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His gaze flickers from me to Hendrick and Jac. “Is she always like this?”
I almost stagger. That’s him, the voice. And it strikes an angry match within me. “No, I’m worse,” I grind out. “You have the jewels now. I completed my task, even the extra one.”
He strolls across the basement, dragging his feet, and when he gets close enough to me, his piercing gaze rakes over me, as if he’s almost bored. Curious but bored. Then, faster than a blink, he grabs me by the throat and slams me against the wall so hard, my vision darkens.
Jac snarls, “I’ll fucking rip your shriveled heart out, Gimboni.”
“Along with the hearts of all your fucking family,” says Hendrick, so arctic that even I shiver.
“They speak again, Kincaid?” Gimboni says, hand still on my throat. He squeezes and my breath stutters. “Shut them up.”
“I’ll kill them both,” says Kincaid.
“He wouldn’t dare, the fucker.” That’s Jac.
I want to fight him, scream at him, I want—
“Your boyfriend there got you to rob the Quinate. But he’s right, in a way. Kester’s too weak. He’s not going to kill them,” Gimboni says. “He wants the seat, but now that I have all the Quinate jewels, I’ve got the power. Whoever has them rules. Over them all.”
He turns and nods. “Petey, disarm Kincaid.”
A handsy man who’d led me down here wrenches the gun in Kester Kincaid’s hands.
“What the fuck?” Kincaid screams.
Gimboni glares his way. “Oh, shut up, asswipe. You’ll get a seat at the Quinate table. I’m going to make sure of it. You’re gonna do good things, work with my family, but we don’t fuck this up until I go through the bag and we make sure it’s set up. You shoot before the seat at the table’s official, and you’ll die. It’s Quinate.”
“You have the jewels.” Kincaid is a sulky kid with guns. It’s a dangerous combination. I know that.
“My grandfather, Hubert,” snarls Gimboni, “was a founder of the Quinate. The jewels buy back my rightful seat.”
“The Gimboni family doesn’t have a seat. Neither do the Kincaids. The past is pointless,” Jac says. “It’s now that matters. You’ll be killing a Quinate member, and that’s death for you and yours.”
“He’s right,” Hendrick says, “rules are rules. You can hold the keys to the kingdom, but until you get your seat, they’re just keys.”
“Agnossio means,” says Jac, “that until you’re in the Quinate, you’re on the outside and the rules for regular people still apply. It’s why Agnossio’s still alive after killing my father.”
Gimboni laughs, squeezes my throat harder. “They got around a gray area. Two Quinate members dying and a changeover in power meant you two got away with murder. Actually, Jac did, but Hendrick got the blame. And guess what? All for a murdermyfamily did.”
I struggle to get words past my restricted airway. “Leandra Lucas.” Fuck, Harry’s right. This is just like a soap opera.
“Leandra Gimboni. I did it for her,” Gimboni snaps. “The way your father died, Jac? It was to set you up. Take out Hendrick, too. You were too fucking weak to do that, though. We thought one would wipe the other out and a Lucas-Gimboni would finally get a seat once again, their rightful place in the Quinate. My great grandfather was a founder right up until he was murdered, but do any of you care? No.”
He shakes his head, and in mine, the pieces fall fast into place.
Gimboni’s great grandfather was Hubert.
“Founder?” Hendrick says. “The founders aren’t the modern Quinate. Maximo’s family is, as is mine, but back then it wasn’t set up. That happened after one member killed another.”
Another piece. This man thinks the jewels buy him in.
“You both should be dead,” Gimboni hisses. “My dream was you both killing each other. I was okay with things until you both interfered in my business. Figured that one day you’d both do it. Kill each other. Then I could step in.”
“Bullshit,” says Jac. “That isn’t how things work.”
His eyes bulge with anger. “You were supposed to wipe each other out, but you had to go and make things messy. A Lucas-Gimboni is finally going to get a seat at the table, where we belong.”
“No one calls you a Lucas-Gimboni,” hisses Hendrick.
