“Felix,” I chuckle.
“Yes, him. I saw him coming to the governor with a knife. After that, I had to take cover, and I found the pill bottle forDavid Renier. I recognized the name of the medication… Your mother was supposed to take these, but she never did.”
He comes in closer, lifting his hand as if to cup my face, like he used to do when I was a boy. But he doesn’t. His brows furrow, worried that I don’t want him to treat me affectionately, and I’m not really sure if I do or not.
It’s still confusing.
“I am so proud of you Dascha,” he says sincerely. “You have become a strong, intelligent man, and you did so without me. You were right… even before I left, I was not a good father to you. I wish that I was…”
I gulp, squeezing Kemper’s hand. “You weren’t… that bad.” My dad gives me a knowing look and I huff, “I mean, before you left. You loved me. And you raised me the way you knew how.” I shrug.
“This is true, moy syn.” His mouth slopes into a small smile. “But I still fucked up. I failed you and I will never stop being sorry.”
Sniffing, I take a breath, peering left, to where The Ivory is watching Peters kick one of his men’s ass, chuckling, with an icepack on his eye.
“I want to forgive you,” I hum to my father. “But I’m still pissed. And confused about how you know The Ivory.”
“It is simply business from Brighton Beach,” he explains. “He needed a connection in Vegas which I had through your second-cousin Pietro, do you remember him?”
“Yea, vaguely.” I rub my eyes.
“I do not wish to stress you out, Dascha,” he murmurs. “But there is something important I would like to show you. If you will come to the mansion with me?”
Glancing up at Kemper, I find him watching me closely, as he does.
“I’ll do whatever you want me to, my love,” he says softly, eyes flicking to my father.
“Okay.” I nod. “Let’s go.”
I lock eyes briefly with Manuel Blanco. He nods, and I nod back. Then the three of us go to the mansion.
When we get there, my father leads the way. We follow him, weaving in between cartel officers who are packing things up and moving them out of the mansion. It’s crazy to think this place will belong to Velle after this… If that’s the plan.
I’m sure he, Rook, and Joy have no intention of leaving. What will The Ivory do?
Will he leave? Where will he go?
My father mentioned Vegas. I have to assume that’s where he’s been for the last ten years. Maybe The Ivory will go there…Start terrorizing the West Coast.
That train of thought pulls into the station when we get to a library that I assume is The Ivory’s. There’s an adjoining study, and my father waltzes into it, startling a young guy who’s in a big chair on his phone.
“Oh… hello.” He smiles. His eyes lift to my hair and he says, “You must be Dascha and Kemper.” He jumps up from the chair, rushing over with his hand out. “I’m Yari. Señor Blanco’s assistant.”
We shake his hand, perplexed. “Um… Dash. This is Kellan.”
“So nice to finally meet you.” He’s very polite, with kind eyes this sort of bright teal color. They shift to my father. “Can I help you with anything, Alexander?”
“We must use the computer.” Dad reaches into his pocket and pulls out a flash drive.
Yari seems to recognize what it is right away, and hustles over to the desk, opening a laptop. “You know the encryption password?”
My dad nods.
Yari steps aside. “She’s all yours.”
My father sits down in the desk chair, inserting the flash drive into the computer and doing some clicking. He’s always been good with technology. Not Luthor-level or anything, just knows his way around security systems and whatnot.
When he’s done, there’s a video loaded on the screen. He stands, turning the chair. “Come sit.”
