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“Knox, cool down. Not here. Not now.”
“Well, when? It’s been fucking months. Dante’s gone, and now you’re saying Kai’s in?”
Abel seethes and slams his palms on the table this time. “We have a business to run. An empire to protect. Stop fucking baiting me, Knox. Shaw.” He snaps his attention to my twin. “You’ll be taking on the shakedowns. I don’t care how you do it, just get it done.”
“What? That’s not on, Abel. I’m not the muscle Dante was,” Shaw moans. This time, I can understand where he’s coming from, though. He’s deadly, no denying it, but not the enforcer Dante was. And he doesn’t have the reputation to put fear into someone by just uttering his name either.
“Use your fucking imagination. We all pull our weight here.”
“Not from where I’m sitting. Mariana does sweet-f-a,” he complains, like the baby he is. If I could strangle him and get away with it, I would.
“Hey, dipshit, I’ve built Apartment B from the ground up, and that’s only after begging to be given more responsibility.” I stand, angered at his attitude but not surprised.
“Mariana-” Knox placates me, but I’m not having it. Not now.
“No. It’s time you all heard this. Abel’s right. Things are changing. And that includes how you all treat me. I’m sick of your mixed signals. I’m tired of being a Cortez but being referred to as a princess. I’m done being pushed around and dictated to, and I’m so fucking done trying to impress you all. Whatever I do, it’s not right. So, things are going to be different from here on.” I look over to Abel and check that he’s not about to burn the place down in anger. There’s a curious look on his face, and it doesn’t make me want to hide, so I keep going. “I’m going to have my own place, somewhere I choose, for Kai and me, and you won’t be putting tabs on me. No phone tracking, no car tracking unless I’m in trouble. Don’t use it as a way to spy on me like you’ve been doing. My life should be private outside of the business, stay out of it, and if you give me space, maybe I’ll feel less compelled to mix shit up.”
“Mixing shit up made Dante fucking leave, Mariana!” Shaw yells.
“And what did I have to endure before I snapped? None of you know what it’s like, so all, kindly, grow the shit up and act like I’m one of you. I will run Apartment B and put the expansion plans into action because it’s running like a fucking dream. You know why?” I point around the table. “Because I planned it, I did the work, and I made it happen.”
“And you’ve still not paid me a penny,” Knox interjects. “You got the money upfront to set up a Cortez business. This isn’t a plaything, Mariana.”
“No, it’s not. It’s my business.”
“It’s a Cortez business. Our girls are there; you don’t get to siphon off money from our books,” he argues.
“My books, my money, and my girls. The girls Carmen gave me are no good. You don’t dictate.” I shake my hands in front of me, as if wringing their necks because they can’t seem to get this into their thick skulls. “Listen to me. Understand what I’m saying. My way is the only way here. My business, my rules, my freedom.” I stare down at Knox with my heart pounding in my chest.
“Sit down, Mariana,” Abel says.
My eyes shoot to his. “I will when I’ve-”
“Sit the fuck down. Calm down. You’ve made your point.” I glare but concede to a degree. “We have rules as a family, and if we agree to these demands from you, then you need to stop with the one-woman crusade. He’s in because of you, and you know that’s not something to take lightly.”
“I know. And I am grateful. For both.” I turn towards Kai, but he’s not in his seat. Panic rises, and my heart tightens for a second. Has he left?
“Where’s Kai?”
CHAPTER THIRTY
KAI
If there was ever a time to smoke, this might be it.
I stare out at the gardens around this place, letting the false sense of civility bring me back to some dream I’ve been living. There’s no denying I thought about working for them, but doing what Dante did for them is another thing entirely. Smoking seems fitting. Maybe that’s why he did so much of it. Maybe sucking in that shit gave him some way of dealing with it.
Swilling around the healthy dose of Bourbon. I down it, refill from the bottle I’m holding, and keep thinking about what it all means to me – what she means to me. They’re still talking in there behind me, shouting, trying to organise themselves now that one of them has gone. Seems like he was the only one who could do his side of the business, and not only that, I’m guessing he was the one everyone on these streets feared the most. I best get that dead part of me useable real damn fast if I’m gonna do this, ‘cause there’s no way I’m the same as him without it.
I look at the pool and listen to the sound of the cicadas. This is a life I never thought I’d be living, and I sure as shit didn’t expect her to come along either. I don’t even know if Viper was right about me, no matter how much I argued the point. You’re not like them, he said. Some of me isn’t, but the part that shot Jonny point blank is so close to them it bleeds from me. Defending is one thing, though. Attacking and straight-out causing issues is another. Let’s not even discuss the fucking branding.
Somehow, when I look out at the pool again, I’m standing beside it. Lost myself for a minute there, and damn if that doesn’t bring a small chuckle out of me because that’s gonna be life now if I agree. I’ll lose hours of my life in a mist of hatred and rage, and all that for the price of her hand in mine – her mouth on mine.
I put the bottle down on the table and sink the rest of the Bourbon, done with the arguing, and done with the noise of everyone but me and her. Wish I could say there’s even a small part of me that’s dismissing that or trying to talk myself out of agreeing. There isn’t in reality. There isn’t one part of me that’s letting her go, and I know it. If this is what I have to do to keep her, I’ll do it. It takes some getting used to, is all. I don’t even know how I carve myself into them, regardless of being invited in.
“Hey.” I look behind me, watching her walk down the pathway towards me, and pull in a breath. “Everything okay?” My brow arches at her considering the thing I’ve been asked to do. “Sorry. My family is loud.” She's right about that. “We're just trying to sort things out. You don’t have to do it, Kai. You still have an out. He can’t dictate everything.”
“Yeah, I think he can on this one. I think he’s made a real fine point of letting me know what’s expected.”
