Page 117 of Where Dark Hearts Devour
He shrugs. “I moved away. I was no longer a threat to him.”
“And now?”
“I was getting in the way of his alliance with your father.”
Alarm and realization halts my breath. “And he suspected there was something between me and you…”
“Yes.” Cristiano grazes his thumb over the top of my hand, sending tendrils of fire along my arm. “Enough that he began to see me as a threat to your wedding.”
“Why did he care? Surely, if the wedding didn’t happen, he’d have taken the port from under us anyway.”
Cristiano sighs and stares at the movement of his fingertips curling around and across my palm. “It was the principle. He was already pissed at finding out Father’s plans. For me to be the one you wanted, not him, was another nail in the coffin.”
“How did he find out your father’s plans?”
Cristiano reaches into his inside jacket pocket with his free hand and pulls out a dog-eared piece of folded paper. He sandwiches it between his forefinger and his middle finger and waves it in front of me.
“He found this in Father’s office.” A dark emotion crosses his features like rolling thunder.
“What is it?” I ask quietly.
“It’s a letter Father wrote begging me one final time to reconsider coming home. In it, he lays out his plan to announce me as his successor. It’s dated three days before he died. It was never put in the mail.”
Shock renders me breathless. “You think Savero killed your father?” I whisper, bracing my shoulders.
“I know he did. He told me.”
“What?” I mouth in disbelief.
“Right before I put a bullet in his skull.” Cristiano’s grip around my hand tightens. “There’s more.”
I swallow, because I don’t have any words right now for anything.
“Savero was planning to traffic people into the country via your father’s port.”
“He waswhat?” My hatred for the man grows overwhelmingly.
Cristiano’s tone is grave. “I overheard him talking to associates of the Mexican cartel.”
My eye sockets are starting to ache from staring in disbelief.
“I shot them all.”
My chest braces, and he sees it.
“That deal will never happen.”
I may loathe violence, I may hate everything Papa’s involvement with the Di Santos has stood for over the years, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t learned a thing or two.
“At what cost?”
“I don’t know yet. But it won’t be long before the cartel discovers their associates are dead. Then we’ll find out.”
His words settle on me like acid rain. I know what this means. It means war. And Cristiano will believe a war is hisdoing. He won’t want to return to Vegas now and leave the rest of the family to pick up the pieces.
He sighs. “I swear, this couldn’t have happened any other way. The second I heard their conversation and figured out what they were planning, I had to stop it from going any further. I had to kill my brother.”
Then he leans in, his long lashes fanning my hot skin. “But let me be clear, Trilby. That wasn’twhyI killed my brother.” He moves closer, so I’m certain no one else in the room can hear, then he cups my chin and lifts my gaze to his. “I killed himfor you.”
