Page 22 of Deceptive Vows

“Well, it will be good to meet her in person,” Father says. “I’m sure that will help keep her in line.”

“I agree.” Meeting everyone—essentially, more people like me—will scare the shit out of her. That will definitely keep her in line. But on to more important matters to discuss. My family meeting Adriana is the least of things to be concerned with. “We need to discuss the bigger picture. Eliminating Raul was just part of the problem.”

“I think you’re right, but one thing at a time, son,” Father replies, and I tense. I knew he was going to say that to me. I think that advice is more about the intensity of the last few weeks than anything else. “You know what the cartel men are like. They aren’t going to like us taking over. They’ll be looking for a way out. Although the strongest element you have is marrying Raul’s daughter, you will need to assert your dominance over them. It would be better to make use of your resources to do that”

“Father, we are being targeted,” I point out, respectfully. You don’t relax when that is the case. Fuck knows what could have happened during the missing time I was down. “What happened to Mother, Talia, and me was an assassination attempt. Now that everybody knows I’m back from the dead, the question is when they’re going to strike again.”

“Raul was a powerful entity, comparable to us, and you took him down. That’s going to be a large percentage of the problem gone. It’s also possible he was theonlyproblem. Nothing else happened to any of us during that three-month span you were down.”

“Maybe nothing happened because whoever was watching us knew not to strike, or they were waiting.”

I don’t believe for one second that we weren’t being watchedallthe time. Or that my survival was kept a complete secret.

My safety while in the hospital was down to 24/7 surveillance. My father was also there most of the time and oversaw my care. That’s what I was told. Even with all that regimented care, however, it doesn’t mean we weren’t being watched.

“Father, it was clear to me Raul was working with someone else, or other people. I think it’s someone big. Raul refused to give me information, and he never shared the details of his plans with his senior lieutenant. I think if it were just him to worry about, he would have given me something more than his silence. Whatever he knew was strong enough to make him believe dying in silence was worth protecting his daughter. That is something we need to pay attention to.”

“Ivan and Sophia, leave us,” Father says, meaning he wants to speak to me in private.

Ivan and Sophia exchange glances then leave. Once they’ve gone, my father stares at me with worried eyes.

As he motions for me to sit opposite him, the sunlight catches his white hair, making him look like he’s already wearing a halo. He looks older than just a few days ago.

My father is eighty. He was older than my mother by thirty-five years, but I swear he looked to be about the same age as her when she was alive. Now, his age and illness are more noticeable.

I sit before him and drag in a sigh, knowing he’s going to tell me something I won’t like.

“Mikhail, you’re going a million miles an hour, and it’s going to get you killed,” he points out.

“I’m taking care of our security.”

“Of course, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but you need to take a moment to deal with what’s happened and with our losses. No one can keep going on a train of vengeance without stopping.” He clears his throat.

“I feel if I stop, that’s more time wasted. I was in a coma for months.”

“Mikhail, you can’t blame time your body needs to heal. You almost died. Please remember that.”

As if I could forget. Almost dying feels like a weakness I shouldn’t have had.

For as ruthless and strong as I am, I was unable to protect my mother and sister when they needed me most. No one will ever know how that makes me feel.

“I do remember.”

“While you were away, the team came back with the results of their investigation on Raul, and they didn’t find anything we don’t already know. Ivan worked with them personally, and they triple-checked everything.”

This is the same team that was able to track down where Talia was taken to after I told them about Felipe and Raul. It was difficult to investigate before without names.

Our security team is thorough, and you can usually take what they say as gospel, but my gut tells me there’s more to find and this is far from over.

“We were waiting to find out if you found more in Mexico to investigate. If you had, I’d say look into it, but there isn’t anything right now,” he adds, and I can’t refute it. “So, I want you to focus on the cartel for the moment because you will need to. But, of course, keep your eyes open. We have to always keep our eyes open. I’m not suggesting that just because we found nothing, there’s nothing more to find, but it’s a possibility. What I’m suggesting is to direct your focus on what you can see and control. Besides, with the upcoming leadership change, we’re going to need to think of that, too.”

“I know,” I reply.

My insides always tighten when he talks about the leadership changes.

It’s happening in a little under eight weeks.

As much as I want the chance to be Pakhan, the thought of losing my father aches my soul.