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I wait seven minutes before making the call.
“I’m here,” Spiro answers. Over the past few days, I’ve worked to gain his trust. Now, I’ll learn if my efforts paid off.
“Do we have an agreement?”
Spiro pauses. “What’s it worth to you?”
“Name your price.”
He does, and when I agree to it, he tells me the information I asked for. All of it.
I hang up, heavy with the news I have for Lula.
Our time of reprieve is over. Last night marked a turning point for us. I know she felt it.
Now it’s time to learn whether it was the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end.
Lula
I wake slowly and stretch, wincing as it pulls the tender skin above my left breast. Victor’s left more painkillers beside me and a glass of water. Considerate sadist.
As I have so many mornings, I pad out of the bedroom and find him at the stove, making a meal. Unlike most mornings, I almost smile when I see him clad all in black, his white-blond head in the fridge. His T-shirt shows off the taut muscles and veins of his forearms.
My mouth waters. “Morning.”
He signals me to Come, and when I do, he sets a bluish smoothie in front of me. I didn’t even hear the blender. I taste yogurt and berries.
He watches me drink it, his face a beautiful mask. Okay? Another hand signal. He uses them constantly now, especially when he’s teaching me how to attack someone with a knife.
“A little sore. Let’s go easy on training today.” I pretend to roll my shoulder but don’t move it more than an inch.
Victor plants his hands on the island, staring at the glittering quartz.
He’s not usually this moody. Something’s wrong.
I set the glass down. “What? What is it?”
“I know who the mole is,” he rasps.
He doesn’t have to explain. The mole, the person who infiltrated our family and passed on information to Stephanos. It would have to be someone trusted to get the intel Stephanos seemed to get, intel that kept him one step ahead of us at all times.
Names and faces flit through my head. “Who?” I know I’m not going to like the answer.
“Gino.”
I close my eyes and accept this bullet to the heart. My stupid, selfish brother. “That fool.” It makes sense. He burned through his trust so quickly. He liked spending money and expected it to come easy. And as the son of one of the top family members, he had access to anything. No one would question his loyalty.
A shadow falls over me. Victor has come around the island to be close to me, and despite my roiling stomach, the hairs on my arms raise a second before he touches me. “Lula, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” I wrench myself away, wincing as it sets my wounds throbbing. “You’re one of them.” An enemy. I have to remember that. I keep retreating until I’m a few feet away. “I need to tell my cousin. I need to get out of here.” It’s stupid to say this to my captor.
He stands at my stool, his hands by his sides, still no expression on his face.
Then he says the unexpected. “And if I let you go? Will you continue on this path to vengeance?”
I’m still reeling from the fact that he would let me go. “What do you care?”
“You belong to me.”
