Jack hands me a tumbler with amber liquid. “God, how I’ve missed this. Is it yours Matt?”
My brother nods from across the study, always modest about his private label. He may not have followed in the family business, but it’s for the best. His whiskey competes with some of the top labels from around the world. “Best batch we’ve had to date.”
“As much as I’d like to sit here and talk about liquor, we’ve got pressing matters to address.” Jack takes a seat in one of the wingback chairs next to the fireplace, his eyes landing on mine before he starts again. “Look, I know this is going to be hard, and I didn’t ask you down in Texas because I wanted to give you some time, but I just need to know…”
“Spit it out,” I urge our eldest brother on. Whatever it is, I rather get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
“We thought you were dead. The men of WRATH told us they’d seen a decapitated body wearing your clothing. Under the circumstances. They couldn’t stay and take prints, but we assumed it was you. What happened?”
“I had to do it.” My stomach rolls, the memory of what I did haunting me every time I close my eyes. A man just doesn’t come back from something as brutal as that. It stains your soul, forever embedding the gruesome details into the registry of your mind. “I needed enough time to find Blanca and the kids. If they found my torturer on the ground, then they’d immediately be on high alert. So I did what I had to do. Switched clothes, took off his head and hid it. It wasn’t pretty, and I never in a million years thought I’d do something like that, but when it came to my family or him, the choice was easy.”
Jack nods as Hunter makes a noise of agreement. Jace and Matt, however, just stare at me—both in various stages of disbelief and horror.
“What I’m about to ask is meant in no way as disrespect. We just want to know… You decapitated the sicario, but then you left the compound. Why?”
“It’s a decision I didn’t make lightly, one that still cuts deep to this day.” I take a sip of whiskey, letting the liquid burn, embracing the sting before I lay it all out there. “I’d overheard the men guarding my family talking about Blanca. How she’d told them that Penelope was an heir to the Cárdenas Cartel. They wanted to use her as barter, but because el Jefe was out of town, they had to wait to make that decision. It gave Blanca and the kids a tiny window of safety, but it was there. I had to decide whether to fight numerous men on my own or leave them and find help. Leaving was the lesser of two evils.”
At some point during my speaking, Jack had gotten up and is now at his desk. “I need to tell the men of WRATH what you just said. They had eyes on her at Cárdenas’ villa but didn’t know under what capacity she was there. This is huge.”
I nod, glad to find out that the same men who pulled me from the desert are the same ones on the job for extracting Penelope. By the time I reached civilization, they had already pulled my kids out of the hell they’d been enduring for an entire week.
Unfortunately, Blanca didn’t make it. By the time the rescue came, they’d already killed her. Decapitated and laid to rest next to the body of my would-be torturer.
A soul searing guilt claws its way through my body, making my skin uncomfortably tight. I want to rid myself of it, set myself on fire and burn until the guilt of Blanca’s death floats away. But that’s impossible and incredibly selfish. I don’t deserve absolution of this fault, and the children don’t deserve to lose another parent.
A hand on my shoulder squeezes and my eyes drift up to find Hunter standing next to me. “You did what you had to do, brother. Nobody faults you.”
God. His words are like a flaming knife to the heart. It is my fault. This is all my fault. Squeezing my eyes shut, I let him know just that. “I’m the reason we were in Mexico. I’m the one who had business with the Las Cruces cartel.”
The room grows silent and the air shifts, the tension palpable. First to speak is Jack. “Why?”
One word. One word with a ton of weight.
“Dad.” I sit there debating whether to elaborate, knowing that this information has the power to send one or all of them down the same rabbit hole I went on. Ultimately, I conclude they deserve to know. What they do with it is up to them. “We all know that our parents’ death wasn’t an accident.”
All Crown brothers murmur in agreement. Four years ago, our parents were driven off the road after a night at the theatre. The coroner’s report showed an insane blood alcohol level for our father, suggesting that he’d been drunk when he got behind the wheel that night.
Nothing could have been a brighter red flag for our family. Our father never drank. He was vehemently against it and even went as far as threatening to remove Matt from his will when he started his own distillery. Clearly, the story being painted wasn’t the real one.
“I thought we all agreed to leave it alone once we uncovered who Dad’s silent partner was.” Matt raises a brow, wondering why I’d deviated from our plan, which wasn’t really a plan at all.
“Feigning ignorance wasn’t jiving with me,” I retort, quickly dialing back the fire in my tone. It’s that very attitude that put my family in danger in the first place. “I reached out to Dad’s partner with the excuse that I’d be taking over the reins and that I wanted to keep our relationship moving forward.”
Jack slams his fist onto his desk, the sound bouncing off the walls and making his glass rattle. “Damn it, Austin. You knew his ties to the Las Cruces cartel. Why on earth would you want to stay in touch?”
Matt cuts in. “He’s right. As tragic as Dad’s death was, this was your ticket out. You could have used this as a way of severing ties, but you strengthened them instead. Why?”
“I had to know. I just had to know.” My hands are in my hair, pulling at the strands as I try to will a time machine to life. What I would give to take it all back.
“What’s done is done.” Jace surprises us with his levelheaded wisdom, making us all look up and stare at the youngest Crown brother. “Curiosity killed the cat, and in this case, Blanca.”
Aaaaand he’s back, saying the most inappropriate but accurate shit. It sucks the air right out of my lungs.
“Yes. I agree that this can’t happen again, but blood needs to be had.” Hunter speaks up, the air around him crackling with his palpable rage. “These fuckers have cost our family far too much. Everyone involved must pay.”
Matt nods. “It’s what we decided last week. Before we had the information you just dropped on us.”
I feel a twitch in my eye as I hear this. “Before you make any decisions, you have to know what I found.”
This gets their attention, all the brothers remaining quiet as I drop the biggest bomb of all.
“Dad was being blackmailed. He didn’t want to have anything to do with the Las Cruces cartel, but they’d threaten his family. Specifically, Blanca and Penelope.”
Jack sucks in a sharp breath while the rest of the room murmurs various curse words.
“But why?” Jack asks, his eyes wild with a multitude of emotions.
“At first, I didn’t know. I’d been digging for two years when I’d discovered that bit of information. Blanca was married to the head of the Cárdenas cartel before he became Jefe. She’d been an accomplice to a multitude of crimes, and only broke free once she was pregnant with Penelope.” I get up and approach the bar. I’m going to need more of the hard stuff to keep going. Pouring myself another healthy serving, I blow out a breath and continue. “Apparently, some wrongs Blanca committed were against the head of the Las Cruces Cartel, and once he’d found her location and who she had financial ties to… let’s just say he wanted reparations.”
“Jesus. Why didn’t dad say anything?” Jace looks about as shocked as I was when I first found out.
Shrugging my shoulders, I answer, “My guess is he didn’t want to worry us with it. Wanted to handle it all himself so it didn’t touch his family. Instead, he just cut the cartel into the business and kept up pretenses, as if everything was fine.”
Hunter paces back and forth in front of the fireplace. “But then what went wrong? This had presumably been going on for years. Why did they decide to end Dad’s life, and along with it, Mom’s?”
“That, I don’t know. I never got around to meeting with el Jefe. I’d been working my way up to that point, but it all went to shit in Mexico. They thought I’d hidden something. What, I have no fucking clue.”
“This is all too crazy.” Jace is now up from his chair, pacing back and forth in front of Jack’s desk.
“Pen…” My stepdaughter’s name leave’s Jack’s lips in a whisper. “Our priority is getting her back. Just because the head of the Cárdenas cartel is her dad doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any ill will toward her. He could be angry at Blanca for keeping her from him all these years.”
“Agreed.” I nod as I approach his desk. “Call back the men of WRATH securities and tell them we need to get all the info we can on Cárdenas. See if he has any business ties to Las Cruces or the Crown Enterprise. We don’t want any surprises.”
“Also, find out if they have any more info on the jefe for the Las Cruces cartel. Last we heard; they’d all gone into hiding after our raid. They’re one of the largest runners in the country. It seems strange that all the key players have vanished off the grid. Something just doesn’t sound right.” Hunter’s words have me taking a step back.
“They all just disappeared?”
“Yup. Like a man-whore ghosting last night’s lay.” Jace’s analogy has me shaking my head while huffing out a half-hearted chuckle.
“You have a way with words, brother.”
“It’s a gift. What can I say?” Jace gives me his signature grin. One I’m sure gets him his way with the ladies, but does nothing but make me laugh.
“It’s a gift, alright. The gift of bullshit,” Matt ribs.
It’s the last bit of lightness before the men of WRATH pick up our call and reality sets in once more. We have a long and dark path back to normal, if that’s even
“It’s a gift, alright. The gift of bullshit,” Matt ribs.
It’s the last bit of lightness before the men of WRATH pick up our call and reality sets in once more. We have a long and dark path back to normal, if that’s even possible. But one way or another, I’ll get us there.
