“Okay, noble then.” He halts there, soaking everything in. “That’s defendable. We just need to get ahead of it. Was the girl someone we know?”
I glance away, my focal point landing on his vintage playing-card collection, a sign of what an incredible bluffer he is. “Just a terrible scene I walked in on.”
He sighs. “Which Mafia?”
I throw myself against the back of the couch, my lungs burning. “You don’t want to fucking know.”
“Which Mafia, Mad?”
Keeping my eyes fixed on the skylight in his peaked ceiling, I swallow hard. “Makarov.”
“Jesus,” he hisses. “You killed Niko Makarov?”
“Yep.”
“Fuck.” His voice is riddled with the same anxiety seeping from my pores. “When was that?”
“Two and a half years ago.”
“So much for getting ahead of it.” He’s unraveling now, which is to be expected. “They won’t stop until they have a body for restitution.”
“Right,” I say on autopilot. “Or ten.”
And because he hasn’t had time to process every angle of this, like I have, and he doesn’t have the full story, he pitches a senseless inquisition. “If he was raping a girl, why didn’t you just come clean about it back then? Axel could have—”
“I didn’t want Axel to know. Still don’t.”
“You don’t want me to know what?” Axel shoves the door open, leering at me, his ash-brown hair unusually tousled, like he’s been running his fingers through it. “Get the fuck down to the conference room.”
He turns and walks away, confident I’ll follow. He’s going to tear into me, but from his perspective, I deserve it. He’s the most understanding and fair man I know, and despite our seven-year age difference, he’s the only real father I’ve ever had. So, he already senses that I’m spiraling, which means he’ll unleash his wrath, but it won’t be too brutal.
I peel myself off the couch and traipse toward the hall, but Cash holds me back.
“Why have you been escorting Tessa to and from work?”
“That’s why she agreed to it,” I mutter half to myself. I have no idea what she told him, and I don’t want him sniffing around, trying to figure things out, so I go with a partial truth. “The girl is under my skin, so I found an angle and convinced her to spend some time with me.”
He narrows his eyes, aware that I’ve always been infatuated with her, but still not buying it. Chasing after girls isn’t really my thing. They usually do the chasing. Some would say that’s a perk of growing up with millions that were eventually turned into billions and the keys to a seedy kingdom. But it’s actually a crash course in humility because it’s unclear whether they’re after me or my empire. La Lune Noire is what’s really special.
“And she has nothing to do with this?” he presses.
I huff with a disbelieving scowl. “Of course not.”
He knows I’m not sharing the whole story, but he won’t push it. Not now that he realizes what I’m facing. The two of us trudge to the conference room. That’s how we approach things. If one goes down, we all go down. For that reason alone, I know I could tell them what I did, and they’d stand beside me. After a mild freak-out. But I need more information first. I can’t bear to be the one who brings the whole family down.
Ryker shoves a glass overfilled with whiskey at me when I cross the threshold. “You’re gonna fucking need this.”
I take a hefty swill, staring at him over the rim with a smart-ass glare, before clinking the crystal tumbler with the one he’s holding. “Thanks, bro. You always come through.”
“I’d usually say the same for you, Mad. What the fuck happened?”
That’s a javelin to the chest. I want him to believe I always come through. I had every intention of handling this so he knew he could step back a bit. He’s been chained to this place since he was nineteen, and unlike Axel, this was never what he wanted.
“Sit,” Axel demands from his head-of-the-table chair. He isn’t even looking at me yet. He’s spinning his roulette wheel on his Casino Tourbillon watch to keep himself calm.
“I’d rather fucking stand.” I gulp down the remainder of my drink, relishing the burn, and set the glass on the table. “Let me have it, but don’t ask me to be still while you do it.”
Jax is lounging on the other side of the room on a cushy leather love seat. He gives a slight nod, and that subtle gesture says more than any words could.Own it, but do it in a way that works for you.
