Her Name Is Knight(Nena Knight #1)(28)

“Tell him and crush what he’s spent his life building? The African Tribal Council—his baby? Because that’s what we’d be doing, crushing Dad’s dreams. You want to crush his dreams? You heard him say how close this new member gets them to achieving their goals.” She looked pointedly at Elin. “Truly?”

Elin groaned. “I really hate when you make sense.”

Nena looked at her soberly. “You’re the one who said we needed proof so no one would think me mad. Very sensible of you.”

“I hate you; you know that?” Elin’s pretty face, a perfect blend of their mother and father, contorted into a pout. “All I wanted to do today was gossip with you about Oliver. Like, we’re getting serious now—”

“After a month?”

Elin shot her a dirty look. “There’s no time limit on love. You’d know if you gave it a chance,” she returned. “And no knowing where you find it, because who would have thought I’d find a guy I actually wanted to keep around? There’s something different about him—”

Nena’s eyebrow quirked. “More different than John before him? Or Nathan before John? Or when it was both Giles and Felipe at the same time? That was very different.” A half smile played at Nena’s lips.

“I already love,” Elin stressed, ignoring her sister’s dry humor and placing a hand over her chest dramatically, “every bit of intense, straitlaced, by-the-book Oliver. I want you to meet him.”

Nena’s lip twitched. Elin’s theater study from their school days was reemerging, as it often did when Elin wanted someone to pity her.

Elin said, “Apparently, Oliver will have to wait.”

She rolled the lighter around in her hand, intently watching the sunlight catching the crystals. Nena imagined all possible contingency plans playing through Elin’s calculating mind like a movie reel on fast-forward. Elin got that masterful mind from their mother.

“You sure about this guy and about not telling Dad?” Elin finally asked, her cigarette remaining unlit. “Truly? Smith was Attah Walrus?”

Nena gave her a single nod, adding, “Yeah.”

Elin balked. “What if Attah Walrus was lucky? The other two could be dead, and he was the only one to survive. Dad’s teams couldn’t have missed all three. Those assholes aren’t that good even on their best day.”

“Also a possibility, but doubtful.”

Elin continued to fidget with the lighter, giving her cigarette long looks that told Nena how badly she wanted to go to the balcony and smoke. She didn’t know why Elin didn’t just go. She was fine, for now, maybe. She’d managed to drive away the memories threatening to strangle her ever since she saw his yellowed eyes and face that looked like a melting Hershey bar. The years really had not been kind to him.

“The Council may call for consequences.”

She was resolved to take whatever punishment should come from her actions. “There should be consequences for me.”

Elin pinched the space between her eyes and said thinly, “Maybe docked pay.”

“I wouldn’t have accepted payment anyway.” Nena recalibrated. “I would have given my life savings to kill that man.”

“Nena, you can’t go saying that to the Council. You’ll need to show a mea culpa for what you did. Just go with the bullet-and-the-wind story I mentioned earlier. Or say you’re overworked. Maybe that will keep the Council off your back and—”

“Those are excuses.” Nena paused. “However, I am sorry that Attah’s death was too swift. He deserved to suffer for a long time.”

Elin groaned, long and defeated. “Nena, that’s not how remorse works.”

Nena’s anger simmered so close to the surface she feared she’d explode. She was always calm and collected. Her restraint was the only thing she took pride in. That and dispatching.

“He took everything from me, Elin.” The rage she suddenly felt, something long hidden, surprised her. And from Elin’s wide eyes and frozen expression, she’d surprised Elin as well.

Elin stood, walking toward her balcony, which overlooked Biscayne. The view was what had sold her on the flat. “Okay. I’ll see what I can find about Smith and the other two, but chances are this Attah Walrus guy was an oversight.”

Nena remained quiet because what she was really thinking about the term oversight would only incite more of Elin’s wrath. Elin wouldn’t understand the danger Paul and Kwabena posed. No one knew, except Nena.

“Meanwhile, don’t do anything without telling me first.”

Nena extricated herself from the couch expertly and without using her hands for balance. She couldn’t make that promise.

Elin cast a long look at her. “While you’re waiting for word from the Council or me, go out and have some fun. Do something wild. You’re wound too tight.”

“Copy,” Nena said, watching as Elin glanced at her gold Rolex for the third time since she’d stood up. “You have somewhere to be?”

“Mm-hmm. Date,” Elin responded dreamily, lighting her cigarette.

The corners of Nena’s mouth curved slightly. “With this different Oliver. Can’t wait to meet him.”

As Nena neared the front door, she threw over her shoulder, “I do hope this guy is as different as you say, because it would be unpleasant if I had to dispatch him.”