“No. You’re here because you helped someone try to hurt someone I care about.” I was referring to a whole situation that happened prior to this meeting, when Walden had a hand in helping someone else kidnap Blake.
“That’s not exactly how it went down.”
“No? Explain it to me then. Maybe I’ll understand it in a different way. You didn’t get one of Blake’s dorm-mates to befriend her? Lure her somewhere so that Jake Worthing could kidnap her?”
He didn’t say a word. He couldn’t because he couldn’t argue against me.
He said instead, “You’re here. In my city. Jake Worthing already opened up a door for you to take over the rest of the Worthing assets here, but if you think we’re not aware you are recruiting men at an alarming pace, you must be stupid.”
I smiled. “Jake Worthing. Yes. Let’s talk more about Worthing.” I leaned forward and lowered my head, as if I were sharing a secret with them. “Blake did a DNA kit on me for school, and guess who I found. A whole family I had no idea about. My cousin, Jake Worthing.”
Walden’s jaw clenched.
West kept glancing at his friend, but he responded, wryly, “Yes. We’re aware.”
“Ah. Good. Good.”
I was younger than these men. They were in their mid-thirties. It was still a couple years before I’d hit thirty. West was married. Waldenwas about to be. West had children. Walden soon would. Both of their women had full lives themselves.
West’s woman used to be a parole officer, a cop in my mind. She was now retired and had opened her own gallery to showcase her paintings, masterpieces that did very well, according to my investigator. Walden’s woman continued to run her own bowling alley, and there were plans to expand. They already filed for a permit.
I leaned forward to study Walden. “You’ve banished Worthing from coming back to this city. Why would you do that to him? I thought you had a friendship, correct? You know his woman has family here.”
I was fully aware that I was poking at him, trying to bait him.
Walden was still simmering, the violence building. He was like a volcano getting ready to blow. I was enjoying watching this. I wanted him to explode. I wanted to see what would happen then.
He bit out, “Funny. You talking about Jake like that. Acting like such a concerned, loving cousin. Youjustfound out you’re related to him.”
I shrugged. “Family love can be instant.”
“You’ve killed half of them. You took a hit out on Jake.”
I waved that away. “It was a misunderstanding. I thought he was in the way of something I wanted.”
“Which brings us back to here. You having a foothold inmycity.” Walden managed to gain control over some of his emotions, a concrete wall falling down over his face, but his eyes were still seething. He couldn’t stomp out the rage there.
“Your city,” I chided, amused. “I think I’m going to make it my city.”
Walden lunged, hitting the table.
West cursed, also lunging but reaching for his best friend.
It happened in an instant because as soon as he went for my throat, I flicked my wrist and he froze, feeling the pointed edge of the dagger that I had under my napkin. Levi had left it for me when he first slid through the booth. Such a thoughtful gift from him.
I had it pressed against Walden’s throat, and if he’d gone one more inch forward, he would’ve embedded it inside of himself. His eyes rolleddown, but he could only see the side of the knife before meeting my gaze again.
I nudged him to the side. “Look.”
He resisted.
“No.” I tsked. “Look.”
He did, slowly, and when he saw what I was referencing he drew in a sharp breath.
Levi had raised his gun, pointing it at the side of Tristian West’s head. Only a few inches separated him from the gun’s muzzle.
Walden cursed before slipping back to his seat, going at a slow pace. “You think we came alone? That we didn’t send men earlier to infiltrate inside?”
