Page 25 of Conquer

“What?” Adrian responded.

I locked eyes with his. “That there’s an organized crime syndicate bigger than anyone has ever imagined. And they’ve moved into our state.”

Adrian

I was shockedthat I managed to hear Sam’s words over my thundering heart.

I’d read about it in books, saw it in movies, but until that moment I’d never experienced dread. It had started as a trickle, became stronger and stronger the more Sam talked, and by the time she finished, it was a full-blown flood. Dread so deep, so intense that it threatened to drown out everything else.

I worried that my silence would make her suspicious, but I could see that she was preparing for objections and went on to defend herself before I even said a word.

“I know. I know it’s insane, but there’s no other explanation. There hasn’t been a peep, Adrian. Nothing. No turf battles now that Santo is gone. There’s been nothing. This…super organization is the only possible explanation,” she said, her face and her voice telling me the strength of that conviction.

And she was right.

Tragically so.

I wasn’t surprised by this because I knew how sharp she was, how absolutely dedicated she was to her investigation. But some small part of me had hoped that maybe she wouldn’t figure it out. That I’d have enough time to figure out how to stop her from doing so.

My time was up.

I could see the vulnerability on her face, and I knew that Sam wasn’t as confident in her abilities as she should have been.

So, I did the one thing that would buy me just a little more time—did the one thing that I knew would crush her.

I laughed.

I wasn’t what anyone would call an actor, but I gave an award-winning performance there in Sam’s dining room.

I laughed heartily. Laughed like I’d heard the funniest joke ever told.

Laughed like she was the joke.

And got the desired response.

She seemed to crumble from the inside out, her eyes confused at first, then sharpening with understanding, her face collapsing with the weight of her hurt.

The sight of it stabbed like a dagger to the heart, but I kept laughing. Kept laughing until tears welled in her eyes.

When I was finally quiet, we stood there, the easy warm connection that I’d always felt with her shattered. The woman I loved shattered too, and at my hand. I wanted to comfort her, tell her I was doing this for her own good.

I could do no such thing, though, so I stood silent, waiting.

“So…” She broke off, cleared her throat. “You think my theory is flawed, I take it?” she asked stiffly.

Instead of pulling her into my arms, I shrugged and smiled. “Doesn’t it seem a little farfetched, Sam?” I asked.

She tilted her head, narrowed her eyes slightly. “It seems very farfetched, but it’s as believable as Santo Carmelli disappearing and everything continuing along without skipping a beat,” she said, standing a little taller.

She was digging in her heels, and I couldn’t let that happen.

“Sure, Sam,” I said, addressing her with a condescension that I would have punched someone else for, a condescension I could tell she hadn’t missed from the way her shoulders stiffened. “But have you considered the other possibilities?”

“Such as?” she said stiffly.

“Such as, Santo was an asshole. His men got tired of it and took him out,” I said.

“And Michael Briar?” she asked.

---