“You would think after seeing her husband get brutally murdered, the woman would be in hysterics,” Aidra remarked as they stood in the shadowy alcove, watching as Carmen and Ariana spoke with the detectives who had already taken Kit’s statement—a statement that had been mostly nods and small details.

Kit agreed with a nod, but he was too annoyed to offer much more than that. Aidra was right, but despite what she thought, she still believed there was some good in people—Kit didn’t.

Especially not in a woman like Carmen Rivera who dabbed at dry eyes with a handkerchief one of the detectives had given her when she’d first started with the fake tears.

Perhaps, to anyone else, she might have appeared upset, but Kit saw the deception and the careful way she held herself. No real grief was displayed like that—real grief couldn’t be controlled.

“You think too much of her,” Kit said with a shake of his head, watching as the coroner rolled the black body bag out of the building, flashing camera lenses greeting him the second he was out the door.

Even still, Carmen didn’t shed a tear.

“Maybe so,” Aidra agreed, tucking red strands of hair behind her ear. “Who was the sniper?”

“One of Uilleam’s mercenaries.”

Uilleam’s marksman was very good at what he did—to be able to hit his target in such a crowded setting, along with the poor lighting was a feat of its own—but he had also managed to avoid detection and got out of the building before authorities locked it down.

But then again, he had learned under Zachariah, and Kit knew firsthand how good of a teacher his uncle had been.

He could still remember the grueling regimen he’d been under each day and night when he’d trained with the Lotus Society. There had been no preferential treatment nor did he ever take it easy on him because of their family name.

Kit liked to think he was better for it.

“Why not Fang?” Aidra asked.

That was enough to spark a smile. “I need him for something else. Besides, despite my role, this is still Uilleam’s show, and you know how he is.”

Shrugging and trying very carefully to keep her face blank, Aidra said, “Just wondering.”

Despite the fact that she and Fang were together, she never mixed her role as Kit’s righthand with her relationship with the Wild Bunch member.

“Everything is going according to plan, though,” she said thoughtfully as she checked the time.

Kit had gone over the plan dozens of times with Uilleam over the last few weeks, making sure every variable was accounted for, and even those that weren’t. It wasn’t just that they were attempting to bring Carmen down—and finally giving Kit the chance to put a bullet in the woman’s brain—but he also had to tread carefully to ensure Elias was none the wiser.

And by the end of it, if all went according to plan, Uilleam would be able to see an end to the man as well.

It was only a matter of time.

Out the corner of his eye, Kit could just see Agustín Contreras speaking candidly with another police detective, and unlike the two who were questioning Carmen and Ariana, this one didn’t seem nearly as pleasant.

While the extent of Agustín’s business practices was unknown to the LAPD, like more organized groups, his tattoos told a story—one that spoke of his life of crime and death.

Kit had never cared much for the other man one way or the other, but Uilleam had thought he could prove useful, so instead of ensuring that he was out of the picture, he wanted to bring him in further.

Kit still wasn’t sure if the move would prove fruitful or not.

Once the detective walked away, and not without a suspicious backward glance at the cartel leader, Agustín’s gaze immediately came to Kit.

It baffled him how willfully blind the Rivera women were. Had it been Luna being questioned by anyone, Kit would have gone to her first before anyone, but Agustín didn’t seem to care about Ariana any more than she cared about him.

Despite the life he lived, Kit had never thought of marrying for advantage—especially when the advantage wasn’t worth the headache he would have to put up with.

“Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?” Agustín asked the moment he was within hearing distance, keeping his voice low.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t you? It seems I’m the only one surprised by the fat man’s death,” Agustín said with a careless wave to the doors the coroner had gone out of .

Kit offered a careless shrug. “I’m used to death.”

“As we all are, but that doesn’t explain why she isn’t.”

This time, he gestured to Carmen with a tilt of his head, drawing Kit’s attention to the detectives who had seemed to reach the end of their questions.

“You give her too much credit.”

Agustín still didn’t look convinced, but he didn’t question it further. “Perhaps, I did.”

Once they were all free to leave, they didn’t venture out the front but rather went out an alternate exit where two SUVs awaited them. While Agustín said his goodbyes to Ariana, Kit and Aidra climbed into the back of the truck in front, waiting until Carmen and Ariana had joined them before pulling off.

Carmen was careful to keep her composure, at least until they were a few miles away from the theater and there were no cameras around to spy on her.

Her anger rushed to the forefront as she brushed her hands over her dress in disgust. “Fucking Kingmaker. He did this on purpose!” It was clear that she meant the blood staining the front of her dress that Kit knew would never come out. “Pero qui más suedes esperar de un perro—but what more can you expect from a dog?”

Even though the insult wasn’t aimed at him directly, it still rubbed him the wrong way—that had been his mother’s favorite insult for him, after all.

Covertly, Aidra touched his leg with her own, a silent reminder that he could not do what he was picturing in his head. It wasn’t time yet.

But he couldn’t fight his compulsion to ask, “Are you ready to be put down like one?”

Kit, despite his anger, had spoken in Welsh, knowing that she was unfamiliar with the language and rather enjoyed the look of confusion on her face.

He didn’t think he had ever despised anyone as much as he did this woman—perhaps his own mother, but thankfully, she was dead and no longer around to annoy him.

But even as the woman was threatening to destroy the calm he felt, he couldn’t help thinking of Luna.

Su pequeña luna.

His little moon.

Weeks had passed since he had last seen her—since he was close enough to touch her.

While he had gone longer without being in the same room as her—or at least long enough that she wasn’t desperately trying to get away from him or making her anger known—once he had gotten another taste of her in what had felt like too long back in New York, it was no longer enough to see her at a distance.

But he had promised he would fix this, that he would right the wrongs he had committed against her. And until he did, he wasn’t allowing himself to have her, no matter how desperately he craved her next to him.

Soon.

“What did you say?” Carmen asked, her voice dangerously low as she drew him from his thoughts.

“I asked about the terms of your contract with the Kingmaker,” Kit answered smoothly, ignoring the twitch of Aidra’s lips since she knew that hadn’t been at all what he’d said. “Considering you went behind my back for a favor with the man, I’m not aware of what all you promised him in return for this … favor.”

Her smile was cold as she folded her hands in her lap, sitting up primly. “Afraid that you’re next?”

Kit returned that smile. “Hardly.”

Carmen’s bravado faltered in the face of his ease. He had to wonder how anyone found the woman threatening when she sought out others to do her dirty work. Then again, he had to remember she had an army, scores of men willing to do whatever she asked.

But he had an army as well, and his was far better trained.

“This was it,” she said, finally answering his inquiry.

“And what does he expect in return?” Kit asked—though he already knew the answer to this question, it was all in whether she was going to fulfill the terms of the deal that mattered to him.

Carmen blew out a breath, her gaze briefly drifting to her daughter who hadn’t said a word since they’d started off. “He wants me to end my relationship with the Contreras Cartel.”

Meaning, she would not only have to void whatever deal Agustín had in place with Caesar, but she would also have to cancel the engagement between her daughter and the cartel leader.

“That’s not smart.”

And if he didn’t give her any other advice, this bit was the truth.

Despite what she thought of the young cartel member, she didn’t need to cross him. He still had a lot to prove, and from Kit’s understanding of the way his cartel worked, he would have to make an example of Carmen if she decided to go back on their deal.

“I know that,” Carmen snapped, glaring at him as though he were completely obtuse. “If he chooses to fulfill his end of the bargain without waiting for me to fulfill mine, then that’s his error, is it not?”

Kit shrugged, not offering a response.

Because what he didn’t tell her was she might have been making a mistake with Agustín, but she was making an enemy if she chose to cross Uilleam.

But on that, he kept his mouth shut.

That was exactly what he wanted.

“As long as you have a plan in place,” Kit said, glancing down at his watch.

Would Luna be home yet?

And if she were, would she be thinking of him?

It wasn’t just because of their change in plans that he hadn’t talked to her, but because he had wanted to wait until he was sure he could give her what she wanted. The last thing he wanted was to send her running once more.

The first time had wounded him—he couldn’t imagine what a second time might do.

Riding in silence for the next twenty minutes, the high-rise apartment building that Carmen and Ariana called home came into view with a number of reporters already parked out front, waiting for them. They drove around back, where a few more lingered, but with the tinted windows, it made slipping past them relatively easy.

“We’ll speak again soon, Nix,” Carmen said a moment before exiting the vehicle, not bothering to wait for her daughter as she started for the private elevator that would take her all the way up to her penthouse apartment, but Ariana didn’t mind. She was too concerned with Kit to give her much thought.

Kit hadn’t known what to think of the girl when he was first introduced. Sure, he could see bits of Luna in her—their eyes, delicate features, and the same coloring—but outside of their physical appearances, the two had nothing else in common.

Ariana didn’t make his heart race when he saw her nor did she inspire any emotion inside of him other than disgust.

He could have ignored what she had done to Luna—though not really—but he couldn’t ignore the person she was now. No, she didn’t have such an active role in the things her mother did, but she didn’t attempt to stop them. And the few times he had seen her venture into Carmen’s club, she had treated the girls there as deplorably as some of Carmen’s enforcers.

The girl had a vicious jealousy streak, and that jealousy didn’t just extend to the man whose last name she intended to take—it also extended to Kit, as though she had any claim over him.

“Are you going to come up, Nix?” Ariana asked as she stepped out of the car. “I’m afraid to walk alone.”

“Then walk quickly.”

It didn’t matter what he said to her—no matter how cruel, she ate it up, as though even just having that bit of attention was enough for her.

Ariana pouted. “Then give me a minute of your time … alone.”

“Early meeting tomorrow,” Aidra said pointedly, though Kit didn’t need the reminder.

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

Aidra was a professional—more professional than anyone Kit knew, but since they had started this work with Carmen and Ariana, she had made it a point to get under Ariana’s skin at every opportunity.

“Yet I answered.”

“One day, your usefulness will run out, and once it does, I’ll make sure that you’re put down.”

Aidra, who had suffered torture the likes of which no person should have even lived through, didn’t even blink. “Good luck.”

“You stupid little—”

Before she could finish, Kit grabbed Ariana by her arm, dragging her from the truck and over to the elevators, not caring that she was tripping over the ridiculous high heels she wore.

Once the elevator doors were open, he shoved her inside, leaning in just enough that he could press the button for the floor she was going up to.

“Do you always treat your women like this?” she asked. Though she now wore a smile on her face as if this were all a game.

“Trust me—you’re not mine.”

She nodded down at the black band that circled his finger. “Maybe I’ll look for who is then and get rid of her.”

Kit knew she was trying to incite his rage, to piss him off enough to make him react, but just the thought of her thinking that she could go up against Luna was laughable.

“I invite you to try. You won’t like what you find.”

He turned his back as the doors started to close but not before she yelled, “I’ll have you one of these days, Nix.”

He wouldn’t count on it.

“Do you remember that Lebanese drug trafficker who wanted me to become a part of his harem?” Aidra asked once he was back in the truck and they were pulling off. “I actually would prefer his company to hers. She’s insufferable.”

“Because of your loyalty to Luna,” Kit murmured, removing his phone from his pocket.

He still had another twenty minutes before he could make the phone call he’d been thinking about since the moment he saw Luna enter the box with Uilleam.

“I’m loyal to anyone who’s loyal to you,” Aidra said. “Besides, she doesn’t act like a royal cunt.”

“Aidra …”

“It’s not an insult if it’s the truth.”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

Rolling her eyes, she turned to better face him. “Anyway, step one is done, right? What’s next?”

The plan had always been for Caesar to die, even Carmen knew that, but now that the ball was rolling, it was time to implement the next step.

“We have to destroy Ariana—and no, you don’t get to kill her.”

Not yet.