Page 91
Was escape really all she wanted from me?
The fear on her face looked genuine, but I wasn’t betting my life on it.
I shifted as far as the restraints allowed. Pain pulled across my ribs and sent another cramp through my shoulders.
Good.
Pain was simple.
Mouse wasn’t.
“There’s something I need to ask you,” she said.
“Ask.”
“The man I told you I trusted shared some of what Father had learned about you. He said you’re an Irish mafia captain and a member of a new, powerful syndicate. That you and your brother run a club in Manhattan with an illegal casino beneath it.”
“All true.”
“He also said you’re connected to a Russian bratva pakhan, Nikolai Volkov, and an old-world mafia boss, Luca Genovese. He said you attack Father’s routes and intercept his weapons.” She hesitated. “And from everything I’ve heard, you kill people.”
“When necessary.”
She waited for an excuse.
I didn’t give her one.
“I never said I was a saint, Isabella. I run Xyst. I collect debts. I use violence when talking won’t get the job done.”
Hearing her name from me caught her off guard. Her breath stalled, and her lips parted slightly before she closed them again, straightening her expression.
“Then why should I believe I’ll be safe with you?”
“You shouldn’t—not yet. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you.”
She blinked.
“At least you’re honest.”
“Lying would be stupid. You’ve already heard enough to know what I am.”
“You told me your people would take me with them. Is that really true?”
“I told you that because I needed you to come back.”
The words hurt her. She looked down at the water bottle. When she faced me again, the tentative trust I’d seen there had taken a hit.
“I said what I needed to get you back in this room,” I said. “That was strategy. The promise wasn’t.”
“That isn’t reassuring.”
“It wasn’t meant to be. We’re just starting to get to know each other. Trust goes both ways, and it has to be earned. I won’t risk my people for a story I haven’t verified, but I gave you my word that you’d leave with us and I won’t break it. I’m not the kind of man who’ll take advantage of you. You help me, I’ll help you.”
She studied me for another moment. “You see, I don’t know what kind of man you are. I don’t know if you and your men are just like my father or if you have any lines you won’t cross. I don’t want to escape one cartel only to end up trapped by another with a different name.”
“We don’t traffic women or sell children. We don’t hurt civilians for sport. And we don’t hand a woman back to the monster who caged her.”
Her eyes searched mine, weighing every word.
