your rules as far as flesh trade. You’ll have to make a few more examples, I’m sure, but they’ll agree, isn’t that right, Jacob?”
Jacob nods. “I have a list of the men who will oppose the end of the flesh trade. It’s very lucrative, as you know.” He takes an envelope out of his pocket and sets it on my desk.
I stand so Jacob is the only one still sitting. He slowly gets to his feet. “Shall I give my niece the good news, then?” He extends his hand for me to shake.
“Antonio will take you back to the mainland,” I tell him, pushing a button under my desk. A soldier opens the door within moments.
“Oh, all right then. Thanks.”
I nod.
Jacob awkwardly tucks his hand into his pocket, says goodbye to my uncle and leaves.
“You buy that crock of shit?” I ask my uncle.
“I wouldn’t trust him as far as I can throw him, no, but the facts are the facts. Marry Scarlett and you’ll have sealed your deal with the cartel. It’ll leave Rinaldi wide open.”
“What time am I expected at the gala?” I ask, changing the subject.
“Eight. Bring the girl. Let them see her on your arm,” he pauses. “How did last night go by the way?”
He means the older couple. “Like it always does.”
“It’s done?”
“Has it ever not been done?”
He smiles. “Let’s focus on the cartel. Then we’ll hit Rinaldi.” He checks his watch. “I have to get back. Meeting in an hour.” He walks to the door but stops. “Oh, one more thing.”
“Yeah.”
“I heard Lenore talking to Dante about Mara.”
“Ah.”
“I didn’t realize he had anyone looking for her.”
“She’s Lenore’s granddaughter. It’s understandable she needs closure.”
“You need to let any hope for Mara go. It’s a waste of effort and resources. She’s dead, Cristiano. And better off, considering.”
“Dead is never better off.”
“You’ll drive yourself crazy if you don’t put this to rest.”
I check my watch. “I’ll see you tonight, Uncle.”
16
Scarlett
The first thing I see when I get upstairs is the veil. It’s folded and set on the foot of the single bed I slept on last night.
Picking it up, I smell detergent and see how much whiter the lace looks. I didn’t have a chance to wash it before the wedding day. The stains are gone too. No blood. Like it never even happened.
I’m glad.
Keeping it on my lap, I sit on the edge of the bed and look around. This is Elizabeth Grigori’s room. Cristiano’s little sister. She was five when she was killed. She’d have been fifteen now. Same age as Noah. And her little friend, what was her name? Mara. She disappeared. Seems strange if they took someone that they’d take Mara and not the daughter of their enemy.
And after all this time, I wonder if Cristiano is still searching for her. It makes me a little sad to think of it.
But then the door opens, and I leap to my feet. No knock, but I’m not surprised.
Cristiano stands in the doorway taking up the whole of it. He looks around the room and I wonder if he’s been inside here or if he avoids it. If it brings too many memories because it’s still decorated for a five-year-old little girl who loved both princesses and toy cars.
He shifts his gaze to mine before it falls to the veil I’m hugging.
“Lenore cleaned it,” he says, and I get the feeling again that he’s not used to being around people. Having to talk to people. It’s not that he’s awkward. You’d have to give a fuck to be awkward. He’s just abrupt.
“She did a good job. It’s like new.”
He nods. Cristiano is a man of very few words.
“Come out of here. I can’t talk to you in here. I need to get some things anyway.”
I do as he says, wondering why he put me in there at all. I walk across the hall to his bedroom, bringing the veil with me because I don’t know what to do with it otherwise.
“What was my uncle doing here?”
“Nothing,” Cristiano says, disappearing into the closet.
“Not nothing. Is he your partner now? Your connection to the Cartel? Is his son-in-law running the show? Because Felix Pérez is as much a liar and an opportunist as Jacob.” I give a bitter laugh. “Féfé Pérez running the show.”
“Féfé?”
“I couldn’t say Felix when I was little and the nickname stuck. Noah calls him that too. Also, I don’t like him, and it pisses him off so...” I shrug a shoulder.
He walks out