Though she wasn’t looking at him, she could still feel his gaze on the side of her face—she was afraid of the expression she would find there.
“You’ve been standing out here for two hours?”
Not necessarily standing, she wanted to say to stem his judgment. Her car was there, her driver reading a book while they stayed there, but after a while, she had started to feel sorry for the man and told him to grab a bite to eat or something before he came back for her.
She wasn’t sure how long ago that had been, but she also didn’t want to check.
“I should want this,” she said softly, words she could only tell him. “I should want him to die for what he did.”
An eye for an eye.
Something Katherine had taught them all.
And revenge, she’d said, should always ensure the person on the receiving end could never recover.
“That’s not how love works,” he said, his voice just as soft as he moved closer to her. “Love is blind. You can’t help who you fall in love with.”
Karina glanced up in his direction, almost wishing she’d waited a few seconds longer, and then maybe she might not have seen the pained expression that crossed his face as the unspoken confession lingered between them.
Now wasn’t the time to be thinking about Uilleam and the words he’d spoken to her the last time they’d had a conversation about Orion.
I see the way he looks at you because it’s the way I look at you.
Maybe she was willfully naïve, or painfully unobservant, but she hadn’t seen it until now. And oh, how she wished she hadn’t finally seen it now.
If only because she knew how it must have hurt to watch the person they loved mourn for someone else.
Hurt for someone else.
Love someone else.
“I’m sorry,” she said, knowing that it wouldn’t help the way he felt, but she felt the need to say the words anyway.
Orion shrugged, brushing it away. “What’s the plan?”
She licked her lips, looking back at the warehouse. “Nothing has changed.”
Uilleam still needed to answer for what he had done, even as she hurt for what was done to him.
Except now, there was another name to add to her list.
Much later, after the sun had gone down and she had finally ventured home, the only thing Karina wanted to do at that moment was climb into her bed and let the exhaustion take her away.
But as she walked through the darkened hallway to her bedroom, she startled at the sight of Jackal standing unmoving and seemingly waiting for her.
If her heart beat any harder, she was sure it would break right through her rib cage, but as she drew in a much-needed breath, she reminded herself that he was still adapting. That he probably didn’t realize how alarming it was to find him hovering in the shadows like that.
Resting her hand against her chest, Karina said, “You nearly scared me to death.”
His brows pinched together; his expression troubled. He looked almost ... nervous, but for the life of her, she didn’t know why.
“Ja—”
“Did I mess up?”
In all the time she had known him, she had never heard him sound as lost as he did in this moment.
For a moment, she didn’t understand what he meant, and then just as quickly, she remembered he had been the one to actually shoot Uilleam—to leave him fighting for his life on that street corner.
Yet her blame had never been on him, but rather on the two who’d instructed him to act.
The two who had gone behind her back and knowingly acted against her wishes.
She couldn’t blame him for that.
“No,” she said, answering his question. “I don’t blame you.”
He looked unsure, his brows pinching together. His expression made her sad. “You were upset.”
“But not at you,” she said softly. “It wasn’t your fault.”
He nodded once. “Are you going to punish me for it?”
That question broke her heart because she knew, without him having to say, this was what he was used to—being punished for things out of his control. “We’re friends,” she told him even as she still didn’t know his real name. “Friends don’t punish friends.”
It was subtle, but she still saw the way some of the tension left him.
“Friends don’t punish friends,” he repeated, softer than she had.
She watched him leave, glad that, for once, she could ease the suffering of someone else even as hers continued to climb.
26
Moving Forward
Karina might have been ashamed by the sheer length of time she’d spent poring over the camera feed of the warehouse where Uilleam was still residing, but it wasn’t a secret she was willing to share with anyone.
She didn’t want their judgment.
She didn’t want to see the way their expressions changed when they realized she wasn’t watching this feed because she hoped she would see him die in that place.
They didn’t need to know that the reminder of him there made it nearly impossible for her to focus on anything else.
“Dollface, you’ve got that look again.”
Karina looked up in time to see Orion enter her office, mindful of the stares in his direction, though he seemed oblivious to them.
Seemed being the operative word.
He was, after all, one of the only two men who had been welcome in this space since she’d begun her work.
She hadn’t sought out to only hire women at the start of this, but when she had started the process of looking for people to work under her—those who were willing to keep her secrets and do whatever was asked of them for a sizable payment—she’d found herself moved by those with a story.
Those who had suffered in some way and wanted to feel some level of control over their life once more.
And was that not something she deeply understood?
“You could have called instead of showing up in person,” she reminded him even as she stood to step into his embrace, the warm comforting scent of his cologne engulfing her senses for a moment.
His smile grew a bit lopsided and charming—Orion’s specialty. “You don’t even know what I’ve come to say yet.”
“Whatever it is, I can’t imagine it compares to the ego stroke you get when you walk in here.”
He scoffed even as he laughed. “You don’t give me enough credit, babe.”
“By all means,” she said as she reclaimed her seat, “prove me wrong.”
“You’ve got the Russians on board.”
Ah, that was good news for her, considering she’d been attempting to broker a deal with them for nearly a year now. Orion had proven instrumental in that regard. Not only because he had connections with the men in question and was very good at converting people to his way of thinking, but also because the business deals she was attempting to cultivate wouldn’t have come to fruition without him.
Karina had never doubted for a moment that he was good at what he did. It was why so many worked with him despite the fact he wasn’t particularly loyal to any one family.
And now, with the deals he’d brokered in her name after she’d given him a list of people who were worthy of investing in, he’d delivered time and time again.
Orion was invaluable.
With a satisfied grin, he reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked, to anyone else, like a worthless token, but she understood what it symbolized and how much it was worth.
“Nej is willing to pay whatever dollar amount you can think of if you get rid of his shipping problem.”
Unlike the Russians Orion had worked for back when he’d just been the jack-of-all-trades, Nejik had far more money and a vast amount of power that put the other men to shame.
And if there was one thing she had learned about him over the course of the months they’d now been doing business together, intimidation wouldn’t work on him. It was why, despite how long he’d been in
this business, he had never worked with Uilleam.
Her former lover could be brash and used the army he had cultivated as a means to strong-arm the things he wanted. That had proven beneficial for her.
Because while she offered similar services, there was no army to pressure them—though everyone, upon meeting him, gave Jackal a wide berth.
And as her mother had taught her, she used her femininity as a weapon.
To them, they saw an attractive woman willing to offer them what they wanted with a smile. She didn’t need their fear.
Some, of course, attempted to use that as a weakness, but a visit from Jackal in the wee hours of the morning always took care of that little problem.
“Tell him I’ll be able to move his product within the next three months.”
Orion arched a brow, seeming unsure. “That’s a short timeframe.”
It was, but she had her reasons. “It’s only a temporary solution for the time being—to show him we can do what was promised. The job itself won’t be finished for some time.”
Because Uilleam would be the one to provide that for him, though he didn’t know it at the moment.
She studied his operation now just as much as she had when she’d taken Grimm, and within the careful folds, she found one of his carefully guarded secrets.
Luna Santiago—the girl who was supposed to die.
When she realized the girl they had argued over wasn’t just alive but also a part of his Den, Karina had searched for any information she could find on her. Not just because of her own curiosity, but because she had felt some measure of sadness knowing how she had come to be where she was now.
That Uilleam had accepted a contract to kill her.
He might not have carried through with it, but the fact that he had accepted it at all had always troubled her.
But that would come later because after a bit of careful planning and a stroke of luck, the girl in question would be coming here later for a job. Uilleam made it too easy to contract his mercenaries for assignments—or rather, Zachariah did. As long as the money was there and the profile was clean, he rarely dug any deeper.
Their mistake.
“Still worried?”
The question made Karina blink, her thoughts drifting away as she focused back on Orion, realizing that his attention was on the monitor in front of her—and the camera feed of Uilleam’s location.
“It’s not important,” she said easily, though she dropped her gaze.
His smile was a little rueful. “Wouldn’t be here without him, would we?”
She wanted to argue differently—tell him he was wrong at the very least—but she couldn’t.
In many ways, without him, they wouldn’t be where they were now. Without him, none of this would have been possible.
“All the same,” she settled on saying, “there’s nothing to worry about.”
“Why don’t I—oh, for fuck’s sake, woman.”
She blinked at the sudden change in his tone, wondering what had sparked it ... until she looked up in time to see the woman currently being led to her office by Kava and Jackal.
The woman who was currently working as Uilleam’s nurse.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
Orion turned wide eyes to her, his disbelief near blinding. “What the fuck else does it look like?”
Just as she hadn’t told him about her unlawful stalking of him since he’d been shot, she had hoped to avoid this altogether—which was why she had asked them to bring her in on a day when she hadn’t expected him to visit. This felt almost impossible to explain.
He would have pushed her for an answer had their conversation not been interrupted when the door was opened and the woman was led inside.
Almost by nature, Karina’s gaze went to Kava first, ensuring she was well, before she moved to Jackal and studied his expression long enough to determine how he was feeling.
As long as he didn’t have that little pinch between his brows or rage in his eyes, his blank expression meant he was in a relatively good mood.
Regrettably, the woman looked alarmed as she was led from the elevators, her gaze darting over Orion briefly but lingering on Jackal.
Better to keep the biggest threat in your sights, as it were.
“You’re not in any danger,” Karina said to her, bringing her attention around to her. “Just a bit of friendly conversation.”
“This doesn’t feel very friendly,” the woman said naturally.
“I couldn’t afford for anyone to see you leave.”
Karina showed her to the couch, gesturing for her to sit before picking up her cup of tea.
“Then it’s about him, isn’t it?” she asked, her eyes widening. “The guy I’m treating.”
“I—”
“Listen, I don’t know anything about anything. I was only told to make sure his wounds are clean. I don’t even know his name.”
“Is he all right?” she asked, the question leaving her mouth before she could find another way to ask it without it sounding as if she were personally invested in the nurse’s answer.
Marla looked … almost surprised by the question. “Recovering.”
“Chances of infection were slim, weren’t they? And if he had one, it would have manifested by this time?”
It was obvious from the way Marla’s brow knitted together that she hadn’t been expecting the question—or perhaps she was expecting Karina to have attempted to kill him.
It was what anyone else would do.
After all, he was at his most vulnerable because while he might have had some security with the mercenaries, he was still forced to remain in one central position.
If you knew where to look, anyone could find him.
“How long is his expected recovery time?”
“The doctor told him a few weeks.”
Which meant he’d maybe last a few more days at best.
“Any lasting damage?”
“Should he rest and not … push himself, he shouldn’t have any permanent damage, no.”
Relief shouldn’t have been what she felt at that moment.
Furthest from it.
Later, after the nurse had gone and Orion had followed behind her, Karina had buried herself in her work, focusing on one task at a time until the meeting she had set up months ago.
She was playing a dangerous game now, that much she knew considering what she had done, but she couldn’t bring herself to care when there was still much to be done.
If she wanted to get to Uilleam before her mother or Elias did, then she would have to do things she wouldn’t otherwise be comfortable with—and that all started with one person she had never anticipated.
And before long, the person she had been waiting to see had finally shown up.
It was her.
She was certainly older than the family picture she’d found online due to Carmen Rivera’s press run.
But there was no mistaking that the woman currently standing in front of her was Luna, the girl Uilleam had been paid to murder.
She remembered that night far too well—how it had changed the way she looked at him, though she hadn’t realized it at the time.
Sometimes, she thought that was the moment when she felt as if she didn’t know him at all.
He’d told her he’d found another way—that he would spare her life if only because Karina had asked it of him.
It was that thought she clung to when Katherine compared Uilleam to the other men who they did business with.
Seeing her standing there, Karina wanted to spill the truth about everything she knew and was quite positive Luna didn’t, but even as she wanted that, it wasn’t time just yet.
She had steps to follow. Each piece had to be perfectly in place for her to pull off what she intended. Any deviation could result not only in her failure, but also in something far worse.
So for the time being, she couldn’t look at her as Luna, a girl she had unknowingly helped once upon a t
ime, but as the woman she was now.
Calavera.
A mercenary under Uilleam’s employ.
“Calavera,” she greeted, keeping her expression neutral. “A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance. I’ve heard great things.”
Luna looked surprised for a moment.
She wasn’t what Luna had been expecting.
“Belladonna?”
She nodded. “As good a name as any, I suppose. Please, let’s speak in my office.”
Luna nodded before dutifully standing, allowing her to walk ahead.
She didn’t attempt to fill the silence until they were in the private elevator that led up to her private office one floor up. This one was inaccessible to anyone other than herself.
She needed to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed.
And if this ended the way she was sure it would, she also didn’t need Luna relaying the details of her office to Uilleam with any confidence.
“I appreciate your enduring my security measures, but you can understand my discretion as an employee of the Kingmaker’s.”
Luna had worked for him for more than a year now, and she could only imagine what sort of people she’d crossed paths with in that time.
Her expression reflected that. “Sure.”
The devil was in the details, and Karina had made sure she emphasized one of them.
In particular, the blue rose nestled in the very center of an all-white bouquet.
It was the only spot of color in the entire room, and if Luna remembered nothing else about the space, she would certainly remember that rose.
“I understand you need me to find someone,” Luna said as she helped herself to a chair.
“We can discuss that in time, but for now, I’d like to get to know you first. Tell me, Calavera, how did you manage to catch the attention of both Runehart brothers?”
For a while, she had simply thought Uilleam was merely correcting his own mistakes and tying off loose ends, but the longer she observed his actions with her, the more she saw it wasn’t nearly that simple.
Uilleam genuinely seemed to care for her even before he had learned of his brother’s growing infatuation with her.
Black Swan Page 22
