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“I don’t want California to find out about them, and the more I help, the quicker the threat to everyone’s safety will be over.”
“There’s nowhere to hide, and no one is ever safe in the Mafia, Viktor. Or have you forgotten?”
“No, I haven’t, but war brings a higher chance of casualties.”
“Fine,” I agreed. “Make sure you lose your tail in the morning.” He nodded. “And I want her name. It is not a question.”
His eyes flared as his mouth shut tightly.
“Valerie,” Viktor uttered, looked at me one last time, and turned, leaving us behind.
I watched his back all the way until he stepped into his sports car. Even when his car left the property, I looked out at where he had once stood. Angry at my brother and the feeling he’d created. Betrayal. It was a similar experience when Ilias brought Davina to me, but this time it was different. Ilias had no idea who she was, who he was protecting, and who he had risked his life for. He wasn’t even a made-man then.
Viktor was. He knew what he was doing. Understood the risks and kept it from me.
Viktor did it fully aware of his disloyalty to thefamiglia, to me, and even then, continued for months.
I turned toward Arlo.
He was just as perplexed as I was.
“It’s Viktor,” Arlo expressed as if I needed a reminder of who our brother was. It only deepened the wound as a wall solidified, hardening around me and what I had once believed I could trust.
Could I still trust him fully? Trust him to keep her emerald shining with life?
“That’s the issue.”
Because as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t bring myself to cause him any pain. At least not physically. Out of everyone, they understood the things I couldn’t overlook. The limits that couldn’t be crossed and who I was. The Mafia was first, and they had the power to make me hate myself further than what I believed I already did. This was if I was ever forced to make the one call I dreaded. Their lives.
“He admitted to loving her,” Arlo said, but it was weak and failed to deliver its meaning as he too didn’t understand such feeling.
I laughed. It was dark and foul.
“Look at whatlovehas brought him.” I spat the word like a curse.
Love had brought him risk and disloyalty.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked, but for once, he didn’t seek my reply.
“Find out who she is and where she lives.”
“And then?”
“Nothing. We just need to know where her home is.”
Arlo exhaled loudly.
“And do me a favor. Don’t fuck someone with a badge. I’m done being tested by my own brothers.”
I stepped inside the house without a farewell and headed straight to my office for a full glass of bourbon. I didn’t bother with ice. After a gulp, I refilled it and placed it by my desk to discard my jacket. My cufflinks followed, tossing them by the glass and not caring where they landed. I tugged and tugged at my tie, too frustrated to work out the knot.
“Hey.”
I stopped, looked up, and saw Katia by the doorway. I needed a minute before I faced her, and yet, I didn’t stop her from walking inside. Her hands held a small glass bowl, small red balls rolling as she stepped deeper inside with her lips a shade darker. Her fingers met her lips, and her teeth enclosed a tiny seed in her mouth. Her fingertips pinched it before placing it inside the glass.
“Let me,” she offered, and I shook my head.
She didn’t listen; she never did. Instead, she placed the bowl in the corner of the desk, and I was able to see inside it.
