Page 65 of Blood in the Water
“Ciel, I’m glad to see you’re okay,” Wynn said as he gently touched the woman’s knee and stood. My eyes were glued to where his skin brushed against hers, and I didn’t miss the way she leaned a little into his touch.
“Thanks,” I croaked, my throat still dry as fuck. The woman shifted like she wanted to stand but wasn’t sure if she should. My anxiety spiked. Computers were the only thing I was good at, not talking, not comforting crying women, and sure as shit not letting outsiders into our space—no matter how much they seemed to have affected me. Why was she here?
He ran his hand through his hair and then rubbed his face. “I’m glad you called. Care to tell me how you got trapped in a burning warehouse? What happened?”
My eyes flicked to the woman and the tiny little tear that slid down her cheek.
Wynn followed my gaze. “This is Leona. Leona Vero.”
“Leona,” I murmured, taking her in. But I couldn’t bring myself to say more. Not even a hello. The words stuck like glue in the back of my tongue.
What was the daughter of the Vero Family doing here? Was it a coincidence that I had seen her father’s killer last night?
My brain was excellent at searching out, cataloging, and solving patterns. It was what made me so damn good at my job and what kept me as a Shadow. My brain fired on all cylinders, looking for the connections buried under the surface. It couldn’t be a coincidence that she had suddenly entered our lives at the same time that Volpe almost killed me—even unknowingly. Drugs, Russians, and fatherless daughters. Where was the pattern?
“You can talk in front of her,” Wynn said as he sat beside her. His normally platinum hair now looked gray and limp, coveredby a thin layer of soot. His clothes were still dirty—even his shirt had a little tear on his right shoulder.
Could I talk in front of her, though? By now, I knew Wynn wouldn’t judge me for my voice or the way I struggled to form certain sounds. He was my brother; we’d been through too much together.
But she was not one of us.
“Wynn?” She turned to him with a sniffle after an awkward moment of me staring at the two of them, completely mute. “Can I use your bathroom? Maybe take a shower?”
He nodded and reached out his hand for her to grab. When her fingers settled in his palm, he helped her stand and walked her down the hallway to his room. While they were gone, I quickly went to the kitchen and chugged three glasses of water. When Wynn returned, I was settled back on the couch, staring out the living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows with my mind still racing.
“I know,” he said as I gave him an exasperated look while he sat down next to me. “This was the safest place to bring her.”
“What is going on, Wynn? Obi and Ryu are going to be pissed.” A little of the tension disappeared, so my windpipe was working again. Hell,Iwas pissed, but I was still trying to decide whether I wanted her to leave. Something about her had me just… stuck.
Quickly, he filled me in on everything that had happened with him, Leona, and her bodyguard, Caspian, over the last few days. It wasn’t surprising that she wanted to hire us. Volpe had taken everything from her, and he was still looking for her to finish the job. After I heard him on the phone, he must have gone to the Irish safe house to hunt her down, but he’d found Caspian instead.
Something was… wrong about this whole thing. Why did Volpe usurp Luciano Vero in the first place? Was it simply apower struggle? Or something deeper? Was it connected to the Russian drugs and the four “traitors” he killed?
My brain whirred, searching for answers. I needed to know. My gut said something was brewing, and Leona would be at the center of it.
“And she can pay?” Contracts didn’t come cheap, especially for mafia princesses on the run.
Wynn looked away, rubbing the layer of stubble that had appeared on his cheek. I don’t think I’d ever seen him unshaven. Disheveled. He didn’t look like he’d slept in days, just like that one mission we got stuck on with that gang in Lagos.
I sucked in a breath. “So that’s an obvious no. Wynn, what the hell are you thinking?”
If she couldn’t pay, that was our answer. We couldn’t help her. Unfortunately, she was on her own. But even as I thought those words, I felt conflicted.
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Ciel. I feel like… we must do something. I want to help her.”
“You always want to help everyone.” I rubbed my eyes under my glasses. The headache was slowly returning with a vengeance. “You help lost puppies on the side of the street. Shit, youarea lost puppy. Always have been. How long will it take you to learn that you don’thaveto restore some cosmic balance for the shit that we do?”
He rolled his eyes.
“I’m serious, Wynn. Obi will never go for this. She has to pay.”
“He was the one who told me to get everyone on board.”
I choked on a drink of water. “What? Obi? As in Obi, the man who flayed a man alive because he missed a scheduled payment by two days?”
He nodded.
“What about Ryuji?”
