Page 43 of Killer Bones

Kasimir’s rage sputters out like a fire in a gale and devolves into utter bewilderment. “What?”

I put Izzy behind me, using force.

“Stay there,” I growl that harshly, to make it clear to her. “He’s not going to shoot me, Izzy.” But he might shoot her. I stare him down. “This is my brother.”

Behind him, my girls stand sentinel, to either side of Montez’s corpse. His throat has been cut and he has several bullet holes in him that are leaking red all over my fucking tiles.

18

Adelmo

“What are you doing? You know who she is and what she does.” His scowl returns. “Why?”

“Because…she is mine.” There, I said it, and the statement sinks down through me to my balls. When I put my arm behind me to reassure her, she wraps her hands about my right forearm. She’s shaking, and I can hear her hard breathing. “I’ve got this,” I say over my shoulder.

“Yours?” Kasimir chuckles. “How is this possible? Have you been having some affair I know nothing of?”

“It’s none of your business. All you need to know is that I’m keeping her. She’s not to be hurt. So fuck off with that gun.”

He leans, glances around me at her. “She is the last person you should be keeping. You cannot guarantee she won’t write this up and set off alarm bells.” His gaze skewers me. “With enough publicity anyone can be taken down.”

I nod because it’s true. “She won’t. You need me to get you into the presidency. Let that sink in also. Izabella. Promise him you will behave.”

Behave is, of course, a weighted word. It implies, as did the word mine, that I’m giving her instructions. That I have the right to do so. Will she protest?

Considering her past, she might think this an insult.

“Izzy?”

Her sigh is long, but she answers me. “Yes. I will behave.”

Kasimir purses his lips. “You will say that to me, Miss Fenway. And Adelmo, if this goes wrong, you are the one I will hold responsible, after I punish her.” He flicks his hand sideways and waits for her to answer.

Without any urging from me, Izabella steps from my shelter and comes to my side. “I won’t say or write anything against you, Mr. Stern. I will—” Her legs shift, and she sniffs but continues, “I will behave.”

That was hard to say. I stifle a smirk; my mouth barely moves.

I pull her close, kiss the top of her mussed-up hair. “Good girl.”

She tenses at my compliment before leaning into me. Kasimir might be my brother, but in this I am in uncharted territory. I’ve never struck out on my own like this.

Though I’ve hidden my real name for five years, our power and money are intimately entwined. I can almost see the burning trails left by his thoughts, the fire in his eyes, as he processes this.

“Fine. We are done then. Let’s get this place of yours cleaned up, Adelmo. They’ve signaled that the boat is ours. It turned out well…despite you going off script.”

We shake hands then clap each other’s shoulder before he goes off to give orders.

“I’ll leave him to that.” Then I finally get to turn to Izzy and give her my full attention.

She’s pale and wobbling so I drop to one knee and unstick the dress material from her skin. Fresh blood is showing. “Your blood? Are you shot?” A ricochet perhaps. Shrapnel?

How did I miss this?

“Something cut me. I’m okay. Just hold me.” Her plaintive look slays me, and I rise to wrap my arms around her.

“Come with me.”

Which is how she ends up in my bed, upstairs, with the doctor suturing a laceration that cuts across above her hip. More antibiotics are due.