Reign of a Billionaire : A Dark Mafia Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

“So you see, my weak Louisa,” she stated coldly. “You had to become her.”

I blinked, all the alarm bells ringing in my head. Finally, it made sense. The questions she’d always ask me during my torture sessions. She’d ask me my favorite color, my favorite ice cream flavor, whether I was right-handed or left-handed. For every wrong answer, the torture got more intense.

She was conforming me into my twin.

“Did it ever occur to you that none of this would have happened if you’d just taken us away?” I breathed, my heart drumming in a hard, painful rhythm.

She huffed. “And let all those men get away with taking my firstborn?” My blood chilled. “She was everything to me. The only thing that kept me going in this underworld.”

“And us?” I asked, hating the way my voice cracked. “What were we, Mother? What were Liana and I?”

She didn’t answer. She didn’t need to, because I knew. Deep down, I’d always known. We were pawns in her games. Disposable.

I gave my head a subtle shake, chasing all these feelings away. It wouldn’t do me any good getting all emotional. Not here. Not around her and her pet.

“What is the connection between the Tijuana cartel and Perez Cortes?” I croaked. “I’m assuming you know Perez sold my sister through a Marabella Mobster arrangement?”

“Oh, I know,” she assured. “Why do you think I got my hands on his daughter?” Hate wracked through me like a hurricane. “Of course, then he went after you.”

She tapped her cigarette ashes onto the bloodstained floor.

“Round and round we go,” I said through clenched teeth. “You and your sick friends play, and we pay for your fuckups. Her name’s Lara, not Louisa, you sick bitch.”

She laughed, causing my skin to crawl. “Of course you were fucking with our shipments, costing us millions of dollars.” Her cold eyes found mine. “Didn’t I teach you better, Liana?”

Even now, she insisted on calling me by my twin’s name. This woman was delusional, believing her own lies.

“I have no regrets, you psychotic bitch,” I screamed at the top of my lungs, my breaths heaving. I should be stronger and keep my cool, but instead I was letting her get under my skin.

Mother tilted her head at Drago.

Everything in me stilled. No, I froze as I watched Drago smile that feral dog smile. He pulled out a knife, then made his way toward me.

“M-Mother… No…”

And so began my screams.

Chapter 61Kingston

My gut churned with a sick sense of dread.

The memories haunted me with each step deeper into this property, even though I hadn’t stepped foot in this country for eight years. I hadn’t been here, to this castle built on nightmares, in eight years, yet I remembered every stone and every corner. There were many nights during that time where it felt as if I was still here. It was the reason I refused to come back to Russia. For anyone or anything.

But she wasn’t just anyone or anything. She was everything.

“We’re half an hour behind you.” My brother’s voice came through my earpiece. “Wait for us.”

My brothers and Alexei, along with his men and probably his own brothers, Sasha and Vasili Nikolaev, didn’t hesitate to join me in this rescue mission. But proper planning and scouting would have taken too much time that I feared Louisa didn’t have.

“Don’t be like that,” Sasha grumbled. “We like to have some fun too.”

“Ditto that,” Royce chimed in, sounding like he was on his way to a party. “We like to dance and kick ass too.”

“I’m going in,” I replied, ignoring them all. “Catch up as fast as you can.”

I rammed my shoulder into the reinforced door. A soft creak like the scrape of metal against metal filled the eerie silence and I held my breath, praying nobody heard it.

I lifted my gun high and entered the source of all my nightmares. The prison that stole my childhood. The prison that was trying to steal my future. Yet, knowing the ins and outs of this castle and compound gave me leverage. I knew the floor plan better than anyone.

Sofia wanted to play mind games, always loving the element of mental torment. It was what she and Ivan had in common. She knew I left this hellhole with more than physical scars.

But not even incapacitating nightmares would stop me from entering this property tonight. Nothing would stop me from saving Louisa—not even the risk of being tortured again. I failed her eight years ago; I wouldn’t today.

Spurred on by adrenaline racing through my veins, I entered the castle. I moved in silence, my steps soundless on the marble floor. Painstaking hours gave my brothers and I plenty of time to devise a plan of attack. They would be following shortly, using the tracker on me. Right now, I’d get as close to Louisa as possible before Sofia and her men realized I was here.

It was our best chance.

Her mother was a coldhearted bitch who had no trouble using her own flesh and blood for her own gain. The fact that she tortured Louisa, fucked with her mind, and held her responsible for the death of her twin told me she would have no trouble putting a bullet through her heart.