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Normally, when I see them all together, I don’t think deeper than what I see—my brothers’ wives playing with their kids—but today is different.
When I look at them now, it hits me that in a few days, I’ll have a wife.
Weeks ago, marriage was the furthest thing from my mind, and even though my father would have married me off at his first opportunity, I never really saw it in the cards for me.
The difference between my brothers and me is that they’re head over heels in love with their wives. My marriage, on the other hand, will be based on conquering an empire.
My thoughts return to the plan at hand when I walk through the archway leading back into the house. Desmier’s office is just ahead of me.
Throughout this entire thing, I’ve been grateful to have him on board, especially where the Pakhan is concerned. I know Desmier has pulled a lot of strings to give me the time I needed to stay in Wilmington.
I don’t think my plans would have run as smoothly as they have if Desmier weren’t around. Viktor certainly wouldn’t condone going to Wilmington and would have talked me out of the whole thing. He would have told me I should take Manolo’s death as my win and leave it at that. Then he would have been an asshole and convinced Father and Leif not to help me. All because he would have been more worried about the disruption it would cause to the alliance by us taking charge of the Navarro Cartel. Some people in our alliance are not going to be happy about that, but this is where you tell them to either get the fuck out or fall in line.
Since nobody has ever declined working with us, they would have shut up and put up with whatever we do.
Desmier is only our half-brother, and he’s shown more support for me than Viktor ever did.
Desmier has only been in our lives for the last few years. Prior to that, none of us knew of his existence. Just before my father died, the empire was supposed to pass to Viktor, who everyone thought was my father’s eldest son. But Desmier flew in on the wings of revenge and took it from him.
Desmier’s pursuit for revenge was the catalyst that unearthed many dark secrets in our family, including our mother and Viktor’s evil scheme, which killed our Father and Leif.
Death and destruction pushed us together, forming a solid bond of trust I never knew I could have with anyone.
When I reach Desmier’s office, the door is already open, so I walk right inside and find them. Desmier is sitting behind the grand mahogany desk, and Zakh is to his right.
Although I’m dark blond and Zakh has black hair, the first thing people would comment on when they saw us together is how similar we look. But Desmier and Zakh could be twins.
“Hey, guys,” I say, giving them a curt nod.
“Hey, there,” Zakh replies, and Desmier nods back.
“Everything okay at the house?” Desmier asks.
“As good as can be.”
“Did you get to speak to her?”
“Yeah. She’s aware of the situation now. Obviously, she’s not happy about it.”
“That was expected.”
“Well, everything on our part is underway.” Desmier straightens. “I’ll be contacting Diego once it’s all sorted out and schedule a meeting for Monday afternoon at Volkova Inc.”
“That’s perfect.”
“Good. We want them on our territory. I figured meeting on Monday will give them enough time to get to Boston on such short notice.”
“That gives them and us plenty of time.” That’s six days, so it leaves room to fix things if something goes wrong, too. “I’ve got everything sorted out on my end, too and I’ve taken care of the DNA test.”
Although the photo album is more than sufficient evidence Gwen is Santiago’s daughter, the Navarros will demand hard evidence. As you need substantial living tissue for a DNA test and Santiago has been dead for more than a decade, the next best option was to get that tissue from Manolo’s body.
Being Santiago’s brother made him the perfect candidate, and it was pure luck that he’s been dead for only a little over two weeks.
Because I’m me, I was able to get his samples. I sorted that out before we even left Wilmington.
“I should have Manolo’s samples at our lab by tonight,” I add. “Then it takes about three days to get the paternity test results.”
I got Gwen’s sample, which was a mouth swab, when she was asleep. The lab I’m using for the tests has the best technology, so I didn’t need to take her blood.
