“You do know Rivera and Sergio kidnapped his only daughter, and the Sekt helped,” Bastian repeated as if I wasn’t already aware of the fact.
“No shit.” I walked over to the balcony. “A game has started, and players are starting to make their play, I need more on my team. I need an army, one who won’t care to go up against us.”
“You’re going alone, aren’t you?”
My response was a simple nod. All men were proud, but Hispanics, Latin, Italian men guarded their daughters like jewels. They defended their families and doted on their daughters, and to have one taken away, that was a sin all on its own. Franco must be going out of his mind.
“And why won’t Franco kill you on sight,” Bastian asked as he got up and made his way to the wet bar. I cocked my head and studied him. Bas might be older than me in years, but I was brought up in this life since I was eight. I’d lived through the horrors he’d only ever read about.
“Because I promised to make them all pay.” My response carried a lot of weight. Bas didn’t make a big deal to try and decipher it.
The next day I was dressed much like I was the day earlier, except a few more weapons. Damian could bitch and moan for all I cared, but the last thing I wanted was my body in a fucking dress when I needed more weapons than what I had between my legs. Pussy would only get me so far. I had a plan, and for it to work, I needed all my skill sets. A good hunter knew how to catch their prey, and lucky for me, my new prey wanted to be caught.
The door to my room burst open. I turned to look, expecting it to be Bastian, but it was Damian who had strolled into my room. He was done with his touristy getup he was sporting yesterday, and now he’d showered, his hair slicked back, in a three-piece suit and pulling a suitcase.
“Leaving so soon?” I arched a brow at him, not even acting surprised. He would never again get the upper hand with me.
“I don’t need to bother with the filth; that’s why I have dogs at my disposal.” The small scalpel I was stashing in my pants twitched, and I took it as a sign that it wanted to land on Damian’s throat. The hotel management would bitch about the cleaning of blood, and it was too soon to make him pay. I put it away and reminded myself that revenge would come, and it would be delicious.
“Please stop suffocating me with your loving words,” I told him. There wasn’t any love lost between the two of us. Damian’s greed triumphed whatever sort of loyalty we were supposed to have.
“Daphne,” Damian uttered as he fixed his tie. “Make sure our new allies are well taken care of. I don’t need anything questioning our new loyalties.”
Sometimes I believed I was crafted from fire. I felt it in the way my body burned from rage, the way my hands trembled as if I was trying to contain lava in my fingertips. I may have been born from snow, but fire had resided in my soul. I did the best I could to ignore Damian’s words. I controlled myself before I brought everything to blows.
“Would you like me to fuck all of them?” I asked, pretending not to give a shit that he wanted to whore me out. What little reservation I had for the next phase of my plan was quickly diminished when Damian spoke. There was a part of me that held me back and told me that doing what I wanted to do would send me into a tailspin I wouldn’t be able to come back from.
“If that’s what it takes.” He smiled at me, and I stopped myself from flinching. He fixed the button on his jacket then turned around and made his way out of my room.
“Am I included in this fuckfest, or does it only stand for the Riveras and Sergio?” Bastian asked as he made a move for my bed. He made no sound when he came into the room, having slipped in just as Damian was walking out. Putting my finger to my lips, I shushed him. I didn’t trust that Damian hadn’t installed a bug before he left. Bastian followed me to the balcony. I leaned against the rail as Bas’s body came pressing to mine, his hands coming to either side of my hips and gripping the rails.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Bastian was just a sexual guy, even when he wasn’t trying. And right now, he was off pussy, which made him twitchy. His hand came to my cheek, slowly dragging his finger down the curve of my jaw, then tilting my chin up.
“What’s so important you wanted my un…divided atten…tion?” he asked as he tilted his head.
Not being in heels put me at a disadvantage, forcing me to look up at him. While my eyes were like a winter, his were like night. They were crafted from oil, or so people said.
“I’m going to find out where Sergio is keeping the mafia princess. I want you close, distracting them. I need proof, Bas. If I’m going to go to Italy—”
“Are you trying to get killed?” Bastian gritted as his body pressed closer. “It’s one thing to request a meeting, but to go to Italy and look for Franco, that’s fucking suicide. Please tell me you know how fucked-up it is?”
He looked down at me as if I didn’t know the severity of my actions.
“That’s why I need a picture of her. I need to prove that she’s alive; it’s the only way I can get safe passage out of Italy.” I knew I was rolling the dice on my life. Getting the information I needed wasn’t going to be easy. Still, Damian leaving meant there was one less pair of eyes on me. Plus, the Latino men in my company were sexist and were underestimating, so most of the men wouldn’t expect me to have something up my sleeve. Except for him—Gideon would watch me like a hawk. He seemed to have an inkling to when I was going to get myself into trouble.
Unfortunately, when he was around, it seemed to happen more often.
“We have a peeper.” Bastian’s smugness made me curious. I turned my head so I could look down the balcony onto the people, and that’s when Bas took the opportunity to kiss my neck. I felt the brush of his lips at my tendon. Most girls found it sexy; I saw it as a weak spot.
Below, watching us with hunger in his eyes, was Julian Rivera junior. Since the moment I walked into the meeting, I had marked him as a target. He wanted me on my back, and I could use him for information. He wouldn’t be as cautious as his father. Rivera Sr. was as distrusting as they came, but when you built your empire of the backs of others, it was hard not to be on the lookout for the ones who you betrayed.
Sergio was another story. He was big fish in a now full pond. The coke business grew too much for Colombia to handle. Sure, they had production, but they were in over their heads to think they could sit back on their thrones and handle it all. You needed the borders under your control to flood white powder. Unfortunately, for him, Mexico was smack right next to the United States.
Mexico controlled borders there, for they controlled cocaine, but Sergio had yet to get the memo that he would no longer call the shots again. Not to the capacity he desired, at least. The problem with the world? Everyone wanted to rule it. Escobar didn’t know what he started back in the seventies when he opened up a new world.
Smiling down at Julian, I pushed Bastian back and walked toward the door, ready to seduce the one person I vowed never to sleep with again. Just before I walked out of the room, I stopped, not daring to look behind me.
“Bastian, if things…” I didn’t dare finish that sentence. “Go where blood meets faith, and take me home.”