The sound of glass shattering brings my eyes back to Atlas with glass now lying around his feet. “Kortez! Fucking answer me!”
I don’t understand how Kortez sits in front of him without a single emotion showing on his face. He’s been keeping a secret from not only his brother, but the future Don of the Italian mafia. That’s who Atlas looks like right now – a Don. A king. He’s all fury and power as he stands, grabbing Kortez’s curls in a fist and dragging his face up to look at him.
“The next time I ask, it’s going to be with a fucking bullet. Eve is at stake here, Kortez! Evangeline!My fucking woman!”
The unmistakable sound of a bullet being slid into a chamber has me springing out of my seat. Atlas’s eyes fly to mine and I hold up my hands in surrender. He doesn’t let go of the gun, though.
“Kor. Just tell him. He’s going to fucking kill you if you don’t.”
Kortez speaks for the first time the entire flight, his voice low and hoarse. “He may kill me if I do.”
“He deserves to know. Now, more than anything.”
Atlas spins, pressing the barrel of the gun into my chest. “You know?” The gun stays level with my heart as he looks down to Kortez. “He fucking knows but I don’t! You fucking answer to me, Kortez! Me!”
The gun is knocked to the ground as Kortez stands, throwing his arm up against Atlas’s throat as he slams him into the wall. I swear the plane shakes from the movement, the bottles in the bar beside them rattling, but I can’t bring myself to be worried about that when Kortez is finally spitting out his secret.
“I allow myself to answer to you, Atlas! This whole fucking kingdom could be mine if I wanted it! So,watch how you fucking talk to me.” Venom flies from his mouth as he whispers the last line, dragging the point of a knife I never saw him grab until it rests against Atlas’s heart.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” The threat of a blade through the heart doesn’t faze Atlas. His eyes search Kortez’s until Kor roars and releases his hold. Atlas rubs at his throat for a moment before reaching out and slapping the blade from Kor’s fingers, proving Kor didn’t want to hurt him in the first place. If he did, Atlas would be saying his last words right about now.
I stand to the side as Kortez grabs his glass and moves to make another drink. “Aldo offered me Valente throne two years after he took me. I declined. It’s your place, not mine.”
He throws back a shot and pours two more, sliding one across the bar to Atlas. Atlas swallows it down and slides the glass back, “That’s impossible. The family is rooted in blood. The elders wouldn’t have stood for it.”
Seeing that the anger has simmered down, I walk over and sit down beside Roman. He turns his head just enough to whisper, “What do you know?”
I shrug and hear his grunt of acknowledgement before he turns back to watch his cousins.
Roman
Tez doesn’t say anything for a while, instead taking another knife from his pocket and spinning it against his fingertip. I can see the tension rising againin Atlas as he waits.
I’ve only seen Kortez and Atlas go head-to-head one other time when Aldo first brought them back to the estate in New York. They both left the room broken and bloody. They didn’t speak for months until one day Atlas saw Kortez limping through the mansion with blood soaking through his shirt and decided to help him. They’ve been nearly inseparable ever since.
If Kortez has a secret this serious that he’s been keeping, I know it has to be for a reason. Atlas doesn’t see it that way, though. He’s in boss mode. He wants answers and he isn’t afraid of getting a little bloody to get them. He’s his father’s son, after all, and his patience can only wear so thin before it snaps.
“I really don’t want to point a gun at you again, Kortez.”
He stops spinning the blade and clutches the handle in his fist. “If you do, you won’t be able to hold a gun when we go get Evie.”
Atlas swears under his breath before shaking his head. “Just fucking tell me, Kortez. What’s your connection with the warehouse? How did you know that’s where Eve is? What…what does any of this have to do with the Valente throne?”
Tez leans his head back before slamming his blade down into the wooden bar. “Sit down, Atlas.”
To my surprise, Atlas listens. He makes his way back to his chair as broken glass crunches beneath his soles.
Kortez follows, sitting back down across from him. I find myself leaning forward, waiting for his explanation. Beside me, Wylder does the same even though he apparently already knows the secret Tez has been keeping.
“I know that’s where Evie is because that’s whereWade’s mother was held. Aldo locked her away for his men to…have their way with. She died in that warehouse.”
The confusion I feel is reflected on Atlas’s face. “I’m not understanding. If you found that out during recon, why didn’t you let me know before?”
“Because it’s not that simple.” Kortez looks around the cabin, eyes landing on me for a second before he turns to Wylder. Wyld gives him a subtle nod, something both Atlas and I pick up on. “Wade’s mother was a maid in your father’s estate. When Wade was young, his mother got pregnant with another child.”
“Yeah, Vivianne.”
Kortez shakes his head. “Not Vivianne.” He runs his hands over his thighs before standing and beginning to pace in the middle of the cabin. We all turn to watch him.
