With a tender kiss on my forehead, he pushes me back into my seat but keeps holding my hand. I look over at the others, and their empathy rolls in gentle waves through our bond.
“Mainly because I know you’re not a liar. Which sounds odd, given the massive lie about your job. All things considered, I know you pretty well, and you tend to avoid lying. So, if we remove you from the discussion, it’s not an issue, and in turn, there’s no conflict for you to sort through or feel guilty over.”
“Makes sense, Quinny, but first and foremost, I’m yours. And while I think there’s a lot of advantage to me keeping my toe in the water, if I’m after a rewarding career, I’m sure working with either Aleksei or Santiago is going to give me job satisfaction too.”
“Our lives might be inherently connected, but I still want everyone to have choices.”
He smiles. “I chose you. It’s my measure on everything now.”
I swing back to face the table, a little subdued because of Kade’s revelation, but finding out Sergey was somehow involved with his sister's death stirs my determination to go on.
“Back to Victor, then. I’m going to poison him with thallium. It’s colorless, odorless, tasteless, which is neither here nor there. I selected thallium because it’s slow-acting and incredibly painful. The symptoms are going to confuse any doctor he goes to. Past the point of ingestion, he’s metaphorically fucked.”
“It also hasn’t been manufactured since the eighties, so the register is out of date. But like you would both know, anything is available for the right price. That’s what I had couriered, and it’s now safely tucked in my handbag, but let’s all agree it stays there. No one needs to touch it. I also have the antidote, in case I get any of it on myself.”
It’s a bit of a mic drop moment. Except I’m not finished, and they’re not happy, given the rumbles they make and the scowls directed my way.
“Full disclosure, I had the poison couriered to Russia because I was going to use it on Sergey.”
“For marrying you?” Aleksei asks. The smile on his face lets me know he’s not upset I wanted to kill his brother.
And then it’s my moment of regret. A heavy weight settles on my chest as I share more. “My reason for killing your brother goes back further than that, Aleksei. I wasn’t aware he had you as a brother. If I had been when I was planning everything, I would have made you pay with your life too.”
“Explain to me,maya. You say back to when, but when is that? The original agreement between Victor and my father, Ivan?”
Santiago leans forward, intrigue marring his features. “You couldn’t have been involved at that point. You would have been too young. Sorry, that’s presumptuous of me.” He shakes his head like he’s slowing his thoughts. “I should have led with Aleksei giving us a rundown of how the agreement between Victor and Ivan came about.”
I nod, agreeing, but keep generalizing to see what they know too. “Something happened years ago.”
Santiago takes another sip of his wine, putting the glass down so he can use his hands as he talks. “It’s hard to put all this into order, but I think now is the time I need to tell you about me and what I am involved in.”
I sit back again, holding my glass of wine so I don’t fidget.
“My father is Cartel. And like the Russians, the Irish, and the Italians, the setup of the business is similar, in that one holds the ultimate power, and he rules over other men who each rule over other men. A pyramid of power. My father sits at the top. I’m his illegitimate son, but that’s not an issue for either of us. My siblings are mostly women, which, given the very patriarchal mindset of the Cartel—something I’d like to change—means the leadership falls to me or one of my two stepbrothers. But they are way too young. Either way, my stepsiblings all know about me and support our father’s decision that I will take over fromhim when the time comes. His men know, they support him to his face, and I guess, upon his death, we will find out if they are men of honor or if they’re going to be an issue with me taking the position.”
Santiago stops talking and studies me. Perhaps he’s worried he’s going to overwhelm me, but I’m enthralled with his story. I want to know everything about him.
“Keep going,” I say, switching my wine for a glass of water that Kade offers. I need my wits about me, because what they’re saying is true, our paths were crossing way back then.
“Now that you know that,” he continues, “you have to go back a number of years.”
I lock up, and none of them miss my spike of anxiety.
“At that time, I was relatively new to the scene. I was at an event, kind of like an underworld conference, but there, I met a handful of other men, similar age and background to me. Your lawyer is a De Luca, but I knew her husbands before they took over the Italians. I also met the son of the Irish underworld boss, Ronin O’Connor, and some of his pack.”
I breathe slowly through my mouth as my tension mounts, but we maintain eye contact.
“We fell into a casual friendship of sorts, but a few years later, something happened that turned us into brothers. Particularly Valentine, Ronin, and myself.”
I nod for him to go on.
“Ronin’s youngest sister was abducted, and we uncovered people in the mob were involved, as well as some associates of my father’s. Unknowingly, we fell headfirst into a child trafficking ring set up in Croatia. And the age thing from before comes from the fact Ronin, Valentine, and I probably weren't old enough to be dealing with what we found there ourselves, but someone had to.
“Another time, I’m happy to go into the details with you, but suffice to say, what we found there was fucking awful. We came pretty close to killing each other. What saved us was believing our paths had crossed for a reason, and doing whatever we could to eradicate child trafficking was our purpose. In Croatia, surrounded by human atrocity, we set up the Trinity Alliance.”
I stand up suddenly, and they surge to their feet with me. “Excuse me, I need a moment.”
Failure pulls my thoughts away from them. Guilt follows, flowing through my system like pollution.
