Page 95 of No Merciful Corruption

She looks at me like she doesn’t believe a word out of my mouth but decides to let it go. I lean forward to kiss her lips before standing.

“I’m going to go shower and change. God forbid I sit at a dinner table with my grandfather and I’m not wearing a suit.”

“Alex,” she catches my wrist. “There’s something else I wanted to talk to you about and I’m not sure if we should ask Abuelo about it.”

“Is something wrong?”

“I received an invitation to dinner from Edith Ortiz.”

“An invitation?”

She juts her chin in the direction of her vanity. “I was going through the mail this afternoon when I stumbled across it.”

I walk over and pick up the thick ivory envelope. Inside is a simple but elegant card.

Doña Edith de Ortiz

tiene el honor de solicitar la presencia de

Don Alejandro Narvaez y Doña Dahlia de Narvaez

para una distinguida cena que se llevará a cabo el

día 15 de agosto a las 21:00 horas en su residencia.

“What do you think?” Dahlia asks.

“She’s very formal.” I leave the invitation on the nightstand. “And her husband is very desperate.”

“They’re calling themselves the thirteenth family.”

“Not to mention presumptuous.” I remove my shirt and head to the bathroom. A second later, I hear her footsteps as she follows. “Twelve Apostles is more than enough. The last thing this city needs is another Don.”

“I didn’t mention it before because it slipped my mind but Paloma Caceres brought it up at our wedding. Apparently, some of the other Dons are hoping the Ortiz family will replace ours when the time comes. They’re obsessed with keeping a balanced twelve, they think it’ll help keep the peace.”

“Untangling this family from a sixty-year-old system it helped build will be difficult enough. Grooming a whole new family for entry will be nearly impossible and I’ve already told as much to the other Dons. It’s out of the question.”

“I don’t disagree with you.” She stops in the doorway of the bathroom and crosses her arms, leaning against the wall. “But it’d be a mistake to ignore the Ortizes completely. Regina has abandoned the narcotics side of Sandro’s business. She may have kept a hold on her brother’s territory but the Ortizes are quickly gaining ground. When you tried going legitimate the first time, the main objection from the other Families came from a fear of foreign interference. As they continue to expand, the Ortizes are going to look for alliances and it won’t take long for the foreign families in this city to corrupt them.”

“Corrupt them?”

“Yes, corrupt them. They’ll look for support and acceptance wherever they can get it. Families like the Belovs and Maslovs, Sarris, Opreas, and Demirs. All foreign and all a threat. On their own they don’t amount to much but if they all came together with the kind of money the Ortizes are pulling from their drug operation, you face serious opposition. The kind that would jeopardize our plans for legitimacy.”

I stare at her a long while. “It’s concerning to me how you’ve figured this all out on your own. I liked it better when your nose was stuck in a textbook all day.”

She smiles but there’s no joy in the expression. “I’m a Narvaez now. I have to think like one too.”

I abandon my place at the shower door and close the distance between us. I take her face in my hands and press a kiss against her forehead.

“I wish I could uncorrupt these thoughts.”

“I don’t,” she says. “It’s better this way. I can help you.”

“I never wanted this for you. I always hoped that by the time you became my wife, all of this would be behind us. And you’d spend your days being peacefully, blissfully unaware.”

“I may not be unaware but my days are peaceful and blissful. Every day with you is.”

A loose curl falls over her brow and I tuck it behind her ear.