Logan, Caden, and I continued to work on the plan to exact revenge against the Peralta Family. We agreed not to target any of the other Families, but if they were caught in the crossfire, so be it. The plan was to set up the location days in advance and plant bombs in the main dining room. We would give the Peraltas an earlier arrival time than the rest, and anyone who came too soon would unwittingly subject themselves to the same fate.
Logan suggested we actually attend to cast suspicion away from us, as long as we carefully timed our arrival. I weighed the pros and cons and then realized we would be considered the main suspects if we sent the invitations in our Family name.
I tapped my pen on the cherry wood desk. "We could put one Family's name on each invitation, making them all different."
"You mean send the Peraltas an invitation from the Carmichaels, the Carmichaels an invitation from the Navarros, the Navarros an invitation from the Whites, and the Whites receive one from us?" Caden ticked off the names of the Five Families on his fingers as he said them.
"Precisely." I nodded. "We don't have a grudge with the Whites, and the Peraltas have an accord with the Carmichaels. They wouldn't think twice about attending a meeting if they were invited by them."
Logan looked over the notes covering the legal pad in front of him. "It could work. We'll need to put an RSVP on them that no one can trace back to us."
"A P.O. box," Caden said.
"Yeah." Logan scribbled something down. "Set up by someone who will never be traced back to us, and closed the minute we receive the final response."
"We definitely should attend," I mused. "If anyone asks afterward, we'll say we received an invitation from the Peraltas. We won't be the sole suspects if we go, if we arrive the minute the bomb goes off. It'll be far enough away that it can't harm us and yet give us the alibi we need."
"Okay, I'll make the arrangements," Caden said. "We'll need security and drivers."
"Shoot me a memo when you've ironed out all the details."
"Will do, boss."
Logan and Caden left the room, and I got up and poured myself a whiskey before sitting back in my chair, thinking about the email I'd received from my private investigator that morning. Kinsley was no longer in Chester and had not left a forwarding address. I couldn't even fulfill the promise I'd made myself to leave her be, to stop fantasizing about her and ignore the need to claim her. She wasn't mine, wasn't meant to be mine, and I should have let the situation drop.
Instead, I'd hired an investigator to track her down because I was consumed by her. Finding out she was gone left me pissed. The head librarian where Kinsley used to work didn't know where she'd gone, or wasn't willing to divulge the information if she did know. The town was abuzz with gossip about the way Kinsley had disappeared, leaving her parents distraught and rumors of who she might have run away with circulating.
Had she run away with some other guy? Had another Family discovered how important she was to me? There was no way to know unless I found her or received word from whoever had taken her, if that was indeed what they'd done. Either way, I asked my investigator to work around the clock, putting all his men on her case.
One way or another, she would be mine.
A knock sounded on my office door, and I looked up into my mother's troubled eyes. As usual, Elena wore a tailored suit in a flattering shade of powder blue, her glossy black hair pulled up into a smooth chignon. Rising, I traversed the plush carpet to greet her.
"Ma, what a nice surprise."
Elena rested her hands on my shoulders and accepted my kiss to her cheek, nearly my height in her heels. "Can we talk?"
"Of course." It was easy to assume she wanted to discuss my father since I hadn't answered his phone calls. I knew from experience what a bear Carson was to live with, and how much worse he could be when agitated.
Elena sat in the leather club chair I motioned to, and I took a seat in its twin. "Burke, your father is very upset that you won't take his calls."
The curve of my mouth couldn't quite be described as a smile. "I'm sure."
"He didn't send me here." Elena reached out, but dropped her hand before making contact. "You know he struggles with the way things are."
I ignored the tightening in my chest. "I know he begged me to take over and has regretted it every single day since then."
Looking at the handbag in her lap, she said, "It killed him inside to give up his dream."
I nearly snorted, but refrained. Carson Gallagher was an arrogant son of a bitch, and everyone knew it. Relinquishing power was his idea, but he hated every second he wasn't in charge. "There's no turning back, even if his circumstances were different. What would you have me do?"
With a sigh, Elena met my icy gaze. "Answer the phone."
"I will when I'm ready. I don't hear him apologizing."
"I don't think he intends to admit he was wrong," she said carefully.
I made a noncommittal noise. "Of course not."
