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Chapter 1

Vlad

No fucking way Just when I thought I was the least lucky bastard on this continent, I catch a break

I’ve been staking out the Bellissimo and Nico Tacone for two months now

The Tacones took down my entire cell Junior Tacone and his brothers destroyed the Chicago operation while I was back in Moscow dealing with my mother’s affairs Granted, Ivan, my idiot second, planned to take then of influence in the Windy City But he failed And six of my men were found dead in an Italian cafe

Victor put Ivan in charge of setting up the street business, but he was too sry to make it into much And when I was sent to join the cell, he saw me as a threat to his autonoet the Tacone fa sche up When my mother died and I had to fly home to Moscow, he used my absence to try to elio underworld for himself

He underestiuns, and Junior single-handedly shot them all dead

I’o business I’ es our laundering accounts But killing all the men in my cell? Unacceptable And Victor, our pakhan, ordered e, so I’m here to do exactly that

The TaconesIvan out, but they still owe me

Victor would go for blood Kill everyone Junior Tacone loves That’s the way he operates But I’uy Yes, I was raised in the violence and death of the organization, but I’m the money man

And the Tacones have money Plenty of it

But it’s not coo operation As far as I can tell, they’d begun shutting downon the streets in the past few years, and completely closed shop since I’ve been back

So I caas Where they own one of thethe two Tacones who run it, trying to figure out whatone of their women Siirlfriends—whatever

And things just got much easier forthe entire Tacone fairlfriend, asister in her early twenties

I got a gossipy cocktail waitress to tellshe knows I found out they’re here for Junior Tacone’s wedding—a spur of theThe entire top floors of the casino have been closed off for the celebration Ruht marry his fiancée at the same time