Page 48 of A Bride for the Mafia King

“But now it’s my turn. For years I’ve bided my time. Waiting for the moment I could take something that mattered. And then you happened.” His smile returns, slower, more cruel. “I see how he looks at you. The way his voice softens. The way he touches you.”

The SUV pulls into what feels like another turn, swaying slightly. Gravel still kicking up on the undercarriage.

“He loves you,” Yaro says matter-of-factly. “He probably doesn’t even know it yet. But I do, I’ve seen it.”

“And now I get to kill what he loves. Just like he did to me. I was going to wait, you know.” He doesn’t look at me this time, just keeps his eyes on the dark road ahead. “I told myself I’d wait until you had a child. His child. Then I’d kill it.”

I recoil, breath catching.

“That would’ve been the sweetest revenge, don’t you think?” His tone is maddeningly casual. “To make him watch the thing he loved most in the world die slowly. To know he created it… only to lose it.”

He glances at me in the rearview mirror, something unhinged lurking behind his dark eyes. “But then I saw the two of you these past few days.”

A bitter smirk curls at the edge of his mouth.

“Saw the way he softens around you. Saw through the mask that he puts on, saw the truth of what you are to him.” He chuckles, the sound hollow. “And I realized… it doesn’t have to be his child at all. You’d do.”

A sick chill rolls through me.

“Killing you will be enough,” he says, calm, final. “It’ll shatter him. Rip out whatever humanity he’s found. And then, maybe… maybe I’ll let him live long enough to let it really settle in. Let it really hurt.”

I’m silent. Frozen. But my eyes are locked on his reflection, watching the tick of his jaw.

“I want him to understand exactly what he cost me,” he murmurs, quieter now. “The devastation that his survival brought to my family.”

He reaches across to the glovebox, taps it once, and then returns his hand to the wheel. “That’s why I’m taking you to the place where it all happened. This warehouse. You probably don’t know it, but he will.”

My stomach lurches.

“It’s where my father bled out, where he died,” Yaro continues, voice as sharp as a blade. “Protecting a boy who would grow into a man who thinks loyalty can be bought. Who thinks love is weak and useless. I’ll tell you something Eva, I don’t believe that. I think that love is what keeps us alive.”

He lets out a breath, slow and ragged. Almost with relief, like he finally has gotten something off his chest that he has been holding onto for years.

“And when Tolya finds what’s left of you there he’ll know this wasn’t random. This was intentional and that it was personal.”

He looks at me again as he pulls the SUV to a stop and throws it into park, smiling venomously.

“Tell me, Eva. When he held you last night… Did he say he loved you?”

I don’t answer, just stare at him with unfeeling eyes. I won’t give him that. I won’t give him the satisfaction of fear or recognition. But the way his smile widens tells me he already knows.

Chapter Eighteen

Tolya

Tolya’s Penthouse

Islam my fist down on the bar, the sound ricocheting off the walls like gunfire. I peel off my holster and toss it onto a leather couch along with my jacket.

Nico follows suit, unstrapping his gear with rough, agitated movements, letting it all hit the floor without care. The guns, the spare clips, the comms—useless right now.

We’re both seething. The kind of frustrated only men used to winning can be. We struck out. Both sites, empty. I’d been wrong and we had no more leads to follow.

"There was nothing at the river warehouse," Nico growls, pacing behind me. "No footprints. No heat signatures. Just a half-rotted floor and a busted padlock."

"Same at the railyard," I mutter, jaw clenched. "Cold. Dusty, filled with the smell of locomotives but no one there. It looked like it hadn't touched the place in months."

I move to the decanter and pour a double shot of whiskey into a glass with more force than finesse. The amber liquid sloshes up the sides, but I don’t spill a drop. I offer one to Nico. He nods grimly and catches the glass mid-air as I toss it his way.