Black Swan

by London Miller

  Uilleam looked from Elias’s abandoned teacup to Skorpion. “How do you figure?”

  “That question you asked him, he was about to answer, but he touched his ear before he gave it.”

  He’d noticed that. “And?”

  “He had a comm in his ear. Explains the lengthy pauses every time you asked him anything—he was waiting to give the answers, though it wasn’t always like that.”

  Some questions, he had ready answers for. Others … someone fed him what they wanted him to say …

  Uilleam smiled.

  Round and round and round they went.

  He was eager to see where they landed.

  35

  Roles To Play

  Karina had never been one for exercise—she loathed it really—but when Isla introduced her to yoga, she hadn’t completely hated the experience.

  It was still far harder than she imagined, and she’d even been more sore than she had when she’d gone to the gym a couple of times, but she enjoyed it all the same.

  Because in here, just as in the garden, she was able to find peace in the silence for a short while.

  Even the sound of hurried footsteps didn’t break her concentration.

  It was only a few moments more before Kava appeared, her expression a little more frantic than it usually was now. She wasn’t nearly as shy as she had been when they’d first started working together.

  “Elias rang, he’s said the Kingmaker has agreed to the meeting.”

  She’d always found it curious that Kava rarely, if ever, used Uilleam’s name. She wasn’t sure if it was out of respect for her, or if she too was afraid to speak his name.

  She smiled as she said, “Right on schedule then.”

  Surprisingly, it hadn’t taken much convincing at all to have Elias be the face of her “company.” To have men believe that he’d been the one to make all the moves she had. He’d all but jumped at the opportunity.

  After all, it made him look powerful in the face of others.

  Yet he was too foolish to realize just what it meant to have someone like Uilleam see him as an enemy.

  “How do you want to proceed?”

  “When’s the meeting happening?”

  “Tonight,” she said with a nod.

  A late warning, but it would do all the same.

  “Does he realize?” she asked as Karina shifted to a new position, exhaling when she held it. “That you were the one to give him Elias Harrington’s name?”

  Karina smiled, her eyes closed. “Not yet.”

  Though it was the middle of the night, and she could very well have done this in the comforts of her own home, Karina still stared at the back of the elevator doors until they opened onto the floor of her office.

  Everyone else had long gone home besides Frank, the security, downstairs who’d been watching a football match on the small TV next to the monitors.

  Tonight, she was alone.

  She needed to be.

  Because tonight was all about the first contact.

  When it was no longer ducking and dodging and sticking to the shadows—she would actually speak to him.

  Though, to maintain her cover, it would be through Elias.

  Until … it was time.

  The moment she heard his voice, some distant long-lost part of herself seemed to bloom.

  It was an entirely unwelcome feeling,

  When she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine he was there—that they were in the same room together for the first time in years. And as she allowed herself a moment to delve into the fantasy, she could almost imagine that his tone had softened.

  That he no longer sounded contemptuous but happy. Amused even.

  Relieved.

  But all too quickly, that moment was over, and she snapped back to reality.

  A reality where they would probably never know that sort of happiness again.

  “I all but gave you a script to follow,” Karina said. Eyeing her phone on the desk, she watched the seconds tick by on the call. “Was there a reason you refused to follow it?”

  Elias managed to hide his annoyance long enough to face her. “So, I improvised. Will you always critique everything I do?”

  “Not always,” she replied honestly.

  Not when she was finally rid of him.

  “Besides, it would be better if he doesn’t know everything too quickly.”

  “That’s smart,” she said.

  Though she didn’t mention he had made a mistake, because in his attempt to throw Uilleam off, he hadn’t been paying attention to the man sitting beside him.

  Skorpion’s job was not only to sit there and look menacing, but he was also meant to observe everyone around them. And while Elias had been solely focused on Uilleam, he hadn’t been paying attention to Skorpion studying him.

  “What’s the point of this?” Elias asked, sounding exasperated as he always did where Uilleam was concerned.

  The Kingmaker always had a way of getting under his skin when he wasn’t really trying.

  “Why engage him at all?”

  Meaning, why had she shaped the narrative around Carmen.

  She didn’t particularly care for the woman, and she fully suspected that no matter how this went, Carmen would die in the end, but she had a greater role to play.

  In many ways, she was the first little breadcrumb that would ultimately lead Uilleam to her. It was only a matter of time before Uilleam found out she was alive, but at least she could control when he did.

  “We all have our roles to play, Elias. Just remember yours.”

  Because if he wasn’t careful, he would lose everything he had worked so hard to gain.

  And that was exactly her goal.

  36

  Reconvene

  Even thoughts of Karina couldn’t quite help him escape his own reality.

  Though he didn’t budge from where he sat with his gaze still on the raging fire in front of him, Uilleam didn’t miss the barely perceptible sound of footsteps.

  And there was only one person capable of such silent entry.

  “I told them to shoot you on sight. Yet here you are.”

  Sure enough, Kit sank into the armchair beside him as he shrugged, not looking bothered by his admission in the slightest. “Stronger men than you have tried to kill me. If I wasn’t able to evade your pathetic excuse for security, I would have been a dead man long before now.”

  Uilleam barely checked the urge to roll his eyes. Trust his brother to be as dramatic about this as he was about everything else. “In a mood still?” he asked with a bored lift of his brow. “Let’s reconvene in the morning. I don’t think I’m in the mood for your dramatics tonight.”

  He had other more pressing matters on his mind.

  Like how quickly he could consume his drink before he passed out and wouldn’t have to be alone with his thoughts.

  But Kit was not so easily deterred. “Thoughts of Karina keeping you awake at night?”

  Had he always been so transparent?

  Was there some sort of shining beacon on his forehead that broadcasted that fact to the world?

  Or ... did his brother know what this pain looked like because he too had known loss, even if it hadn’t been as permanent as Uilleam’s.

  Luna was still out there living her life, thriving even, whereas Karina was just ... gone.

  That was the last thing he wanted to think about. “If there was ever a time when I wanted you to stop talking, it would be now. Besides, where is your army?” Uilleam asked dryly, making a show of looking around the empty room they were sitting in. “The last time we spoke, you promised a war. Can’t have a war if it’s just you, can we?”

  Where would the fun in that be?

  “I’ve only just learned my grievances with you were unfounded.”

  Clearly, he’d had too much to drink tonight because he surely hadn’t heard his brother admit to making a mistake.

  That wasn’t like him at all.

 
; “Are you actually admitting you were wrong about something?” Kit leveled a blank look on him. “Now, I’m curious why you’re here.”

  Kit didn’t hesitate. “You didn’t tell Luna about my involvement with her being given to Lawrence Kendall.”

  Uilleam’s expression shifted with annoyance. “Is that what your grievance was? How on earth could you make it through counseling? Your methods of communication are severely lacking.”

  And for that matter, why would he bother?

  His brother might have been a pompous arsehole on the best of days, and annoyingly righteous on others, but he wouldn’t wish the pain he’d felt when Karina left him on anyone else.

  That was just cruel.

  Kit narrowed his eyes on him. “Let’s not act as if you don’t make a living disrupting the lives of people around you.”

  “But only on my terms,” Uilleam said, careful to keep his voice level because it became clear to him at that moment that even his own brother didn’t understand who he was or what he did.

  Sure, most days he didn’t bother waiting for permission to do what was needed. Nor did he make apologies when their work intersected, but he never deliberately went out of his way to harm his brother.

  If he did, they wouldn’t be here now.

  “Luna would have found out the truth about her family in time,” Uilleam continued, “I’d already accounted for that, but your actions caused things to get beyond my control.”

  In his quest to cover up what he had done, Kit had only managed to make the situation worse.

  He looked as if he wanted to argue that further, but seemed to think better of it. “Needless to say, there would be no reason for me to tell her considering I was trying to cover it up.”

  Uilleam rested his head back with a sigh, wondering when this hell would end. “What are you getting at?”

  Now, it seemed, he’d asked the right question.

  “If you didn’t tell her, as I’d originally believed, and I didn’t either—who told her?”

  Uilleam had been rubbing circles around his temple, hoping the migraine he felt coming on would dissipate before it truly formed, but at Kit’s question, he froze.

  At the time, he hadn’t questioned it when Luna had come to him seeking answers. She’d seemed to know enough that he’d only had to fill in the gaps. He hadn’t suspected that someone had tipped her off.

  “I have a question for you.”

  “Then ask,” Uilleam said impatiently, his mood darkening.

  “Who told you that Karina was dead?”

  Of all the questions he expected his brother to ask, that hadn’t been one of them. Karina hadn’t factored into his mind at all when it came to what transpired between them.

  Even as it felt as if his heart was seizing, Uilleam shook his head hard. “No.”

  It was as much of a warning as it was a statement.

  This was a conversation he didn’t want to have.

  “There was a body.”

  He’d seen it.

  Touched it.

  There was no doubt in his mind.

  “A journalist, wasn’t she?” Kit kept on, oblivious to his growing anger. “You once told me of the investigation that spurred her interest in you. Death by the poison belladonna, wasn’t it?”

  Uilleam remained silent, unsure what he was getting at but willing to listen anyway.

  “Luna told me she’d taken a job around the time you were shot. She said the client’s name was Belladonna. She was too furious with me to question it at the time, but she couldn’t have understood the significance.” Kit shrugged. “I took it upon myself to spend the past three nights looking into this Belladonna, yet I’ve found nothing. She doesn’t exist. So tell me, brother, how can someone who doesn’t exist manage to fool you enough to accept a contract?”

  “I wasn’t behind the contracts at that time—Zachariah was,” Uilleam responded absently, trying to wrap his mind around what he was hearing.

  Worse, there was no way for them to find any answers on the matter, considering Zachariah had disappeared the same way Grimm had and was now considered dead.

  There was only one other person who could tell them anything, but as far as either of them knew, Belladonna—or the woman behind the name—didn’t actually exist.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Uilleam said, reminding himself of how this conversation had started. “I saw the body.”

  “Then you’re not the only one playing a game, brother.”

  No, it seemed he wasn’t.

  “What are you suggesting?” Uilleam asked, sitting up a little straighter. “You believe Karina confided in this Belladonna woman?”

  “No,” Kit said carefully. “I believe Karina and Belladonna are one and the same.”

  Uilleam didn’t allow himself a chance to process that—he refused to. “Have you heard a word I’ve been saying? I saw the body.”

  “Then it’s simple. Give me what you have at the Den on her, and I’ll look into it myself.”

  “You know my files are confidential.”

  “They’ve never been that way for me.”

  “They’ve always been that way for you.”

  “Are you afraid of the truth?” Kit asked.

  No, he was terrified at the implications behind them. “There is no truth,” he shot back. “Is this repayment for Luna leaving you? As you’ve stated already, that had nothing to do with me.”

  Kit was studying him in that way he’d always hated—as if he could see right through him. “What would it hurt?”

  He didn’t need this.

  Not right now.

  Not ever.

  “Let’s say you’re right—though I want to make it clear that I don’t believe a word of this—what do you expect to do once you find your answers? Confront her? Hurt her for revealing a truth you were trying to bury? What?”

  The thought was so bizarre that he couldn’t even take it seriously. He couldn’t bring himself to believe a word of it.

  This was Karina they were talking about.

  And even if what he was saying was true, Uilleam wasn’t even sure what he would do.

  “Let’s say for the sake of argument that Karina really is dead. That can only mean she confided in someone else, and that someone isn’t just targeting me, they also have a vendetta against you.”

  He might have phrased it another way, but Uilleam could tell he didn’t believe that. Not entirely. “You have to consider the Jackal—”

  “The assassin who can’t be found,” Uilleam said with a frown. “Shouldn’t you be on the up and up when it comes to them?”

  Kit arched a brow. “I should know about your enemy’s leashed dog? He’s more myth than anything else. Had you not bore evidence of his existence, I wouldn’t have believed it at all.”

  “Elias—”

  “Don’t be daft, brother. We both know that should he have control over the Jackal, he would have used him again by now.”

  Because the man had made it abundantly clear that he wanted him dead, yet he hadn’t targeted him since that first incident more than a year ago.

  “What are you saying, brother? Karina—or your Belladonna—” Because he still wasn’t convinced they were one and the same. “—sent her attack dog after me.”

  “I don’t know anything until I can look into it.”

  “Fine,” Uilleam said, ready for the conversation to be over. “I’ll get you the file, but I can assure you that nothing will come of it. She was ... I guess it doesn’t really matter what she was, does it?”

  Because she was gone, and that was the only thing he was trying to get Kit to see.

  Karina hadn’t been some sort of mastermind, though she’d been exceedingly clever. Journalism had been her passion. She stood up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves. She gave them a voice.

  What Kit was describing … that was someone else entirely.

  “Tell me, how was your counseling session with Luna? Informative, I hope.”


  “It was.”

  “Getting back on the right track, then?”

  Kit ignored that. “Why are you asking?”

  Uilleam’s frown deepened. “You’re not the only one who cares about her, you know.”

  He ignored that as well. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because plans have changed, brother.”

  “Have they?”

  “Elias requested a meeting with me.”

  Now, he managed to look alarmed. “What for?”

  “He wanted to call a truce,” Uilleam said, satisfaction threaded through every word. “It seems Carmen has acquired a bit of protection for the time being—one that circumvents both you and me. He’s asked that Luna remain clear of her so as not to ruin whatever scheme they have going.”

  “Interesting. I wasn’t aware you had a meeting with Elias.”

  “Keep up, brother.”

  Kit rubbed a hand over his face. “Then perhaps it’s time I told you my side.”

  Uilleam cut his gaze in his direction. “Your side of what?”

  “I’ve met with him.”

  “Who?”

  “Elias.”

  Maim. Him. Later. “And you’re only just sharing this with me now?”

  “Considering the man nearly succeeded in killing you once, I didn’t find it pertinent to give him a second chance in doing so.”

  Uilleam wasn’t surprised at all that Elias might have threatened to kill him again. And though he didn’t show it, he was a touch surprised that Kit had thought to protect him despite their differences.

  Then again, he would have done the same because that was what Kit meant to him.

  “You wouldn’t be telling me this if you didn’t have a reason.”

  Kit nodded. “There’s a reason for everything I do.”

  “I’ve already signed a contract with Carmen, and I’m nothing if not a man of my word.”

  “And I don’t need you to breach it.”

  “It’s clear you have something else in mind.”

  They always did. “I do, but I’ll need your assistance.”

  Uilleam sat forward with a smile—the first genuine one he’d felt all night. “Are you offering me a job, brother?”