“Is there a point to this conversation?”
“No point. I just need to know when and where you need me.”
“I have a flight to Florida in a couple of hours. While I’m gone, I want you to get this place ready so we can extend an invitation this time.”* * *“Your stepson, Mr. Castro.”I glared at their butler nearly cracking my molars to keep from correcting him. Marrying my mother after my father’s death didn’t make Victor my stepfather, itmade him an opportunist.
And a dead one as soon as my mother came to her senses.
“Angeles?” My father’s childhood friend and bookkeeper pulled me into a hug as soon as I was within arm’s reach. I allowed the embrace, but I refused to return it. Victor was Cuban with average height, receding hair line, and a bushy grey mustache. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Is it going to be a problem?”
I was pissed when he married my mother, but that was nothing compared to the storm I brought down on him when I learned he was moving her all the way out to Florida.
Away from the life she had with my father.
Away fromme.
He chuckled and patted me on the back even when his eyes didn’t share his amusement. “You, my son, are very much like your father.”
Unfortunately, for him, it was true.
Unfortunately, for me, my high was blown as soon as my flight touched down, so I wasn’t equipped to be pleasant. My habit of using weed to mellow me started after meeting Lucas and Z. They introduced me, and I never looked back.
I haven’t talked to her since she snuck away and married this prick.
I missed her.
However, loyalty to my father’s memory wouldn’t allow me to forgive her. If he were alive, Victor would never have had a chance with my mother, and my father would have killed him for even thinking so. Victor exploited her vulnerability, and now she believed she loved him.
Despite what would have been, I respected my mother’s wishes, as my father would have wanted,and left him breathing.
“Your mother was beginning to think you’d forgotten about her. She never stops worrying, you know?” I followed him onto the terrace where he had come from. On the table where he sat was a crime novel beside a bowl of grapes.
“I see you are enjoying retirement.”
“Forced retirement,” he reminded with a smile.
“You married my mother.”
“Son—”
“No.” I shook my head and stared at the waves crashing in the distant. “I don’t want to hear it.”
“Very well.” We sat in silence. Victor plucked a few grapes from the bowl while I tried to get my temper under control.
“Where is she?” I asked when the urge to kill him wasn’t as strong.
“Having tea with a friend. She’ll be sad she missed you.” I didn’t miss the fact that he didn’t offer to notify her of my presence.
“Doesn’t matter. I’m here to see you.”
His bushy eyebrows reached for his receding hairline. “What do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” He plucked another grape from the bowl.
“The book is gone.”
The book was many things.
It was a black book of clients who paid us to give them what they didn’t earn or make their problems disappear. It was a contact list of people paid off to keep their mouth shut and look the other way. It was also a history book of every job taken, tracing back six generations. It was a legacy inherited by every generation of Bandit, and it incriminated not only the Knights but also everyone we serviced, fucked overor used. It was insurance for our clients but also blackmail to keep them in line.
His hand froze from tossing a grape in his mouth. “How could it be gone?”
“We underestimated Theo’s reach. He sent his kid.”
“Mian?”
“Does he have a bastard I don’t know about?”
He ignored my snarky question and leaned back. “When?”
“Last night. Lucas and Z caught her hiding in my father’s estate. She said she was after something that belongs to her father.”
“Where is she now?”
“Not important.” I didn’t trust Victor with the information. “We let her go.”
“Why?”
“I never considered her knowing about the book. She had nothing on her when we released her.”
“So she has a partner.”
“I’m sure of it.”
“She needs to be disposed of. What are you planning to do about it?”
“We watch her, for now, to see where she goes and who she knows.”
“She may have already sold it. What about this partner?”
“They have to meet again to either sell or collect. I don’t give a shit, but I want them both.”
“It’s not a fail-safe plan.” His lazy regard for my abilities pissed me off, but I kept silent. “Your father wouldn’t like you being this stupid.”
My fingers gripped the arm of the chair to keep from doing the same to his neck. I watched as he arrogantly picked another grape from the stem and popped it in his mouth. I didn’t like him talking about my father after he decided to fuck and marry his wife.