In the cold hours of the night, I think of you when sleep evades me. I'd once believed there was no cure for my insomnia until you came into my life.

I didn't want to believe, not at first, but during those many nights I spent with you, my mind was quiet, my thoughts clear.

Do you remember the nights we spent on Efate Islands—you asked me for a truth I had never told another person? I told you about my desire to sleep as I had when I was a boy.

Now, my answer would be different.

I wish I could sleep as I did when I was with you. Is it selfish of me to say I wish you were here—that you were the only thing keeping me sane?

You were a great many things to me—a lover, a consort, and often a confidante, but I miss you because out of everyone in my life, you were my friend, and I have very few of those.

Yours,

Uilleam

The minute he’d finished the note with a scrawl of his name along the bottom, Uilleam tossed the pen on the desk, watching some of the ink splatter along the dark wood. He sat back with a sigh as he scrubbed a hand down his face, feeling a bit restless as he tried to focus.

The ease in which he worked was lacking as of late, the pressure he was under making him feel as though he were drowning beneath the weight of it. It was in these moments that he drew out the small square of black paper and penned another note to a woman that would never read them.

Once the ink was dry, he tucked the page away within a small box in his desk, locking it back when he finished.

It was unhealthy, he knew, this obsession he had with penning his fleeting thoughts, but the need to keep her alive, if only in his own mind was too great to ignore. And it almost, almost, made him feel like the black thing in his chest could beat once more.

So for now, he entertained the foolish notion that this act was helping him—that it allowed him a brief reprieve from the grueling tasks he had ahead of him.

Even in death, she was like a balm on his soul.

“Sir?”

Shifting only his eyes to Dominic, the lone man willing to engage him when he was in one of his moods, Uilleam nodded for him to continue.

“Someone is requesting to speak with you.”

In his current state, he would have much rather played another game of chess alone, matching wits with himself than to entertain another sniveling man complaining about his lack of power.

They never understood the sacrifices once they had the very power they craved.

Uilleam waved his fingers, a silent command to reject the call—or just hang up as he was prone to do when he wasn’t in the mood.

Dominic didn’t heed it. “The caller says his name is Elias, sir.”

Finally.

Finally.

The moment he’d been waiting for.

This time when he lifted his hand, he was eager for the feel of the mobile phone hitting his palm. It was only a matter of seconds ago that he had contemplated venturing somewhere to ease the rage he was feeling, but now delighted anticipation thrummed inside of him.

“I believe I gave you too much credit,” Uilleam said when he had the phone to his ear. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this soon.”

There was silence, then, “Well, you couldn’t have thought I would ignore your blatant disregard for proper business, could you? Truthfully, Uilleam—you don’t mind terribly if I call you Uilleam, do you?” the man asked, his tone dripping with condescension—the sound of it making the urge to do murder rise in Uilleam. “As I was saying, you’re not nearly as interesting as you presume yourself to be. But now that you have my attention, I thought it time we met, wouldn’t you?”

That was exactly what Uilleam wanted.

How long had he waited now just to learn the man’s name, and even then, it had taken one of his mercenaries to find that out. But once he had it, there was much that could be done with a name.

Elias was good at covering his tracks, only allowing few deals to be linked to him, but those Uilleam had found, he had made it a point to get the other man’s attention.

And once he grew tired of playing, Uilleam was going to have him killed viciously.

“Give me a time and a place.”

No matter what answer Elias threw out, Uilleam would agree. There wasn’t really a question as to his safety—he had a number of mercenaries on call.

“The Royal Eve at seven-fifteen tomorrow evening. I’ll have someone find you.”

He ended the call before Uilleam could get another word in, and had he not passed the phone off the second he heard the trio of beeps in his ear, he would have launched the fucking thing across the room.

Control, he had to remind himself.

It was all about control.

And with the progress he’d made, he couldn’t afford to lose it now.

He knew why that particular restaurant had been chosen. It was where he had gone with Karina during his attempt to glean information from her in regard to an investigation she was launching into one of his clients.

It seemed only fitting that his thoughts of her had also resulted in him venturing back to a place that he had once shared her company.

Had he not remembered the way she loved the place, he might have burned the place to the ground just so he wouldn’t have to think about it being there where he had last seen her.

“Dominic, ready the jet. I have a stop to make before tomorrow’s meeting.”

“Right away, sir.”

---

Sand was sinking into his shoes with every step he took, the gritty feel of it a nuisance, but Uilleam didn’t complain. No, he was too focused on the man he had come to see.

Dealing with someone like him, Uilleam had to be prepared for whatever mood the man would be in.

Most of his mercenaries flocked to cities, disappearing within the crowds, and the one he had come to see was no different. If one didn’t know any better, they might have thought him like any other beach bum that spent their days in the water.

At least until they took in the sheer size of the man.

After his retirement, Uilleam hadn’t made it a point to call on the man for any favors, not needing his particular expertise—back when he was still under a contract and obligated him to follow orders.

Skorpion had never done well with following authority.

As Uilleam cleared the side of the rather large beach house, coming around to the front, he could just see the man he had come to talk to coming up the beach, a surfboard beneath his arm.

Even at a distance, the man looked like a threat. He was big and imposing, whether he wanted to be or not, and had Uilleam not gotten a few assurances beforehand, he might have worried how his unwelcome intrusion would make him react.

“Whatever it is,” Skorpion said the moment he was close, “the answer is no.”

“Are you always in such a welcoming mood?” Uilleam asked, standing his ground.

“For you? Yes. You weren’t my handler then, andyou sure as shit aren’t my handler now, so leave before I have a mind to do it myself.”

“I thought we made quite a team, you and I, all those years ago.”

“Yeah?” Skorpion stuck his board in the sand, walking over to a small booth that worked as an outdoor shower and turned it on. “That was then.”

It had been Skorpion who travelled with him—his personal security until the very end when he’d fallen in love with a Parisian girl, only to lose her soon after. Uilleam hadn’t known her, never cared to, but whatever hold she’d had over Skorpion had caused him to sever his contract and walk away.

“It’s only one meeting,” Uilleam said, wanting to clarify. “You’ll even be home in time for dinner.”

“Still not interested.”

Head cocked to the side, Uilleam asked, “Is it a matter of getting a babysitter on such short notice?”

The shower cut off then, the door creaking open as Skorpion came out from behind it, his mouth set in a grim line. He didn’t address the fact that Uilleam knew his secret—that shouldn’t have been a surprise considering who he was—nor did he threaten him should he ever share that information with anyone.

His presence in front of Uilleam was threat enough.

“You’re done here.”

“Even if my meeting is with the man that harbors the man who stole the girl’s mother from you?” Uilleam went on, seeing the way Skorpion’s hand twitched. “I’ve recently been able to move pieces around and see what I couldn’t before.”

Uilleam wasn’t one to forget debts, and had it not been for him and Luna, Uilleam would have died the night the Jackal had come for him. If he could bring the man some peace, he would, even if he hadn’t been asked.

“If vengeance is what you want,” Uilleam offered with a wave of his hand, “I can give it in spades.”

“But only when you allow it, isn’t that right?” Skorpion shook his head. “If this were about permission, you would’ve led with that.”

“If you aid me, I will gladly give you leave to do as you wish—but only once I have what I need.”

That was the best he could offer the man, especially since he couldn’t say if it were even possible to acquire the information he wanted, especially when he wasn’t sure how this meeting with Elias would end.

“Let me get something figured out for Soleil,” he said with a glance at his house, then back to Uilleam. “Still doesn’t make me a part of your Den.”

No, it didn’t, but Uilleam was very good at bending people to his will.

---

Located at the corner of Brix and 14^th, the Royal Eve was a rather quaint restaurant meant for lovers. It was to this place that Uilleam had brought Karina, though at the time, he hadn’t anticipated that she would become something far more than he could have ever imagined.

Or that she would die …

Already seated at a table in the far corner of the main floor, Elias Harrington didn’t appear concerned in the slightest by Uilleam’s sudden appearance an hour early.

But once Uilleam got his first look at Elias, he didn’t much care how the man felt because an internal clock had begun to tick.

There was only a matter of time before he was no longer a problem.

“Elias, it’s nice to finally put a face to the name. You’re a bit … smaller than I expected.”

Though condescending, his words were true. Elias couldn’t be more than five-eight, if an inch. Nor was he particularly built, but rather slight of frame. He looked like any other man that was average with a power complex.

Had he not witnessed first hand what the man was capable of, Uilleam might have been disappointed.

“A pleasure to finally make your acquaintance, Uilleam,” Elias returned, but he didn’t look pleased.

His smile was too tight, his posture too stiff for the man to feel comfort as he stood a mere few feet from Uilleam—a man he had spent years trying to destroy.

For once, Uilleam didn’t take pleasure in someone’s discomfort around him.

Elias’ gaze skirted to Skorpion as he stopped a few steps behind Uilleam. He didn’t have to speak, letting his presence and sheer size speak for him.

“You asked for a meet,” Uilleam said as he took a seat. “Here I am.”

“Did you know,” Elias started, “three years ago, I was able to clear thirteen-point-four million in profit?” With nothing but time on his hands, Uilleam chose to entertain him. “I would be impressed if that number was significantly higher. But we can’t be all good at what we do, can we?”

“Do you recall what you were doing three years ago?”

Uilleam lost his smile. He remembered all too well.

“You were recovering from five bullet wounds. I’d hoped you would cease to be a problem for me then, but—” Elias shrugged, gesturing at Uilleam with a wave of his hand, “—you’re still here, unfortunately.”

Uilleam remembered all too well the feel of the heated metal tearing through his flesh. Worse, that pain had only multiplied as more bullets plugged their way into his chest. It was an agony the likes of which he never wanted to experience again.

But it paled in comparison to the way he felt the day he lost Karina.

That had been a different kind of pain, one that had ripped him to shreds.

“Some thought me dead, now they think me immortal. It seems your little plan has only helped my business. Bad luck there.”

Elias smiled at him, as though indulging a child. “You’ve been trying to get my attention—you now have it.”

“Then how about you tell me what grievance I’ve committed against you that has turned you into my enemy?”

Elias shrugged. “I’m sure you’ve amassed a great many enemies, Kingmaker.”

“But only one concerns me.”

“It’s the cost of doing business, you understand. It’s nothing personal.”

Oh, but it had felt personal to Uilleam.

But he hadn’t gotten as far as he did by letting his emotions get the best of him, so despite what he felt, he swallowed his words back down before he said something that would end with more bloodshed than he intended.

“And now?” Uilleam asked resting his elbows on the table. “What’s stopping you from ending this now? You have the means and opportunity.” A flick of his wrist at the men around them, and the rather empty restaurant.

A cup of tea rested in front of Elias, a small silver spoon resting on the saucer next to it. He picked it up, adding a liberal amount of sugar before stirring, steam billowing with the movement. His smile was patient as he took a sip, reclining back as though he hadn’t a care in the world.

“I’ve always thought you were like an errant child, one that wasn’t quite sure what their place was in the world. Your attempt at playing God didn’t bother me—not until you went too far. You want to know what you did to incur my wrath? You interfered where you shouldn’t have, resulting in the death of the only man I’d ever loved. For that, I returned the favor.” Elias’ expression didn’t shift. “You asked why I haven’t gotten rid of you yet, it’s because I have no need at this current juncture.”

“Then why are we here?”

Something, though he couldn’t be sure what it was, was poking at the back of his subconscious, an errant thought that he couldn’t quite grasp.

Uilleam didn’t much care for the man’s insults—his father had said far worse over the years—but there was something about this exchange that felt … off.

“I’ve come to offer you a deal.”

“A deal?” Uilleam scoffed. “You must be truly desperate seeking aid from me.”

“Desperate?” Elias asked with a laugh. “I’m merely offering you the opportunity to continue as you are without further interruption. I see no reason why we can’t work together.”

“Unless we’re forgetting that you took something from me, yes?”

“An eye for an eye, Uilleam. You mustn’t live in the past—not if you hope to have a future.”

Maybe he would have his eyes removed, Uilleam thought as he studied the other man—have them taken out with a rusted spoon. Perhaps even dangled one of the severed eyeballs in front of his face so he could see what it looked like outside of his skull.

It was with that thought in mind that Uilleam said, “Tell me more of this deal.”

“A truce is a better word, I believe, but that’s neither here nor there. It has come to my attention that a deal was struck with Carmen Rivera. You’ve agreed to dispose of her husband, isn’t that right?”

Uilleam had enough practice schooling his features to ensure that he didn’t betray his emotions, especially when someone took him by surprise.

Very few knew about that arrangement, and fewer than that knew the details. He didn’t make it a habit to speak of the jobs he took to anyone other than the mercenary he assigned to it. He knew with absolute certainty that Luna didn’t know Elias and even if she had, she wouldn’t have spoken to him about it.

And from his understanding, Elias worked for Carmen’s husband, not her—so he would have an interest in keeping his client alive.

That begged the question—how did he know?

“I’m willing to make it easy on you by not informing my client that you’re attempting to kill him. Whatever plan you have in place can come to fruition without any hindrance from me.”

“What would you want in return?”

“The girl.”

“I know many of those.” But Uilleam had a feeling he knew who the other man meant.

“Carmen’s daughter—I believe you’re calling her Calavera these days? You keep a leash on her.”

Now, it was Uilleam’s turn to laugh. “This deal of yours sounds awfully one-sided. I’ve yet to hear how this would benefit me. Your offer to make killing Carmen’s husband easy? I have no need when my mercenaries don’t need easy, or have you forgotten how well they were able to get to you?”

Niklaus had found a name, and Kyrnon had successfully killed a business deal that would have garnered him millions.

That was all done while Uilleam had been uninspired. He was still warming up.

“Karina was a lovely girl, wasn’t she?” Elias asked. “She had to be to hold your interest for so long. Tell me, what did she think of you when you confessed who you were? I imagine she didn’t take it well. Her leaving you had made it all too easy getting to her. Perhaps you should have spent more time preparing her for your legion of enemies instead of—”

“I don’t deal in idle threats, Mr. Harrington, so know that should you finish that statement, I will have him kill everyone here,”—this he said with the slightest nod to a now smiling Skorpion—“before I take you to a room where I will spend the next hour learning what devices will make you scream the most.”

“Until my business is complete with Carmen Rivera,” Elias said with narrowed eyes, ignoring Uilleam’s words, “she is off-limits to you and to Carmen’s daughter. Luna Santiago died seven years ago, she needs to remain that way. Once my business is complete, do what you will.”

It sounded too easy, and Uilleam knew that the best things didn’t come without a cost.

“Are you saying that you will hand Carmen over?”

Elias nodded. “And the girl can exact whatever punishment she deems worthy, but only once our business is done.”

Interesting.

“And you?” Uilleam asked then.

“This will be the last time we see each other in person, I’m afraid. If we’re to meet again, it won’t end the way you expect. Think over my proposition, Kingmaker—you have twenty-six hours.” Elias stood, smoothing the front of his suit jacket as he buttoned it. “I’ll be seeing you.”

“Did you know,” Uilleam said before he could take more than a step away from the table, “you should never tell an alligator it has a big mouth until after you’ve crossed the river?”

Confusion played on the man’s face before he smoothed his features, fiddling with his ear a moment before answering. “Kingmaker.”

With that, he exited the bistro, taking his men with him until it was only Uilleam and Skorpion left sitting inside.

Folding his arms across his chest after tipping his hat up, Skorpion asked, “Did you get what you came for?”

“Of course.”

Skorpion’s brows jumped as he frowned. “He didn’t say shit.”

“It’s what he didn’t say that’s important,” Uilleam said, more to himself than his associate. “Carmen has something he needs—why else would he both be trying to protect her and offering to let her be killed in the same breath?”

He understood all too well how someone’s usefulness could disappearance at a moment’s notice.

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 monarchical 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 fucking 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 might 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 to 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 …

“No.” Uilleam didn’t feel drunk anymore, his mind was the sharpest it had ever been. “There was a body.”

His brother was thinking word might have gotten to him, but it wasn’t that simple. When he had learned of Karina’s tragic death, he was disbelieving.

He had refused to even admit it to himself before a body was found.

It had been her body that sent him careening down the abyss.

“A journalist, wasn’t she?” Kit kept on. “You once told me of the investigation that had spurned your interest in her. Death by the poison, belladonna, wasn’t it?”

Uilleam was on edge, though even as his brother spoke, he still refused to see what was directly in front of him.

“Luna told me she’d taken a job around the time you were shot, says the client’s name was Belladonna. She was too furious with me to question it at the time, but she didn’t understand the significance. I took it upon myself to spend the last three nights looking into the mysterious woman, and yet I’ve found nothing—she doesn’t exist. So tell me, brother, how can someone that doesn’t exist manage to fool you enough to accept a contract?”

Absently, Uilleam murmured, “I wasn’t behind the contracts at that time—Zachariah was.”

He had been too busy readying to send Luna to California and getting the ball rolling. And even after the shooting, he had been more concerned with trying to find the Jackal than the inner workings of the Den.

“But it doesn’t matter,” Uilleam said, “I saw the body.”

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

No, it seemed he wasn’t.