Page 76 of Thorns of Silence

There was no chance in hell I’d let this go until I got to the bottom of it.

* * *

I stood in front of the mansion in California where it seemed everything started all those years ago. It was old Hollywood, something the Romero sisters were known for. There were several cameras placed at regular intervals, blinking red. The fence was high to keep intruders out. Although it never kept Reina and Phoenixin.

Their grandmother protected them from the public, kept them enclosed in a perfect little bubble. But it was all a lie. There was no such thing as a perfect life. A perfect reality. Or a whole truth.

“Why are we here?” Cesar demanded. My annoyance level had been building despite my futile attempts at remaining calm. Cesar’s questions weren’t fucking helping.

I’d tried, and failed, to reach Amon. It was probably for the best. Reina was his weakness, and if the Romero family had an agenda, he’d be blind to it.

So would you, dumbass,my reason whispered, but I ignored it. It would make no sense to start listening to it now.

Incoherent memories and clips of images had started to plague me—more frequently than usual. I couldn’t make any sense of it, no matter how hard I tried. But every distorted memory and dream kept bringing me back to California. There was a memory of one unexpected name.

Diana Bergman.Phoenix Romero’s grandmother.

I’d been convinced chasing my memories wouldn’t serve me well, but now they had started to haunt me. Whispers of ghosts and incoherent images.

I saw myself standing in the field full of dandelions with a shadow. A faceless woman whose lips tasted like sweet demise. She loved me; I could feel it in every fiber of me, and I yearned forthatfeeling. Goddammit!

“Okay, Dante. You’re freaking me out.” I found him watching me with a creased brow. “Why are we staring at this ugly-as-fuck mansion?”

“Thinking about buying something on this side of the pond,” I muttered.

Cesar nodded slowly, appearing bemused. He was clearly not buying my story. “You have an agenda and real estate isn’t it,” he deadpanned.

There were always people with agendas. Including the members of the Omertà. I was no exception. Neither were Phoenix and Reina. I wanted war, and Reina wanted peace. I wanted to win, and she wanted to protect her sister. Wrapped up in my brother, this Romero sister would never see me coming.

But in order to win, I had to get to the bottom of their agenda.

“Does this have something to do with the woman who wants you dead?” he questioned in a suspicious tone. “Phoenix Romero?”

“Yes.”

“Did she try to kill you again?”

Every day apart from her felt like a slow death, but if I told him that, he’d either die laughing or kill Phoenix. So I shook my head. No one butmewas allowed to touch her.

“Then why are we here?” Cesar asked.

“Cut the power to the security system so we can get in,” I answered instead. “Stop annoying me with questions.”

He cleared his throat. “The girl… Phoenix… You’re not letting her go. You never had the intention of letting her go, did you?”

“Are you handling security, or should I shoot you and handle it myself?”

He rolled his eyes and disappeared, sticking to the shadows as he made his way to the security panel.

Cesar was right; I didn’t have any intentions of letting her go. The past three years were just a temporary delay. I’d only made it two months after our encounter until the pressure in my chest and my skull became too much. I had to see her, so I’d started following her again. Just to get a glimpse of her so I’d be able to function. The sight of her calmed me, which allowed me to focus on the Omertà business without blowing up the whole underworld.

Finally, Cesar walked back over, sizing me up like I was a ticking bomb about to go off. He wasn’t wrong. A certain dark-haired woman occupied every brain cell in my skull, making blood rush faster in my ears.

“All clear?” I demanded.

“All clear.”

We made it inside the property by jumping the fence, the same way Phoenix and her sister did years ago, sneaking out of the house. We stuck to the shadows and bushes until we made it to the front door.