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Instead, I clenched my fingers around the door handle and smiled as graciously as I had in me.

If he noticed how fake and forced it was, he didn’t say anything.

He did clap me on the shoulder as he walked past me though, and thanked me for the invitation.

“My pleasure. It’s overdue.” I pointed to Bruno. “Forgive me. I’m going to need you to surrender any weapons you might have brought. They’ll be returned to you at the end, but it’s never a good idea to have too many armed men in one room at one time.” I flashed him the insides of my jacket and turned around, holding it up at the back to show him there was nothing in my waistband either.

He paused for a moment, then nodded, pulling out a gun from a holster beneath his jacket and surrendering it to Bruno. “We are family now, after all. You being my grandson’s father and all. I’ve been waiting for this invitation for quite a while.”

Yeah, well, I was too busy being fake dead and avoiding your car bombs and searching for my son, you piece of fucking shit.

I was tempted to say the thought out loud but resisted it, letting the silence hang instead. This man was no family of mine, even if his blood did run in Nyah’s and James’s veins.

Jeremiah gazed around the grand foyer, a blush rising up his cheeks. I just stood there staring at him.

He tugged at the collar of his dress shirt. “So…is this get-together taking place here in the foyer, or…”

This time, my smile was real. “Oh no. I invited some others. I hope you don’t mind it won’t just be the two of us?”

He shook his head quickly and laughed, clearly relieved he wasn’t going to be alone with me. Or maybe even a tad pleased.

I smiled at him. “Are you happy with the outcome of arranging Nyah’s marriage?”

He looked at me sharply. “She was never supposed to marry Enzo. Not while…”

I cocked my head to one side. “Not while me or my father were alive?”

He agreed quickly. “She took sacred vows with Enzo. Vows that should be respected at all costs, but he forced them on her. Gave her no choice. But I know she’s with you now, and Constance and I are very pleased.”

All his talk about Nyah having choices pissed me off, because he’d been the first to take them away from her. “And yet, you haven’t even asked about her once since you got here.”

He stared at me.

I wanted to gouge his eyes out.

But I smiled again, like him asking after his only daughter’s welfare wasn’t a big deal. “Let’s go and get you a cigar and a drink. Everyone else is waiting.”

He followed me eagerly down the hallway. “Who else did you invite? Has your uncle returned? I heard MacGregor was in town too.”

I ignored his questions, bypassed the gym, and opened the door that led down to the basement. A rush of cold, damp air hit us both square in the face, and I didn’t miss the way Matish recoiled at the vaguely unpleasant smell. The stairwell was lit by a single, dull yellow bulb.

I motioned for him to go ahead of me. “We keep the good stuff down here.” I clapped him on the shoulder in the same patronizing way he’d done to me. “Only the best for my son’s grandfather. Can’t have you drinking or smoking the cheap stuff.”

Jeremiah relaxed visibly and grinned at me. “That’s what I like to hear.”

He walked down the narrow staircase, and I pulled the door shut behind me.

He didn’t notice me slip a padlock on the door and lock it.

He got to the bottom and stopped.

Then spun on his heel. “What is this?”

I peered at him through the dim light that reflected off the grimy walls and cast deep shadows around the room. “What does it look like, Matish? Haven’t you ever heard about Carlos Guerra’s cages? The cells he keeps his trafficked women in?”

“You said we were coming down here for a drink. I assumed this was a wine cellar.”

I walked around him in a slow circle, eyeing the older man. “I’m more of a whiskey man myself.”