Dragusha Revenge ✓Completed✓

ALEKSIO

I'M HALFWAY BACK to the hotel when my phone rings. Relief jolts through me because I have this idea it might be Mira, calling to say she's not leaving. But it's my investigator. At least I'll have some good news, I think. It's not good news. "I'm sorry, Aleksio," he says. No greeting, just the apology. "Let's hear it." "I've been running every image through every motor vehicle database out there. I subcontracted it to my guy in D.C. to run it through the State Department database.

I expanded it to my Canadian contact. We're all coming up empty." "You said we could find him if he had a driver's license or a passport." "Maybe he doesn't have a driver's license or a passport. Maybe he modified his appearance for those visits. Maybe the software doesn't have enough data points." The road unfolds ahead of me, a bleak gray ribbon through tall pines. "Okay. What now?" I don't like the long silence that follows. "All we have is the man's picture," he says finally. "He's a needle in a haystack the size of North America. Worse than a needle. A ghost in the haystack".

And?" I try not to sound impatient, but he didn't answer my question. "What now?" "I can keep looking, of course," he says. "I can keep trying new things, but I'm not going to lie to you. We're looking at months, probably years. We may never find this guy." "Keep looking," I say. "He exists. He's out there. Whatever it takes." Viktor and Yuri are in the pine-and-waterfall lobby when I get back. Viktor puts away his phone and his strange obsession for Valhalla for once, which I take as a good sign until I realize it's probably because of the torment on my face.

I take a seat and tell them the news about Kiro. The trail is pretty much dead-that's what the investigator said in so many words. "No," Viktor says. "He needs to look again." "Viktor..." I stare up at the shining blue sky beyond the glass ceiling, imagining Mira's plane up there in the clouds. And Kiro...who knows where he could be..

A waitress comes over, and Yuri orders vodka-no, not three glasses; a bottle and three glasses. "He gives up too easily on our brother. He needs incentive, I think." "It's a computer search of image databases," I say. "You can't just make the computer give better results. And nobody's giving up, it's just..." I'm about to say "more impossible," but I amend it to "harder." "We will never give up," Viktor says, in a tone like he wants to kill somebody. "Never," I agree. "And we will destroy Lazarus without..Kiro. I will squeeze his skull until his eyes pop out, and then when we find Kiro, he'll have a place in the world. We take it back for Kiro."

Our vodka arrives. Yuri pours. Viktor lifts a glass. "We get bloody. Nobody's stopping us now." With Mira gone, he means. "When we're done with them, they'll pray for death." He drinks. Yuri drinks. I stare into the clear liquid. "What is it, brat?" "I can't drink to that. Getting bloody just to get bloody. Violence and vengeance"

Viktor looks at me like I just announced I hate vodka and hundred-dollar bills. "Don't worry, I'm good for my word," I say. "I'm committed to taking back what's ours and destroying the vile parts of it. I'll do what it takes to get Kiro back if we ever-when we get a lead. But violence and vengeance..." I meet Viktor's scowl. "She thought I was worth saving," I continue. "It did something. It changed something in me..." I'm just as surprised as Viktor appears to be. But it's true. Things feel different. "Changed something in you?" Viktor spits out.. More like ruined you."

I think back to that moment in the hotel, staring into Lazarus's eyes. I could've executed him right on the spot. My greatest enemy. "Ruined me for some things." He rolls his eyes. "Fine. To her, then." I eye him suspiciously. He shrugs. "To her." I drain the glass. He pours another. "To Kiro," I say. "We'll never give up. And Yuri. To brothers of all kinds." "Brothers with beat-up faces. The best kind. Skol." We throw back the cool-burning alcohol. I hold my glass out for more. He pours

Back to taking the empire the smart way," Yuri says. "More boring. Still effective." Again we drink. Viktor catches my eye. He looks concerned. "I'm fine," I say. A lie. That's when I catch sight of dark hair across the lobby. Mira. She's heading to the elevator banks. She turns to me as if she feels the weight of my gaze. And then she smiles. Her smile is like the sun. I think it's a dream. A mirage, maybe. I stand, glass cool in my fingertips, as she turns and starts toward me, past the grand stone waterfall, dark hair catching the light from above. She looks so beautiful, I think it can't be real. I feel something cool dribbling over my fingers. "You are spilling it, brat." Viktor takes my glass from my hand. "I would not like you to waste good vodka. Even on a spoiled mafia princess." A joke, I suppose. I'm barely comprehending. I'm already gone, moving across the gleaming marble floor.

I stop in front of her, speechless She just grins. She's happy. The haunted look is gone. "What's wrong?" she asks. "I got a bluebird on my shoulder?" I go to her and yank her in for a kiss. She's warm and real and everything I love. She pulls back with a mischievous expression. I think she's going to give me shit for drinking vodka at two in the afternoon. She doesn't. "You and your fucking English toffee and selfless gestures and you expect me to get on a plane? I love you, Aleksio." My heart twists. "You said love wasn't enough. The whole thing with the sandcastles.

Yeah, you're still kicking down sandcastles, but some of them need kicking down. I want to kick them down with you-like that Valhalla, for starters." She gets a serious look here. "But then let's make our own life, our own rules. Build something better than what our families built. Together. What do you think?" "Yes. Fuck yes." I brush the hair from her forehead. I love her like this. A rebel and a warrior. I grab her hair and kiss her. And somewhere out there baby animals are laughing, and it doesn't have to mean everything is doomed. It can just mean something stupidly normal. Like happiness. Like forever..

Thank you for reading! I hope you love Aleksio and Mira as much as I do

The Mafia And His Angel Will Be Out Soon