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I smile at Jacob. Well, it’s an attempt at a smile. I don’t like him. I don’t trust him. Not even after he killed his own nephews to prove his loyalty to me. He switches sides too often. One of those mercenaries Scarlett mentioned.
“Sit,” I tell him, gesturing to the chair beside the one Scarlett sat in.
He does. “I see my niece walking freely in your house.”
My uncle makes a sound, but I don’t turn to him. “Scarlett is not your concern.”
“Watch out for that one, son.”
“I’m not your son. Never call me that again.”
“I’m just saying—”
“Never call me that again,” I say slowly, wanting to be sure he understands.
He puts his hands up, palms to me. “All right, all right. No harm intended.” He turns to David and laughs, expecting my uncle to laugh with him I guess, but he doesn’t. Instead, he just looks back at Jacob, eyes flat. Unimpressed.
I wait, silent too as he returns his attention to me. He clears his throat.
“Your son-in-law met with Rinaldi,” I tell him, studying his response.
Jacob sided with me against Rinaldi. He sided with me against the De La Cruz brothers. He pulled the trigger to execute them. This is an important detail. I expect him to be number one on the cartel’s hitlist. He’s a traitor to them.
Or he’s smarter than I give him credit for.
The only thing I know for certain in this life is how cockroaches like Jacob De La Cruz manage to crawl out of their holes unscathed when the rest of the world has been razed to the ground. He’s a survivor. And an opportunist.
“And I have some news from that meeting.”
“Well, isn’t that convenient.”
“My son-in-law and I are aligned. We always have been. I am now the most powerful man in the De La Cruz Cartel and since I only have daughters, he is next in line.”
“Are you now? By killing your brother and his wife along with your nephews and then executing those same nephews?”
He clears his throat.
“Italian families don’t quite work that way,” I say. “Explain it to me.”
“I was never on board with what Rinaldi did to your family and I have never been in support of human trafficking. Rinaldi duped Diego and Angel. They were the muscle, really. Not much in the way of brains.” He points to his head. “Easily manipulated. But when they offered Scarlett up to Rinaldi to seal the cartel and the mafia’s union by marriage, they would have shut me out. You know this. You know what they planned for me. I was no longer useful to them. Only took a cut of the money,” he pauses to study me momentarily. I just look back flatly. “I’ve been in touch with Felix who has kept communication open with the rest of the family. They all agreed that once Diego and Angel were out of the way, the cartel would reassemble under a new leader. Europe is a profitable route for us, after all. And with the connections and protections you and your uncle can guarantee us, well, yours is the side I am on. I’m loyal to you, Cristiano. As is Felix.”
“Then what was he doing meeting with Rinaldi?”
He seems momentarily taken aback but recovers quickly. “Rinaldi was attempting to re-negotiate his contract. Remember Scarlett would have been the glue to bind us to him.”
I knew this. I knew why the marriage between Scarlett and Rinaldi had to take place. But to hear it from this scum, to hear him talk about her life like it’s his to be played with, it makes my blood boil.
“But he no longer has possession of her. You do,” he tacks on.
Scarlett is a pawn. It’s all she ever was to them. It’s what she should be to me.
“Turns out you were right, Cristiano,” he finishes, and I realize I’d tuned him out. He talks too much anyway.
“Right in what?”
“Keeping her alive,” my uncle says, standing now, joining us and making a point of not looking at Cerberus who raises his head and tracks him across the room.
“The Cartel wants her and Noah back. Assuming the boy isn’t dead yet,” Jacob says.
I don’t confirm one way or another. “And why do they want them back, pray tell?”
“They’re blood.”
“So family is important? I’m confused.”
Jacob snorts, looks toward the bottle of whiskey. “My brother used to drink the same brand you know that?”
I glance over at it, remember how Scarlett always looks at it. “Did he?” I wonder if it reminds her of her father and I think about what Lenore said this morning. But I don’t care to discuss this detail with Jacob. I want the information he has. The information he is feeding me piecemeal.
“That meeting between Rinaldi and the cartel didn’t go as Rinaldi hoped. He thought he’d meet the next in charge. Pick up where Diego and Angel left off. But they know what happened. They know it was you who killed the brothers.”
