Page 62 of Defy

I notice, not for the first time, that he consistently calls Libby, Daniella. He doesn’t correct me when I call her Libby and part of me wonders if she would ever choose the name he and Catalina bestowed upon her instead. I guess we’ll never know because it seems she’s now getting a new one yet again. “I went ahead and had the last names made the same because I don’t see how you two could ever stand to be parted.”

Although I know she can’t hear his words, Libby chooses this moment to turn around in her chair to find me. When her eyes land on me, she smiles, her eyes relaxing, and turns back around to look at more pictures with Diego and Camila who has joined them but is keeping her distance. I’m not even sure Libby’s aware that she does it about every four to five minutes when we aren’t side by side or literally on top of each other.

I don’t mind.

I’ll be here every time she turns around.

When I look back at Mateo, he gives me a sly grin before motioning at the envelope again. I pull out two credit cards, what has to be fifty thousand U.S. dollars, and the deed to a house in Miami.

I feel my eyes go wide as I look up at him.

“If things had gone differently, you’d have more money than you know what to do with, Dominic. And technically, everythingIhave would now have gone to Daniella. I understand that you don’t want this life and that you need to get out and move on. Giving you a small portion of what should be yours is the least I can do.”

Mateo isn’t a good man, but he’s not necessarily a bad man either. I guess what they say is true, we all have both good and evil inside us. Both light and dark. We are all influenced by both angelsanddemons.

I’m staring at the pictures of our new house and it all feels surreal.

“Your plane leaves at nine-fifteen tomorrow morning,” Mateo says somberly. “I hadn’t accounted for Camila to accompany you –”

I cut him off. “She can travel and live under her own name. No one will look for her and no one would associate her with our family.”

“Very well. There’s plenty of space in the house, I can assure you of that.” He points inside the envelope again where I see an encrypted phone, phone charger, and what looks suspiciously like car keys with a Ferrari emblem on them.

I pull them out of the envelope and hold them up.

Mateo shrugs. “I can’t have my daughter slumming it in a Honda.” He winks, drawing a genuine laugh out of me for the first time in what feels like thirty years.

“There’s one more thing in there,” he says as I dig toward the bottom of the envelope to find… another envelope, only white and smaller.

Inside is a single picture with a sticky note on it bearing coordinates.

Nikita Orlov.

I cut my eyes to Mateo waiting for him to explain.

“Mr. Orlov is overdue on payment and I need someone to collect.”

“How much does he owe?” I donotlike where this conversation is going.

“He owes me his life, Dominic. Do you remember when I asked if you were willing to do anything to keep Daniella safe, including kill again?”

The question he asked me in the kitchen.

I saidyes.

Leverage.I had asked Diego what I had that Mateo could want…talent. Discretion. Ability. And after the last three days…a debt to repay.

“Nikita is a liar. He’s been peddling my drugs and skimming off the top. I only recently acquired full confirmation that the street value of what he’s stolen is over five hundred million U.S. dollars. He’s as good as I am and undoubtedly knows that I’ve caught on to his con by now. Which means he’ll come for me to keep me silent and keep my money. If he gets here and someone tells him about you and Daniella… well, he won’t stop if there’s something or someone that threatens his money. Get to him first and then it’s truly all over.”

“Over?” I ask in disbelief. “You want me to take out of one the highest-ranking leaders in the Russian mafia and you think they won’t come after Libby and I in retaliation? I can’t believe you ever got involved with the Bratva anyway. What were you thinking?”

“They won’t come after you,” he calmly assures me while avoiding my last question.

“Why the fuck not?”

“Because they owe me.”

“Owe you forwhat?”

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