Page 51 of Rio (Knight Empire #3)

RIO

I call Raquel back when she hangs up again, because goddamnit, she doesn’t believe me. But her cell phone goes straight to voice mail.

She doesn’t want to talk to me and now I feel a piece of me start to fray, tearing at the seams. Raquel wants nothing to do with me. Only because she thinks I did this to her. That I set her up.

I sit at my desk staring at my phone like maybe if I hold it long enough, this will all go away.

Like if I call her now, she’ll pick up and say it was a joke.

That she wanted to prank me. That the court didn’t throw out the injunction, her name isn’t ruined, and I didn’t give her the very thing that destroyed her.

But it’s not a joke, it’s the truth.

The data I gave her, thinking it would help, the data I used as excuse just to see her again, is what broke us apart.

I didn’t lie when I told her it came from a reliable source. I thought it did. I thought it had been thoroughly vetted, but I now see what I should have been smart enough to see then. It was too convenient. Too perfectly timed.

Just like Dex said.

Me being in Belize, the same time that Raquel was. Working on the same case. The old man knew. He always knows. He’s like some cruel God who plays with people’s lives. An all-seeing bastard who thrives on ruin.

I shove back from my desk, my mind spinning now that I suddenly see what I should have seen all along.

This wasn’t fate. This was calculated. This was all him. He’s capable of much more than I’ve ever led myself to believe.

I storm out of my office and down the hall, jaw clenched so tight I feel a molar crack. I don’t even wait for his assistant. I shove the door open to find him sitting behind his desk, looking amused before he even sees my face.

He’s been waiting for me, knowing about the injunction being thrown out. Funny how he still hasn’t said a word to me.

“You gave me that data,” I hiss, barely recognizing my own voice. “You said it was from a third-party. That it was verified and clean.”

“I did, and it was,” he says coolly.

I stare at him. “You knew it was falsified.”

He says nothing, but his cold-as-ice eyes look back at me, his lips turn up at the corners. The fucker is smirking. “Something wrong?”

“You know perfectly well what’s wrong.” I stand across from him, fists buried deep in my pockets, shaking with restraint. Every cell in my body screaming to punch him as I struggle to contain my fury.

“You knew Raquel was on the case, didn’t you? That’s why you sent me to Belize.”

“Knew?” He sits back in his chair. “The court needed a reason to throw it out. I gave them one.”

“You used me.”

“No,” he says, almost gleeful now. “I handed you the match. You’re the one who lit it.”

My breath stutters. I want to hit something. Throw something. But I don’t. Instead, I hear my own voice crack. “You wanted to destroy Raquel?”

“She was never the target. Not directly. She was just collateral.”

“Then? I was the target?” I ask, in disbelief. Me, his son ? “Why?”

“You needed to be taught a lesson. Helping Dex, ganging up on me with your brothers, fighting me, going against me. Me?” His voice lifts a little at the end, the only clue I have that he’s barely keeping it together.

This is about AO Eletronica. It all clicks into place. He was pissed when we helped wrest control of that company back to its rightful owner.

I look at him then, and see past the polished suit and the cool facade.

He’s unraveling, too. We’ve all started to see it, ever since Jett stood up to him at the dinner, with Cari by his side.

Then Dex followed suit, in his own way. It feels like the old man is scared of losing control, and he can’t take it.

“How?” I snap.

“Bringing you both down a peg or three. Giving you enough rope to let your girlfriend hang herself with it.”

“You fucking bastard.” My fists almost fly out of my pockets, but I somehow manage to keep them there. “Raquel had nothing to do with AO Eletronica.”

“But you did, and your brothers, and Dex.”

What the fuck?

What the actual fuck is wrong with this man? Raquel’s world has imploded and he’s happy about her downfall. I still don’t understand. “What the fuck has Raquel got to do with AO Eletronica?”

“She was instrumental in getting to you.” He smooths his hand over his tie.

Bile rises in my throat, thick, bitter, and burning. “You thought we were an item?”

He pauses, searching my face. “Aren’t you?”

I go cold.

He knows.

“You brought her down to get to me?”

I feel sick to my stomach that he knows so much. I had no clue about any of this. No point looking even more stupid than I already feel. No point in pretending she doesn’t mean anything to me.

“How?” My stomach prepares to drop. I feel like I’m at the top of a rollercoaster, about to dive to my death.

“You’re the one who handed her the folder,” he says, low and quiet. “Not me. I never even met the girl, to talk to. I know she was there, at the wedding in S?o Paulo. I know you, Dex and Daniela met her in Miami.”

The sly fox. “Did you have private investigators follow us?” Because it starts to make sense.

“Didn’t need to. The wedding and the golden couple, your half-brother and his fake wife—”

“They recently got engaged, recently, for real this time. They’re in love.”

“Love,” he snarls, like the word is poison. “Those two seem to cause a stir wherever they go. The media did the rest. Photos of you and Raquel in Miami surfaced. I didn’t have to do a thing.”

“And yet, somehow you did, and you seem so fucking unbelievably proud of yourself.”

“As far as the eco resort goes, yes. With no injunction, construction resumes immediately. The bulldozers roll at sunrise.”

“But this isn’t about the eco resort, is it?” This is personal. This is about breaking the woman I love and punishing me. “You knew I cared about her.”

The old man sighs. “Of course I did. That’s why it worked.”

An ugly silence stretches between us, heavy and final.

“How... how did you ensure she got the case?” I always was suspicious of Raquel and I being in Belize at the same time, but I wanted to believe in fate.

The old man huffs out a sigh, likes he’s bored with having to explain to me. “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you have eyes and ears on the ground. People do what you tell them. It’s easy.”

The sonofabitch.

“I called an old golfing friend,” he continues. “One of the people who founded the law firm in Miami. William Roth, a founding partner, long since retired. But very much aware of the skeletons in Pierce Tovey’s closet. Sexual misconduct. Women leaving left and right. Interns. Associates.”

A memory slams into me.

Raquel.

Telling me about how that asshole made her feel. “You blackmailed him.”

“I offered him a choice. Give her the case, or deal with the fallout.”

I stiffen, hatred seizing every inch of me. He’s talking about her as if she’s just another pawn. Another tool in his twisted game. “You bribed Roth, to put pressure on Tovey?”

“I did whatever it took for the case to end up on her desk. Her boss doesn’t like her doing pro bono work, so I pulled some strings to make it happen.”

My stomach turns as I try to get to grips with the scale of the old man’s manipulation.

“I have people everywhere. People who can do things for me. When you have more money than you know what to do with, you can do anything, be anything, get anything. People will do as you command.”

This man is dangerous. He’s a fucking monster. For all his wealth and finesse, this man has morals no better than a barbarian.

“Once she was dealing with the case it was easy. Pierce thought it would be over after the legal review. It should have been, but the woman heading up the NGO is smart, and didn’t let it go.

She’s like a territorial Doberman and she wanted to file an injunction.

Pierce didn’t want Raquel to have any skin in the fight.

He needed her to come back. I placed pressure.

Told Roth to let him see it through. Let Raquel do what she thought she could do.

Give her enough rope to hang herself with, and she did. ”

I swallow, my insides are in upheaval, trying to absorb everything the old man is telling me, calmly and quietly, like a bedtime story, only, it’s nothing that will let me sleep. This is the stuff of nightmares.

“You went to all that trouble?” My sarcasm is caustic.

“These things require attention to detail. They require finesse and strategy.” He speaks with pride, as if manipulating people’s lives is like a game of chess.

“And me?” I ask, hollow.

“You were supposed to go to Verona, something to do with the Cazale hotels, but I needed you in Belize. It all came together so easily. It was perfect. You deal with hotels and real estate, but if you hadn’t, I would have found a way to put you in Belize.”

The fucker would have. He absolutely would have. I feel like we’re all just puppets in his little show, and he’s the grand master pulling our strings.

“And if I hadn’t given her the file?” I demand. “If I hadn’t played into your hands?”

The old man returns to his desk, and sits back down.

“There were other failsafes. Other weak points. I never rely on one play. I could’ve planted a third-party study.

Bribed land registry clerks. It’s all about pressure.

But your move was perfect. She trusted you.

You were the fire.” He chuckles to himself and leans forward, looking proud. “And it worked.”

“What the fuck were you hoping to gain?”

He leans across the table. Eyes glinting like a serpent. His smile drops. “No one outplays me. Do you understand, boy?”

My stomach knots. My blood boils. I feel like I might explode. I suddenly get what this is all about.

“You gang up against me? You get Matteo and Enzo, and help Dex? Against me?” he says quietly. I would prefer it if he raised his voice, or showed some semblance of losing control, but he’s still, and deathly quiet. Not losing his shit. He’s an absolute fucking psycho.

The only thing that goes through my mind? How did Mama ever fall for him?

“I need you to understand,” he says slowly, “that every time you fight me, you lose something more than you realize.”

My breath catches. My pulse roars in my eyes.

What. The. Fuck. He made it happen. He gave me the match, and I handed it to Raquel.

This man didn’t just sabotage Raquel’s career—he burned it to the ground.

Everything she was proud of, her name, standing up for marginalized communities.

Everything that mattered to her, is gone.

And he used me to do it. This fucker was the architect of that. He lined up the dominoes and played the long game. He watched and waited. “You’re sick.” This was about revenge. About wanting to punish us, and make us get back in line.

He couldn’t punish Dex, because Dex is in love and engaged, and doing his thing.

But he could punish me, and he did.

“I’m effective.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“So that you never forget what you’re up against.”

I almost stumble backward. The sheer audacity. The ice-cold menace in every word. He thinks this is over. That he’s won.

“You think we’re scared of you? Not just me, Matteo and Enzo, but Jett, Dex and Zach?”

He shrugs. “I think you like to pretend you’re not. I’ll let you dwell in your ignorance, but don’t ever forget, you all rely on my empire. My money. My control. And I’m the one holding the reins.”

And that’s the awful truth. The reason why we stay. Why we don’t walk away and find our peace. Because he’s the puppet master of Knight Enterprises.

“Careful, Father.” My low voice is a warning. “All empires fall, eventually.”

My pulse hammers in my throat as I turn to leave, jaw clenched, heartbeat racing like I’ve run the four-minute mile in three.

This man will pay for what he did to Raquel.

There will be consequences.

I’ll make sure of it.