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‘I don’t want you to kill her,’ Emilio replied. ‘She’s far too valuable to me. She may be fiery, but she’s a good girl with my money. Such a good girl.’ Emilio’s smile bared his teeth in a way that was entirely unsettling to Dornan. He’d always been afraid of his father, especially when Mariana was involved.
‘Well?’ Dornan pressed.
‘I want you to marry that little bitch,’ Emilio said, staring at Dornan until he wanted to squirm. ‘Fuck her. All day and all night, you fuck her. Get her pregnant again. I want that cunt barefoot and compliant, you hear me? The FBI is breathing down my fucking neck, and the last thing I need is for them to cherry-pick your little whore out of our organisation and turn her against us.’
Dornan got lost somewhere between the words ‘barefoot’ and ‘whore’, but he got the general gist of what his father intended. It was shocking. It was oddly exciting. Still, Dornan didn’t want to just act like he was excited at the prospect of trapping the woman he loved so that she could truly, irrevocably, never leave, by sealing their fate together with a child he could use as leverage. That would be wrong.
It sounded like a great fucking idea, though. Now that Celia was gone, he’d fuck Mariana until his dick was raw, come inside her until he was empty, and have so many babies with her she’d never even think to leave his side.
Dornan cleared his throat, shooting for an expression of amusement.
‘You think sticking a ring on her finger and knocking her up will make her less likely to turn on us? It’s been ten years. If she were a traitor, she would have gone by now.’
Emilio steepled his fingers in front of him. ‘Are you saying you don’t want tofinallymarry the woman you’ve been pining over like a pathetic fucking dog for the better part of the last decade?’
‘No–’
‘You’re saying you don’t want to kick that Mexican schmuck out of that apartment – your apartment, don’t forget – and move in there with her? Don’t you want to control her, son?’
‘I do control her,’ Dornan replied, perhaps a little too defensively. ‘I know where she goes. I know her every move. Marrying her wouldn’t change that.’
‘You know her every move, huh? You know where she got a cremation, last-minute this morning?’ Emilio picked up a handful of the ashes and let them spill through his open fingers,back onto the desk. ‘Because I’m pretty fucking sure she didn’t just burn this kid in a fireplace.’
Dornan’s heart sank at that thought. Why hadn’t she called him this morning? He would have helped her take care of the kid. But maybe that was the whole point. His father had done it, so indirectly it was Dornan’s fault, because he refused to forsake Emilio. And by cutting Dornan out of the equation completely, Mariana was making sure he knew that she would not tolerate Il Sangue’s bullshit forever. She had never been totally complicit, one of the many reasons Dornan loved her so much, but she had never been this defiant. Reckless, even.
‘She was in my car when I dropped off the mother’s body that night,’ Dornan said. He sounded a hell of a lot more self-assured than he felt. ‘Before this fucking bullet happened.’
Emilio seemed curious. ‘She ride along with you a lot?’
Dornan knew what he was really asking. Emilio was asking how much Mariana had witnessed. How much the FBI could potentially get out of her.
‘Never. This was different.’
‘How so?’
‘Nothing. It was . . . Nothing. I took her with me. It was a mistake. It won’t happen again.’
Emilio rattled off some more instructions, but all Dornan could think about was that fucking cellphone he’d found hidden in Mariana’s kitchen all those months ago, and whether she’d betrayed him already. He stared at the tiny, blossomed bullet that had once lived inside him for a brief spell, and a wave of pain touched his chest sharply, suspicion and regret all wound up in one imaginary stab to the heart.
‘Son,’ Emilio said sharply. Dornan raised his eyes from the bullet to meet his father’s gaze – cold, almost reptilian. He’d always been terrified of the man. Dornan Ross loved his mother, butlovewas not an emotion he’d ever associated with the man who gave him life.
‘Has she said or done anything to make you believe she could be involved with Agent Murphy’s disappearance? Think, son. Cast your mind back. It’s been a long time since that girl made her way to us. And Christopher always had a certain obsession with our Mariana, didn’t he?’
Dornan nodded. ‘Yeah. You could say that.’
Emilio brushed his palms off. ‘Think. And think some more. You can love somebody and still find the weak spots in their armour. You understand?’
‘Yeah.’
Emilio slammed his open palm on the table, making Dornan blink. ‘You’re not getting it, boy.’ It was funny being called a boy at forty-odd years of age, but damn if it didn’t make him feel like he was seven again.
‘I’m not asking you if you want her to be a part of this. I know you don’t. I don’t, either. Because if your little girlfriend is in on this – if she’s planning something with my fucking money – I go to prison.’ He pointed at himself, jabbing a finger into his own chest as his face flushed with anger. ‘You go to prison,’ a jab at the air in front of Dornan, ‘and the house of cards burns to the ground. You’ll last a day in prison before Sinaloa, or Medellin, or hell, the fucking FBI kill you to shut you up. Think of yoursons. Think of yourclub. Do not think of her and how well she sucks your cock. Am. I. Clear.’
Dornan nodded. ‘Crystal.’
‘Right,’ Emilio said, apparently satisfied. ‘Let me ask you again. Do you think there isanychance Mariana is in on Murphy’s disappearance? Do you think she’s been talking to the FBI behind our backs? I will not act until I have proof, out of respect for you and only because of you.’
Dornan laughed. ‘You expect me to believe that?’
