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“I’ll know anytime. And your soldiers?” he hammered.
When he glared at me, I looked away. He could do a stare down better than anyone I knew. “My men found a key to a hotel and tracked it down. Dahlia was well trained for someone you insist isn’t a hired professional. There was no real identification, which means she’d stored it somewhere else. She checked in as Dahlia Black, paying cash. No one paid any attention to what she was doing or gave a shit.”
“Typical,” Brogan said under his breath. “But that also doesn’t give a clear indication she’s working with Rocco.”
“No, it doesn’t. It all comes down to the fingerprints.” I glared at Daniel. “We’re going to have a very serious discussion with the lovely prisoner. It’s time she confessed to her sins.”
“Maybe Rocco wants blood for the amount you spilled that day, but Dahlia isn’t stupid enough to get involved with a monster like Luciano.” After saying the words, Daniel immediately looked away, cursing under his breath. “That was uncalled for.”
Brogan looked at me, obviously waiting for me to explode. “No, it wasn’t. I am nothing but a card-carrying beast. Whatever her reason for hunting us down, she deserves better than an asshole like me, especially if she’s comparing me to Garrison, which it’s obvious he’s someone she cared about.”
This wave of tension was justified. I heard a blip indicating a text and realized both Daniel’s and Brogan’s phones were buzzing as well. A smile crossed my face as I held it in front of me. “The games are heating up, boys.”
“‘There’s nowhere you can hide.’” Brogan hissed after reading the single line. “How childish.”
“That could mean your near-death experience has been exposed,” Daniel insisted. “As well as this location.”
“Yes. I’ll make certain security is tight. My Capo will call if there’s any movement.” While I was sure we were in no particular danger, the nagging feeling in the back of my mind only intensified.
The silence filtering between us was painful.
“Do you remember the last time we saw Garrison together?” Daniel asked.
Brogan lifted his eyebrows, shifting his gaze from me toward Daniel. “He was agitated at something his father had done. That’s all I can remember.” Brogan’s answer brought me back to that ugly day, when I’d thought I was on top of the world.
“He was angry that his father had stopped providing assistance to one of his many mistresses.” Daniel tipped his head. “He talked about killing the man for being a horrible asshole. Something had sparked him that was different than before. That was also the only time he’d ever talked about his family in any depth.”
I took a deep breath, holding it for a few seconds. “Yeah. I do remember that. He refused to tell us any details, except something slipped just before we left to handle the situation.” The situation. That’s all I’d been able to call the fucked-up operation I’d forced us into, trying to send a clear message to someone threatening my family. Things had gotten completely out of hand, and the assholes had been prepared for our arrival. We’d been twenty-two at the time, about ready to graduate, all four of us thinking we were bad-asses. I’d been the worst, pushing the other three into something my father’s trained soldiers should have handled in the first place.
Because I’d insisted on pleasing my father, finally getting him to admit I was ready to join the family business, two men had been killed, Garrison taking the blame for something he had no part in.
“He said,” Daniel breathed. “‘The fucker will never hurt Cassandra.’” He turned around to face us, the look in his eyes more directed than I’d ever seen them. “His mother’s name was Becky. He had no siblings. Who the hell was Cassandra?”
The quiet and tension shifting between us was far too thick, allowing the humidity to become even more suffocating.
“Who knows we’re on this island?” Brogan interrupted the silence.
I thought about his question. “Only the people who need to know. I trust those who do. As you’re already aware, we have weapons, and the entire location is monitored by an intense security system. No one is getting on this island without my knowledge.”
“I suggest you alert your people just in case,” Daniel stated.
“As I said, I intend to. And I suggest you callyourpeople, Daniel. We need to know who she is. The more information we have, the better we’ll be at handling whatever the fuck comes our way.”
Daniel took a few seconds before nodding. “And when we find out?”
For the first time in my life, I was uncertain of everything. “I’m not certain, but what I know in my heart is that I don’t want to let her go.”
“You have a perverse mind, Alexander,” Daniel half whispered, his tone as anguished as I felt inside.
“We all feel the same, Daniel,” Brogan said, half laughing afterwards. “Maybe we’re all a little twisted. She tried to kill us, but we want to spend the rest of our lives with her. I don’t know if that’s going to work.”
While Brogan continued chortling, Daniel and I stared at each other.
“Did you know I looked up to you? Like a role model. You were the good kid from a good family. I wanted that more than anything,” I stated, admitting it for the first time. I don’t know why, but I felt it was important to come clean.
Daniel slowly lifted his head. “I thought your father meant everything to you. You certainly made the rest of us believe that.”
All I could do was laugh. “My father was barely in my life. We didn’t talk or go on vacations. Did you notice I stayed on campus most of the time when the three of you got to return home for the holidays?”
