Page 118 of The Boss

Shane had never been the kind of person to show his emotions. He had the best bland expression of anyone I’d ever known.

“You’re going to confess, Shane. My brother is dead. Your father and mother. Your sister’s life was placed in jeopardy. Don’t you give a damn?” Greg threw out.

Shane sighed and looked away.

“You fucking ungrateful kid. My brother knew you were into something illegal. Didn’t he?”

“Think again, Uncle Greg. It was my father who was in trouble, your brother.” Shane spit out the information as if longing to hurt his flesh and blood.

Gregory acted as if he was going to beat the shit out of his own nephew, but Havros stopped him. Uncle Gregory jerked away.

“Just let me go,” he huffed.

“We’re not doing that yet,” Dimitrios said. “What do you mean, Shane? What was Winslow into?”

Shane acted as if he wasn’t going to tell him. “Shane. Please.”

My brother studied me for a long time, which made my skin crawl. I suddenly felt almost as close to him as I’d been years before. He didn’t want to hurt me. “I’m not who you think I am, Willow. Nor am I the Stalker.”

“Why should we believe you?” Dimitrios asked. The man was calm, completely in control.

The way Shane laughed was as if this was all one big joke. I moved toward him, able to crack my hand across his face before anyone could stop me. “You think this is funny? Our parents are dead. Dead. Is that because of you or in spite of you?”

Shane turned his head, opening and closing his mouth because of the force I used. He made no attempt to retaliate. Maybe because he knew he was outnumbered.

“You’re useless. You’re not my nephew.” Uncle Gregory’s face was beet red.

“Check my right-hand pocket. Then you’ll learn what I’ve been doing with my life.” Shane nodded toward Dimitrios, even lifting his arms to allow easy access.

Dimitrios gave a nod to Nico once again. He reached into Shane’s pocket, pulling out a black slender billfold. Nico snorted and handed it to Havros.

“Interpol?” Havros asked, narrowing his eyes as he glanced toward Dimitrios.

“Really?” Dimitrios asked.

Shane nodded. “They recruited me a few years ago. They knew my work as a diplomat.”

“What does that have to do with your parents’ death or the Stalker?” Dimitrios beckoned me back toward him with his eyes.

“Everything,” Shane admitted. “I’ve been working undercover to catch the assassin hired to eliminate various powerful leaders. Unfortunately to date, the Stalker has been responsible for nine deaths that we can pin on him.”

“Him.” Dimitrios smiled. “You’re certain of that.”

“Pretty much so,” Shane answered. “After my father accused me of some heinous criminal activities, I had a sense someone had gotten to him as a way of finding me.”

“Why go to all that trouble?” I asked this time, remaining as tense if not more so than before. My stomach was doing flips and I felt as if I was headed into the twilight zone.

“Because the people who hired the Stalker to handle the assassinations couldn’t locate my whereabouts. Sadly, they’d gotten a pretty good idea of my identity and decided to use my father against me. It almost worked. When it didn’t, they used their influence to wipe out half my father’s customers. Our father,” Shane said directly to me. “That’s why he had money problems.”

Gregory inhaled and the sound echoed in my ears. “You returned his money.”

“Let’s just say I had the resources to do so. I encouraged him to find somewhere to hole up safe until the Stalker was found, but he refused. I had no idea about the trip to Greece until the last moment. I was on assignment. When I arrived at the villa…”

Shane didn’t finish his sentence. “They were already dead.” I made the statement with less emotion than I thought possible.

“Yes. I’m sorry, Willow. I had no idea where you were. I couldn’t call because I wasn’t certain they didn’t have your phone bugged. These bastards can do that remotely. They got wind I was in town and almost caught me just outside the villa.”

I kept my eyes locked on his for a full minute. “If you’re lying to me, I will kill you. Do you understand me? Do you have any idea how much I’ve suffered? Do you have any concept of the worry I had when I thought you were dead?”

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