Page 98 of Dark Alliance
I whirl around. “Scared you? He came home covered in his own blood!”
Connor shakes his head, whipping hair around his eyes. “Not because of our fight.” He stabs the will with his finger. “Because he’s going to kill you just like he did your dad if we don’t end him first. He offered me the diamond to get out of Dodge.”
I go still, my mind blanking. “He what?”
“Yeah, he offered to sell the jewel he claimed the Irish Kings managed to steal for dirt cheap. He wants me gone. To build his empire with the Russians. To get rid of you.” His eyes plead with me. “Throw me a bone here, Cat. I’m not just saying all this for fun.”
My mind races with thoughts and lies and truths.
“I can barely come to terms with the idea that my father left the family to me. And I sure as hell can’t plot to kill my brother based on your gut instincts.” I fidget with the papers on the counter as an excuse to contemplate more than anything. “What do you want from me, Connor? What’s your endgame?”
“My endgame?”
I’ve never heard that voice from him before. It’s quiet and hesitant. Broken.
He looks like I stabbed him in the heart with his own knife, and his mouth curves down. “You’re acting like I have some ulterior motive. Is it so hard to believe that I’m doing all this to keep you alive because I don’t want to see you die? Can’t I just want to be with you?” Pivoting, he snatches a tumbler from the cabinet and plucks a bottle of brandy from a grocery bag.
Be with me?
Can complicated, cunning, complex Connor Gallagher have a motive so pure and simple?
“I thought maybe you’d be grateful that someone has your back.” He downs a mouthful of alcohol and glares. “My endgame is you, Caterina. Why the fuck would I lie about all this? I’m not a monster.”
No, he’s not, but…
Nino couldn’t have…
I stifle a shiver. “Okay, well, we have no actual evidence my brother murdered my father. This amended will doesn’t prove anything.”
Connor refills his brandy and faces me from across the island. “I think he caught me first, and it was his light bulb moment.” After a single swallow, he sets the tumbler in the middle like an offering. “He saw the will…or someone told him about it after the gala. So it was already in his head that he was going to lose everything. The seed was planted. Then he saw me at the vault…and that was it. He knocked me out, killed your father, and started running around the estate, blaming the murder on me.”
I swig his drink, admitting to myself that if that story were about anyone else, I might believe it.
But my brother? He loves our father. Surely he could never…
Connor picks up the tumbler as soon as I set it down and gulps another mouthful. “I think it’s the only reason I’m alive. Time wasn’t on his side. He saw me, caged me, and then hurried out to kill your father. I was next on the list until some kind of disturbance woke up the entire house.”
“Lora.” I whisper her name under my breath.
“Who?”
“Lora, my father’s night nurse. She found him and screamed. I woke up and came rushing in.”
Connor leans on the counter and nods. “So, Lora was the distraction. The kink in his half-assed plan. She’s why I remain among the living.”
I quiver. “I don’t know, Connor. I…”
“She is, and I’ll tell you why.” He reaches out his hand, and I put mine in his and squeeze. “Because I wasn’t at the top of his list. My presence gave him the idea, and I became the perfect scapegoat. But Eduardo was top priority. So, Nino dumped me in a cell and left to do the deed. He was coming back to kill me when the screaming started. Nino had to pivot and play the hero. Killing me became an afterthought.”
I slip my fingers from his hand, but he keeps going.
“If I’m guilty, why wouldn’t he kill me outright? What could be so important that the guy thought, ‘I’ll lock him up for now…and deal with my father’s killer later’?”
I realize Nino’s struggled with a dark side for the last few years, but our father was all we had left. Our only parent. He was a good and fair man. He was kind to us. He was a loving person who never raised his hand to either one of us.
The only part of Connor’s story that resonates with me is that he didn’t hurt my father.
“Cat.” Connor settles his hands on the counter. “What would you do if you caught someone murdering your father?”
