Chapter 53

T Dante he rising sun casts a long shadow over my desk as Lorenzo sits in silence, occasionally nodding his head to let me know he is listening. Maximo is beside him as I tell my older brother about Leo Evanson and everything I’ve learned in the past two days. I stop short of telling him that I shot our own father in the head. He knows. “So, when will they find his body?” he asks quietly. “In a few hours probably. As soon as his housekeeper arrives and realizes he hasn’t got up for his nine a.m. cigar and coffee.” Lorenzo rubs a hand over his beard. “And we will start a war, brother? To avenge our father’s death?” He snickers, but there is no humor in it — only menace. “We’ll avenge his death, of course.” “By taking out the Russians?” “By taking out Dominik Pushkin for the murder of our beloved father and supporting Dmitri Varkov to be Dominik’s successor,” I say, leaning forward in my chair. “Dmitri has been priming his small army for a takeover for the past year. The Russians are abo