When people who are familiar with our family history look at Connor and me, they see the body of our mother hanging from the bridge. One of the first things Dina mentioned about my father was how he treated his wife. There is something wicked and evil inside a man who could do that to the mother of his children.
I hate this city because my parents loved it.
I’m forced to live here, and every morning I glance out my damn bedroom window (I intend to claim my father’s suite), I have to look at it. All of it, since the mansion sits on an elevation above the city.
We walk past the pool area, which the staff has scrubbed since the last time I saw it. We pass the table where my father hosted my uncle and his rival for a luncheon where he waskilled. This space by the pool is usually bustling with life. Music, money, cards, drugs, nude women… You get the idea.
Ivan can’t party now. His wife is here. But I wonder if he parties at all. Connor said Ivan runs the surveillance and the defense systems, so all the men on the property were already under his direction. He was their captain, the man who issued orders. My dad entertained and carried out the business side of deals. Massio made the money. Ivan protected him.
We step into the house, which is nice and cool compared to the hot outdoors.
A housekeeper in her twenties wearing a French maid uniform greets us. Connor and I exchange looks. In our world, we read power moves like some people read the Bible. Thoroughly and with reverence.
We seek to understand the meanings, and we were trained, from a very young age, to read power signals no matter how demure.
By having a housekeeper greet us, Ivan sends us a message.You are unimportant. A guest in the mansion who doesn’t warrant a greeting. We could say nobody told him it was we who were coming through the gate, but we know Ivan controls the mansion estate now, so he deliberately stayed with his wife.
Maybe he thinks we’ll seek him out at our dad’s office at the center of the mansion, where most of the business gets done.
The woman smiles gently, but her voice shakes when she says, “The lady can come with me.”
“No, thank you,” I say.
The woman blinks, clearly not trained in what to do if I refuse. She ought to have been.
“I’ll make this easy on you and Ivan. You can escort us to the family quarters.”
“I’m afraid we don’t have such rooms.”
“Yes, you do, believe it or not. They’re at the back of the house where my father used to sleep alone.”
“Those were Mr. Crossbow’s private rooms. Nobody is allowed there.”
“Except Mr. Crossbow?” Connor asks, the picture of politeness and easy smiles.
The woman nods. “The late Mr. Crossbow. He passed away.”
“He was killed.” Connor pokes her forehead. “Bullet in the head. That’s different from passing away. You see? Anyhow, you can tell Ivan that the still-living Mr. Connor Crossbow is waiting for him in the family quarters.”
The woman stands there.
Connor grinds his teeth. “Move!”
The woman rushes off.
We continue walking toward the back.
“You seem to know where you’re going,” Dina says.
“Unfortunately, we lived with our father for a while.”
“Oh God.”
“What?” I stop as she halts.
“Oh no.”
“What?”
