Chapter 21
21
GIDEON
I was five when my brother was born. As he got older, he resembled his mother, Shannon— her blond hair, nose, freckles. But he had Father’s eyes. My eyes.
I liked it when they lived with us. It wasn’t so lonely anymore. For five years, I had someone to look after. From the moment he could toddle, Rowan followed me around.
“Dionne, wait for me!” Everywhere I went, he followed. “Dionne, play.” “Dionne, tell me a story.” “Dionne, I had a bad dream.”
I took my role as an older brother serious, and taught him everything I knew, even if it wasn’t much.
He was my brother, and I loved him.
R owan beat me to the punch. As planned, my men swooped in with the intent of taking Louisa and using her as leverage for Rowan to leave the alliance. In turn, I’d help him negotiate a partnership with her father. He’d have more power in Boston than his uncles could have ever dreamed of.
But the sting didn’t go quite as we thought when Rowan himself intercepted. He took Louisa while she was en route to the church on her wedding day. My little brother has surprised me. Bryan and James McKenzie might have been traitors to my father, but they taught Rowan well. He’s expanded his territory and entered into a treaty with Don Fernando Duran.
However, nothing is as it seems. There have been raids on his shipments for months, raids he believes I’m responsible for. Since I’m not, it points to a traitor in his midst.
“I don’t trust her,” I tell Scarlet. “She had her own ambitions before all this.”
“She’s his wife,” she replies. “They would have been married already if it hadn’t been for his uncles’ interference.”
“A long time ago, perhaps. This time, Rowan took her against her will. Not to mention that she was vying to be her father’s underboss. Everyone in Boston knows she wanted to be his next in line. I don’t believe for a second that she would have let that go without a fight.” I tap my finger against the desk. “She’s behind the raids.”
“How? She’s practically a captive in his house.”
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
“Pfft.” We turn to Sofia, who has taken a sudden interest in the conversation. She looks up from her dinner plate. “I’ve been of a mind to leave for months now. Yet here I am.”
I give her a charming smile. “Perhaps it’s not what you truly desire, Little Bird. You’re quite vicious when you wish to be. You would have figured a way by now.”
Sofia sticks out her tongue at me and I chuckle. It’s been a few weeks since she met Scarlet. My second has taken this as permission to come and go as she wishes, which mostly coincides with mealtimes.
At first, I refrained from business conversations. But Sofia is a sneaky one and a relentless eavesdropper. She wanted to know what I was up to, demanded it, in fact. It would serve as assurance that I wasn’t anywhere near Luca, she said.
I told her no, until a few nights ago she fell to her knees. My dick was pressed against her cheek, as she glanced up at me. “Please.”
I’m fucked. I’ve created something truly evil. She’s my weakness, and knows it. I caved to her wishes, all because she took me into her pretty mouth and sucked the willpower right out of me.
“Surely Gideon has given you a way out,” Scarlet says to Sofia. “One of his mindfuck games, I’m sure.”
“Hasn’t he told you?” Sofia asks. “I’m supposed to make him fall in love with me.”
“How’s that going for you?”
“I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“So you are.” Scarlet gives me a pointed glance. Going back to our previous conversation, Scarlet adds, “From what I heard, when Rowan left Louisa at the altar all those years ago, she was really broken. She loved him.”
“Can I tell you what I think?” Sofia licks some of the potato soup from her spoon and I have the sudden urge to kick Scarlet out of the house and have some alone time with my own captive.
“Please, do.” Scarlet gives Sofia her fullest attention.
“It sounds like Rowan might have really fucked up. First,” she ticks off on her fingers, “he left her at the altar?” Scarlet nods and she continues. “Second, he snatches her on the way to get married to some other guy, forces her to marry him , and she’s now supposed to act like his good little wife? I don’t think so.” She shakes her head in indignation for the girl. “If she was really in line to be her father’s second, she must be ruthless. And ruthless people don’t let things like that go.”
A chill crawls up my spine as she speaks the last of it, as if she sees herself in Louisa. Her blue eyes blaze and she arches a perfect brow at me in a, this-could-be-you, sort of way.
“What do you suggest?” Scarlet asks, completely immersed.
“Test her. See if she’ll betray him.”
“And if she does?” I ask Sofia out of curiosity to see just how much I’ve corrupted her.
She shrugs, and without hesitation says, “He’s your brother. If she hurts him, kill her.”
Scarlet let’s out a roar of laughter. “Careful, girl. Your villain is showing.”
Sofia laughs too, all the while, her gaze remains intensely focused on me. I nod in acknowledgement. Warning received, loud and clear.
Sofia’s suggestion of putting Louisa to the test was a good one. I’d already thought of it myself, of course, but it wasn’t until she voiced it that I devised a plan.
Louisa is in a position to hurt my brother. He’s made himself vulnerable to her. Given her the power to take him out.
It’s taken a few days to set it up. I made an offer to Rowan’s underboss, Declan. I’ll supply men to take Rowan down and off his hands, alive, and he can rule Boston as he’s always wanted to. Yesterday, he confirmed Louisa would help him.
Having my suspicions proven right added urgency to the plotting. If both his wife and right hand are willing to betray him, I must get him out.
I arrive at the McKenzie house with Scarlet and several of our men in tow. Declan greets us in the foyer, a smug smile on his face. Louisa is standing next to him, her eyes weary and her lips pulled tight.
“Everything went smoothly, thanks to you.” Declan extends his hand for me to shake.
I do so, and have to fight the urge not to tear his arm from its socket. “Where is Rowan?”
“He— ah, here he comes now.”
We all turn upwards. Rowan, looking worse for the wear, is coming down with a full escort. He scans the faces of everyone in the room as they approach, giving me only a slight glance.
“Where are my men?” he demands.
Declan laughs. “If you’re referring to the McKenzie’s men, they’re it.”
Rowan glares. “Did you kill them?”
“Anyone with questionable loyalties has been replaced. Simple as that.”
“What about you? You swore your loyalty to me,” he hisses at Declan. “And yet, here you still are. A fucking traitor.”
“I swore my loyalty to the family,” Declan retorts. “But you never understood what it is to be a McKenzie. To rule. To be respected and feared. Instead, you marry the enemy. And for what? You couldn’t even bargain a fair treaty.”
“You’re a traitor,” Rowan says. “And you’ll die like one. This dickwad helped you?” He lifts his chin to me. “Is he your new minion?”
Pushing aside any emotion, completely omitting it from my expression, I grin. “You hear that, Scar? I’m a minion now.”
From behind me, she snickers, “If you’re a minion, what does that make me?”
Rowan turns to her, then back to me, and his eyes widen as he realizes who I am. “Gideon Black.”
“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” I take a step toward him, and as I do, he attempts to strike. But the two men flanking him grab him before he can. He struggles against them, almost freeing himself, until a third man comes to help.
“You’ve got my attention,” he sneers.
Two hours later, Rowan is sitting in the Kingsbrook library, tied to a chair of course. I watch him through the camera feed as he stares at the last painting Father had commissioned. It’s one where he’s leaning against a desk, his thick arms crossed over his broad chest. The painter made him seem larger than he was in life, but I suppose there was no other way to depict how much power he held when he was in a room.
Sofia comes into my study and stands behind me. Peering at my phone, she asks, “How is he?”
“Angry.”
“Did you kill Louisa?”
“I left her with Declan and his men. They’ll do it for me.”
“So you can keep your hands clean.”
I smirk. “I could spare a hundred lives and my hands would never be free of blood.”
“You’ve killed that many?”
“Yes.” I get out of my chair and pour myself a glass of whiskey. Liquid courage. “I should go in there.”
“Good luck.”
“Do you mean it?”
“Does it matter?” She sighs. “I mean it. If only because I wish it were Luca in there and I had a chance to speak with him. I envy you.”
“Sofia—”
“Go talk to him. I’ll be in my room.”
Two guards flank the doors to the library. They move aside as I enter and shut the door behind me. Rowan doesn’t turn to me. Instead, his focus remains fully on the portrait.
“That’s Father.” I tell him. “Stephen Black. Handsome, wouldn’t you say?”
Rowan shrugs in a dismissive way. “He’s not ugly.”
“He wasn’t ugly,” I correct. “Or have you forgotten, your uncles were involved in his murder?”
“And you were involved in theirs. You’re even now?”
“Is that your way of pleading for your life?”
“I’d never beg you for anything.” Scanning his surroundings, he asks, “Is this where you’re going to do it?”
“Do what?” I frown.
“Take me out,” he says. “Is this where you kill me?”
I look at him with mock horror. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to get blood stains out of marble flooring? Impossible.”
He tilts his head, partly annoyed, partly curious. “Why have you brought me here if not to kill me?”
I pull out a chair and spin it so that it’s fully facing him. Sitting, I say, “I don’t intend to kill you at all.”
“Do I know you?” He observes me with narrowed eyes. “We’ve met before.”
Nodding, I lean forward and will him to remember me. “Think, Rowan. Where do you know me from?”
“You’re awfully close to me, man. My sight’s not that bad.”
I laugh and move back. “I didn’t know you were funny.”
“I’m not. Now fucking tell me what I’m doing here, or let me go.”
“You won’t believe me if I tell you,” I say.
“Try me.”
It would be better if he figured this out on his own. He’ll trust his own memory before he trusts a word I say. Tapping a finger against my glass, I think about how to broach the delicate subject without him shutting me completely out. “First, I want to know how much your uncles told you about my father.”
He shrugs. “Nothing. Everything I know about Stephen has been through the Sinacores. He was a traitor and died like one.”
My jaw tightens. “It sounds like you need some reeducation.”
“I don’t need anything from you, except to turn you over to Luca so you can pay for your sins.”
It pisses me off that I’ve gone through all the trouble of saving his ass, and all he wants is to toss me in front of Luca. Quick as I can, I’m out of my chair and standing behind him. I grab a fistful of his hair and pull his head back. The knife I keep holstered on my leg is in my hand and against his throat, just to show him I can.
“What are you waiting for, Ferryman. Kill me.”
“I’m not going to kill you, Rowan.” I shove him, truly wanting to smack him across the head, but cut his ties instead.
Moving away, I peer at the knife and turn it back and forth. Then, I lift my gaze from my reflection in the mirror-like finish and stare into eyes that are so similar to mine, it’s eerie. He stares back, and suddenly, something like recognition filters across his face.
“What is this?” he demands. “Who are you?”
“Me?” I grin. “Why, I’m just your big brother.”
“How?” He knows it’s true.
“You’re the son of Stephen Black and Shannon McKenzie,” I say.
“Impossible.”
“Finnegan Kane was not your biological father,” I inform him. “He wasn’t even in the picture.”
“Of course he was.”
I shake my head. “Tell me what you remember of him.”
“He worked at a brewery when he and my mother left Boston. Then he?—”
I raise a hand to stop him. “Not what you were told. What do you actually remember about your father? Think hard.”
“I was too young when he died to remember him.”
“You weren’t too young, Rowan,” I grit out impatiently. “You’re afraid of what you’ll see if you try.”
“All right then. You tell me what I’m supposed to know.”
Tapping my fingers against my glass once more to dispel some of my nervous energy, I say, “ Our father was working on expanding his shipping business, offering his services to a more…distinct kind of customer.”
“You mean criminals,” he corrects.
My lips pull into a grin. “It’s where the money was. And Father followed the money. This was before he knew the way of criminals, however. He didn’t realize that a contract could only be held with one family at a time.”
“So this was before he got stuck working with Tadesco in Chicago.”
“It was. He came to Boston in an effort to make a deal with the McKenzies. Obviously, he was turned down. They had no reason to trust him. But he got something out of that trip anyway. Your mother.”
“Liar!” Rowan slams his palm against the table. “Finnegan Kane was my father.”
“Finnegan Kane was part of the McKenzie’s security detail. When Shannon called Father to tell him about the baby, he sent for her. But she was smart and knew what Bryan and James would do to him when they found out. So she paid Finnegan for his name. Once they were married and he delivered her safely, he fled to Costa Rica with a lot of money.”
“Lies.”
“I was five years old, Rowan, and I remember most of it.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I was there! I fucking carried you in my arms when you were born, Rowan. I was there when you got your first tooth, your first steps. You lived with us until you were five and your mother wanted to leave, so you must remember something.”
We stare at each other for several moments. Believe me! Remember when you were a child and I carried you and played with you. When you couldn’t say my name, and you called me Dionne. When I was your world and I desperately wanted to keep you, but you were taken from me. I will it into my gaze, push for it with all my might.
And he does.
With a gasp, he says, “I remember. I remember you.”