Chapter 2 #2
“There’s no trust, Knight. No extra money to pay for your little building either.
” Paolo had been a cunning man but always terrible with money.
I remember how his eyes would glaze over any time I explained any sort of accounting to him.
And then he fell for Lex, a woman tied to an influential Diamond, who sank her claws into him.
She was hungry for power and money and completely manipulative about getting what she wanted.
“You expect me to believe Paolo and Lex died barely scraping by?”
“You killed them both.” I choked on the words. “You think they would have chosen death over giving up their hidden treasure?”
“To save their family? Of course.”
I rolled my eyes. “If you think he would have held his tongue for us, you didn’t know my uncle very well.”
“I’m aware of the man he was. That’s why I’m surprised by you standing over a cliff looking depressed.”
His voice was so gentle for a second that I almost forgot what he’d done.
“I’m not,” I denied immediately. I had to.
I hadn’t even cried when I watched my Uncle Monte break at hearing that his brother was gone. Aunt Perla consoled him along with my cousins, but I stood by stoically. “Even if I was, people grieve for family. Or don’t you understand that?”
He shrugged. “And we kill for family just the same, Jas. He came for my niece, or don’t you understand that?”
Even still, I said through gritted teeth, “Two wrongs don’t make it right. Your hands are just as bloody as his.”
“And what about your hands? They full of blood, or ash? You burned down a building of ours, could have killed someone.”
“No one was in that building!” I lashed out before I remembered I wasn’t supposed to know that.
Shit.
“Is that so?” he said like he’d won.
“Just …” I took a deep breath. “How much was it? Like a mil?” I knew for a fact that state-of-the-art building was a lot more than that.
“Don’t act stupid when you’re not. Try closer to a billion, and you’ll be paying it back.”
The words I blurted out couldn’t be stopped. “Bullshit. If that’s the case, you got ripped off. Plus, any building you have problems with, I’m sure, is covered by insurance—”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not making the person responsible pay me back in full, Jasmina.”
Oh my God. What an ass. The funeral was in two hours.
It’s why I was dressed in this stupid black dress and nice long coat.
I didn’t have time to be accused by him of something he didn’t have any evidence for.
“You want the money you think you’re owed for a dumb building?
Show me the evidence, because without it, I’m giving you nothing. ”
“That so?”
I shrugged and held my head high, cutting through all the rest of our conversation. “Knight, do what you came to do. Either kill me or get the fuck off my cliff.”
“Your cliff?” He lifted a brow.
It was clear he didn’t know what Midnight’s Edge was or who it belonged to.
This was our territory, our land, and mostly, this little part was my safe haven.
It’s where I went when my parents died, when my life was too overwhelming, when I wanted to feel rather than lock away all my emotions like I did every day.
“This is our coast, Cal—”
“It was yours. It’ll be ours by the end of the day.” He tilted his head. “Or did your aunt and uncle not tell you?”
I searched his eyes for a hint of what he meant.
Perla and Monte were secretive, of course.
They had to be now. They were trying to make sure the remnants of our family didn’t feel the monstrous impact that Paolo’s death would cause us all.
They were trying to keep us alive. Yet, they confided in me most. They would have told me something before they told him.
A small smirk tilted over his beautiful mouth. “Well, damn. I didn’t know I’d have to be the one to break the news.” He rubbed a hand over the scruff of his jaw before he continued. “One of you is becoming a Knight.”
I narrowed my eyes, my mind trying to play catch-up to what he was saying. To what my family was offering. They wouldn’t. “They’d never agree to give up my hand in—”
That got a full-blown smile and a laugh from him, and I let him have it. Callahan seemed easygoing to most. He had a beautiful smile that he charmed the masses with. He was the buffer to his brother’s coldness.
Yet, I saw through it. I saw his hunger for inflicting pain and brutality.
Over the last year, his eyes would find me in a room, and they’d dance with joy as he delivered some sort of blow to another person.
His shoulders would always relax into it too.
I saw it now. “Interesting. They were quite adamant it shouldn’t be you, and now I wonder why.
Of course, I didn’t want anything to do with you anyway.
You’d kill me in my sleep and tell everyone I had a heart attack.
Not enticing at all. So, you’re in the clear. ”
“Oh, like you’re enticing? I’ve slept with you already, Callahan. It’s nothing to write home about.”
I was lying through my teeth.
“Bullshit,” he growled like he was offended. “We had a damn good night together.”
I crossed my arms. “Sure about that?”
He rubbed his jaw and took a breath like he needed to reset to stay on task. “Maribel will do well as a wife.” His words fell one by one like bricks, crushing my spirit.
“What?” I whispered.
He smiled like he’d won this round between us.
“She’ll give me a kid that’ll tie your family and the Diamonds together forever.
Worth not just a billion for that building you burned but billions, right?
Your businesses will be tied to ours, save for a few questionable ones, but we’ll make it work. It’s already been decided.”
“Maribel? Give you a k … Are you serious?” I sounded like a blubbering idiot. “You can’t be.”
“Why not? I’m not getting any younger, and I, like you, do what’s necessary for the family.”
No. I’d done the exact opposite.
I’d burned down a billion-dollar building in a blind rage, and now he was going to ruin my cousin’s life?
“You can’t want this, Knight.” God, my voice sounded desperate. “You’ll never be able to sleep around again. You don’t want to be married—”
“Men have open marriages all the time, Jas.” He shrugged. “This way, the East Coast partnership is the payment for that building and a bit of Fuerte Firearms.”
“No,” I whispered. That business was actually the one I worked on tirelessly.
He kept going. “Or when you all die and leave your legacy to the next generation, well, our kid gets whatever is in the trust—”