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Chapter Twenty
Impatience
Willow
It’s been three days of watching my husband torture the men in his employ. No one is skipped over as he tries to find the weak spots in his house, in his empire. Anger and frustration cling to him like a cloak. He has barely slept and only eats when I threaten withholding sex.
Dominic stands beside him, never uttering a word, watching as his friend and boss lays waste to the empire they both thought was rock steady. They still haven’t spoken about what happened and I know eventually it will blow up but they will do whatever they want, as usual.
“Are they still in the basement?” Thalia asks, walking into the library. Dressed in a soft pink sundress she looks like a petite fairy.
I’ve been sitting here for the past hour with my cousin, Alejandra, working through the Hernandez family finances. She’s been combing through everything since she arrived in the States and I am not happy at all. My uncle got the family name locked up in some seriously shady stuff. Drugs, guns, but the worst is the human trafficking. Why the hell would he ever go into business with a scumbag like Kirrill Singleton?
I need to have a serious conversation with Rafe because I honestly don’t have a fucking clue how to get out of this mess. If I could, I would kill my uncle again.
I smile at Tahlia. I don’t know her as well as I would like to and that is another item on my to-do list. She is just as much a part of this family as I am. “Rafe is taking a shower while Dom fetches him some new victims. I got bored and we needed to work through some shit,” I explain. “Have you met Alejandra?”
I gesture to my cousin, who gives Thalia a smile and a brief nod before returning to her paperwork. She is very dedicated to her work and wants to prove that she will be an asset to the family. Not that I even know if there will still be a Hernandez family. None of us can find Roman, and we don’t even know if he left of his own volition or if he’s been taken.
“Yeah,” Thalia’s voice cuts into my thoughts. “I can see watching your husband torture a hundred men becoming monotonous after a while.”
Both of us chuckle at her words. This is definitely not a normal conversation. Other women would have run from this house and these men a long time ago.
“Have you seen Regina?” I ask.
“She’s fine, and the baby is doing well. She knows she needs to take care of herself, even if her emotional state is still shot to shit.”
“I wish I could help her,” I say. “But half of this mess is my doing and there isn’t really much that can be done about how she is feeling.”
“Give her time. The pain will never fully go away, but it will fade.”
Thalia has a haunted look in her eyes and I want to ask her more, but Diego strolls into the room, acting like he doesn’t have a care in the fucking world. Blood drips from the gym bag in his hand to the floor, soaking into the carpet.
“Jesus wept, Diego!” I shriek, jumping up. “Don’t you have any goddamned manners? You’re ruining my carpet!”
“Sorry, Boss.” He shrugs with a grin. “I brought a present.”
“You’re like a cat, stuffing the canary in his owner’s slipper,” Thalia says with an eye roll.
“Actually,” Diego singsongs, “the gift is for you.”
He walks over to the coffee table while Alejandra hastily grabs all her papers, and plops the bag down. Unzipping it, he reveals the unblinking gaze of a man I have never seen before. I’m trying to figure out who the fuck this could be when Thalia sobs loudly behind me.
Spinning around, I face her. Tears stream down her ashen face. She doesn’t even blink, staring at the head in the bag.
“Who the fuck is that?” Alejandra asks with the detached calm of a perfectly trained mafia princess.
“That used to be Daemon Cross. Human trafficker, general asshole, and the former right-hand man of Kirrill Singleton.”
Diego is sickeningly proud of himself, preening like a damn peacock. Thalia was right, he’s an overgrown fucking cat.
“Why is his head in a bag?” I ask, my mind running a mile a minute. I’m not sure if this will help or hinder me. But if Diego is running around tearing down the Singleton empire from all sides, I may still have the chance to save my own family name.
“I owed Tahlia a life debt,” he replies like it should clear up every question I have, referencing when she recently saved his life.
“I needed him alive,” she whispers. “He was one of the few people who knows where my daughter is.”
Daughter? What the fuck? I really need to spend some time getting to know her better if shit ever settles down. If that ever happens.
