Warrior | Stefan Salvatore

Chapter 25

Graciela was glad she disbanded the cartel.

"Look at all this!" she said when seven boxes filled with papers were deposited on the doorstep of the Algiers loft. "And this is just the documents from their dealings with other companies. This has nothing to do with smaller deals or properties they owned or anything about what the shipments contained."

"I suppose we betters start looking," said Elijah. "I would hope Lucien does not own any companies other than Kingmaker Land Development."

They got to work on perusing through each document. Graciela was sleepy within the first five minutes. Never before had she been so thankful to have been left out of the family business. It would have made her go insane if she had to constantly be worrying about the items detailed in the boxes.

It took three days for them to go through all of the material. And in those three days, only three sheets of paper emerged with the name 'Kingmaker' anywhere on it.

"Okay, they did have business with them," murmured Graciela, running her finger down the page. "Lucien's company gave them aid for the down payment of the house they got after we moved out of the place above the Casino. These other papers show my siblings paid him back. And then, a month after Hope was born, Lucien sent a package, which they sent back a week later. What could have been in it?"

Elijah wasn't sure. "Your siblings smuggled alcohol and drugs to different locations. I highly doubt he would acquire that from them when he could find other items much nearer to him."

"So, they must have been sending them some kind of supplies," said Graciela. "I just don't know what my siblings would have been sending back and forth with him." She clenched her fists. "I'd ask them, but even if I could, they wouldn't ever have told me. I don't know how I'll find out what was in the package... they killed their closest associates to trigger their curses and didn't replace them. And if this was a secret dealing, they wouldn't have told anyone else. The only reason it was probably on record is because these are Francesca's private files. Unedited. The original copies before Antonio would alter to hide certain things, particular transactions they didn't want anyone to know about."

"What of Francesca's belongings?" asked Elijah. "You had everything moved into a storage unit. Or donated."

"I don't think we'd find anything there even if we searched. If she made any notes about the contents, those would have been shredded. She shredded things once a week. She'd always ask if I had any school papers I wanted to get rid of." She rubbed her forehead. "The only way we might find out what was in that package is if we access Lucien's records or his mind."

Elijah shook his head. "We cannot do that, it is far too dangerous. We must find another way."

"I'm not sure how to do that, then," said Graciela. "But... at least we confirmed that he knows something about my family." She clasped her hands together. "Maybe... maybe Klaus was onto something."

His eyes widened. "Absolutely not. You will be in incredible danger!"

"But I might not be," she said, though she sounded uncertain. "He wouldn't be stupid enough to hurt me like that, would he? I mean, you would obviously be aware of me spending time with him. He'd need to be way more creative to hurt me. If my siblings were helping him—"

"And what guarantee do you have that he will see you as helpful? He knows you are not like them, otherwise he would have known you earlier! You were nineteen when he was making business with your siblings, you were an adult and had your parents not seen you as a miracle, you would have already been involved in the cartel."

"There is no guarantee but they were my siblings, no matter how different my path in life was. That has to count for something. Seriously, he would have to be so dumb to hurt me. Even Klaus wouldn't let me be hurt. He spared me from the Crescent Curse, he could have done horrible things to me and he didn't because even if he doesn't admit it, he cares for me and he considers me family. The one I'm more worried about is Tristan."