Page 75 of Vow Of Fire

I glared at my brother.

He shrugged nonchalantly.

“She’s helping us figure out who ambushed our shipment.” I tried not to sound defensive. “I was right not to take her out. She had no knowledge of any of it.”

“So I’m told,” Valentina retorted, her icy blue gaze tightening on me.

Both Nico and Izzy had her eyes, but where theirs were the color of the sky on a summer’s day, hers were glacial. Marco had that same icy expression when he was angry, although he hid it well.

I took after my father, and Leo.

“Evelyn found the discrepancies in the ledger,” I went on, proving my case. “It was her idea to check the buyer-side bidders that linked back to Los Santos Rotos. We wouldn’t have thought to do that. We don’t have her insider knowledge.”

Nico nodded. “That’s how we found out the cartel were coming after our entire network, not just the shipment. The bastards planned it from the start. It’s a hostile fucking takeover.” At least he was backing me up on that.

I spread my hands. “They were the ones who ambushed us at the docks and killed our men.”

“Not to mention stole millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise,” my mother crooned. “Don’t forget that part.”

How could I?

My mother had always been obsessed with money. Money and power. The two things that drove her. It was incredible to think she’d had any capacity to love my father. But I’d seen them together when I was younger. I remembered.

I also remembered when it all fell apart.

“Anyway, she’s been useful,” I said. “And you know they tried to take her out. The cartel, I mean.”

“You think it was Los Santos Rotos,” Nico cautioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Who else?” I shrugged.

“Malakov for one,” Marco murmured.

I shook my head. “Malakov wasn’t involved. Malakov’s money man, Mikhail Orlov, is a personal friend of Evelyn Cruz’s. She knows all their shady shell companies. This isn’t them.”

“A personal friend?” Valentina tapped her fingernails on the stem of her glass. “That could be useful.”

I didn’t like where she was going with this. But if there was one thing my mother was good at, it was strategy. She wouldn’t let an opportunity like this go to waste. I cursed under my breath.

Marco frowned. “You think you can manipulate him through this gallery owner?”

“I’m not going to put her in any more danger,” I snapped.

They all looked at me.

I cleared my throat. “We need her alive. Use her to get to Malakov and he takes her out, we have nothing.”

I hoped I’d covered my mistake.

“Nice save,” Nico murmured, so only Izzy and I could hear.

My sister slid me a strange look.

“What good is she now?” Valentina asked.

“We can save the gallery,” I said. I’d been thinking about it on the way there. “It’s too good an import hub to lose. That’s why the cartel wants it.”

“It’s compromised.” Izzy shifted on the barstool. “You said yourself they tried to take her out.”