He was also willing to do anything to get into our father’s good graces, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.”
I don’t point out the fact he always refers to CJ in past tense. He’s done it for longer than I’ve known him even with CJ’s disappearance years ago never being solved.
“Were you aware Isaac Holt fought under your father?”
I blow on a chunk of pasta to hide the crinkle in my top lip when he replies, “Who?” Dimitri is a dreadful liar. For a man set to become one of the most feared members of the Italian cartel, he needs to get less scrupulous eyes.
“Isaac Holt.” I spoon a forkful of food into my mouth before digging out the photograph I stole from Isaac’s file from my pocket. “This was obtained at an event your father organized.”
Dimitri doesn’t even glance at the evidence I’m presenting. “Isaac didn’t fight for my father.” He’s still telling the truth—unfortunately. “Col wanted him to, but Isaac wasn’t budging. We put steps in place to make it happen.”
“We?” I almost choke on my food since I was so eager to ask the question I asked before swallowing.
Dimitri pours me a glass of water. I doubt he’d care if I died, but he’d rather not have the corpse of an FBI agent in his kitchen.
Once I’ve swallowed down half a glass, Dimitri expands on his confession. “We, as in Ophelia and me.”
I put down my fork, too stunned to eat. “Your sister helped you, how exactly?” I need him to spell out the facts for me as I’m fucking lost.
Dimitri wipes at his lips with his stained napkin before placing his dirty bowl into the sink. “Our father wanted Ophelia to coerce Isaac into fighting for him—”
“So she dated him to deceive him?”
I almost feel sorry for Isaac, but Dimitri saves me from the farce. “No. Ophelia was never with him for that. She truly loved him.” When he goes quiet, I wave my hand through the air, encouraging him to continue. He gives me his best you-make-me-sick face before continuing, “Ophelia wanted a way out—”
“Of?”
He glares at me, silently warning if I interrupt him one more time, our talk will be over. When I grumble out a half-hearted apology, he says, “She wanted out of the family. If you think my father was cruel to his sons, you should have seen how he treated his daughters. Monster is too kind of a word.” The mood in the room drops dramatically fast. “We knew how desperate Col was to have Isaac fight under him. We were also aware of how good of a fighter Isaac was, so we plotted for them to meet, knowing Col would use Ophelia as a bargaining chip.” He shakes his head as the tick in his jaw becomes noticeable. “We had no clue CJ was fighting for our father that night until it was too late.”
You have no idea how hard it is for me to keep my surprise that Isabelle’s assumption about Isaac and CJ fighting was correct on the down-low.
“They fought. CJ lost, and Ophelia went into a blackened rage.” He snatches up my barely touched meal and throws it into the sink, chipping the dishware. “That was the night of their accident.”
“Ophelia and CJ’s?”
Dimitri lifts his chin. “CJ spent weeks in the hospital before he vanished, Ophelia was buried with only one member of her family in attendance…” his eyes reveal it was him, “… and I never told a soul about the ruse we attempted to pull. I’ll take it to the grave.” The sneer on his face reveals I will be taken to my grave if I share his secret.
He has no reason to fret. I’m sure he’s already being bombarded with guilt over CJ being beaten so badly, not to mention his sister dying in a twisted wreck only hours later. I don’t need to add to his grief. A shudder rolls down my spine just thinking about what CJ experienced that night. Liam and Wren’s bodies had been removed from the wreckage before I arrived, and the scene still haunts me, so I can only imagine how much it still affects Melody to this day.
The letter I wrote last week but never sent feels less heavy in my pocket when Dimitri says, “What does this have to do with anything? I get your after Isaac, but the fight circuit you’re talking about has been running for decades. The feds are well aware of its