“The burning of Judas.” I filled another glass on the tray for myself. “We’ll be celebrating here at the club in case you know any traitors. There’s still time to make an effigy.”
“Then make it in your likeness.” His nostrils flared. He thrust the glass in my direction, and tequila sloshed over the side as he pointed. “You killed our parents.”
“Costa did.”
“And he has paid half the price,” Diego bit out. “His debt will be settled once his daughter chooses me over him. Once he realizes I can take her away from him if I choose. But you haven’t been made to pay at all.”
“I’ve paid, believe me. The Cruzes were my family, and they turned on me for a crime I didn’t commit.”
“They are not your family!” He shoved a hand in his hair and turned around, pacing to the glass. “They never were. You don’t deserve one after what you did to ours.”
The Cruzes had been family to me once, especially Bianca. Costa’s wife could’ve easily cast me off or ignored me as she had Diego—who, I was certain, she’d seen through from the start.
But she hadn’t. She’d cared for me the way a mother should when she had no reason to. But she’d never get to speak her truth—so I would do it for her.
“Bianca was family,” I said. “You didn’t know her like I did.”
“No, I never got the privilege,” Diego said, turning back to level me with a glare. “We all know how well you knew her. Despite Costa’s pardon, the state they found her in speaks for itself.”
I dropped my glass and charged at him, seizing him by his shirt. “I never touched her, and you know it. You talk of loyalty but reek of betrayal, and that’s why she kept you at arm’s length. It’s why Costa will never let you near his daughter. They only trust you so far.”
Diego grabbed my lapels to try to push me off, but Max drew his gun in a split second. Glass eye or not, my right-hand man had as unshakeable an allegiance to me as I did to him, and that made him a killer of the deadliest sort. Diego clenched his teeth but let go of my jacket.
“You’ve planted some bullshit ideas in Natalia’s head,” I said, “but don’t think I don’t know where they came from. You’re the one with plans to take over, not me.”
Diego laughed grimly. “I’ll do it the noble way. I don’t have to force a woman like you. My plans are to marry Natalia, who loves me, and stand by Costa’s side until he’s ready to hand over the reins.”
I released him with a shove. It was uncanny, my ability to sniff out when my brother was lying. Why other certain people couldn’t see it, I had no idea. “You fused yourself to Natalia when she was most vulnerable. Bianca would never have allowed you to get so close to her. You saw an opportunity and you took it. And if Costa wasn’t going to give you what you wanted, you were going to use Natalia’s love for you against him.”
“You’d have done the same,” Diego said. “The difference is, Natalia fell for me, not you.”
I had traveled the world in search of the kind of loyalty she gave Diego. I’d lost any family bonds I’d had or formed. My parents were dead. Bianca was dead. The only man I’d ever looked up to had thought I’d violated and murdered his wife. I’d gone through great pains to surround myself with men and women I trusted my life to every day—ones I’d give mine for in return.
Yet I remained haunted by the day Natalia had risked her life for my brother. A man who didn’t deserve her. To have what I’d built was one thing. To have the unflinching devotion of a woman like her, to be loved the way Bianca had loved Costa, was surely nirvana.
But devotion to the wrong man could get you killed; my mother was evidence of that.
Diego made Natalia weak—I was doing her a favor.
Because Natalia had proved a woman who couldn’t be moved with words or reason. It had to be with action and force.
“Natalia didn’t fall for you. She was manipulated.” I stalked closer to him, enjoying the way he pulled back his shoulders, as if he thought he stood a chance against me. “You slowly secured her loyalty to you over anyone else, so when you were ready to make demands of Costa, he’d have no choice but to give in or lose her.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t love her or see him as a father,” Diego said. “I know what’s best for all of us.”
A monster didn’t always perceive himself that way. But I saw right through my brother. “It was an admirable grab at power, not unlike something our father would’ve done, but it didn’t work. And in the end, it doesn’t matter, because it won’t change your fate.”