Page 24

CHAPTER 24

Nik

The silence in the car is deafening.

Brie has barely spoken a word since we left Eva’s hotel, and the weight of whatever transpired in that private meeting is gathering between us like a storm cloud. I keep stealing glances at her, at the tight line of her jaw, the distant look in her eyes. I grip the steering wheel harder, leather creaking under my fingers.

What did Eva say to her? I know Eva’s games—the way she twists words like knives. I should have known she’d do something to poison things between Brie and me. She as good as told me the other night in the Secret Garden.

And if she throws you aside?

Whatever Eva told Brie today was designed to make that happen, I’d bet my life on it.

“Everything okay?” I ask at last.

“I’m just tired.”

And she does sound tired. But that’s not all it is.

I turn onto the street where our new motel sits, waiting for us to check in. I wanted to keep Brie away from both the casino and Larry Caruso for the night. But by the time we reach our room, the tension is unbearable. I follow Brie, carrying both our bags, and watch as she sinks onto the bed, still lost in thought. Even the hum of the ancient air conditioner can’t fill the void of her silence.

“Will you tell me what happened with Eva?” I ask, unable to hold back any longer. My voice comes out rougher than intended. “Did she—threaten you?”

Brie’s eyes meet mine, and there’s something in her gaze I can’t quite read, something that makes my heart squeeze with worry. Her platinum hair catches the warm light from the bedside lamp, creating a halo effect at odds with her strange expression.

“No,” she says finally. “Nothing like that.” She studies me for a long moment, and I feel exposed under her scrutiny, like she’s trying to peer into my soul. “Nik…can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” I reply quickly, because this is good. She wants to talk. Talking is good.

“Why did you leave the Consortium so quickly to take up my cause?”

The question catches me off guard, not what I expected, but I take a deep breath, considering my answer carefully. Because it wasn’t about leaving the Consortium—or not only that. It was about choosing where I belong in a world that’s always tried to define that for me.

“My father is dead, as you know,” I tell her at last. “My family is—well, it’s just me now. The Consortium…” I pause, searching for the right words. “I thought it was where I belonged . It’s what I was raised for, what I was trained for my whole life.”

I move closer to her, drawn by an invisible pull, needing her to understand. The mattress dips as I sit beside her, close enough to feel her warmth without touching.

“And I did their work for them in Philly. Followed orders. Proved myself. Only…once I got to Vegas, met Eva Novak herself…it wasn’t what I expected. My father had fit in with them so completely, that every story he told me about them made me want to belong, too. But I always felt like an outsider. I told myself that I’d make a place for myself with them. That I just had to get used to it—get Eva to take me overseas with her, be part of that inner circle. But…”

“But?”

“Eva talks about neutrality in the Consortium like it’s a strength, but all I see is emptiness. No loyalty, no real connections—just transactions and power plays, and she makes sure her people feel the same way. There are no real bonds between them. They’d throw each other under the bus without thinking if it meant they could get ahead—and that’s what I was doing, too. I was the one who told Eva to change the costs on the contract she offered to you. I wanted to make an impression on her, on all of them. And so I chose to make you a scapegoat, even before I met you. Then, once Eva commanded me to protect you, I came to know you. I was forced to take a good hard look at myself. And I started to realize that I didn’t like what I was seeing.”

Brie’s expression softens slightly, but there’s still something guarded in her eyes that makes my heart ache. She’s wearing her armor again, the careful mask she shows the world, and I hate having it directed at me.

“The Colombos might be struggling right now,” I continue, willing her to understand, “but they have something real . There’s loyalty here, still ties that bind people together. That means something.” I think of how the soldiers respect her, how even Frank seems to be coming around to her leadership. “For you, I can see it really is about family—and I mean family , not just blood ties. You’re not doing this just because you’re ambitious, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But you truly want to make the Family stronger, to rise together. And I think that’s admirable.”

“Perhaps what I’m planning will break the Family up once and for all,” Brie says softly.

I shift to face her fully, reaching for her hand. Her fingers are cool against my skin, and I can feel the slight tremor she’s trying to hide. “The problem isn’t you,” I tell her firmly. “It’s Larry Caruso and people like him. They want power for themselves, not for the Family. But you—” I squeeze her hand gently. “Everything you do is about making the Family stronger. Not for what you can gain, but for what everyone can become. That’s why I wanted to leave the Consortium, to help you. Because I saw a place for myself here. A place to belong.”

“And when were you going to tell me about having dinner with Eva?” Brie’s voice is deceptively calm, at odds with the accusation behind those words. “About spilling all the Colombo secrets to her? Informing her about Terry and Holden—and about the fact that someone was skimming money at the casino?”

Fuck . I should have guessed at it the moment Eva turned cagey back at the Garden—she knew exactly how to slip the knife in. I’ve spent my whole life learning to read threats, anticipate dangers, yet I couldn’t see how my own silence about that dinner would become a weapon aimed at what matters most to me now.

“I meant to tell you. I should have told you, you’re absolutely right.”

The words are inadequate. Brie shifts on the bed, the cheap mattress creaking beneath her. Right now, she looks nothing like the widow of a mob boss or a woman plotting to take over the Family. She just looks…

Raw. Wounded.

And I’m the one who did that to her.

“Please understand, Brie. I really did mean to tell you. But between the attacks and running and all the mysteries, it just slipped—” I break off. “Well. Maybe that’s not entirely true. Maybe I let it slip my mind because I was ashamed of betraying your confidence. But at that time, you and I weren’t—I mean, I was still working for the Consortium, technically…”

I stop before I make things any worse. I’m not even convincing to myself.

“And the tracker on the car?”

I feel my eyebrows draw together as I puzzle that over for a moment. “You mean that led Eva and the Colombos to us, out in the desert the other night?” Brie nods. “I have no idea what happened there—I swear it to you, on my father’s eternal soul.”

She just looks at me.

“What can I do?” I ask, my heart beating so hard that it hurts. I’m frightened. I’ve never been this frightened before. “Tell me what you need me to do to prove to you that I’m—I’m loyal to you.” I take a deep breath. “That I love you. Completely.”

That seems to get her attention, her head snapping up as she stares at me. But then her eyes drop again. “Eva told me that women like us can’t afford love,” she says quietly, each word measured and precise. “That it’s dangerous.” Her fingers twist in the quilt, the only visible sign of her inner turmoil.

And now I’m frightened and angry at the same time. Eva fucking Novak, pulling Brie’s strings. I want to point that out to her, tell Brie to stop allowing herself to be a puppet, but I know how it will sound. So instead, I say, “Eva Novak is an ice queen bitch who gets off on cold steel rather than warm flesh.” The venom in my voice surprises even me, but I can’t stop. “She runs the Consortium like a machine because she’s too dead inside to run it any other way. She has no idea what love is or what it means.”

“It’s not…it’s not just what Eva said.” Brie’s eyes fix on some distant point, lost in memories I can’t see. Her shoulders curve inward slightly, a telling break in her usually perfect posture. “My whole life, I’ve been afraid to get too close to anyone. They either hurt you or betray you. My mother never protected me from anything. The only way I’ve ever been safe is by making myself safe; by using people for my own ends. That includes you, too. So you see…I’m not that different from Eva.”

I reach for her hand, relieved when she doesn’t pull away. “You’re nothing like her. And you’re safe with me, Brie. I’ll never let anything hurt you.” It’s the same promise I’ve made a thousand times as her bodyguard, but now it means something different—something more.

“What about my heart?”

The vulnerability in her question nearly breaks me. I squeeze her hand gently, trying to pour all my certainty, all my devotion into that simple touch. “Your heart is safe with me too.” I’m about to tell her I love her again, to make her understand the depth of my commitment, but the tears gathering in her eyes stop me cold.

“I don’t know if I can trust you,” she whispers.

“The dinner with Eva—I did my best not to tell her anything that she couldn’t have found out herself—” I break off, frustration rising.

“That dinner is one thing. I can understand that—as you say, it was before we…” She shakes her head. “But if you didn’t put that tracker on the car, who did?”

“Larry Caruso? Or—or Leon, Eva’s bodyguard?” I suggest, desperate to dispel her doubts.

Brie’s laugh is sharp, brittle as desert glass. “It couldn’t have been either of them. They wouldn’t have known we’d take Holden’s car.”

“Maybe Holden—” Even as the words leave my mouth, I know it’s the wrong thing to say.

“It was a Consortium tracker given specifically to you ,” she cuts me off, her voice rising slightly. There’s a flush creeping up her neck now, the way it does when she’s truly angry. “Where would Holden even get it? Are you suggesting he’s working for Eva, too? Come on, Nik!”

Anger flares in my chest, both at her derision and my own stupid suggestion. “Of course not,” I say, and then try to calm her by agreeing with her. “Holden Brooks is the last person someone like Eva would trust. He’s far too volatile. And besides that, he had no reason at all to let the Colombos follow us into the desert. He’s terrified one of them is trying to kill him. But I also know it wasn’t me.”

But before the argument can escalate further, Brie’s phone rings. Her expression shifts as she listens to Frank’s voice on the other end, and I watch the transformation with a mix of awe and heartache.

Gone is the vulnerable woman who feared for her heart.

In her place sits a queen preparing for battle.

“We’ll be right there,” she says, and then hangs up, already moving with renewed purpose. “Larry’s demanding he be recognized as the new Don Colombo. We need to get back to the casino right fucking now.”

We hurry down to the car, and on the drive there, Brie is silent, texting people, making notes as she thinks of them—names of those she thinks might support her. But the whole way there, doubt gnaws at me like acid. The conviction I felt earlier about belonging with Brie and the Colombos wavers. Every certainty I had seems to be crumbling.

Maybe I was wrong.

Maybe I should have crawled back to Eva when I had the chance, accepted her cold way of life instead of reaching for something warmer, something real.

I glance at Brie as we speed toward the Golden Sands. Her face is set, her eyes focused with laser intensity. She’s running through scenarios in her mind, I can tell—planning moves and countermoves. This is a queen who’s about to defend her throne, whether Larry Caruso likes it or not.

And I realize with a sinking heart that while she looks every inch the queen she’s meant to be…I might not be meant to stand beside her throne after all. Some part of me wants to reach for her, to try one more time to make her understand.

But she’s preparing for war, and I don’t know if I’m her strongest weapon, or just a weakness she can’t afford.