Page 53 of Bound By Them
His mom is a sore subject because she’s Ed Senior’s mistress. No one’s going to say it out loud, though. Ed and his wife Mariana’s extramarital affairs are the worst-kept secrets of the family. Everyone knows. But somehow, no one talks about it.
Edmund grimaces and throws back his tumbler of whiskey. Wish I could do the same.
“The Aseyevs are having her followed.” Ed’s voice is hard and his eyes flash angrily as he looks at his father. “They’re targeting her because she’s connected to us. We must do something about this. First our shipments, now our people?”
Francis nods in agreement, but his reaction is more tempered. “We will increase security around Cece. Around Mariana as well. Shaffer, what do you think?”
Victor Shaffer, a skinny, middle-aged guy with auburn hair, twirls a pen around in his fingers. “Morraine, do you have men to send from Mirarosa?”
Caleb nods. “I could spare a few, but we don’t want to get too thin at the docks.”
“We could hire private security,” Edmund suggests.
“The good ones refuse to work with us.” Ed scowls, likely remembering the first and only time he’s been told no in his life. “I’ll try some of the others, but I want the best for Cece. And Mariana.”
It’s fucked up how his wife is the afterthought, but I bet Mariana wouldn’t even care.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I peek at the ID. Dani. Does she need us? Is something wrong? I meet Edmund’s eyes.
He nods toward the door. “Go ahead, Troy.”
I hurry out of the room and answer my phone in the hall. “Hey, are you okay?”
“What the absolute fuck.” Dani’s syllables drop like glass on concrete. “You had no right. No fucking right.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s one thing to run your corrupt businesses and hate my family, like, whatever. Keep on hating. But to tail my cousin? She’s sixteen fucking years old. What kind of monster does that, Troy? Hmm?”
“We aren’t tailing any teenagers.”
“You said that’s your method. Follow people around, scare them a bit. Rough them up.” She’s breathing hard. “You said that, Troy.”
“Yeah, but not kids?—”
“And if you think you’re big men for scaring my little cousin, I will show you what real wrath is, motherfucker.”
“Dani—listen?—”
Silence. Her heavy breathing, the background static, gone. She hung up.
Edmund
Last night, Troy told me about Dani’s phone call. We have to get ahead of this. If Sergey thinks we’re targeting his granddaughter, he’ll come down hard with retribution.
Troy also confessed to his night with Dani. The two of them together. Without me.
“Did you fuck?” I asked.
His silence said it all.
Jealousy still causes my stomach to drop at odd moments. It’s less that they fucked, and more that I didn’t even know about it. He’s only telling me now, two weeks later.
Troy and I stop at the gate of Sergey Aseyev’s property. Troy leans over to speak to the guard. “Edmund Layton here to speak with Mr. Aseyev.”
The guard’s thick, brown eyebrows meet in a scowl. “Layton, huh? Gimme me a minute.”
Troy and I wait while Eyebrows gets on the phone, probably calling Sergey.
