send him back your corpse.”
Sascha shrugged. “I’m outnumbered, sure. And if it were just me, that would be an issue. But, unfortunately for you, I’m not alone anymore.”
That was Kai’s cue.
He pressed a kiss against the back of Sascha’s neck, whispering, “Close your eyes, zaychik.”
