Page 2 of Forbidden Fate

No.

Please, no.

This can’t be happening.

Not again.

1

ROBIN

A few days earlier…

I hate death.

Sure, everyone does, but as a veterinarian I see it all the time. I even induce it when it’s necessary. I understand I’m putting an innocent animal out of its misery, but I still hate it. Watching the little remaining life drain from its body takes a tiny piece of me every time.

So when my father tried to end his own life a couple weeks ago, I didn’t take it well.

I’m trained, as a veterinarian, to fix things when I can. Let them go when I can’t. Still, it breaks my heart every time. And the thought of losing my father?

Nope. I was not ready to go there. My mother? Maybe, though I hate death and I don’t want either of them to die. But my mother and I are like oil and water. I would take her demise a lot more easily.

So I began to watch, research, figure out what was going on with my father. With my brothers.

And everything seemed to point to a Colombian drug kingpin named Diego Vega.

My soon-to-be brother-in-law, Vinnie Gallo, who’s engaged to my twin sister, Raven, is the heir to the Bianchi crime family here in Texas. He’s gone legit. But that doesn’t mean parts of his prior life didn’t follow him.

My brother Hawk is involved with Daniela Agudelo, who Vinnie brought home from Colombia before she was eighteen. Long story short, Vinnie was working with Daniela’s father, Jacinto, who was pimping Daniela out to his friends and business associates. She was also engaged to a huge drug kingpin—Diego Vega.

And that wasn’t the first time our family encountered Vega.

Anyway, Vinnie swears he had Vega “taken care of” while he was in Colombia. He claims he has photographic proof. I trust Vinnie implicitly, but I’m skeptical. I mean, what good is photographic evidence in the age of AI?

Today, the only way to make sure someone is truly dead is to watch the blood drain out of him until his heart stops.

I know from personal experience.

I suppose just seeing a dead body also works, but even then he would need to be identified, and bodies are misidentified all the time.

Truth be told, I’m not buying it. Something’s up.

Why the hell else would my father try to off himself?

Nothing he’s gone through can compare to what happened to me after college…

Eight years earlier…

“Drinks at Chevy’s!” Barb waves her cap at me, tassel flying.

I wave back at her. I have no idea if this is even my cap. We all threw them in the air after graduation from the University of Austin. Barb and I have roomed together all four years, and I’ll miss her. She’s going to law school at Georgetown while I’m staying here in Texas to go to veterinary school at Texas A&M. Full ride, no less, thanks to my 4.0 GPA and a biology and agriculture double major. Not that my family needs the scholarship. They’re richer than God, thanks to my grandmother, Sandra Cooper Bellamy, the Cooper Steel heiress. She’s here with my parents and my sister and brothers.

The whole family is here except my oldest brother, Falcon. He’s in prison.

Not a fun story. It wasn’t his fault. Involuntary manslaughter. He and Hawk were doing target practice near the border on our land and he accidentally shot a young cop named Jaden Perez.

It still doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Falcon and Hawk are both amazing shots. Almost as good as I am. And they’re careful as all get out when they practice. I’m not convinced I know the whole story, but it is what it is. I miss my big brother. I’m closest to Hawk, though, who’s two years younger and just completed his sophomore year here at Austin.