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I also thought that maybe he didn’t want her to be part of that life.
Hiding her away here in this quiet town makes me believe it even more.
Wilmington is the last place anyone would look for the long-lost daughter of a Mexican cartel king. Of course that’s if she’s still here.
I hope for my sake she is.
When I walk inside the house, I hear Zakh talking in the living room. He seems to be on the phone.
I peek in and see I’m right. He’s sitting on the small black leather sofa with his phone in his hand. The mellow voice speaking from it belongs to his wife, Lorelai. I can also hear the sweet chortles of Liberty, my nine-month-old niece.
I still can’t get used to my brother having a wife and child, but family life suits him. He seems to be a better man for it.
As he’s on FaceTime, I don’t say anything, but I meet the peeved-off expression he greets me with and smirk.
That look is because I was away all night. And because of my fascination with Gwen.
“Baby, I gotta go. Looks like Malik’s finished thinking with his dick.” Sarcasm ripples from his voice as he shakes his head at me.
“Hey, little ears are listening.” Lorelai laughs.
“Just sing her a lullaby and she’ll forget. Call you later.”
“Say bye-bye to daddy,” Lorelai says in a sing-song voice, then she and Liberty start with their usual ritual of insufferable cute kiddy sounds I’ve had to endure since being here.
Zakh hangs up moments after and zeroes in on me.
“And what time do you call this?” Zakh locks his eyes on mine when I sit opposite him and the coffee table, which has documents scattered all over it.
“Sorry,Father,” I taunt, using my best rendition of our father’s voice.
“Father wouldn’t give you the courtesy of a question; he’d most likely shoot off your dick if he thought it was getting in the way of your common sense.”
I smirk again. “Yeah, he most likely would have.”
We do this sometimes—talk about Father as if he’s still alive.
Cold silence and the dullness of grief pass between us for a few seconds.
Grief not just for losing our father, but for our Uncle Leif, too.
Because of the savage plot orchestrated by our mother and brother, Viktor, to get the Volkova empire, both Father and Leif were murdered.
They’re all dead now. All that remains of the Volkova line is Zakh, our older brother Desmier, and me.
Father and Leif’s death took its toll on us in different ways, but for me, I remember how they saved me in my darkest hour in Kazakhstan. Neither stopped until they found me and brought me back from the abyss of Hell.
I always feel like shit that I wasn’t able to do anything to save them in return.
“I’m not saying you can’t have fun.” Zakh changes the subject back to Gwen. “But we’re not here for fun. You can have fun later when we’re done.”
“I know. Believe me you don’t have to remind me.” I straighten. “I made use of my time and looked around Gwen’s house. I didn’t find anything but at least I got to review the place and make some tweaks to what I’d already set up.”
The other night when I was there, I bugged the place and the phones. Zakh did the same at the other women’s homes. We figured with Manolo’s death, there might be some conversations about him. Just because the Navarros don’t know where Santiago’s daughter is it doesn’t mean she won’t be aware of them.
Unfortunately, there has been no discussion of any of them yet.
Our problem is, we’re doing things the old-fashioned way and being too clean-cut. Almost like cops.
