Page 72 of Shadow Man
I’m almost impressed. Everything she suggested makes outstanding business sense.
“I see your soul is as compromised as your father’s—”
“And my Uncle’s.”
“Touché.” The bitch is growing on me. “Are you applying for the position?”
“Would you offer it to me if I were?”
What a fucking joke. How old is she? Twenty-two? Twenty-three?
“Viviana,” I say patiently. “I don't trust you. I will never trust any spawn of my brother’s. Your place is lying in the ground, six-feet-under, preferably next to him, and not running a cartel where guns and violence are used freely and without restraint. In exactly five minutes your brains will be decorating this kitchen floor, so I think you’re excused from the application process, don’t you?” She stares at me, frozen and unblinking, reminding me so much of her father that I can feel the bile rising up inside of me. “Is there anything else on your ‘I hate Dante Santiago list’ you’d like to confess before I pull the trigger?”
“Because of what you did to Manuel.”
Now it’s my turn to blink. “Nothing like dragging up the past,” I say, recovering quickly. “That’s old news. Manuel died protecting my wife last year. There’s no greater honor than that, and Gabriela knows it.”
“He was like a brother to me!” Her tight expression fails to crush the surge of emotion in her voice. “He was happy in Colombia until you made him go and work for you.”
“If we’re getting technical about it, he was actually your uncle,” I say flippantly. “My father fucked Gabriela and he was the result. I use the term “fucked” loosely...”
There’s a pause. “I shotEl Asesinobecause I thought he was kidnapping and hurting my friend.”
“I don't give a shit if you thought he was the Easter Bunny and you needed a sugar fix.”
She’s loyal to someone in this house, and it’s not me.
“You’re a real piece of shit, you know that?” she says, finally losing her cool.
I give her a wintry smile. “You’re not the first person to throw insults my way tonight, and I doubt you’ll be the last.”
“Tell me how you knew about me?”
Does this bitch show any fear?
“Anonymous tip off two days ago…. Any other last requests?” I click off the safety and aim high to make it a clean kill. She’s my niece, after all.
“I’m not frightened of dying, Dante Santiago,” she says suddenly, her face an eerie mask of calm. “With the exception of Gabriela and Anna, all the people I’ve ever loved are in heaven. Manual, and Matias, and…”
“And who?” I snap, guessing what’s coming but wanting to hear it anyway.
“Your first daughter, Isabella,” she finishes quietly.
This time I do more than blink. I lower my weapon. “What did you say?”
“I was eight when Gabriela found me,” she says, her face working hard to push emotion away again. “Just a year after she swore to raise your daughter as her own. I loved her like a sister until she—”
“Shut your goddamn mouth,” I snarl, raising my weapon to shoulder height again. “You have no right to claim a piece of her after what your father did.”
“And you have no right to be pointing a gun at me when all I’m guilty of, in your eyes, is being a blood-burden.”
Silence falls over the kitchen.
Is she bracing herself? Is she saying her prayers?
Finally, I shock the shit out of both of us by clicking the safety back on.
“Get the fuck out of my sight,” I tell her gruffly, collecting the bourbon on my way to the door. “The next time I see you, the quality of my mercy will be a damn sight weaker than it is now.”