Page 36 of In the Dark

He left us with many more concerns now than we would have thought.

Tía Perla was pacing the rug, her rosary beads clicking like a ticking clock. “Maybe this is for the best. No child … He’ll think you’re broken after a few months of no baby and he could abandon the idea of this ridiculous blood trust. So stupid. Maybe he’ll discard you for mistresses and focus on Fuerte Firearms.”

Monte didn’t say a word. He stood in silence, a grim look on his face. The poor man had lost his brothers and now was staring at his niece on death’s door. He looked white as a sheet, his eyes haunted.

I grabbed his hand. “Monte, I’m going to be okay.”

He blinked once and then twice before he met my gaze. “Of course you are.” He nodded over and over. “I’m so sorry we left you, mija. We shouldn’t have left—”

“I told you to go have a good night.” I absolved him immediately. It wasn’t their fault. Yet, he shook his head and then pinched the bridge of his nose.

Monte was gentle. Monte was the mediator between me and Paolo. He was the man who’d tucked me in at night and told me I was one of his own. He had raised me as best he could. “Jasmina, you always do what you must, mija. You’re strong. Too strong, huh?” He put his burly hand on my cheek, and I smiled at him.

“Just strong enough.” I winked at him, and I saw his shoulders relax a bit. “We need to find out who did this. What they took—”

“Mostly money,” Monte told me, sighing. “I have some guys looking into it. Security didn’t pick up on anything. The locks were picked and our system was down. They were professional.”

“I want to know who would so blatantly do this—”

“I know, mija, but we can’t make waves now,” he said, almost as if he was resigned, as if he was rolling over and letting them go even after they’d almost killed me.

“Monte, they took our money and left me bleeding out on the floor.”

“They were cowards,” he agreed, and I thought he would revise his statement, make a plan to avenge my injuries, anything. Instead, I got, “We need to focus on the Knights, though. What will we tell them? He cannot find out about this.”

I shouldn’t have felt the blow as badly as the knife wounds. Yet, I did. The air seemed to deflate from my lungs just as the idea he loved me as much as his own deflated too. “I’ll make it work, okay? Don’t worry.”

Maybe I should have mourned not being able to have a child.

But all I could focus on was my family. My cousins.

I’d resented this marriage, fought it, but we needed it.

I glanced at my broken body, the blood seeping through the bandages on my stomach. This wedding needed to happen to buy us time. We needed to regroup. Present a powerful, unified front.

The Diamond Syndicate would never tolerate an attack on their own. Hell, it was my uncle’s foolhardy attack on Jameson Knight that was the catalyst for all of this.

From the moment I became a Knight, I would be safe, and by extension, so would my family.

“He cannot find out,” I whispered.

“He will not find out,” she wailed. “Callahan … We will push back the time. We need at least another week. We must have one, or he’ll see you like this.” The pitch of her voice started to rise. “He will think we are broken! He will take advantage of your state, Jasmina! He will treat you like a wounded dog!”

“He won’t see me like this,” I said, my voice cold and final. “Monte, you tell the Knights there’s been a delay. Tell them the final arrangements for Paolo are more complicated than we thought. Tell them whatever lie you have to, but get me another week.”

“But the Diamonds don’t wait,” Monte whispered, looking toward the door as if he expected Callahan to bust it down at any moment.

I growled, clutching my stomach as I stood up, my legs shaking but holding. I caught my reflection in the hallway mirror. My face was a mess of purple and blue, my eyes bloodshot and haunted. ”I don’t care who he is. Make him.”

9

Jasmina

MY APARTMENT WAS MY sanctuary and the only place I felt comfortable healing, but my family insisted on round-the-clock security.

The only people allowed in were our team of guards. My uncle told me he’d find out who did this, but we’d have to do it quietly.

We couldn’t sacrifice the contract.