7. Tamayo
TAMAYO
I don’t think I’ll ever feel more powerful than I do in this moment. Zarina Gallo is on her knees before me, begging. Her life, her freedom, rests in the palm of my hand, and I could crush it in my fist as easily as a freshly bloomed flower. I could call the Accardis or any of the Cardinal Families, and return her in exchange for a favor, more territory, a sweet deal. I could leave her broken in an alley like I was so many years ago. Tit for tat.
But that wouldn’t quench the inferno of rage inside me.
The Gallos deserve worse than they gave me. They deserve to be ruined, their name laid to waste. And here their daughter sits, pretty on her knees, asking me to save her, because she has nowhere else to go. Because her parents pushed her directly into my open arms. The opportunity is too sweet to pass up. Zarina said it herself—she’s the sole heir of the Southern Districts, raised by one of the most powerful families in Louredo. She has information, secrets, access that I can only dream of. And if I tie myself to her, all that becomes mine, too.
Plus, I get to ruin the Gallos’s only daughter.
I tongue my cheek, raising my glass to my lips, and stare at her on the floor. Her spine is straight, jaw clenched, eyes burning. I sip my drink and set it beside hers, leaning forward to offer my hand. She grimaces at it, as if my fingers are covered in the same filth I wiped off my boot earlier.
“Pat,” she says.
They stride forward without looking at me and help Zarina to her feet. Her orange dress rides up her thighs slightly before she tugs it back down.
I drop my proffered hand and sit back in my chair, taking up the whole of it. “What are your terms?”
She snatches her drink off the table and downs the rest of it, like she’s washing a bad taste out of her mouth. Pat takes the glass when she’s finished, and Zarina dabs the liquor from her lips. “A public claim before the Council and a three-month cap on the engagement before we very publicly breakup, during which you will protect me as if I’m your…fiancée.”
A fake engagement, then. “What do I get?”
“You get the clout of a Gallo engagement,” she says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “It’s not a secret what you’re working toward, Tamayo. You want a seat with the Council, to replace the Russos, but there’s no way they’ll ever recognize you as a family, as a don, as a threat , without some credibility.”
Her words are too honest, the reality of them raking harshly over my chest. I clink my rings against my glass. “That’s not enough.”
She forces a calming breath through her nose. “It’s all I have.”
“You want me to endanger myself and my people for a fake engagement and temporary clout?” My voice rises at the end, incredulous despite the offer being everything I need. It’s better than Antoni could give me, better than I could get myself if I betrayed Zarina tonight. But she doesn’t need to know that.
“They won’t be in danger.” She waves my concerns away .
“Don’t be coy, princess, it discredits you,” I parrot her words back at her, coated with candied acid.
“They won’t be openly in danger,” she corrects.
I rub my finger over my lips, studying her. She stands tall, fully embodying Zarina Gallo, princess and heir to the Gallo crime family, rulers of the Southern Districts. She has had anything she could ever want laid at her feet. Except power over her own future.
I drop my hand to the arm of my chair. “I want thirty percent of your territory.”
She reels back. “Excuse me?”
“Ten percent for each month of this farce.” I raise my glass in a sardonic cheers.
“That’s outrageous, Tamayo.” Zarina shakes her head, arms crossed and eyes rolling. “And not only that, but I don’t have it.”
“You will, though, won’t you?”
She throws up her hands and stalks over to the windows, grumbling under her breath.
“Why would you want only three months, princess?” I rest my elbows on my knees, voice low and rumbling. “What could change in such a short time?”
“The Accardis will give up by then.”
“No, they won’t.” I push out of my chair, grabbing her empty glass from the side table by the sofa and ignoring Pat’s narrowed glare as I carry it back to the bar. Darius slides fresh drinks over—two more vodka Collinses. “The Accardis have the chance to double their power, rule the South and the West. They won’t let go so easily.”
“What’s your point?” she snaps.
“You want time.” I stride over to Zarina, where she stands at the wall of windows watching the revelers below, and hand her the new drink. “Time to find a way out of this that doesn’t end with you married to a man. Time to find a way to bring the Gallo Family under your command. ”
She doesn’t turn from the view despite my outstretched hand. I wait. She chews her lip. It’s like she’s about to kneel again. If she agrees, she admits I’m right and yields the higher ground. And when she does, I’ll have more leverage.
“Three months isn’t long enough, if you ask me,” I purr. “But I’m just a gang leader. What do I know?”
Zarina snatches the drink from me, and I smirk as I sip mine. She holds hers without tasting it, staring at me with narrowed eyes. “Ten percent.”
Finally. “Twenty-five.”
“Ten percent and a favor,” she counters.
That gives me pause. Essentially limitless in scope and to be defined by me later, a favor from a Cardinal Family is more valuable than gold in Louredo. I could ask for just about anything and she’d be required to agree.
“That’s my final offer.” She downs her entire drink in three gulps, a trickle of citrus slipping down her chin until she catches it with her finger. She presses it back into her mouth as she shoves her glass back into my hand. “You have until midnight to decide.”
And then Zarina Gallo strides out the door, surrounded in as much chaos as when she entered.