But I know my sister better than that. If I don’t give her anything, she’ll become even more nosy, and the last thing I need is my sister involving herself. “It’s nothing. We’ve been together less than a handful of times. She doesn’t want anything serious, and I never do, so it works.” I reach for the bread roll on the table and break it apart. Her elbows are on the table as she watches me, holding her tea.
“I don’t believe you.” She leans back with that defiant expression in her gaze that irritated me both as a kid and even now, because she’s determined and can be relentless.
“Okay, if we’re sharing. Who have you been fucking; care to enlighten me?”
“No one. If I were seeing someone, I would tell you,” she says sweetly.
“No, you wouldn’t. You hide your relationships from me,” I remind her.
“That’s because you always find them and threaten to kill them,” she says with an eye roll. I don’t say another word because I did that with her ex, and it wasn’t me who killed him. The heavy weight settles between us, but I catch her as she smiles. Although I don’t think she’s been with anyone else since, I can see that over time she’s started to smile at memories and the mention of her departed husband, opposed to the stricken grief that immediately crossed her features.
I look at the time on my phone and know it’s time to leave. That’s when I hear Lotti greet Valen as he enters. Punctual as ever. But before I leave, my sister is quick to say, “All I am saying is, I hope she is right for you. And is in it for the right reasons. A lot of women try to get close to you just because of who you are. I hope she isn’t like that. And if you’re serious about this one, you should wine and dine her instead of fucking her. You can’t have a relationship with just sex.”
I look at her, confused. That’s the only type of relationship I know, and the thought of “wine and dine” feels more foreign than any random job I’ve taken on.
I lean over and kiss her cheek before leaving. Leonore is the complete opposite to what she imagines. I’m pretty sure she hates the fact of who I am. But my sister is right. People are drawn to me because of my power, just like the fool I’m about to meet.
Although I prepare for the worst, I suspect that tonight will go according to my plan.
We meetat the same abandoned warehouse where we found my uncle’s body. I’m practically eye rolling as we arrive, since the man doesn’t have any original ideas himself. Waiting outside in the dead of night, only with two guards, stands Michalis Nero.
I’m sure he thought he was clever having his voice altered when he called, but I knew who he was all along because I planted the seed the moment he involved himself in my meeting with Elias when he returned my uncle’s body.
Elias was protecting someone, even after I offered him the influence of my power and force to make him the next heir. But Elias has pride and loyalty. That offer only stood as bait toward the eldest brother, Michalis, who I knew had none of these things, and I knew would bring me exactly what I wanted out of greed.
“Do we kill them right away?” Valen asks me as he cuts the engine and the lights go dead, only showing their silhouettes from the dim light at the front of the warehouse.
“No, the fool will likely give us more information than he realizes simply by talking,” I say as I adjust my suit and step out of the car.
Michalis seems pleased when he spots me. Valen and I still scan the area to make sure we’re not being set up. He might be a fool, but it doesn’t mean he’s not impulsive.
He opens his arms wide as if we’re long-lost friends, seemingly forgetting that when we last saw one another, I broke his fucking nose. “I have a gift for you.”
“A gift that Elias can’t know about?” I ask promptly. He sneers at the mention of his brother’s name, just as I thought the wedge was far too easy to place into motion. Though he did take a few days longer than I expected to contact me.
“My brother seems to interfere where his nose doesn’t belong.” And I suspect with the venom in his tone, that Elias has closed down Michalis’s people trafficking activities outside of Boston. Which, ultimately, is what applied the pressure on his older brother to get the jump on him. He’s come to me for power, trading something far more important.Family.
“I have the person who killed your uncle. They’re yours for the taking, if the offer you extended to Elias applies to me,” he says with a greedy smile. Why are cunts like this far too easy to manipulate? Even his men behind him don’t even shuffle among the self-serving betrayal. Then again, they’re probably loyal to him only. It’s a shame they’ll die because of it.
I look toward the door and pocket my hands casually, knowing that Valen has my back if they were to pull out their guns. It offers a false sense of gentlemanly security. “Show me.”
Michalis’s smile grows as he turns his back and walks toward the door. When he opens it and we follow him in, I’m not at all surprised by the person tied to the chair, squirming with a gag in his mouth. His eyes grow furious as he looks at me and then his older brother.
“My dear youngest brother, Giorgos, made a mistake on the night of your uncle’s death,” he says theatrically, enjoying this far too much for the promise of his personal gain. He walks over to his youngest brother, who tries to jar himself free from the chair, furious with his brother.
I already knew it was Giorgos who killed my uncle. I figured it out the moment Elias remained silent. Though the youngest brother tried to make quick work by pinning Jacob Wolka for it. This only confirms that yet again, I’m right.
Michalis continues. “The night of your uncle’s death, my father asked Pietro for unity between our families.” My jaw clenches. Hard. “They go way back, as you know. My father asked for your sister’s hand in marriage to the next Nero heir, me,” he says. “I, of course had no knowledge or involvement in this.” My stomach turns, knowing this asshole is a fucking liar. He’d made multiple advances on my sister before. Even after she attended her husband’s fucking funeral. Whether he knew about it or not is irrelevant.
I silently slide my gaze to his younger brother, who seems to be screaming as if to say something. But Michalis takes that as a cue to place his hands on the shoulders of his brother, who tries to brush him off. “My half-wit youngest brother overheard their conversation, and Pietro denying my father’s request. Let’s just say he was a little too happy and stupid on drugs that night and followed your uncle to a bar, waited for him to return to his car and then shot him for disrespecting our dying father’s request.”
My jaw clenches painfully, my mood darkening as I try to cling to control, because the more this asshole talks, the more I gain. “He was so jacked up. He dropped off the body like any other, until he started sobering up and realized that placing the body in the morgue could lead you back to him.” He clicks his tongue at his brother. “One of his close companions advised himto steal back the body and hide the evidence. Like a fuck wit, though, he didn’t dispose of it.”
Giorgos’s eyes scream bloody murder as he tries to break free from his brother’s touch. I assess both of them. I’d suspected most of it, and it was stupidity that made him think a mask might conceal his identity. But to go back for the body was his downfall.
I find it strange that their father, Apollo, has been quiet. In fact, the eyes that I have on him suggest that he hasn’t left his manor for almost two months. Well, before my uncle was killed.
“Is this true?” I ask with a deadly edge in my tone.
