He shuddered and his disgusted laugh had my hackles rising.
“You mean Antoine and his sister Violette?”
“Yeah, I think that’s her name. The one who died not too long ago.”
“What about them?”
Darien arched a black brow, French inhaling his smoke. “Five years ago, I caught them fucking each other in the back seat of Antoine’s car in MacGregor’s parking lot.”
Shock zinged through my system and bile rose in my throat.
“Rumour has it they fucked each other a lot.” He chuckled bitterly. “If you don’t believe me, ask my brother Declan. He’s seen them too.”
I believed him, but I was not expecting this.
“That’s…disturbing.” I struggled to keep my composure.
I felt hoodwinked by Violette. She’d always given off such a girl next door persona. Not girl next door who fucks her blood-related brother. My stomach roiled.
Was Violette fucking her half-brother while we’d been together?
My only solace came in the fact that I’d always worn a condom, but my skin still crawled with nausea at the thought of both siblings and their incestual activities.
Another thing was made clear.
Not only was Antoine Toussaint fueled by vengeance for his sister’s death, but hatred and jealousy as well because I’d dipped into the same hole as him.
“Do you have it, Zed?”
Darien’s sudden change of topic pulled me out of my train of thoughts. We were here for an entirely different reason that had nothing to do with the fact that the Toussaints were into incest.
“What do you think, Dare?”
“I think you’ve kept me waiting long enough.”
I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out the enclosed velvet box. I placed it in Darien’s outstretched palm and used the flashlight on my phone to give him a better look.
He flipped open the lid and stared at the stunning fifteen-carat Padparadscha sapphire. It gleamed a vibrant pink and peach. One of the rarest stones in the world, the De la Croixes just happened to have one sitting in their vault. An unused family heirloom that now belonged to Darien, courtesy of a hefty money transfer.
“Incredible,” he rasped with the appreciation of a man who was a connoisseur of jewels. Especially of the stolen variety. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He spent an innumerable amount of time searching for one of such high calibre, until I mentioned having one that might interest him.
“What’s it for?” I doubted he was about to forge a crown with it as a centrepiece.
“Someone important.”
I grinned. “Is thatsomeone importantthe reason you’re finally deciding to stay in the city?”
He smirked, plucked out the precious stone, and raised it towards the moon. “Maybe.”
“What’s her name?”
The Padparadscha sapphire sparkled like a lone star. “Tara.”
The city bloomed with the arrival of spring as it trounced over the bleak land. But the underworld remained dark and gloomy, just like its ruler.
I was buried under a mountain of work, plowing through new weapons shipments, quarterly reports, and business meetings like a never-ending Sisyphean task. My thirst for power was quenched now that I sat on my throne, but my hunger for my wife grew ceaselessly like the flowers of this new season.