Cartel by Lili St Germain Page A

was that of a woman to be feared, a cartel queen who has earned her right alongside the king. But here, now, Dornan saw the fear inside his mother’s eyes, and that fear pulled at him.
    ‘You don’t need to worry,’ Dornan said, giving her hand one last squeeze before he placed it back in her lap.
    He stood and turned to leave, her final words like a knife in his chest.
    ‘That’s what your brother said,’ she murmured.
    His mother’s vulnerability had rattled him. Still, there was business to attend to, so Dornan did what he was best at: pushing away everything else and focusing on the task at hand. He’d become adept at compartmentalising things after Raph had died. If he didn’t push the dark things down into the abyss inside him, he’d be eaten alive by rage.
    In the kitchen, things were finally happening. Emilio still presided over the head of the table, Julian by his side. Dornan’s men sat and stood around a spot beside Emilio that was obviously meant for him. Dornan glanced at the empty seat beside his father before taking a spot at the opposite end of the table, directly opposite his father.
    ‘What’d I miss?’ Dornan asked, folding his arms across the Gypsy Brothers crest that adorned the leather cut he wore.
    His father turned his eyes up to acknowledge him before returning to the map in front of him. ‘Los Angeles,’ he said briskly. ‘Who else do we know who supplies?’
    Dornan frowned. ‘That’s the thing about a monopoly,’ he answered. ‘Nobody else supplies, Pop. We’re it.’
    Emilio didn’t look impressed.
    ‘We’ve got a shipment of meth coming, right?’
    Emilio continued to stare at his son, a small shrug of his shoulder the only indication he had heard the question.
    ‘We push that,’ Dornan suggested. ‘Discounted until we can get our coke situation covered.’
    Emilio grunted. His indifference infuriated Dornan.
    ‘We done here?’ Dornan asked. ‘These boys can accompany the shipment personally this time. It’s due tonight, is it not?’
    ‘Midnight,’ Emilio answered. ‘At the dock.’
    Dornan nodded. When no one moved, he threw his hands up.
    ‘Everyone get that? Nine o’clock at the dock.’ He glanced at his watch, seeing they still had a few hours to kill. ‘Leave now. Go get something to eat. I’ll see you boys out there.’
    Viper, who’d been silent until this point, suddenly spoke up. ‘You’re not coming with us, D?’
    Dornan shook his head, avoiding his father’s amused stare. ‘I said, I’ll meet you there. Get out of here, all of you.’
    They filed out of the room, the heavy kitchen door slamming after them. Dornan pressed his palms flat on the table and studied his father.
    ‘Was there something else?’ Emilio asked, looking up from the papers in front of him.
    Dornan shook his head, pressing off the table with his hands and leaving the room.
    But he’d lied. There was something else. Her name was Mariana.
    And she’d asked him to come back.
    Dornan didn’t enter her room once he was downstairs. Instead, he stood outside the door, pressing his eye to the peephole that showed a fish-eye view of the small room. Yeah, he was a fucking pervert. It didn’t bother him. She was a grown woman, and she had asked him to come back.
    For a while, she paced, probably waiting for him to return. He bore the time patiently, dismissing the hunger in his stomach after a full day on the road. Once he went upstairs, he’d be on the phone and screaming at the rest of the guys to try and get some product out onto the street. So he took his time, and he watched the girl pace in her tiny room.
    Three paces, turn, three paces. She did this over and over again, and he imagined for a moment that she was doing it for him. But she seemed oblivious to his peeping, her stride getting quicker, her face turning from carefully controlled detachment to an anxious rage. She stopped at the far end of the room, her back to him, and struck out at the wall in front of