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I am so shocked he answered it takes me a minute to ask my next question. “Do you know why?”
“No.” I think that is all I’m going to get from him until he speaks again. “I don’t normally deal with a middle man, a broker. It’s not how I work. But the diamonds you saw on the plane are very rare, and very desired by a lot of wealthy people. I would normally make the deal and bring them back to the states and either sell them to the highest bidder or have Domenico set and sell them in the store. But these diamonds, they mean something to someone. I just don’t know who that someone is.”
“So, this deal…” I stop the movement of my fingers thinking about the danger. “It was through someone, a broker you don’t know? With a buyer you don’t know? You went into this blind?”
“Sort of.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, I have a feeling.”
“And that is?” I wait in silence, getting ready to demand he tell me because now I’m invested. “Demetri.”
“I believe the broker was your now dead bodyguard.”
I gasp.
No.
“No.” I start to defend Finn. “Demetri, I don’t think—”
“If you defend that motherfucker right now, I will go unbury his head and cut out his eyes.”
“That’s… That’s so…” I clear my throat. “I wasn’t going to—”
“You were. Now stop.”
I clear my throat again before I begin to hedge slowly. “So… who do you believe the buyer is?”
“My brother.”
I suck so much air into my lungs, I cough. “You think Finn knew your brother?” I shake my head. I don’t believe it. “I don’t know when he would have had the time to meet someone like him. He was always at my beck and call. When I woke in the morning, he was waiting for me. When I retired at night, he retired. There were only a few times I can remember him leaving me to go with Cillian until Ciarán became my brother’s right-hand man.”
“Where there is a desire to become rich, there will always be a will to follow an unrighteous path.”
“It doesn’t make any sense though. Not to me, at least.”
“He wanted you, Haven. He was a bodyguard. A paid hire. Not worthy. Not fit for the daughter of a mob boss. Money would have made him have more clout, more leg to stand on. The business end of it would have made your father see him in a different light.”
“Does your brother know it was you? Do you know if he knows who he was dealing with?”
“Oh, I’m quite sure he does now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means, my father doesn’t know, or didn’t know he had a second son. In turn, that means my brother didn’t know he had a sibling. My mother was his goomah. His chosen bedmate that he paid high dollar for prior to giving her what she thought was the dream. He moved her in with him but not the main estate, but to the carriage house. From what she told me, she was upset about it and confronted him. It turned physical. She realized then she made a big mistake. She thought they were going to be a true couple. She had already had his first-born son. After weeks of living in the carriage house, Nick was moved into the main house and my mother was to stay in the carriage house. That’s when she realized she was just a vessel. It was soon after that that she fled Russia.”
“You lived in Russia?”
“No. She was a few months pregnant with me when she left. Nick was three, I think she said. My father married another woman. Even though she knew where she stood with him, she was still hurt by his actions. When she wanted to leave, he refused. They argued. It became physical. She was near death when his wife found her. She was unconscious. The wife didn’t know my mother lived on the property. She had been out for a walk, saw the cottage with the light on. She nursed her back to a health that would allow her to travel. Then she helped her get away. She even offered to give my mother money, but she refused. She had money saved. Lots of it. She was smart. She paid for nothing while living in the carriage house. Every dime she made above her daily needs to feed herself and Nick she saved prior to my father moving them. It was all tucked away safely for a rainy day.”
“How did you wind up here?”
“My mother already knew she was pregnant with me. She thought she’d miscarry because of the beating. His wife suspected my mother was pregnant. She worried that there was another heir to take the fortune from her own children. So, she made it happen without him knowing. We moved to the States. Lived in a rundown apartment complex for a bit while mom went back to what she knew. Then just like in Russia, she moved her way up the ladder. She met a man at a party one night that helped her get off the streets and into a nice place. He gave her a job at an upscale restaurant and the rest is history.”
“Where is your mom now?”
“She passed while I was in prison.”
