Page 37 of Knuckles & Knives
As I sit on the roof with Axel’s warmth surrounding me, the taste of four different kisses still lingering on my lips, I realize that everything has changed tonight. Not just because I won my first official fight under my own name, not just because I’veannounced my return to the underground world that destroyed my family.
Everything has changed because I’m no longer Vincent Blackwood’s daughter trying to prove herself worthy of his legacy. I’m Raven Blackwood, and I’m building my own empire… with four dangerous men who’ve claimed pieces of my heart I didn’t know I was willing to give.
The war for my father’s legacy is just beginning, but tonight, surrounded by the city lights and held by someone who sees the fire in me as a feature rather than a flaw, I’m not afraid of what’s coming.
I’m looking forward to it.
CHAPTER 13
The taste of victory is still sweet on my tongue when Dom finds me in my apartment three hours later. I’m sitting on my couch with an ice pack pressed to my swollen knuckles, replaying the fight in my head, when I hear his key in the lock. He’s the only one I’ve given access to, a decision that felt right even when I couldn’t explain why.
He enters quietly, closing the door behind him with deliberate care. In the dim light of my living room, he looks older somehow, the lines around his eyes more pronounced, his shoulders carrying a weight I haven’t seen before.
“Can’t sleep either?” I ask, setting aside the ice pack.
“Sleep’s overrated.” He moves toward me with that controlled grace that makes him so dangerous, but there’s something different about him tonight. The fierce pride from earlier has been replaced by something darker and more complex. “We need to talk.”
A chill runs down my spine that has nothing to do with the ice pack. “About what?”
He settles into the armchair across from me, his massive frame somehow making the expensive furniture look delicate.For a long moment, he just stares at his hands, those scarred, powerful hands that have dealt out violence and protection.
“About your father,” he says finally. “About the night he died.”
My blood turns to ice. “Dom?—”
“You deserve to know the truth. All of it.” His dark eyes meet mine, and I can see the weight of secrets he’s been carrying. “I was there, Raven. I was there when Vincent Blackwood was murdered.”
I suck in a breath. Five years of wondering, of constructing theories and chasing shadows, and the man I had a crush on years ago and who I’ve been falling for has known the truth all along.
Will what he say line up with the intelligence Marcus gave me? What about The Sterling Syndicate?
“Tell me,” I whisper, my voice barely audible.
Dom runs a hand through his close-cropped hair, and I can see his knuckles trembling slightly. “Your father called me that night. Said he’d discovered who was feeding information to his enemies, who’d been slowly dismantling his organization from the inside. He wanted me there as backup when he confronted them.” He pauses, his jaw working.
I lean forward. “Marcus told me Jacek Kowalski was the inside man, that he provided security schedules and intelligence to the killers.” I watch Dom’s face carefully. “He showed me photographs and financial records.”
Dom’s expression flickers with surprise and then something that might be relief mixed with resignation. “Fuck. I should have known Quintana would get to you first.” He scrubs his face with both hands. “Marcus wasn’t lying. Not entirely.”
“What do you mean not entirely?”
“ Jacek Kowalski was involved, but he wasn’t the mastermind.” Dom’s voice is heavy with old pain. “He was onlya facilitator. Someone got to him and convinced him your father was planning to destroy everything they’d built together. Jacek thought he was saving the organization, not destroying it.”
The pieces shift in my mind, creating a more complex picture than either man had painted alone.
“Who got to him?” I ask.
“Antonio Vega.” Dom’s voice cracks on the name. “My uncle. My father’s brother. The man who raised me after my parents died.”
The room spins around me. Antonio Vega. Another one Vincent Blackwood’s most trusted lieutenant and maybe his closest friend for over twenty years. Antonio bounced me on his knee when I was small and called me his honorary niece.
“So Marcus was right about the betrayal,” I say slowly, “but wrong about who orchestrated it?”
“ Jacek was a pawn,” Dom confirms. “Antonio fed him carefully crafted lies about your father planning to eliminate longtime associates, about how Vincent was going soft and would get them all killed. Jacek believed he was protecting the organization by providing intel to what he thought was an internal reorganization.”
“But it was actually Antonio setting up my father for murder.”
“Yes.” Dom stands and moves to the window, his shoulders rigid. “Your father had started to suspect Jacek was feeding information somewhere, but he never imagined it was being manipulated by Antonio. The night he died, Vincent thought he was confronting Jacek about loose lips and poor judgment. He had no idea he was walking into an execution.”
