Chapter 1 - The Blood Price
Audrey took a shuddering breath that sounded like cracking ice. The room was deathly quiet except for the low hum of the rain striking the heavy penthouse windows. Victor remained on the hardwood floor beside her, completely motionless. His hands, capable of snapping a man’s throat without a second thought, hovered gently in the air, terrified of causing her another second of agony.
“Claire,” she whispered, her teeth chattering despite the oppressive summer heat trapped inside her wool coat. “Tommy came to the villa four days ago. He didn’t bring the usual security rotation. He brought two men I’d never seen before, men with cold eyes and northern accents. He took my phone, Victor. He said if I made a sound, if I tried to reach your private line, Liam Gallagher’s men would visit Claire’s apartment in Lincoln Park.”
Victor felt the blood drain from his face, replaced by a cold, searing fire that ignited in his chest. Tommy Callahan. His foster brother. The boy he had pulled out of the South Side gutters thirty years ago. Tommy had been the best man at his wedding. Tommy had sworn on his mother’s grave to protect Audrey with his own life.
“He told me to come back here and break your heart,” Audrey sobbed, the tears carving clean lines through the dust and pale exhaustion on her cheeks. “He said you had to believe I walked away on my own. If you suspected anything, if you went to war before their shipments cleared the port tonight, Claire would die slowly. And then... Gallagher came to the safehouse himself. He wanted to leave a message on me. Just to prove Victor Russo couldn’t protect what was his.”
Victor stared down at the crude, jagged ‘G’ burned into her delicate flesh. His knuckles turned bone white against his trousers. Every instinct in his predatory body screamed to burn Chicago to the ground, but looking at Audrey’s trembling form anchored him. She had endured torture and terror alone in an alpine basement, all to keep her sister alive and spare him a deadly ambush.
“Listen to me, Audrey,” Victor said, his voice dropping into a register of deadly, unbreakable calm. He leaned forward just enough so she could see the absolute certainty in his dark eyes. “Claire is not going to die. You are not going to leave this room, and no one from the Gallagher syndicate will draw another breath once the sun rises over this lake. Tommy made the fatal mistake of believing I love my empire more than I love you.”
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The elevator chime rang in the foyer. Victor stood smoothly, his tall frame blocking Audrey from view as Dr. Sterling entered with an emergency trauma kit.
“Fix her hand,” Victor ordered softly, his voice devoid of humanity. “If she feels even an ounce of unnecessary pain, we will have a serious conversation.”
