The Recluse Heir by Monique Moreau

28

“It’s about time,” Nicu piped up when I laid out my plan of how to win Cat back. “Finally, you’re manning up.”

I threw daggers at him with my eyes. My little brother existed to annoy me. Glimpsing over at Alex, who was sitting beside Tatum on one of the couches in my living room, I figured that was most likely how he felt about me. Good, annoying the hell out of each other was proof that everything was right in our world.

My nocturnal visit to Cat yesterday had been a revelation on several fronts. First off, I had no idea Cat could be so stubborn. In my hubris, it hadn’t crossed my mind that she would be anything but thrilled at my declaration. Considering the alternative was a lifelong marriage to Simu, I assumed she would fall on her knees with gratitude. Turned out, I was an idiot.

Her refusal revealed her integrity, which confirmed that her snooping had been an aberration of character. That she was willing to defy the blood bond and accept a life sentence with Simu was remarkable. And irritating as hell. I was hoping that she believed in me enough to know that I would protect her brother and set her free from Simu.

Cat was a sheltered teenage girl, and yet she stood up to the challenge, making a decision that carried a high toll of sacrifice. I was touched that she was partly motivated to protect me from Simu. I chuckled to myself. As if she could hold sway over a monster like him. The man had no soul. That, and the very idea that the fucker could get to me, were ludicrous.

After listening to her, I realized that I had come off as unfeeling and relentlessly focused on Simu. Since it was clear that nothing I said would change her mind, I decided on a tactical retreat. But I wasn’t giving up. It was obvious that she loved me, but she was scared. I could relate to that, so I’d prove myself to her. Not only would I fulfill her demand, but I’d raise her one. There was only one thing Cat cared about, outside of her family and me, and I was going to get it for her.

But first, we needed to set up a meeting with Nelu.

“He’s going to gut us,” Tatum predicted, rapping his fingers on his knee as he calculated the potential cost of my plan.

“Isn’t that the point,” I retorted.

We were going to ask Nelu to side with us and break the engagement with Simu. Since we’d be giving him enough money to satisfy most of his debt with the Hagi clan, there was no doubt it would work. After Nelu paid off what he could, Alex and I would fly out to Cali to negotiate with the Hagi boss for Cristo’s life. To pull this off, my brothers and the Popescus needed to believe that I was ready to go through with marrying Cat, which I was. Once Cristo was safe and I killed Simu (because that fucker was living on borrowed time), she and I would decide what was best for us. If she still wanted her freedom, I’d give it to her.

Alex side-eyed him. “Money’s not an object. It’s worth it, if only because it’s the first time Luca capitulated to one of my demands,” he said slyly.

“And we’ll do right by our custom of the blood bond,” Nicu added. “You can’t put a price on that.”

“You’re obsessed with this,” I complained.

“Hey, I’m not the one who fucked a mafie virgin. That was you,” he launched back at me.

“Alright already, let’s do this before something comes out of your mouth that makes me change my mind,” I snapped. “Or beat you to a pulp.”

“Ha, you wish,” he replied.

“I’ll set up the meeting,” Alex stated. “Simu is going to be furious. Our offer will satisfy Nelu, but no amount of money is going to placate Simu. This will be the second time you’ll have taken Cat from him. Only blood will satisfy him. Specifically, you bleeding to death.”

Tatum nodded in agreement. “Simu will leave us no choice. We’ll have to take him out.”

“If we do that, we’ll start a war. He’s like a son to Nelu,” Nicu argued.

Having thought about this long and hard through half the night, I proposed, “What if we set him up to come after me? Then, when I’m forced to kill him, it will be self-defense.”

Alex stroked his chin, thinking. “That might work, but he could also kill you in the process. Mama would never forgive us if you got offed, even if it was unintentional,” he teased.

“Ha ha, you’re a riot today. Nina must’ve been extra giving last night to put you in such a damn humorous mood,” I taunted.

A smug smile spread over his face. “Nina’s the most generous woman in the world. No one can top her, and yes, last night was particularly…enjoyable. I will never be accused of leaving my woman unsatisfied.”

“Yeah, were you fucking her against the front door or what? I could hear you in the hallway on my way home,” Tatum griped.

Alex guffawed and slapped his knee. “A gentleman never tells.”

“Christ,” muttered Nicu, clutching his head. “Stop already.”

“Wait until you find the right woman,” Alex challenged. “You’ll be more obsessed than the two of us combined.”

“Never happening,” he grumbled. “I will not end up neutered like you and Luca.”

“Famous last words, brother,” murmured Alex with a grin.

Returning to business, Tatum asked me, “How are you thinking of getting Simu to attack you?”

“I’ll set up a meeting with him. Only the two of us in an isolated location. Taunt him about having won her back. He’ll go rabid because he’s a brute with half a brain. We fight and I kill him,” I responded easily.

“That’s problematic. There’s a risk he could kill you. Of course, you can handle yourself, but the man’s a menace. This isn’t the time to get cocky and underestimate him,” Alex counseled.

“I think you underestimate me,” I said, with a curl of my lip.

Did he think I’d let Simu walk out alive? Never going to happen.

“I want Nicu present, but at a distance,” Alex concluded. “He’s got the best sniping skills so, worst-case scenario, he’ll be there to shoot him down.”

I sent Nicu a scowl. “I don’t need help.”

“Too bad, you’re getting it anyway.”

“Fucking fine, then,” I grumbled.

“I will contact Nelu to set up a meeting to hash out our differences so that the marriage goes forward. I will argue that Simu is too biased to be involved in the negotiations, and that you and he need to meet on neutral ground to squash this feud, once and for all. Whether he tells Simu or not, it will work to our advantage. If he doesn’t say anything, you’ll have the element of surprise. If Nelu does, Simu will be seething over the burn of losing her. By the time you two meet, he’ll be easy to provoke.”

Nicu turned to me and asked with mild curiosity, “How are you going to handle her? When she finds out that we’ve negotiated the marriage to go forward, she’ll be furious with you. She won’t come willingly to the marriage bed.”

A stab of guilt sliced through me. I hated lying to my brothers, but I had no other choice. She would be coming willingly or not at all. Unable to say the truth, I mislead him by saying, “She wants me to prove myself, so I’m going to give her the one thing she covets.”

“What could that be? So help me God, don’t answer with ‘me,’” he said.

“Of course not. I know what makes her tick. What will make her feel seen,” I answered enigmatically.

My little brother had no patience and no finesse, and he hated surprises. Not telling him served my daily goal of pissing him off. Nicu waved his hand in a gesture of tell me more.

“You’ll just have to wait and see,” I goaded him as I waggled my eyebrows at him.

“Fuck you,” he rumbled out.

“Enough,” cut in Alex as he grabbed his cell off the coffee table. “Let me call Nelu and set it up.”

* * *

I walkedunder the scaffolding of a deserted warehouse in Rockaway Beach until I found the paint-chipped, rusted double doors. Rattling the doorknob, I yanked hard on one of the doors. It scraped over the sidewalk as I shoved it open enough for me to slip through.

“Christ,” I breathed out, shielding my eyes from the shafts of light streaming in through the broken windows, glinting off the corroded steel beams of the roof. The scent of decay and dust hung in the air. Between rows of concrete columns, the cement floor was littered with debris from teenage parties: dozens of bottles, an old, urine-stained mattress with the stuffing coming out, and an abandoned shopping cart, of all things. Near a stack of empty metal barrels, I kicked at a lone cleaver with a jagged edge. I could only imagine what role that makeshift weapon had played in someone’s life…or death.

I waited, scanning the building across the street, making out the small bump on the roof that was Nicu’s prone form. He was well camouflaged. The only reason I spotted him was because I knew to look for him. The August heat in the stuffy warehouse was sweltering. I cursed Simu. Of course, the fucker would make me wait.

The familiar scraping of the front entrance alerted me to his presence. He stepped into the warehouse and stilled when he saw me. Eyeing him critically, I noted his height and the breadth of his shoulders. With brown hair and blue eyes, he wasn’t ugly, although his face was a little too narrow and his nose a little too long. Unlike the Lupu men, he wore a pair of loose jeans and a black short-sleeve shirt, unbuttoned down the front to show off the gold chain with a cross swinging from his thick neck.

“Your brother managed to bribe Nelu into giving up his daughter once again. The man has no morals. You already rejected her twice. And the second time…” He shook his head. “So public. So humiliating. If you cared for the girl at all, you’d leave her alone.”

I snorted. “Leave her alone for you? I think not,” I replied dryly. “That’s the beauty of being a Lupu. We have infinite resources, connections, and wealth. We always get what we want. Whereas you’re a two-bit player hanging onto the coattails of a family that’s going down the drain.”

“Cat will hate you for forcing a marriage on her,” he threatened.

I made a scoffing sound. “Don’t worry about me, worry about yourself. I do whatever the fuck I want to do, in spite of my brother and my clan. You’re the one who isn’t man enough to keep her,” I jeered.

“Typical arrogance from a Lupu, thinking you’re entitled to anything you want regardless of who you destroy along the way,” he spat out.

I pulled back. “What the hell are you talking about? Unlike you, we didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in our mouths. We fought for every bit of power we have, unlike you, you Cantacuzino,” I derided. “You’re the one who came from an aristocratic family. The famous Byzantine family, with the Cantacuzino Palace on Victoriei Avenue in Bucharest. Yet, didn’t your last prince abandon the homeland during the Second World War and take off for Sweden? Hmm, wasn’t that a convenient escape, right before the pro-Soviet government was installed.”

He shot me an eviscerating glare. “Oh, my side of the family was not so lucky. We stayed and suffered through decades of misery, like everyone else. It didn’t help that your father partnered with mine only to cut him off at the knees. As revenge, my father attacked yours on the road back from your grandmother’s village and was slaughtered in a nearby birch forest. His body left to rot like a mongrel dog instead of the şef of a prestigious family with a legacy that goes back a thousand years. And me, his son? Without protection, I resorted to common thievery in the streets with the riffraff, until Nelu saved me.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, you madman? Me, my brother, and father were attacked by a rogue Roma clan,” I blurted out. There was only one attack he could be referring to, and it was the one where my father was shot and sent us into the forest to hunt down the perpetrators.

“That was to cover his tracks, you ignorant fool. Your father recognized mine that day. How could he not, having personally stabbed him in the back. The selfish bastard cheated him on a big job they’d partnered on, raked up the money, and fled the country. How do you think your father had the funds to establish himself in America?”

Fuck, that explained so much about Simu’s unrelenting hatred toward us. He didn’t know that Alex and I killed his father. Even now, I had no idea who pulled the trigger. Not that it mattered. Whether Cantacuzino or Roma, his father’s life was forfeited the moment he attacked us on that empty road. A shiver coursed down my spine at the spray of bullets that rained down on us that day.

“He attacked us, Simu. It was kill or be killed. We had no choice. You know that, and yet you’ve been holding this over our heads all this time,” I said, incredulous.

Lunging at me, he grabbed my shirt. “Yes, goddammit. Your clan’s success rests on the destruction of mine. Now, after all these years, the time for retribution has come, and you’re going to pay for it.”

With his strong hold, he had the leverage to swing me around, but before he could do anything, I popped my hand over his and caught his baby finger, the weakest part of his grip. Nice and quick, I twisted my shoulder and thrust his hand away. Shoving him off me, I tossed him to the ground and got into a defensive stance.

Simu leapt to his feet, dirt tracking down the side of his face, and rammed his shoulder into my gut, shouting, “You little pussy, you are so dead. Get ready for the pain.”

My back slammed against a concrete column, but I threw him off and put distance between us. Circling around each other, we bobbed and dodged each other’s punches. I miscalculated and my shoulder hit a column as I moved out of his swing. Simu’s hand shot out and grabbed my throat. His choke hold tightened fast.

I had a short window of time before I blacked out, so I jammed my forearm in the crook of his elbow. Throwing all my weight forward, I snapped down hard. The instant his hold broke, I grabbed his nape and spiked my knee into his gut.

Stunned, he toppled to the ground. But he recuperated quickly and swiped his leg at me from below. I jumped over it, but his hand shot out and grabbed my leg. I crashed to the concrete floor with an oomph. He pounced on me, this time with a double grip around my throat. Shit was getting hectic now. His grip tightened, halfway crushing my trachea.

Bucking with my hips, I slapped my palm on the filth of the floor. Nails scraping the grit, my fingers touched the handle of the discarded cleaver. Stretching to get a good hold of it, I used my other arm to punch up between his arms but couldn’t dislodge him. He squeezed and black spots blotted my vision.

At the last instant, my fingers curved around the cleaver. I swung hard. There was a swooshing sound as metal sliced the air.

“Gaaah!” Simu choked out as the cleaver struck his shoulder blade. The impact made an awful sound.

Blood sprayed into my eyes.

His agonized scream pierced my eardrums.

Nicu busted through the double doors as I rolled Simu off me. Groaning, Simu planted his hand on the ground and swayed to his feet. He bent over, the cleaver sticking out of his shoulder. Blood dripped to the ground.

“Pula mea, you sliced me, motherfucker.”

Nicu stalked him from behind.

“We’re going to do more than that,” I warned. Nodding to Nicu, I said, “Remember that ambush on the road to Bucharest when Alex and I were on vacation as kids? We killed his father.”

Nicu’s face turned to stone, his blue eyes morphed into dark, soulless pits of coal. I recognized that look. He was mentally gunning for a kill.

“You wanna do it or should I?” he asked, but we both knew the question was perfunctory.

Getting up to my feet, I riffled my hands through my hair, showering blood on myself. I swiped it off my face. “Nah, you go for it.”

I had to give Simu kudos for not acting like a pussy. He didn’t run or cry or beg for his life. Then again, he knew this was a mercy killing. We could’ve tortured him for days for trying to murder me.

Simu bowed his head. Nicu lowered his sniper rifle, pulled out his favorite black and gray Kimber Rapide, and let off a single shot to the back of the head. The loud popping sound reverberated through the cavernous warehouse.

Simu crashed to the ground with a hard thump. I winced as his body hit the floor.

It was done.

Putting away his gun, Nicu stared down at the prone body and asked with mild curiosity, “What do you think Cat’s going to say when she finds out we killed him?”

“We tell everyone it was self-defense.”

He raised a brow at me. “Is she getting the same story?”

I shook my head. “She gets the truth. I’m not starting our life together with a lie. Fucker was a ticking time bomb. After finding out that either Alex or I ended his father, he would’ve never stopped until we were dead. She understands our ways, so she’ll see the necessity of our action.”

Staring down thoughtfully at the pool of blood spreading beneath Simu, he said, “I’d love to be a fly on the wall and see how that plays out between the two of you. He’s Cristo’s best friend and tight with the family. It’s going to be one hell of a fight.”

Extracting a plastic bag from his suit pocket, he shook it out and bent down to wrap Simu’s head to avoid leaving a conspicuous trail of blood behind when we moved the body. We had to transport his body to the cellar of the café for Nelu to pick up. Normally, we’d have gotten rid of him but, closed casket or not, Nelu would want a proper burial.

“I can already tell you how it will end up,” I retorted, hooking my hands beneath Simu’s armpits, and pulling his torso up with a grunt as Nicu grabbed his legs.

“Oh yeah? And how is that?” he asked as he heaved up Simu’s lower body.

“With her beneath me and screaming my name,” I crowed as I shuffled forward. “Fuck, he’s heavy.”

“Dead men always are,” he supplied helpfully.

We got his body into the back of an unmarked truck and cracked jokes as we made our way back to our family-owned café in Sunnyside. Nothing like a fight and a kill to bring brothers together. A glimmer of hope passed through me as we drove along the tranquil residential streets, the body bouncing around in the back of the truck as we bumped over potholes.

Phase one was done with. Now, on to phase two. Hopefully, the second part of my elaborate plan would compensate for what I had done to Cat’s beau.