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I sigh when the door opens. So much for a few minutes of peace. Mateo enters with Andrew in tow. My cousin carries a bottle of my best whiskey. My brother gets the glasses. They settle in the chairs opposite me.
Andrew pours and pushes a glass over the desk. “A toast.”
Mateo raises his glass. “To us.”
Tonight’s accomplishment deserves a toast. After years of careful planning, I finally got to make the first move. The wheels are in motion. There’s no stopping me now.
I clink my glass against theirs and drink.
“How are you contacting Warren?” Andrew asks.
“I’ll send a messenger.” However, on the day I slay him, I’ll look straight into his greedy eyes.
Mateo leans back in his seat and spreads his legs. “We need to talk about the details of the exchange. Warren is going to fuck us over.”
Andrew snickers. “He’ll try.”
“All in good time.” I finish my drink. “Let’s not rush into this.”
Mateo scrutinizes me. “What’s with the delaying?”
Like me, he’s eager for justice to be served. Unlike me, he lacks patience. “It’ll happen when I’m ready.”
A muscle twitches in my brother’s jaw. Except for being eager, he’s also hardheaded. It’s the one trait we have in common.
“When will that be?” Mateo asks. “Why are you keeping us in the dark?”
My smile is patient. “As I said, in good time. For now, let’s enjoy our victory.”
“He’s right,” Andrew says, always the peacekeeper. “We shouldn’t jump the gun. That’s when mistakes happen.”
Mateo grabs the bottle with more force than necessary and refills our glasses. I should draw the line at the third whiskey, but this is a celebration.
“To getting back our diamond,” Mateo says, the fire in his eyes burning cold.
We drink to that.
Andrew pushes to his feet. “I left the medicine in your room. I’m off to bed.”
Mateo regards him with a tilted smile. “Calling it quits, pussy?”
Andrew laughs. “We’ll talk again tomorrow morning when you wake up with a hangover from hell.”
Mateo’s haste to seal the deal must be rubbing off on me, because a foreign urgency invades my body, challenging my patience. I’m suddenly keen to go upstairs. Too keen. I shouldn’t, not with four whiskeys in my belly.
When my brother stands and takes the bottle, I don’t suggest we finish it with cigars like I should. No, I do the unwise thing by waiting a few minutes before going upstairs. The man in front of Evie’s room jumps at attention when I exit on the landing.
“You can go,” I say, dismissing him with a flick of my fingers.
CHAPTER 5
Christina
* * *
The bedroom is the twin of Roman’s in design. If there was a lady of the house, it would’ve been hers. It’s twice the size of the apartment I rent in Linden. Bell doesn’t pay well. That’s not how he secures my loyalty. The motivation he offers is much more impactful. It’s Eden’s life.
He recruited me at the age of fifteen. There was a big age gap between my parents. My father was sixty when I was born. He died of a stroke ten years later, shortly after Eden’s birth. My mother battled to make ends meet with my father’s meager pension. When Bell Warren’s men came around, knocking on doors with a discreet advertisement printed on a flyer, my mom jumped at the opportunity. They set up a meeting. He came over, had a look at me, and gave my mother a contract to sign. On that late summer afternoon with the birds fighting over apricots in the tree, she signed away our lives.
My preparation lasted a year. I was taken to a private finishing school for young ladies in the countryside. I was measured, weighed, and scrubbed. My hair was cut and dyed. Plastic surgery changed the shape of my nose. Tutors with sharp tongues and unforgiving canes taught me to eat, drink, walk, and speak like a lady. They only left marks on my body when they said, “Hold out your hands.” When I returned after Christmas, my nailbeds were so damaged from the narrow side of my educator’s ruler that my nails grew out deformed. Bell sent a lady to apply false nails.
Since then, I’ve spent most of my time in the Warren’s household. For all my adult life, I’ve been someone’s shadow. My mother died the year after I’d turned eighteen. Bell let me take custody of my sister, not because he was kind but because he could use her as a weapon to force my obedience.
At the thought of Eden, my breath catches on a hitch. Tears burn hot behind my eyes, but I swallow them. If I stick to the plan, Bell will protect her. We’ve gone through the details many times. He’ll send someone to take care of her and tell her I had to go away with Evie. He’ll fill the cupboards with food and pay the bills. He has to. If something happens to Eden, he no longer has a hold on me. My only consolation is the knowledge that she’ll be all right.
