Sinner's Revenge(90)
I call Diem, and my heart rate spikes when she doesn’t answer. Dialing again, she answers on the second ring, snapping in my ear. “What?”
“Why didn’t you answer the first time?” I snap back, throwing shit in my bag with a little more force than necessary.
“Because I’m busy. What do you want, Shady?” She sounds aggravated. I can hear men around her talking, their accents thick and some even speaking in a different language.
“Business meeting stressing you out, pretty girl?” I ask, lowering my tone.
She sighs, a sure sign that she is overworked and exhausted. “You have no idea,” she mumbles into the phone.
“Well, I got a call from your daddy. He wants me to come babysit.”
“I know,” she says, unaffected by my snarky comeback. “I had to endure his wrath because I didn’t keep you with me after he told me to. I guess he figured he’d pull rank on me.”
“He did. You okay with that?” I ask, not that her answer will matter either way. I don’t want to swim with the fishes. And I miss her.
“Do I have a choice?”
“Nope.”
I can feel her smile through the phone. “Well, when will you be here? I miss ordering you around.” I know she misses me too, even though she refuses to admit it.
“I’m flying out in an hour. I’ll be there by dark.” Hanging up, I throw my bags over my shoulder, locking up Dirk’s house behind me. Maybe one day, I’ll be able to say it’s mine. And I’ll be able to share it with Diem. But as I mount my bike that rational side of my brain reminds me that will never happen.
* * *
Clark picks me up from the airport in Concord. If he’s here to get me, then I know that wherever Diem is, she’s safe. He greets me with a nod, and I waste no time picking his brain for information.
“How is she?”
He takes a moment to find the right words to say before answering my question. “She’s fine.”
I smirk. “Are those her words or yours?”
“Hers,” he answers shortly.
“Do you believe her?” I ask, lighting a smoke. I offer one to him but he refuses.
“What I believe is irrelevant.”
I shake my head, ready to cut through this Mafia loyalty bullshit. “It’s relevant to me. I want the truth, Clark. Your truth. It goes no further than the two of us.”
Cutting his eyes at me, he gives me a long hard look before glancing at the dash. I follow his gaze to the intercom system that is recording every word we say. With a push of a few buttons, I disable it. “There. Now talk.”
“She’s buckling under the pressure,” he starts, throwing his sunglasses on the dash and dragging a hand down his face. Damn, he looks like he hasn’t slept in weeks. “Ever since she took over, Dorian’s been testing her. He wants her to appear ruthless so nobody questions her authority. And to do that, she’s been doing nothing but killing since she got into this. Every time she pulls the trigger, I see a little piece of her die.”
There is no denying the anger in his voice. He’s pissed at how Dorian is handling things, and even more pissed that he can’t do anything about it.
“You can’t pull the trigger for her?” I ask, knowing that like me, killing comes second nature to a man like him.
He shakes his head. “He wants her to do it. Like she has something to prove. She doesn’t have shit to prove. She is Diem Demopolous. The Mafiusa. Daughter of Dorian. The underboss. That is proof in itself.” His Greek accent thickens with the rise of his temper. “I do not agree with Dorian, but he is my don and I stand behind him. But Diem.” He lets out a breath. “She is better than this. Better than us.” He looks over at me, letting me know that I’m in that category.
“How are you tied into Dorian?” I ask, and he’s reluctant to answer.
“I am his brother.” His voice is low, almost a whisper. He keeps his eyes on the road, ignoring my curious stare.
“But he said his brothers were murdered.”
“So he said. Like Dirk, I was protected. But Diem is the future in his eyes. She is the one who will change the face of the Mafia. I am nothing more than a soldier.” His lips curl as he says the words. “But at least I get to watch over the one I still see as a little girl. She needs someone to count on. I know she has me.” He glances over, trying to read me. “Does she have you too?”
With conviction and promise, I give him my answer. “You’re fucking right she does.”
On the top floor of the Concord Skyrise Building, Diem is seated at the head of the table surrounded by the Mafia hierarchy. The walls are glass, giving you a full view of the entire lobby and the outside world. After all her hard work, she’d finally made it to the top. But I believe it’s the last place she wants to be.