“Okay,” she said, but I knew she was lying. I could hear it in her voice.
I pulled away enough to take hold of her jaw.
“You swear to me, Elaine. If I’m not back here by dusk, you head back into the city.”
I knew she was dithering. I could see the liar in her dancing behind her eyes.
“This is one thing we get straight, right from the beginning,” I told her. “You don’t lie to me. However bad the truth is, you never lie to me, sweetheart. Is that understood?”
The liar disappeared in her. I watched it shrivel and die. I saw it loud and clear in that moment. Elaine Constantine wouldn’t lie to me, not once she’d sworn her loyalty.
“I won’t lie to you,” she said. “I swear it.”
“Good girl,” I said and kissed her forehead.
Handing over the keys to her felt surreal. Handing control of anything to another person felt surreal.
I said it once more to be sure. “If I’m not back here by dusk—”
She was nodding when she interjected. “I’ll head back to the city. I swear it. I’ll stay alive.”
I said something I thought I’d never say. It rolled off my tongue like the easiest words I’d ever spoken. “I love you.”
Her smile was perfection. “I love you, too.”
I kissed her once, hard, and then I walked away.
The drive into the city was long and short, both at once. The traffic around me was a regular bustle of people going about their lives, at contrast with the way mine was potentially reaching its crescendo. I was running through the various possibilities in my mind. The snippets of information my father may have gathered from the people around him. From my chauffeurs, or speculations on the news, or—in the worst possible scenario—from Trenton Alto. Yet again, I realized the man knew far too much about me and my life. I should never have trusted a right-hand assistant for twelve years straight without wiping him out long before now.
I pulled up into Morelli Holdings and checked myself in the rearview mirror once more before climbing out. The Holdings headquarters was buzzing with its regular energy when I stepped foot inside, people oblivious to the potential drama I was walking into. People nodded their heads and waved with their morning, Mr. Morelli, sir at every turn. I tipped my head at them, keeping my expression as stoic as ever.
My father would be on floor nine. I knew he’d be at the very end of the management suite meeting rooms, awaiting me with his evil eyes and his pitted jaw.
I wasn’t mistaken.
“Sit the fuck down,” he said, and I did as instructed, sitting back in my seat with my foot up on one knee.
“What is this about?” I asked him, my voice barely more than a hiss to match.
He tossed a file across at me and I flicked it open.
Testimonials of clubgoers saying how they’d seen Lucian Morelli chasing down Elaine Constantine. The event where I’d floored the security guard after the pathetic little downtown dive was recorded loud and clear.
“How do you think this fucking looks?” he spat. “I knew you’d been chasing that Constantine bitch, but I didn’t expect the whole fucking world to be talking about it. The Constantines are entering a discussion with the Power Brothers. A fucking discussion. It should be bloodshed, not conversation, and this is because of you, isn’t it? We were set to pair up with the Powers, not watch from the sidelines as they begin negotiations.”
My blood chilled even colder than its usual ice. Discussions were never good, not between enemies. They showed nothing more than that people were prepared to hear alternate versions of events.
“Tell me now, boy,” my father said. “Is there anything I should know about this?”
I looked him right in the eyes. “Such as what?”
“Such as you chasing down this bitch. Did you kill her?”
My answer was perfectly truthful. “No. I didn’t kill her.”
“So the Powers have her, yes? Their negotiations with the Constantines will be futile?”
“What the Powers have and don’t have has never been high on my list of priorities. I can sure as hell not answer questions for them.” Again, I wasn’t lying.
My father’s glare was savage. “If the Constantines and the Power Brothers come to some crazy conclusion that we’re responsible for this, Lucian, life sure as fuck isn’t going to be easy.”
He was right on that front. The Constantines we could take on, happily. It would be a difficult battle, but it would be a fair one. For us to go up against the Constantines with the Power Brothers also on their side would be a whole other matter.
“We could have paired up with the Powers,” he said. “You know full well they wanted our allegiance. We could have made a powerful ally.”
“Yes,” I replied. “I know that. Maybe they still will.”