Chapter 34 Blood and power
Lord Mateo Valdez POV
The smoke from my cigar curled toward the vaulted ceiling of the estate’s council room, dissipating into shadows cast by the crystal chandelier overhead. The room smelled of leather, aged whiskey, and the particular musk of men who wielded power over life and death.
Five families. Five heads of empires built on blood and silence.
And they all sat at my table.
To my right, Giovanni Moretti Valdez leaned back in his chair, his rings catching the dim light as he swirled his brandy. The Italians controlled the ports from Miami to New York. To my left, Dmitri Volkov’s cold blue eyes tracked every movement in the room like a predator waiting for weakness. The Russians had their fingers in everything from weapons to politicians.
Across from me sat Li jun, silent as always, his hands folded neatly on the polished mahogany. The Chinese syndicate moved product through channels the rest of us could only dream of accessing. And beside him, Rashid al-Hashimi, whose oil money and Middle Eastern connections made him untouchable in ways even I envied.
Five families. Five empires and one alliance that had held for thirty years.
Until my son decided to break it.
Sophia sat in the corner, perched on a velvet chair like a queen observing her court. She wore emerald silk that clung to every curve, her dark hair cascading over one shoulder. She was beautiful and deadly as always.
Giovanni’s daughter. The woman who was supposed to unite our families. The bride my son rejected.
She’d failed to bring Gavin home. And failure in this family had consequences.
“Mateo.” Giovanni’s voice cut through the silence. “We’ve been patient. It has been three months since we sent Sophia to New York. Three months of waiting for your son to remember where he comes from.”
I took a long pull from my cigar and let the smoke settle in my lungs before exhaling slowly.
“My son is… complicated.”
“Complicated?” Dmitri’s laugh was harsh, grating. “Your son built a hockey empire and thinks he’s too good for the family that made him. That’s not complicated. That’s betrayal.”
My hand tightened around my cigar. “Careful, Volkov.”
“Careful?” He leaned forward, his massive frame making the chair creak. “Your son knows our secrets. Our operations and our connections. And he’s playing house with some nurse in New York, pretending to be legitimate while we continue doing the dirty work that made his wealth possible.”
“Gavin earned his wealth himself…”
“With seed money from this table!” Giovanni slammed his hand down, making glasses rattle. “ We cleaned up his messes when he was young and stupid. And now he spits in our faces?”
Silence fell over the room.
I drew on my cigar again, feeling the cancer eating at my lungs with each breath. The doctors gave me six months. Maybe less.
I didn’t have time for this shit.
“The alliance was built on the Cross-Valdez foundation,” Li jun said quietly. His voice was soft, but everyone listened when he spoke. “Your father and Gavin’s grandfather shed blood together. Three decades of peace because our families were united through blood and marriage.”
“Gavin was promised to Sophia since birth,” Rashid added. “That union was supposed to solidify the next generation. Instead, your son runs away and your daughter returns empty-handed.”
All eyes turned to Sophia.
She met their gazes without flinching, her red lips curved in a slight smile that showed no shame. But I saw the fury burning beneath her composed exterior.
“I’m not finished,” she said simply.
“You had three months,” Dmitri growled.
“And I learned valuable information.” Sophia uncrossed her legs and stood, walking to the table with the grace of a panther. “Gavin now has a weakness.”
“Explain,” I said.
“He has a fiancé,and also a daughter.” She pulled out her phone and slid it across the table to me. “Melissa Hayes Spenser . A Twenty-two year old student. And the daughter of his fiancée who is a nurse.”
I looked at the photo. An extremely beautiful girl with brown hair and defiant eyes.
“This changes everything,” Sophia continued. “Because it gives us leverage. We can hit him where it hurts now. His fiancée. Her daughter. The family he’s chosen over the family he was born into.”
The room fell silent as everyone processed this information.
“Then we use her,” Giovanni said simply. “We will take the girl. And force him to come home.”
“No.” My voice was firm. “We don’t touch her. Not yet.”
“Why not?” Dmitri demanded. “You said yourself you’re running out of time. The cancer…”
“I know what the fucking cancer is doing, Volkov.” I crushed my cigar in the crystal ashtray. “But kidnapping works once. After that, he becomes an enemy instead of family. And an enemy with Gavin could destroy us all… I know my son.”
“Then what do you propose?” Li jun asked.
Before I could answer, the door opened.
Stefan walked in.
My younger son who I liked to call the spare. The one who’d never measured up to his brother’s shadow.
He wore an expensive suit but carried himself like a man still trying to prove his worth. Which he was.
“Father, I heard…”
“Did anyone invite you into this meeting?” I didn’t look at him.
Stefan stopped mid-step. “No, but I thought…”
“You thought wrong. Get out.”
“But Father, I can help. I know Gavin better than anyone. If you just let me…”
“Let you what?” Dmitri cut him off with a laugh. “You’ve spent your entire life being inferior to your brother. What makes you think you can bring him home when you couldn’t even earn a seat at this table?”
Stefan’s face flushed red. “I’m a Valdez. I have every right…”
“You have the name,” Giovanni said dismissively. “But not the spine. Your brother built an empire. You’ve built nothing.”
“That’s not fair…”
“Life isn’t fair, boy.” Rashid didn’t even look up from his drink. “Your brother understood that at sixteen. You still haven’t learned it at thirty.”
I watched Stefan’s hands curl into fists at his sides. As humiliation colored his cheeks. As he realized, once again, that he would never be Gavin. They only had the same face but they were far from the same.
“Father,” he tried one more time, his voice small.
“Leave us,” I said quietly. “This doesn’t concern you.”
Something broke in his expression. Then he turned and walked out, closing the door behind him with more force than necessary.
Sophia’s eyes followed him out, a calculating look on her face that I didn’t like.
“Your younger son is bitter,” Li jun observed. “Bitterness makes men do stupid things.”
“Stefan is harmless,” I said, though I wasn’t entirely sure that was true anymore.
“Back to the matter at hand,” Giovanni pressed. “If we don’t take the girl, what’s your plan?”
I leaned back in my chair, feeling the weight of thirty years of power and violence pressing down on my shoulders.
“ We remind him that in our world, love is a luxury no one can afford.” I looked at each of them in turn. “The alliance holds,” I said firmly. “Because I say it does. And when I’m gone…” I paused, letting that reality sink in. “…my son will take his rightful place. He'll have no choice.”
Everywhere turned silent.
Then, one by one, they nodded.
“Good.” I pushed back from the table. “Sophia, you’ll return to New York. And don’t fail this time”
“I’ll do what needs to be done,” she finished.
“Make sure you do.” I stood, the effort making me cough. Blood spotted the handkerchief I pressed to my lips. “This meeting is over. We reconvene in three weeks. By then, I want updates on all operations.”
They filed out one by one, leaving only Sophia behind.
She walked to me, her heels clicking against marble. When she reached my side, she placed a hand on my shoulder.
“He’ll come home,” she said softly. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“I know you will.” I covered her hand with mine. “But if it comes down to it…if you have to choose between bringing him home and protecting the family…”
“I’ll protect the family.” Her voice was steel wrapped in silk. “Always.”
I nodded, satisfied.
She kissed my cheek and walked out, leaving me alone.
Gavin thought he could escape this world. Thought he could build something clean and untouchable.
But blood always called you home.
And if he wouldn’t come willingly, we’d burn down everything he loved until he had nowhere else to go.
Even if that meant destroying the one person who made him want to stay away.
I lit another cigar and stared at the photo of Melissa Hayes on my phone.
Pretty girl. She had no idea what she’d walked into.
I almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
But sympathy was a luxury I couldn’t afford either.
Not with six months left to live and an empire that needed an heir.
Gavin would come home.
One way or another.