Page 4

“Good.” He leans over and kisses Mum on the cheek. “I know you haven’t seen him in a while but I must steal him away for a few minutes.”

My mother rests her hand on my father’s cheek and nods. Despite how much anger I feel toward my father at times, my mother has always appreciated every side of him. When he is angry, frustrated, happy, sad. She never strays from his side. And I know he loves her dearly. He would protect her with his life.

“Come. Let’s speak in the office.”

I kiss my mum on the cheek and follow my father down the long, dim hall that leads to his office.

“I’m glad to hear the deal went well in New York. I wasn’t sure they would take the bait.”

I swirl the whiskey in my glass. “I made sure the right people had the insider trading documents.”

“Good. They were a smart choice, son. They have a lot of pull in the American government. And after those senators failed us, we need someone worthwhile.”

“They will do just fine. I am fully confident in that. We can send Lancaster and Dalby to the States soon. We will be the ones controlling power there within a year.”

He smiles at me as he rests his elbows on his desk and steeples his fingers. “I seem to have taught you well. But a year is pushing it, Kilian. You need to be careful you don’t overstep too much and get yourself killed.”

I cross my ankle over my knee as I lean back in one of the wingback chairs across from his desk. “I learned from the best, Father. I know what cards I am playing.”

He nods, his face falling serious. “How has the hunt for Di Masio been going?”

We never found out what family the Calvettis were working with. The men that attacked at the warehouse all escaped. My father wasn’t happy that I was more concerned with Matías’s life than finding the family that Charles Vanguard had been working with. He has lectured me a hundred times about how I am to take over as a Partner. That I need to accept my role in this organization. I have proved to him time and time again that I have. I let them fake my own death to prove my loyalty when I used my rank to save my friend. But it’s never enough. Some days I wonder if my father will be the one that pulls the trigger that kills me.

I rub the back of my neck as I answer. “Progress has been slow.”

“It’s been five months, Kilian.” His tone changing to the cruel man I know.

I clench my jaw. “I’ve had ten men working on finding him. I’ve been chasing ghosts trying to find him. He disappeared.”

“The only way a man disappears like that is if he is dead,” my father says, and I don’t miss the warning in his tone.

"Then he may very well be,” I growl. “I’ve never not been able to find someone. But everything leads to a dead end. His name isn’t Nicolas Di Masio. Of that I know but without anything else, with Charles being dead, my resources are being stretched thin.”

“Vanguard deserved his death.”

“And you never found anything from his tapped phones, father. What makes you think that I can find a man whose real name I don’t even know?”

“I suggest you figure it out, Kilian. And watch your tone with me. I may be your father but you are my protégé and I have no qualms against finding a new one.”

I keep my composure even through my father’s threats. I have no other choice. He dismisses me with a flick of his wrist and I walk out the door. I find my mother in the parlor room with my brothers after I grab my coat.

“You aren’t staying for dinner?” she asks me as she stands from the navy pin-tuck couch.

I shake my head. “I have business to attend to.”

“If Alistair said something to you…”

I shake my head. “No, Mum. I just need to go.”

I see the looks on my brothers’ faces. Looks of pity and sorrow. They don’t deal with The Partners. Their lives strictly focused on the investment firm. But I don’t want their pity. I accepted my role a long time ago and I have no regrets over it.

3

MIRABELLA

The salty breeze from the sea air plays across my hair as I bring two bowls of cioppino to a table sitting on the patio. I skirt around the rest of my tables, refilling drinks, and taking orders before heading into the kitchen and slumping against the counter.

“You overwork yourself,mimma.”