Page 62 of The Devil's Daughter

“That sums it up,” Drake says. “We think whoever is behind these threats has to be someone my father associated with who was involved in the human trafficking too. Perhaps someone linked to the company. And someone who would be on the gala’s guest list, which Baz should be sending over to all four of you now.”

“Got it,” Marco says a moment later.

The line goes quiet while my brothers look at the list of names they just received. I hear a couple “hmms” and wonder if they’re all hmm-ing over the same name. Then Marco says, “Are you guys hitting the same conclusion I am?”

“Pieces are falling together, yes,” Mason says. “Drake, do you remember if your dad ever had a mistress?”

Drake’s eyebrows shoot up, and he says, “It’s possible, but he was single for most of my life. Mom divorced him when I was about ten years old. He retained custody, though.”

“This would’ve been earlier, while he was married. The intel links him to a Serbian woman by the name of Vera Sitnik, who’s the niece of a Balkan crime syndicate boss. The pieces I remember include a birth certificate for a child she bore with the father’s name left blank, but that Zavala hand-wrote your father’s name onto. The child’s name was Miloš.”

“Yes!” Marco says. “There were bank transfers too, along with email correspondence and itineraries for trips Gregor took to Europe. Your company has an office there, and the name of one of the managers is pretty damn close: Miles Sitnik.”

My neck prickles because I recognize the name. Baz and I look at each other, and I realize he knows it too.

“I’ve never met Miles, but I know of him,” Drake says. “He’s been with the company for about a decade and was promoted to VP of the South American regional office about six months ago. He lives in Brazil now. And his name is on the guest list.”

Baz leans in and asks, “Does the name Curt Hagler show up anywhere in connection with this Miles guy? Curt is the former head of security, who fell off the radar after he resigned.”

“Nah, not that I remember,” Marco says. “What about you guys?”

My other brothers all deny any recollection.

“Could be they didn’t hook up until recently,” Sam says. “The intel on Stavros is pretty stale.”

“My father has been dead for a few years,” Drake says. “Not surprising.”

“How long have you been receiving threats?” Maddox asks.

Drake sits forward. “The blackmail started a couple weeks ago, but the ammunition the sender had was weak. I’ve made sure to protect myself from threats like that, so I just ignored them. I have pretty solid dirt on just about everyone who might have made use of my father’sservices.”

“But not on Miles,” Mason says.

Drake shakes his head. “Regretfully, no. He rarely visited. If he’s my half brother, Dad did a hell of a job keeping me in the dark, but he obviously brought Miles into the fold, considering how long he’s been with the company.”

“He’s positioning himself to take your place,” Arturo says, speaking up again for the first time in a few minutes. “It’s likely that he hoped to push you out without spilling blood, but is resorting to more dire threats now. Which means he doesn’t have the leverage he needs to do it the civil way. But men like him never work alone. I had heard that Zavala was working with the Corluka gang out of Belgrade. And when I had my falling out with your father, he was trying to lure me with the prospect of the Eastern European women he claimed he was bringing in. I draw the line at exploiting human beings.”

“Well, I’m not giving up control of my company,” Drake says.

“So he’ll try to take it from you by having you assassinated,” Mason says.

“There’s one problem here,” Sam interjects. “Zavala’s been destroyed, so if they were the go-between, who’s taking their place?”

My brothers are all silent for a beat, and then Mason lets out a curse. “César Zavala might be dead, but his organization is alive and kicking with a new boss: Gustavo Delgado.”

32

Drake

The twinsand I are mildly put off when Arturo Flores opts to stay the night, since it’s past midnight when our call ends. I extend the invitation because it’s the polite thing to do as a host, and I want to keep the man on my good side. Ihopehe’ll say no, but the glint in his eyes when he accepts tells me he knows full well that he’ll be cock-blocking the three of us.

I should be grateful that he’s open-minded enough not to object to Elle’s relationship with us. Knowing one of his older daughters is in a similar relationship doesn’t mean he’d accept such an alternative arrangement for her. I didn’t hear any of his conversation with her, but Ben’s reaction when he re-emerged from the corridor without them just before supper was enough to signal we were probably in the clear.

Except there’s no way in hell any of us are dumb enough to try sleeping with her while her father is under the same roof. Shortly after our call with her brothers ends, she bids us all good night, giving me a peck on the cheek and each of the twins swift, innocent hugs. Then she kisses Arturo on his cheek and disappears, leaving the four of us to chat.

It’s a more formal exchange than we’ve had so far, the topic restricted to logistics for the following day. I excuse myself briefly to send an email to Lindsey, since I’ve added a couple more names to the guest list.

Not only will Marco Santos be attending, but his plus-one is actually one of his Navy SEAL teammates, a man named Jacob Hearn.

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