Page 29 of The Broken Queen
“Have you told Kyle or Rylie what you’ve done over here?” Gio asked.
His eyes were focused on the windows in the bedroom, and the built-in seat I had made directly underneath.
I shrugged. “No.”
With a slight turn, he inspected me. “I think you should. I think this might mean a lot to them that you helped their daughter achieve something that was always so important to her.”
I doubted it. Kyle and Rylie were not my biggest fan.
“How are things with El Peligro?” I asked while walking out of the house. We took the back door, which led us to a small patch of dead weeds that I’d need to tend to when I had the chance. I envisioned grass out here with a spacious patio, something that would allow Presley to relax while she watched the stars.
Gio fell into step next to me, but I didn’t miss how he checked his phone before tucking it into his pocket. “Henry wants to mobilize the men, but there’s no word from Alex yet, and I don’t want to risk getting her or Presley hurt. He thinks we should move onfrom Markos and where his location is over there. Alex mentioned that they’re in separate homes, but she doesn’t have an exact address.”
“So what does Henry think you should be focusing on then?”
My brother watched his feet. “There’s a new seller for some new street drug down in Florida.”
I shook my head, confused. “He’s willing to start a turf war; there’s about fifteen various gangs between here and Florida that would go to war over that.”
“None with ties to the cartel, though. Henry wants to go and establish a presence.”
I agreed that they shouldn’t move on Markos just yet, but leaving didn’t seem like the right move either. It was dangerous, and we didn’t have enough intel yet to make a specific play. “Is Henry willing to listen and hold down the fort here, or is he pushing back?”
Gio ran his hand through his hair while we moved through the wet weeds scattered along the hillside. The weather was wet but not as cold as I had anticipated for the end of February. The year prior, it rained like crazy this time of year, but things were warmer than was typical for winter.
“Honestly, I’m not sure. They’ve been asking about you a lot. I think Henry is sensing a fracture in our leadership, and it’s making him nervous. I have a feeling he’ll try to test it by forcing us to go with him to Florida.”
That wouldn’t work. I shook my head while grabbing for my phone. I had a habit that I couldn’t seem to break, which was always checking to see if Presley had finally unblocked me and needed help. “If he tries, then we just tell him no. We aren’t leaving the area right now unless it’s to track down Markos.”
We were approaching the manor near the patio terrace for our family’s wing. I could see the lights on in the kitchen, and a few lights above my garden flickered to life as the sun began to set. A tiny pinch echoed through my chest as I glanced at my forgotten patch of earth that once was so meaningful to me. The place that used tobring me peace and calm me. I suppose I now channeled that need to help something live into Presley’s farmhouse.
Right as we neared the patio doors, someone appeared in our peripheral. Two smaller images at first and then the looming presence of my least favorite human being. Scotty approached with two of his dogs.
“Need to talk to you two.”
Gio scoffed while pushing forward. “Pass.”
I heard Scotty let out a frustrated sigh, but I followed my brother. Scotty drew closer as the shadows of twilight claimed the terrace. “It’s about your sister and Presley.”
Gio stopped, and I paused merely because I didn’t want to leave him alone with Scotty. If he stabbed him again, his dogs would rip into my brother this time, and then I’d have to kill one, and that would eventually, undoubtedly piss Presley off.
“What about them?” Gio asked.
Scotty was just a few feet away from us when he brought his phone out and showed us the screen. It thankfully wasn’t a FaceTime call, but it did show that Presley was on the phone.
“Pres, tell me that again,” Scotty spoke close to the speaker.
Suddenly, Presley’s voice echoed from his device, making my stomach drop out.
“Adrian has been trying to get Alex out for weeks. At first, it seemed like it would be easy…he called up his pilot and told him to get the plane ready, but within an hour, his pilot had called back, saying Markos had given him a direct order to stay grounded. After that, Adrian let things cool down for about a week, then tried again; this time, he used the excuse that we were going on a vacation, but the result was the same. Markos then took control of the town, all the shops, the cafés, and then his staff started rotating without his approval. We have no idea where these people were taken, or where they went. Adrian and I woke up, and there was suddenly a different person barging into our room first thing in the morning, serving us breakfast.”
I felt my brother’s gaze slide over to me, but I refused to look.
He’d see it in my eyes, the devastation and the guilt. The horror that I’d allowed her to slip through our fingers and land directly into Adrian’s palm, and now Markos. They shared a room…they slept together at night.
Fuck.Why did this hurt so badly when I’d ultimately agreed to let her go?
“Has Markos been in Adrian’s home?” Scotty asked.
