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“Killian came for the diamond tonight, didn’t he?” I asked, cutting straight to the point. “But why the random attack on you? He can’t risk the truce this openly.”
Arkane flashed me a broad smile. “Because…”
I watched, confused, as he pulled something out of his pocket, something big and shiny. “I got what he came for,” he said, holding it up in the light. Something that I’d been admiring all night.
“Kiara,” I gasped, as I took in the exquisite stone sparkling in the dull lights. This close, it was more beautiful, like glimmering rain shining under the dark clouds. “You bought it.” My eyes flashed to him. “But why?” I asked just as he handed me the diamond casually, like it held no value to him, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
Arkane’s gaze fixed on mine. “He was going to use Kiara to close a big weapon deal with the Serbs, the biggest they’ve ever done. Just because it’s hard times, Kill thought he could get cocky with me, even after he knows very well that I won’t allow anything other than Stormhold Tech weapons in the East. I knew all along they’ve been planning it behind my back. Only Kill doesn’t know if he wants to play games with me. I can play it better.”
“How did you find out?” I asked, noting how he had perfectly lied earlier tonight that he didn’t know what to expect tonight, when he knew exactly what was going on. “You have an insider?”
“I can’t tell you,” he simply said.
I nodded, knowing very well that it had something to do with his Alacteon association.
“Anyway, I made contact with the Serbs and told them to go ahead with Kill’s deal for now, and I’ll wire them the value of Kiara without wanting any of the shipment.”
“You tricked Killian.”
Arkane nodded.
“You must’ve made him mad,” I mumbled. “Is that why he attacked you tonight?”
“His last attempt to get Kiara,” he said. “He couldn’t even send the Surmans without risking his ass, so he sent a last-minute bounty to retrieve the item.”
“He’s bringing in Surmans and weapons into Twins,” I muttered. “He must be planning something big.”
Arkane grimly agreed.
My thumb grazed the hard edges of the diamond. I still couldn’t help but catch a glimpse of it every ten seconds. It was that beautiful. “But wait.” My eyes dashed to his. “How did he know that you bought Kiara?” Even I, his so-called date, didn’t know that. But then I didn’t know much tonight.
Arkane leaned his head back on the couch, his eyes still on me. “The Covent wants to shift things up. For some reason, they’re impatient that ever to take over the city, but they know they can’t do it alone, so they’ve been having talks with my friends and foes behind my back.”
“They’re turning your allies against you,” I stated the obvious.
Arkane nodded. “A source confirmed the Pentalia could be one of them. But I had no proof to confirm the speculation, so I thought I’d test the theory tonight. I knew right away it wasn’t the Macinis—as grim as he might appear, Santino loves my sister. Moreover, he wasn’t here tonight. So were the Riccis, although I’ll always have my suspicions about that family. That leaves the Galianos, DeLucas, and the Moretti. I took a bet on DeLuca. He’s been a little too friendly lately.”
The third-born of the Stormhold head family, Amelia, was married to the head of the Mancini family, Santino Mancini, nine years ago in a ceremony so grand that the entire city celebrated their wedding. From what I’ve seen in the papers, the couple seemed to be genuinely in love. They were even parents to three boys.
“Recently, Stephano DeLuca has been insistently asking for Chiara’s hand in marriage, and I refused. Like he can even think of my sister in the same sentence as him.”
Chiara Stormhold was the youngest of the family, only eighteen, and I believe she was still in high school.
My mind shifted back to earlier tonight, when Stephano DeLuca paid a visit to Arkane at the event. The man was possibly in his late thirties with a modest face, but his graying hair and sullen wrinkles were already showing. There was no way Arkane was going to marry his sister to someone decades older than her.
“Turns out, the DeLucas don’t have the kind of power that they once used to. Back when Stephano Sr. was alive, they were doing pretty well, but since his son took over, it was like everything he touched turned into bankruptcy. Right now, he’s in a clutch. With the way he’s going, he would soon lose his legacy. He tried me, but I wouldn’t budge. With limited options, he turned to Killian. My source told me Kill asked him to bring Kiara for a show of faith, and in return, he will have a share in the business, and when Kill takes over the city, DeLuca will be made the head of the Pentalia.”
“I believe their plan was to use the Surman to switch the diamond from the buyer,” he continued. “Only they got restless when the buyer wasn’t revealed—I made sure of that. But had a butterfly whisper only in DeLuca’s ear that I was the buyer and was leaving through the northeast shore. Like a stupid fool, he couldn’t resist taking the bait and revealing himself.”
I didn’t know if I should find his intelligence gorgeous or dangerous. Because sometimes you can even trust a man who would put a gun to your head, but never trust one who outsmarts the opponent every single time. Keeping my thoughts to myself, I asked, “What are you going to do about him?”
“Play ignorant. It’s better to keep idiotic enemies as your friends. The safety blanket will make him slip one day.”
“So he thinks that you’re on his side, but you aren’t.”
“Hmm, yes.”
“But why now?” The timing of it all seemed very peculiar: the Covent suddenly wanting to take over the Twins, when for years they kept quiet.
