Page 107 of Thorns of Death

“I’m waiting,” I reminded him, patience never being my strong suit.

Kian didn’t seem offended by my tone. Instead, he appeared rather amused.

“Your mother never spoke back.” He wasn’t chastising me. He didn’t even seem displeased. But there was a lethal presence about him that was undeniable. “It ended up being her undoing.”

“What do you mean?”

His gaze darted to my husband and anger shot through me. “This concerns me and my mother’s history, so don’t look at Enrico.”

My husband’s hand came to rest around me, his fingers tracing the crook of my neck. The touch was comforting. Soft. He seemed unperturbed by my sharp tone, his posture relaxed and his touch feeding my own assurance.

Kian let out an incredulous chuckle. “Very well, Isla. I’m just wondering what you already know.”

“Nothing.” My tone portrayed exasperation and frustration. “I know nothing, but I want to know everything.”

“But you knew who I was,” Kian reasoned.

I scoffed softly. “Because I snooped through Illias’s desk like a damn criminal and found my and my mother’s birth certificates.” From the corner of my eye, I caught Enrico’s smile. I waved my hand nonchalantly. “Yeah, yeah. My brother and my husband are criminals too. I’m new at it.” Then I zeroed my attention at Kian. “Are you a criminal? I looked up my mother’s name, but came up empty, unsurprisingly. Same thing happened when I typed in her parents’ names.”

“Your grandfather was the head of the Brazilian cartel.” Kian’s words felt like a bomb dropping, but he didn’t even miss a beat as he continued. “When he died, it passed on to my oldest brother.”

“I have another uncle?” The words escaped me in a rush.

This time Enrico tensed, and I felt it with every fiber of my body. “You’re never to go around him.”

I cocked my eyebrow at his demand. “Why?”

“Because it was my brother who helped our father sell your mother,” Kian answered, and my head whipped in his direction. My uncle’s face remained stoic, unchanging, but his gaze turned cold and dark.

Gulping in a deep breath, I found myself asking, “Sold?”

Kian’s jaw clenched. His darkness cloaked the room, dangerous and all-consuming. It was so thick, I could smell it. Taste it, even. Kian’s body seemed to swell, anger coming off him in waves.

“Yes, sold. To a Marchetti brothel.”

And there it was. There it fucking was. In the corner of my mind, I noted Enrico’s body language, his hand stilling on the nape of my neck.

Donatella Marchetti was crazy, but she was sane enough to throw that fact in my face. She’d known I was in the dark. Yet again. I sat stiffly while my blood boiled. I fought the urge to throw something across the room. To scream bloody murder.

“Sold?” I repeated, my voice distorted from the buzzing in my ears. “I don’t understand.”

Kian flicked a glance to Enrico, then back to me. “My old man and Enrico’s father had a business arrangement. When our family was responsible for a Marchetti shipment being lost, my sister was handed over to settle the debt.” Kian’s jaw clenched, his expression turning thunderous. “She was only sixteen.”

A gasp tore from my lungs. Sixteen. So fucking young. “Why didn’t you stop it?”

“I wasn’t in the country at that time,” he gritted. “When I learned about it, I went after her. But I was too late. I searched brothel after brothel, only to learn she had died. I never knew about you. If I had—” He didn’t finish the sentence. Instead, he pushed his hand through his silver hair. My heart ached, each breath piercing my chest at the knowledge that my mother must have suffered. The truth had finally unraveled, and it was ugly. It was dark. It threatened to pull me under. “Your brothers… were they good to you?”

Kian’s jaw clenched and suddenly I knew that this man would be just as protective as Illias. I appreciated it, but I didn’t want to be smothered with it.

“Very.” I leaned over and took his hand into mine. “I couldn’t have asked for a better life. Illias was always there for me.” I let out a dry laugh. “Even when I didn’t want him to be. He was there like a shadow, chasing all the ghosts away.”

That seemed to appease Kian and he gave me a dazzling smile that made him appear so much younger.

“It makes me happy to hear that,” he murmured softly. “It’d make your mom very happy.” My chest twisted as I thought about the woman I had never met. Would she be proud of me?

“Back to your other Cortes cousins, Isla. You have to stay away from the rest of the Cortes family. My brother in particular. It’s best to let them continue thinking you don’t exist.”

I exhaled a shuddering breath, a single tear rolling down my cheek. Enrico pulled me closer to him, and despite the role his own father played in my mother’s downfall, I couldn’t find my fury. It had all started with my grandfather who’d sold his own daughter.