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Emilio ran his tongue over his teeth, fiddling with his deep crimson tie. ‘You are my only son. I’m not getting any younger. All of this will be yours soon, and you’ll have to decide who you can trust to love your sons.’
A flash of Jason and Juliette came to him then. The girl he’d helped raise as if she were his own, and the boy who really was his own, but he’d never known existed. Of all his children, he thought of them, his son and John’s daughter, falling in love, and the thought gave him a small amount of comfort. At least out of the seven sons he had, he could trust one of their girlfriends. Even with the way he and John had grown distant over the years, he still thought of Juliette as one of his own.
‘You didn’t trust Celia,’ Dornan said wryly, referring to his ex-wife, freshly divorced and back in New York now with her family on an extended ‘trip’.
‘You didn’t love Celia,’ Emilio replied. ‘You love Mariana. Love is the thing that messes everything else up. Love makes us blind. Love makes us foolish.’
You got that right, Dornan thought.
‘One last time. Do you think Mariana has been compromised?’
Everything inside Dornan wanted to scream no. But he remembered the cellphone he’d found hidden in a bag of flour in Mariana’s kitchen cupboard, smeared with blood. Howenraged he’d been at the fact she’d hidden it from him. Who had she been calling? Why didn’t she want him to know? He’d been in such denial that she could betray him, he’d never looked at the spot in her kitchen again to see if the phone was still hidden in there. He’d never checked the outgoing calls. Never tried to trace the phone back to a supplier, or a call list, or even asked her about it.
Because the moment he’d been about to ask her was the moment he’d instead lashed out with his fists, beat her until she was knocked out on the floor, and then he’d gotten the call that she’d lost their baby.
The secret phone had been relegated to an uncertain fate. He hadn’t wanted to deal with it. If it were bad? He’d kill her. He’d wrap his hands around her neck and fucking kill her. He’d watch the life drain out of her face, squeeze harder as she choked and begged silently for him to stop. It was a fact that if she’d betrayed him by fucking somebody else, or by feeding information to the FBI, or by funnelling money to Murphy – he would destroy her.
But if Dornan destroyed Mariana, then he’d be all alone. So he didn’t ask about the phone.
Now, though, now it was time to get some fucking answers.
‘I don’t think she’s been compromised, no,’ Dornan said to his father, choosing his words carefully.
Emilio nodded. ‘Thinking is one thing. I want you to know one hundred and ten per cent, son. Will you do that for me?’
‘Yes,’ Dornan replied, his chest feeling like someone had parked a truck on top of it.
‘Tell me if you can’t,’ Emilio persisted. ‘Right now. There’s no shame in honesty, my boy. If you can’t do this – beat theanswers out of her, if you have to, violence goes a long way in drawing out the truth from a woman – then I’ll step in and I’ll be the bad person.’
‘No,’ Dornan said quickly, imagining all of the horrible torture devices he’d seen his father employ in the past. He’d once seen Emilio hammer nails into a woman’s forehead while she was fully conscious, in an effort to torture the truth out of her. No. Emilio could not have his twisted way with Mariana.
‘Give me a couple of days,’ Dornan said, standing quickly. ‘I’ll prove she’s not a threat.’
‘How’s the sex?’ Emilio asked suddenly.
‘What?’
‘The sex. She still a little whore for you in the bedroom? Because if she’s not, she’s getting it from somewhere else. Question is – is she getting it from our friend Murphy?’
Dornan just blinked at that question. He imagined Murphy’s stupid grin as Mariana bobbed in his lap. No. He’d kill them. He’d slaughter the pair of them.
‘She has never betrayed this family,’ Dornan said defiantly. ‘She’s loyal. Always has been.’
But the phone, his mind urged.Why does she need a secret burner phone? Is it to call Murphy? Is it?
Is she in with the FBI?
Has she been tainted?
Is Mariana a fucking snitch?
‘Loyalty doesn’t always last, son,’ Emilio added, on a more serious note. ‘They might be loyal at the beginning, but it doesn’t mean they’ll be loyal until the end. Beat a dog and that dog will bite you, given the chance.’
He took the vial containing the bullet between his thumb and forefinger and held it up for Dornan. ‘Beat a woman like Mariana, kill her unborn child, and who knows what she’ll do to make you pay?’
Emilio grinned, flesh pulled back over pointed teeth as he shook the bullet in the vial for effect.He’s a sadistic fuck, Dornan mused to himself. And then he thought,but so am I.
CHAPTER NINE
