Page 110 of Girl in the Water

Part III

Chapter Nineteen

6 months later

Eduardo

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Eduardo sat on the ornate cast-iron bench in front of his brother’s grave as rain drizzled from the gray, unforgiving sky. Darker clouds gathered on the horizon, but he should have some time before the storm hit.

He touched the gravestone he’d bought for his brother—the black granite bigger and fancier than he could afford, but he didn’t care. If only he could talk to Marcos one last time. If only they could have one last drink together.

But time turned back for no man. Time flowed only forward, like the Amazon, and took whatever it damn well pleased.

Eduardo had lost Marcos, a fact he needed to accept, the same way he needed to accept that he’d also lost his father.

Marcos’s brutal murder six months ago had shaken Raul Morais so much, the old man had spent a fortune on investigating why his eldest had been killed. He’d found out about the stolen diamonds. And then he’d exploded with rage. He could not forgive Marcos turning criminal. He refused to even attend the funeral.

He hated Eduardo too now. He’d found out that Eduardo and Marcos had plotted together from the beginning. The old man changed his will, disinheriting Eduardo completely. And then he’d divorced wife number three, married a new one, barely twenty, and gotten her pregnant on the wedding night.

Eduardo had only seen the bitch in the papers. Joaquim the butler-bodyguard had Eduardo escorted off the premises when he’d tried to visit. The mansion where the future president of Brazil was going to be raised did not admit criminals.

Eduardo wanted to murder all of them. He’d spent months fantasizing how he would do it, even though he knew that security would never let him anywhere near the family mansion again. He’d been banished.

His fury had no outlet.

Until this morning. The American private investigator Marcos had hired before he’d been killed called while Eduardo was drinking his first cup of coffee. He’d found Ian Slaney, Finch’s thieving buddy.

Eduardo patted the black granite, then let it go, pulled the plane ticket to Washington DC from his pocket, and showed it to Marcos’s headstone. “I’m going today. I’m going to avenge you, brother.”

Leaving Brazil might be the best course of action, in any case. He’d done a good job of hiding so far, always on the move. But he couldn’t for a moment forget that he too had a price on his head.

* * *

Daniela

Daniela pushed her hair behind her ear as she looked in the mirror. She liked her new hairstyle, short, sassy, easy. With the hours she was putting in at work and school, she didn’t have time to care for hair that reached below her waist.

She’d grown tired of wearing it in a bun at her nape. She no longer wanted the old-fashioned, matronly bun so she could look older for Ian. The pixie cut made her look the young, hip professional she was.

“You could try going blond,” Iris said on speaker. “I think it’d look good on you. Of course, everything looks good on the young and beautiful.” Her words had an undertone.

“Having seconds thoughts about emerald?” Daniela asked as she spritzed a tiny bit of perfume on her neck.

“You should have talked me out of it. I look like Kermit.”

As much as Daniela loved her, she did secretly think that, with the new glasses, Iris had a slightly froggish appearance. “I could pop in tomorrow. I’ll help you dye it back to black.”

“Would you? Thank you.” She paused. “Ian called earlier.”

Daniela’s pulse sped up. “Everything okay?”

“He seems to be in no imminent danger. Other than frustration slowly killing him.” Another pause. “He asked about you.”

“Any idea when he’ll be coming home?”

“Not yet. I’ll go and check on his place tomorrow.”