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“He missed accidentally.” Hunter had said as much. “He was planning on following through with your orders and saving his sister.”
“He failed.”
“You weren’t ever going to let him live. You had men waiting for him.”
“Yes,” Isa sipped at his drink absently, “his sister’s body had already been cold by that point. I’d only kept her alive long enough to take a few photos, then I’d shot her. It would have been a waste of energy to keep her around when all I needed was enough ‘proof’ to convince him she was still breathing, even if she wasn’t.”
By the time Hunter had left their house, intending to find Odin, Meg had already been dead. That’s what Isa was saying. He’d killed her the night before, and poor Hunter had been none the wiser, thinking he’d had a chance at rescuing her.
Odin felt a wave of fury rise within him, but he forced the flames back down, getting a hold of himself before he could let on how pissed off that revelation made him.
“As you recall,” Isa continued, “insignificant Meg Thorn wasn’t the only one who lost her life that day.”
He’d been on the run by that point, injured and confused, so Odin hadn’t heard the rumors until a little over a week later. But they’d reached him all the same.
“Your mother.”
“Isabel Frost,” Isa sighed, staring at a spot over Odin’s shoulder then as the memories overtook him. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she? And a cold, hard ice bitch. No one liked her very much. Not your father, and not me. Taking her life was one of the easiest things I’d ever done. Even I was surprised by how quickly it all went down.”
“Why did you kill her?” He’d never understood that. Their power could only be transferred willingly. If he’d murdered his mother, she wouldn’t have gifted it to him. Isa would have given up a massive source of magic, and for what? The keys to the Brumal kingdom?
If he’d waited, he would have been given those anyway, especially since everyone had believed Odin dead by that point.
“I didn’t intend to,” Isa admitted, and a sense of sadness swept over him briefly. “The plan had always been for you and me to team up against her. She forced my hand, monitored the entire exchange between myself and Hunter Thorn. It was her idea to kidnap Meg, even. Her men were the ones who grabbed her on her way back from school the evening before.”
“You’re saying you didn’t want to do it.” Odin almost laughed. “Don’t play the victim, Isa. You could have warned me, but you chose not to.”
“She was listening in on my calls,” he said. “After your father’s injuries, she lost patience with me. She hated that you and I were together, and she wanted me to prove my loyalty to the Frost family. This was how she intended for me to do it. I had faith that Hunter would fail to kill you—either by hesitating and giving himself away or outright refusing to go through with it. When the news reached me that both you and he had disappeared, that blood had been found at the scene, and it was yours…I lost it.”
“This is all very romantic,” if it were true, “but it’s about ten years too late.” Odin wasn’t about to fall for this bullshit, even if the facts panned out.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Isa insisted. He leaned forward, setting the glass down on the table between them. “I have proof. I kept everything, all of the records my mother had on me. You can see them. She’d bugged my multi-slate and was tracking my movements. As the Dominus of the Frost family, all of the men who worked for me actually took their orders from her. I had no way of warning you.”
Isabel Frost had been every bit the control freak that her son was. It wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility that this story of his was genuine. She was more than capable, of course, and Odin had already held suspicions that her injuring his father had been less a crime of passion and more a calculation.
Still…
“I trusted you then,” Odin reminded. “Look where it got me.”
“Yes,” he drawled, the sarcasm practically dripping from his tongue, “how awful, to be the King of the Red Light District, owner of almost half the planet, let alone this meager city. Ah, it’s not even half when it comes to Ovid, is it, though, brother?” Isa smirked. “You’ve been busy.”
He knew.
Shit.
“Did you really think you could buy up all that extra property under my nose?” Isa asked. “Admittedly, it took me longer than it should have to realize, but once I did, the paper trail was simple enough to follow back to you. If I recall correctly, that’s also how you ended up with Liaand Nora, isn’t it? Piecing it together bit by bit, until suddenly you had this massive empire seemingly sprung up out of nowhere.”
Odin had been discrete with the stocks he’d been buying in the surrounding businesses, as well as the companies he’d completely bought out. He’d used a dummy name and had people who’d never been spotted near him or Liaand Nora act as his authorized signer. He’d also avoided any of the businesses that he was aware Isa had a personal investment in.
He’d been so careful…
But clearly not careful enough.
Still, he forced himself to keep his relaxed outward appearance, crossing his legs and propping an arm against the back of the couch. His lips curled up in a partial smirk. “Is that why you came all this way? Everything I’ve done was done legally.”
Isa chuckled. “Since when did either of us care about legality?” He shook his head. “No, no, that’s not why I’m here. I’m simply bringing it up to point out that I’m not the only one going behind the other’s back.”
“Except,” Odin held up a finger, “you betrayed me when we were still on good terms. I’m doing nothing of the sort.”
