Chapter 53 Stan #2
“She’s not dead, Lucas.” When he jerked upright, she confided, “You know who Eva Martinez is, don’t you?”
“Of course. She’s as crazy as Aidan. Married to the Martinez.” Lucas’s brow puckered. “Ironically enough, he’s pretty sane. Seems a decent guy.”
“Until you cross him,” I inserted dryly.
Lucas conceded that with a grimace. “What about them?”
“While I was away, I learned… Martinez and Beatriz are family. Long story short, I told them she wasn’t dead.”
“In hiding?”
“Yeah.” Kitty gulped. “She probably hates me more now.”
“You don’t know that. She ran to protect herself,” I chided.
“She didn’t run to them though, did she?”
“Martinez would have been in exile around the time of her death. He only came out of it once Eva became pregnant and he and the Valentinis graduated to business partners. Perhaps that’s why she thought she couldn’t depend on him.”
“I guess.” She stared at her watch. “I need to use the bathroom before I talk to Aidan. Don’t kill each other while I’m gone.”
The warning wasn’t solely aimed at her brother.
I smiled.
Her expression turned dubious.
“What the fuck, Valentini?” Lucas snapped as soon as she’d left.
“This has nothing to do with me.”
“Bullshit. She’s never been interested in anything the family’s involved with. You come along and suddenly she’s a mob wife without a marriage certificate?”
“You believe Raisin, then.”
“Makes sense that she’d try to hide it. She knew we wouldn’t approve.”
“Who’d you prefer for her? Some asshole on Wall Street?”
“Yeah, to be honest. Someone not in the life. That’s for sure.” He scraped a hand over his head. “I wanted more for her, and instead she’s been reeled in no matter what I’ve done to protect her.”
“What does that mean?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he echoed hollowly.
“Yes. It does. You and she have a contentious relationship, don’t you?”
“She thinks I’m heavy-handed.” A mean laugh rattled from him. “Christ, if she only knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Da, before he died, put out feelers for a marriage contract. I’ve avoided requests since she came of age.” He jerked his chin at the door then repeated, “I wanted more for her.”
“She will have more.”
“She’ll be tied to the mafia,” he thundered, fists balling at his sides.
“Which part aren’t you getting? I’ve worked night and day to make sure my sisters don’t have to be a part of this world.
Instead, she’s done one better and sullied herself not only with another faction, but one of the highest-ranking mobsters in the country. ”
I knew I could punch him for that. But I didn’t.
I sensed his genuine concern for her. His regret. Also sensed the bittersweet actions of a boy doing the opposite of what his father wanted while desperately clinging onto the family honor and embracing those decisions with his whole chest.
God, we’d been cut from the same cloth.
“I won’t apologize for loving her, Frasier, but I can promise you she’ll be protected.”
“Because you’ve done such a great job so far.”
“That was different. We’d met days before she was kidnapped. I had no way of knowing she’d be targeted.”
“How did they figure out she was a pressure point then?”
My mouth tightened. “Probably because I brought her back to my house.”
“At least you’re not a manwhore,” he grouched. “If I find out that’s bullshit and you’ve been dating in secret—”
“We weren’t. Raisin’s wrong about me. I’ll say this one more goddamn time—I met Kitty once at the hospital. But I was being discharged and didn’t talk to her. She met me on other occasions where I was incapacitated.
“We shared a flight. That is where we officially met. In the airport lounge. Then, we were seated next to each other.” I shoved my hands into my pockets. “I won’t repeat myself. We were very new, but now we are still new and I’m treating her like she’s my bride.”
“What does that mean?”
Kitty stepped into the room and I directed at her, “Tell him what it means to be mine, Kitty.”
Her scowl danced between her brother and me. “You’re talking about the ridiculous number of guards I have that you think I haven’t noticed?”
“Se,” was my silky retort.
“That’s for another day,” she dismissed. “Think Aidan will mind us being early, Lucas?”
“I think he’d prefer it.”
“Good. I can’t stick around waiting. The nerves will kill me.”
“We don’t need an escort, Frasier,” I insisted as he made to join us. “Just tap in the code and that’ll be fine.”
“I have my orders,” Lucas countered, stepping into the elevator with us.
“Is Savannah at home?”
“Why?”
“Just answer the damn question,” I snapped.
“No. She’s out.”
Good.
I knew how Savannah O’Donnelly could get when she had the bit between her teeth—the last thing I wanted to discuss was that favor I owed her.
Aidan loomed in the foyer as the elevator doors opened. His expression was blank but his eyes were not. They flickered over us and settled on the obvious tension between Lucas and me.
Aidan aimed his greeting at me. “Welcome to my home, Custanzu.”
“Thank you for agreeing to let us visit on your day off, Aidan.”
Kitty, warily, stepped into the vestibule. “I’m sorry we’re disturbing you—”
“I’m sure what you have to share will make up for the interruption.” The tone said ‘it had better.’ But I appreciated that he didn’t go out of his way to freak her the fuck out. “Please—” He made a sweeping gesture with his arm. “—follow me.”
The three of us traipsed after him toward a study that, despite having at least eight windows, was surprisingly dark. He guided Kitty into a leather club chair while I seated myself beside her. Lucas remained by the door.
As Aidan took a seat behind a glass monster of a desk, he questioned, “Drinks?”
“Water for me, please,” Kitty rasped.
“Scotch. Straight.”
As Aidan flicked a look at Lucas, who puttered around behind us, he asked, “What’s this about, Catriona?”
“Kitty,” she corrected. “We’re friends here, Aidan.”
My lips twitched, but Aidan only narrowed his eyes. “Fine. Kitty. What’s the reason for your visit?”
Lucas placed a crystal tumbler in front of her and after sipping some of the water, she murmured, “Eva Martinez wanted me to tell you who was behind Dead To Me’s assassination attempt.”
Aidan bridged his hands on his stomach. “What makes her think I don’t already know?”
“I’m not sure. But she contacted me to set up a meeting between you and, and, well, them—”
“I don’t understand why they’d involve you.”
“I met Eva and her husband when I was in Cancún.”
“When the hell were you in Mexico?!” Lucas snarled.
Kitty tensed but didn’t acknowledge him, whereas Aidan flicked him another look and continued regardless:
“Clearly, you made an impression.”
She angled her chin, gracing him with an imperious nod. “Clearly.” Before she could continue, her cell rang. Cheeks flushing, she scrabbled through her purse for it. “Sorry, Aidan. I’ll —” Her mouth gaped as she hit connect and put the call on speaker. “Eva?”
“Who’s with you aside from O’Donnelly and Valentini?”
“My brother.”
“Hmm. Lucas? Or the hot one?”
While Lucas huffed, she answered, “Cade isn’t here.”
Aidan barked, “What the hell is this about, Martinez?”
“Couldn’t be seen to be contacting you, O’Donnelly. Had to keep things nice and clean.”
“We’re mobsters. Nice and clean isn’t a part of our remit.”
“True. Precautions had to be taken.”
“Well?”
“Since the Albanians bombed Cancún, we’ve bombarded their enclaves with brute force.”
“I’ve seen the headlines. Tourism’s down across the board.”
“Can’t be helped. The cops aren’t equipped for the Albanians.
“Look, yesterday, we received a call from what we assumed was a middleman. The terms of a ceasefire between us appeared to be the main focal point of the conversation, until the ‘middleman’ offered us the national elections as an enticement…
"The Albanians infiltrated our turf, killed innocents, and this fucker expected us to roll over?” She hooted. “We don’t need any help with the election. Our candidate will win without any outside help now that we removed the opposition.”
Aidan paused. “So that whole mess in Cancún was about killing Cabral Flores?”
“Yep,” she sang cheerily.
“I thought their family hated him because of Martinez’s sister,” Lucas muttered, proving Aidan had him on intelligence gathering or how else would he have known that?
“Unintended perk.”
Aidan rubbed his temple. “Do you know who contacted you?”
“Moron called Clyde Korhonen. Ever heard of him?”
“Vaguely.”
“There’s a Korhonen who plays for the New York Stars,” Kitty shared.
Eva hummed. “I’d never heard of him until we ran a search. He’s Canadian. Ranching billionaire. The father of the hockey player, Kitty.”
“He used their real names? What a dumbass.”
“We have no reason to believe he lied. He was attempting to create an alliance between us. You can’t build that on lies. Or so Martinez tells me, and yes, Aidan, he sanctioned this call.
“When Korhonen realized we were underwhelmed by his offer, he bragged about how his people had influenced the US election and one of theirs was in office. That there were no limits to what he could give us if we agreed to back off on the Albanians.
“Now, we’re offering you a chance to be smart.”
“Why you and not Martinez?”
“You talk to him or to me, it’s the same thing. We’re equal opportunists in Mexico, mijo.”
Aidan’s lips pursed. “I’m listening.”
“We originally assumed Dead To Me’s extracurricular activities led to her assassination attempt.
She’d recently taken out a ranking Albanian and, on the surface, it appeared to be retaliation.
The notion didn’t sit right with me because what I know of those fuckers, they’ll eat their goddamn dead if they’ve sniffed enough of their product.
But Occam’s razor. Then, we heard through the grapevine that she took out Graham Brackton. On your orders?”
He gritted his teeth. “No.”
“Huh. Figured it had to be you since you’ve practically salaried her.”
“Apparently I’m not her sole client,” he said dourly.