me, my heart skips a beat. I close my eyes and kiss him back.
When he draws back, his eyes are intense
“You’re the only one I can trust right now. Don’t disappoint me, Cristina.”
Before I can reply, he’s gone.
17
Damian
The ride to Manhattan took a little over four hours because of an accident. I’m in the penthouse study with Lucas and I wish he’d shut the fuck up already.
“You shouldn’t have destroyed it, Brother,” Lucas says for the hundredth time.
“And I wouldn’t have had to if you’d had your eye on the Clementi brothers like you were supposed to.” I turn to Tobias. “Did we locate them?”
“Not yet.”
“Aren’t they married with kids?”
“Wives and kids claim not to know where they are. They’re holed up with the old man.”
“I want those two fuckers found.”
After my warning to the Clementi brothers that I do not transport coke, they turned around and arranged for a fucking container of it to be shipped from Latin America to the US. The brothers disappeared when they were found out.
None of it sits well with me. It’s not even so much that they tried again, but more so about how clumsily it was all done. How obviously.
I need to get my hands on them because there’s more to this story than meets the eye. All I know for sure is I had the contents of that container destroyed.
The Clementis are out a lot of money, but they should have known better.
“Who has the most to gain?” Lucas asks.
I turn to him. He’s leaning against the wall. I think about what Cristina saw. Could he have been carrying gasoline out to the solarium? Could he have somehow aided those men? Gotten them on the property to begin with? Would he?
He knows that forest like the back of his hand. We both do. And he can access the bunker as easily as I can.
The bunker was built by my great-grandfather. It’s set in the rock of the mountain about two miles from the house. I’m pretty sure we’d survive a zombie apocalypse in there for more than a year the way it’s stocked.
But it also gives us a way off the property.
Which, of course, leaves a way in.
I take a deep breath. “What were you doing out in the woods behind the house yesterday?”
“What?” Lucas asks.
“Cristina saw you.”
His eyes narrow and he sucks his cheeks in as he calculates his reply. “Taking a fucking walk.”
Well, at least he doesn’t deny it. “In the rain?”
“I needed fresh air. What are you suggesting?”
“What were you carrying?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“She said you were carrying something.”
He pushes off the wall. “Let me ask you again. What are you suggesting, Brother?”
“If you had something to do with the fire, it won’t matter that you’re my brother.”
“Business first with you, right?”
“I won’t tolerate disloyalty.”
“I’m not disloyal to my family.”
“What were you carrying?”
“Gifts for Annabel and Mom.”
That surprises me. The family plot is on the grounds just behind the chapel. I don’t know why I’m surprised that Lucas would go out there.
“What kind of gifts?”
“A doll for Annabel and a tea set. She liked having tea parties. I’m sure you remember that.”
“And what about Mom?”
“A plant.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“She said they were heavy.”
“Maybe she saw wrong. I had the things in bags, and I was hunched over against the rain. You can check to be sure I’m not lying. Have someone at the house go out to the plots.”
“I will.”
He shakes his head. “You’re fucking unbelievable. You think I’d set a fire to destroy the solarium? The place Mom and Annabel loved so much?”
“I think you’re too smart to set it yourself.”
“You’re fucking insane.”
“Am I?”
“I’d think you’d have torn it down already, considering.”
I grit my teeth.
Tobias’s phone rings. He leaves the room.
“What happened to Annabel was an accident,” I tell Lucas.
“A lot of accidents happen around you, Brother.”
“The railing was loose. We couldn’t have known.”
“No, yet she’s the one who fell. Not you.”
“And if you think I don’t wish it were the other way around to this day, then you don’t know me.” I stand.
“No, I don’t know you, do I? I don’t know what you’re capable of, but I’m learning. Take Michela, for example. I’ve seen her back. You do that to her on our father’s command?”
I look down, then back at him. “A mistake I will live with forever.”
“What? You think that makes it okay? That you admit it was a mistake? You think she should forgive you?”