Merciless Union by Faith Summers

4

Lucca

Images of her race through my mind–Aria De Marchi.

No, not De Marchi.

She’s Aria Dyshekov now. I married her. I married the girl from my dreams.

She’s in danger, and I can’t get to her.

I try to open my eyes. When I do, I see faces. One particular face stands out—Aiden Romanov, my friend. I need to either wake the hell up or find some way to tell him my wife’s in danger.

My lips move, but no words come out. He’s saying something, but I can’t hear him. Everything feels like it’s working in slow motion and moving at a snail’s pace.

My eyes close again, welcoming the darkness I have to fight.

It feels like days pass before I can break through again. Maybe eons. When strength comes to me once more, I push against the urge to sleep and force my mind through to consciousness.

Thankfully, it feels different this time, like I might be able to stay awake and get the hell up out of this chasm I’m in so I can save my wife.

I open my eyes and close them again when the bright light above me pierces through my skull. It feels like the first time I’m seeing daylight.

Was that daylight, though?

It was so bright.

I try once more, opening one eye at a time finding it easier.

The light doesn’t seem so bright now and what I’m looking at isn’t daylight. There’s a ceiling light hanging over my head. The light is bright, though, like in a hospital.

I try to lift my head and find I can’t. I try to move, but my body feels like it’s being held down by lead, weighted down to a bed.

What the fuck happened to me?

I close my eyes again and try to think. I search my mind and concentrate on pin pointing the last thing I remember.

It’s Aria. Her walking toward me in her wedding dress.

The same wedding dress she picked out weeks ago, and I loved.

She’s walking toward me, and while I can see how scared she is, I think of how I managed to marry the girl I was never to see again.

She said I do and became my wife. We took our vows, and I was happy. I had happiness with her.

Then it changed.

What changed?

My eyes snap wide when I remember it all.

Raphael!

Him. I found out several more things about my father-in-law that made me want his head. Then Jon.

Jon shot me, and then he must have gone after Aria and Marylin.

I try to get up, but the pain that writhes through my entire body sends me back to the bed. I look around and see I’m in the hospital.

The machines I’m attached to go wild, and a nurse comes through the door with Aiden.

“Easy there,” the nurse says, checking my vitals.

“I need to find my wife and my….” What do I call Marylin when she means so much to me? She’s not a maid. She’s not my assistant, and she stopped being my nanny years ago. She’s family. “Marylin.”

“Leave us,” Aiden says to the nurse, who nods and does as he asked.

I keep my gaze trained on him, and he does the same to me until the door clicks shut. I know from the look on his face that he’s going to tell me things I won’t like.

“Where are they, Aiden?”

“Your wife was taken, and Marylin is um….”

“What? Tell me.” Please don’t tell me she’s dead. Not her too. I didn’t want her to die in that house. Not like her husband.

“She’s in a critical condition, Lucca. It’s not good. It was her who called me. My men and I went to the house straightaway, but we were too late. They’d taken Aria, and you were in a bad way yourself.”

The despair of failure crushes me, and my body feels even heavier than it did before.

“How long have I been out?”

“Ten days.”

I wince. Fuck. No.

“Ten days, Aiden? Anything could have fucking happened in ten days. I have to get out of here and find Aria.” I try to get up again, and Aiden rests a heavy hand on my chest, pressing me back down.

“No. You can’t leave. Lucca, I just said your condition was critical. You were fucking shot in your stomach. It’s just luck that you’re alive, and there was no major organ damage. You’re still in a bad way and need to rest. You shouldn’t even be talking.”

“I have to talk because I have to find my wife. You can’t fucking expect me to lie here and take time to heal when I don’t know where she is.”

Understanding comes into his eyes—more than I’ve had in anyone. Of everyone I know, he knows how I feel about Aria.

“I understand.”

“Then don’t tell me that I need to rest. You wouldn’t be resting.”

I don’t care whose daughter she is. The younger version of myself knew better than the fucker I turned out to be.

I remember what I did when I found out her father killed my family. As if it was her fault, I shoved her up against the wall and terrified her. I lost my mind, and if she hadn’t stopped me by calling me Peter—that name I don’t deserve—I don’t know what I would have done.

Would I have really killed her?

I pray the answer will never be yes to that question. I never could before. I’d like to think I would have come to my fucking senses and snapped out of the spell of shit that told me it was okay to hurt her.

“I need to leave as soon as I can move,” I add. “I can’t allow that man to have her and hurt her.”

“We’ll see what the doctors say, then take it from there.”

“What hospital am I in?” I at least need to know that.

“St. John’s.”

Good. St. John’s is a private hospital in Malibu that is used to patching up guys like me quickly.

“Nobody knows you are here, and nobody knows I’m helping you,” Aiden states. “I was hoping to have better news to tell you, but I don’t have any. I’ve been looking for Aria, and I haven’t been able to find her. We watched the CCTV of what happened, so I’m aware of Jon’s betrayal.”

Jon…

I don’t even know what to make of it. To say his actions make no sense is an understatement.

Aiden has known Jon for the same time I have. Our families were all close. While I’d known Timothy for a lot longer, I met Jon and Aiden at the same time. I was five years old.

All our fathers worked together. Jon’s father was the first to die and the only one of our fathers to die of natural causes. It was a heart attack. Mine and Aiden’s were killed by enemies.

Next to Timothy, Jon was my best friend. He knew everything about me.

“He’s working for Raphael, Aiden.”

“I presumed so if he took your wife and didn’t kill her. What I don’t know is why he changed sides. Is there anything else I need to know?”

Where the fuck do I start?

This all began with a promise I made to Damien. My promise to destroy Raphael to get revenge for Timothy’s death. I was supposed to marry Aria, so I could give Damien her family’s business when she turns twenty-five. Then I was supposed to cut Raphael’s ties to the Bratva before I kill him. Things just took a turn I wasn’t expecting, and I found out truths I never imagined.

“I don’t know why Jon changed sides, but there was a lot I found out before he got to me,” I begin. “Raphael killed my family, Aiden. It was him.”

His brows disappear into his hairline, and his eyes bulge. “What the hell are you saying to me?”

“They were on the Red List on the chip we got from Eduardo. Timothy was there too. They all died for the same reason.”

Aiden dips his head briefly then lifts it.

“I called Jon on our way back from Eduardo,” I add. I was with Aiden when I called Jon, so he’ll remember everything I said to him. “I told him everything we found out, including the chip Eduardo gave me with information. By that evening, Jon double-crossed me. When he shot me, I asked him when he changed sides, and he said it wasn’t what I thought and that I dug too deep.”

“Shit.” Aiden shakes his head. “Lucca, I hate this, and I feel bad for you. I always thought you had men you could count on, but this is bullshit.”

I sigh with frustration. It’s worse than bullshit. “I know. Is Alexei with him?”

“No. It doesn’t appear so. I questioned him myself, and he’s clean. However, he and Damien have not been made aware of your whereabouts, and neither has anybody else. We wiped any footage of us going on to your property, so nobody knows where you are. People think you're dead, but until they see a body, they won’t believe it. They must know someone helped you, so I’ve been keeping a low profile. I wanted to keep things quiet until I knew what was going on or you woke up. I also wanted Damien out of this because he’s the closest to you. I guarantee they’d be watching the both of us. It’s just harder to keep eyes on me.”

I’m glad he did all that. Until I know what’s going on, I need to be careful, and it’s best people think I’m dead or at the very least missing and on the verge of death. Thankfully, Aiden has the setup to do just that, so I couldn’t have a better person helping me.

Aiden has his own tech skills, but he also has Eric, who can do anything from hiding you in plain sight to erasing your existence. That’s why it’s harder to keep eyes on Aiden.

“Thanks. For doing that.” God, there’s already so much to process, and another fucking thought hits me. “I left the chip in my computer.”

“It’s gone.”

Fuck. “Jon took it?”

He nods. “There’s footage of him in your office after he took Aria. He was on your computer.”

This is not fucking good at all. That means I have no hard evidence against Raphael to show Grigori, only my word and everything else we found prior to our visit to Eduardo. Trying to contact Eduardo again might be fruitless since he could have started his new life in Morocco and be off the fucking grid.

“All I have is the evidence we found before. The stuff about the organ trafficking and embezzlement from the bank.”

“It will fucking be enough, and the footage we got from the cameras will incriminate Jon. Now we just have to find them.”

“Aiden, Jon has skills comparable to you and Eric. No way is he as good as either of you, but he can stay hidden if he wants to. He can also hack most systems and track people down. He can see what a person’s doing even when they think they aren’t being monitored.”

Seriousness washes over his face. “I know, Lucca. That’s why I still want to keep things quiet while you heal and we try to find Aria. I don’t know where Jon went, and Raphael fell off-grid on the same day too. That told me everything about Jon’s skills because there isn’t anybody we can’t find. That doesn’t mean I won’t find him. It’s just going to be a bit harder.”

“Thank you. They’re both dead when I get out of here. Both will be reported to Grigori, and I will track them down and kill them like the dogs they are.”

Everything now rests with finding Raphael. My goals for revenge haven’t changed. I’ve just added to them. I can just imagine what that bastard must have been concocting all this time I’ve been down.

What’s he doing to Aria?

Would he harm her? I don’t know why I bother to ask that question when I saw the man strike her down. I need to get to her as quickly as possible.

After that, I still need to leave the Bratva, and that’s the part that’s going to be difficult and harder to maneuver.

The Bratva is my life, but I’m a dead man when I kill Pasha for what he did to Aria.

He abused her when she was a child. I don’t know how long the abuse lasted, but it’s enough that it happened. That was another result of Raphael’s evil. Pasha paid Raphael so he would allow him to rape his daughter. Raphael actually took payments from Pasha.

I used to think I’d seen and heard everything I could come across to faze me. Raphael is a new low of evil I’ve never come across. Years might have passed, but both he and Pasha need to pay with their lives.

Raphael has crimes against the Brotherhood. When I kill Pasha, though— the Pakhan’s son and Sovientrik to the Yurkov—that will put a target on my back.

The other thing that could put that target on me sooner is if the Brotherhood finds out about Ivy. I have to be prepared for that too.

Not only did I disobey a direct order to kill a woman Grigori classed as an enemy, but I allowed her to leave the country.

“I will give you whatever help you need.” Aiden nods with determination, cutting into my thoughts.

“Thanks, Aiden. Thanks for having my back.”

“Don’t mention it.”

I wish I could tell him about Pasha, but I can’t. What I’m planning to do would drag him and his family into shit with the Bratva he didn’t ask for. It’s a separate matter he doesn’t need to get involved in, so I won’t do that to him.

There’s nothing worse than a disgraced Pakhan, and I can’t do that to my friend. The way it seems now, he’s the only friend I have left.

I can’t drag Damien into it either. They would execute him too for his association with me, so maybe it’s best I tell him to keep a low profile when it comes to me.

I’ll think about what to do when the time comes.

I’ll deal with Raphael first so I can get my wife back, and then I’ll take on Pasha.

Then I will take my girl and leave.

“Can I see Marylin?”

He nods. “I’ll get a doctor to look at you first.”

“Thank you.”

* * *

Marylin looks so frail lying in her hospital bed.

She was already fragile and delicate.

Now she looks like a shadow of her former self. Her skin is an alabaster I don’t like. It’s a deadly, ghostly shade that reminds me too much of death—the other side of life.

She should have been working somewhere else. Not for me. I should never have wanted her to stay. It was selfish to want a taste of what life used to be when my family was still alive.

I should have known it would never be like that ever again.

I straighten up against the wheelchair they gave me and look at all the tubes attached to her body.

I spoke to her doctors earlier, and she is in a critical state. Unlike me, Marylin has damage to her stomach and had to have multiple surgeries. Her heart also stopped twice in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Aiden said she just managed to call him and passed out on the phone. She told him I was shot, and that was all she said.

She never mentioned herself.

Marylin was on the edge of danger, and she was still taking care of me.

I don’t think I could feel worse than I do now, and like always, I blame myself.

I never saw Jon’s treachery coming. I never even suspected it, and I can’t figure it out. When the hell did he change sides?

And for what?

What the fuck did Raphael offer Jon for him to do this to me. Jesus, this is messed up in so many ways because Raphael didn’t know we knew it was him who was responsible for Timothy and his family’s deaths.

But Jon did. Jon knew everything. He knew all my secrets.

It was easy for him to come into my home and wreak the damage he dealt.

Look what he did to Marylin.

I reach out and touch her hand, feeling how cold she is. I hate it and that this happened to her.

“I never thanked you for always being so good to me. Please come back to me. I promise you, I’ll take better care of you.”

If she pulls through, I’ll make sure she never has to worry about danger ever again.