Nix. (Den of Mercenaries Book 3)(100)

Now, the question was, what did Carmen have that he wanted, and how could Uilleam get his hands on it first?

Carmen was far more important than he had originally given her credit—he just had to figure out why.

“Did learn something though,” Skorpion said with a grunt as he got to his feet, adjusting the knife and gun holstered at his waist.

“And what’s that?”

“He ain’t the boss.”

Uilleam looked from Elias’ abandoned tea cup 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 something—he was waiting to get the answers.”

Uilleam smiled.

Round and round and round they went.

He was eager to see where they landed.



“I could make you into a queen,” Uilleam offered with a smile, even as he draped the string of diamonds around her neck, but where he thought he would find a look of eagerness, Karina was shaking her head.

“I’m not very interested in being a queen—and what is your obsession with monarchic titles? Is that why you’re called the Kingmaker?”

Despite all she said, his mind only seized on a few words. “Everyone wants to be a queen … why don’t you?”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Karina said, glancing down at the delicate tattoo on her wrist, “but queens can die—I would rather be a legend.”

That almost made him smile. “A legend, why?”

This time, she did offer a quirk of her lips as she gazed at their reflection in the mirror. “Because legends never die.”

Uilleam snapped out of the memory as a blurred shape appeared in his peripheral a moment before the man sat in the seat opposite him at the fire.

Not just any man, his brother.

Kit.

The f*cking traitor.

“I told them to shoot you on sight,” Uilleam grumbled as he looked away from the flames to his brother. “Yet, here you are.”

Kit shrugged, just a casual lift of his shoulder. “Stronger men than you have tried to kill me. If I wasn’t able to evade your pathetic excuses for security, I would be a dead man.”

“In a mood, still?” Uilleam asked. “Let’s reconvene in the morning—I don’t think I’m in the mood for your dramatics tonight.”

“Thoughts of Karina keeping you awake at night?”

There was genuine curiosity in Kit’s tone, but the question still made Uilleam frown. Thoughts of her were too fresh in his mind, and talking about her would only put him in a dangerous mood.

“If there was ever a time when I wanted you to stop talking, it would be now. Besides, where is your army?” Uilleam made a show of looking around. “The last time we spoke, you promised a war. Can’t have a war if it’s only you, can we?”

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

Uilleam looked at him with mock surprise. “Are you actually admitting you were wrong about something? Now, I have to admit, I’m curious why you’re here.”

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

Uilleam may have been a bit drunk, but he wasn’t sure he was hearing correctly. “Is that what your grievance was? How on earth could you make it through counseling—your methods of communication are severely lacking.”

Now, there was a crack in the ever present mask Kit wore. “Let’s not act like you don’t make a living disrupting people’s lives.”

“But only on my terms. Luna would have found out the truth about her family in time—I had already accounted for that—but your actions caused things to go beyond my control.”

“There would be no reason for me to tell her considering I was trying to cover it up.”

Rubbing his brow, Uilleam squeezed his eyes shut. “What are you getting at?”

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

Uilleam’s hand froze.

Not because of what he was hearing, but the implications behind it.

Kit was right to ask the question.

Already, there had been very few that knew about his intentions for Luna, and those that had been left had been systematically picked off by Kit to bury the truth.

Who was left?

“I have a question for you,” Kit said before Uilleam’s mind could run rampant with ideas.

“Then ask,” Uilleam responded impatiently.

“Who told you that Karina was dead?”

Just hearing her name was like a fresh wound in his already blackened heart, but his mind also seized on it because as he’d contemplated an answer for the question he’d been asking himself, it snapped into place.

Karina had known.

She was one of few he confided in.

But that had been years ago.

Back when he had felt loved for the first time in his life …

Back when it had been because of her that Uilleam had even thought of double-crossing Carmen in the first place …