Page 61 of Madness Behind the Mask
I try not to think how many of them have died for that ‘privilege.’
“I found Katie,” Myers finally says as he glances at my closed bedroom door. Sau’s whimpers come from behind the wood, and my heart aches with the distance between us –not just the physical space but the uncertainty about what she saw David doing to Olivia. Did she see him touching her? Did she let him convince her that that was okay? Did she keep quiet when telling me could have saved her? Or did she only have her suspicions? Her lack of knowledge and ignorance?
I can’t find the words to ask her.
Can’t find the strength of knowing if she knew.
SoI focusinsteadon what my brother is saying. Katie has given me her loyalty all these years; it is the least I owe her. “Where was her body?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “She’s alive.”
“What?” My attention focuses sharply.
“She claims David tried to kill her, so she hypnotized him to think he did, and she ran. She wanted to get to you personally, but I found her first.”
“Is she okay?”
“A bit pale. A bit beaten up, but she’ll live. She’s tough.”
I exhale an empty laugh. That she fucking is. “Does she know why David tried to kill her?” Katie isn’t just a run-of-the-mill hypnotist. She’s extremely talented, able to use her magic in tiny, indiscernible doses that make her target tellher things they don’t mean to reveal.
His jaw tightens. “He was going to stage a coup. He’s been getting rid ofthose loyal to you –”
“LikeChristianGale,” I cut in.
His face grows even more grim. “Among others.”
“Who?”
“She didn’t get their names, but he bragged abouttheirplan being three years in the making.”
“Joseph Migor,” I growl instantly. He stepped in front of a car and died on scene. But that fucker was paranoid as hel. I’ve never met someone who checked the road six times before they crossed. His death has never settled well in my stomach.
“Perhaps,” he says, not confirming anything. No doubt with David unable to talk or sign, we’ll never truly know.
My brother glances away from me, looking off in the distance as he battles something inside him.“There’s one last thing…”he finally says with a grimness that hits me hard. “It’s about Leon.”
“I know.”
A silence descends, saying more words than either of us are able to.
I swore to protect my wife.
I swore to protect my children.
Perhaps if Leonhadjust tried to kill me, I wouldhave stayed stillandlet him plunge the blade between my rib cage. But he sold out his mother when she was helpless. He allowed his uncle to rape his baby sister.
A part of me wants to give my son the benefit of the doubt.
A part of me wants to believe David only said those thingsabouthimbeinginvolvedto tear this Family apart, knowing that if I killed both him andmy heir, my position as Boss would be as solid as a sandcastleat low tide.
But there is a bigger part of me that already knows.
That knew it as soon as he droppedChristianGale’s head on my desk. When he avoided his motherafter she woke. When he avoided my eyes that night in his kitchen when I asked why he hadn’t been to see her.
Leon might not know what David did to Olivia. But there is no doubt that he knew what he was doing to Sau.
My eyes lift up to those of my brother’s.“Make it look like Aleric did it,”I say slowly,not wanting to give Sau another reason to obsess over Antonio.“And don’t lethimknowit’s coming.”
