He lay down, but I didn’t think he was going to fall asleep anytime soon. The thing was, even though that was the clearest I’d been since I’d been in the hospital, I was still tired enough to fall asleep. This time, though, it felt like I was actually sleeping, with the usual level of dreams I didn’t really remember, except for a few images that bubbled to the surface now and then.
No more dead parents coming back from the grave. No more going to their funeral. No more remembering old memories that should have stayed buried. That at least meant I didn’t have to go through a whole night of nightmares that wouldn’t leave me alone.
When I woke, the room was filled with light, and it was empty save for someone standing near the window. The door was closed, which was weird, but since there were still guys outside,I was guessing that whatever sibling was with me didn’t want to have to look at Levi’s men anymore.
Except...that wasn’t a sibling.
He turned, and for a moment I felt a rush of exhilaration and nervousness because Levi was here, but...no. There were similarities, but the nose was too broad, the chin too pointy, he was a little taller than Levi, and Levi had never looked so casually mean.
“Augustine,” I said, and there was no mistaking the venom in my voice.
“They told me you should be cognizant enough to have a conversation,” he said, and I’d forgotten how goddamn smooth and calming his voice could be. Not that it had that effect on me, just one syllable out of his mouth was enough to make me want to punch him until he couldn’t form another word. “I’m glad to see they weren’t wrong.”
“Oh goody, you’re happy, what a great day for me,” I said, wishing I could reach out and...huh, my right arm was in a cast...when did that fucking happen? “Should I be happy you came all the way down here to see me? To what do I owe this ‘great honor’? Are you finally going to off me?”
“Don’t think I didn’t consider that as a possibility a long time ago,” he said, turning to face me and look me over. “I never thought Levi would have the strength to leave you behind in his old life, but he did. Even then, you were always going to be a threat.”
“A threat?” I asked with an ugly laugh. “To what? Your plan to groom him to be the next you?”
“Not the next me. No one will be me, and anyone who tries is easily dismissed,” he said with a shrug. “He needed to be his own man. One that knows his place, of course, but still willing to do things his way without living in fear of failure, while stillbeing effective. I could see early on that he had great potential, but there were two obstacles in the way. You...and Lana.”
“This had better not be where you tell me you’re the one who got his mom killed,” I said. “Because I do not give a flying fuck if I’m busted up from the accident, I will get up from this bed and show you what the express route to the concrete below looks like.”
“Lana was...not my fault,” he said slowly. “If anything, I mourned her death. Not nearly as much as Levi, but she was his mother; I would have expected nothing less. It was fortuitous that the owner...whatever his name was, ended up being doubly useful and I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”
Disgust rose in my chest, tasting like vomit. “Her death was fortuitous? Jesus. Levi should have listened to me and realized what a piece of shit you really are.”
“He was well aware. Why do you think he approached me to deal with that man?” Augustine asked with a small, pleased smile. “I even made sure he knew that dealing with those two ineffectual idiots didn’t come with a price tag. As I said, I mourned Lana enough that killing the two men responsible for her death would have come without a price tag. He is the one who decided that it required him to work for The Family.”
“And I’m sure you worked oh so hard to make him back off and think about it. No, you were willing to take advantage of a kid who was mourning his goddamn mother and let him think the only route he had left was to come work for you,” I sneered.
“I told him there was no price tag. He decided there would be, and who was I to argue?”
“Someone who didn’t give a flying fuck about him, that’s who, just what he could mean to you as a tool and maybe a replacement. Cut the shit, Augustine. We both know you were crunching the numbers. You know enough about being human to know he was just some seventeen-year-old kid drowning inhis grief and couldn’t be trusted to make a clear decision. But you let him anyway because it worked for your plan, it’s not because you respected his choice. Fuck off with that.”
Augustine stared at me, and I wondered if he was starting to lose his patience. He surprised me by laughing, grabbing one of the chairs, and dragging it to my bedside. “I have spent so many years around people who are too scared to look me in the eye, let alone disagree with me. I had almost forgotten what it was like to have someone look me in the eye without fear and tell me to fuck off.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll do what everyone else won’t, including Levi.”
“Hmm, you know, for years, I wondered if perhaps I had chosen wrong with him. At one point, he simply let me do as I pleased with him without much argument. Little did I realize that he was watching and waiting, getting a feel for the rules of the game, as it were, and figuring out how he wanted to play whenhedecided to step onto the board. Then I thought perhaps his lack of ambition would be a problem, which is why I sent him here. I have watched him meet with surprising success, both effective and efficient, subtle yet able to pull out brutality when necessary. What he lacked in active ambition, he made up for in spades through his dedication to being good at what he does and a refusal to back down from a challenge.”
“Careful, Augustine, someone might think you like him,” I warned even as I hated that he really did understand Levi to an unnerving degree. When Milo was in middle school, he’d had an obsession with serial killers. I remembered him telling Matty about how most serial killers weren’t as smart as people thought. An exception was Ed Kemper. This Kemper guy was apparently ridiculously intelligent and in control of himself. Apparently, he had been really good at reading people, knowing how people ticked, and took advantage of that. While never in touch withhis own humanity, he could understand other humans. Just like Augustine.
“I also knew,” he continued, ignoring my sarcasm. “That sending him here was not without its risks. Namely...you.”
“Yeah, he told me you warned him to stay away from me,” I snorted. “I guess he wasn’t as obedient as you thought.”
“From him, I never wanted pure obedience...though when it came to you, I would have. You were the last tie to his old life, and even when you were boys, I could see the hold you had over him. You could bring him back from the edge, and that level of control was...uncomfortable. So long as he had you, you would always keep him stuck here, in this life where his talents would have been wasted,” Augustine said, leaning back in the seat and steepling his fingers under his chin. “I had considered, at first, the idea of bringing you with him, but unlike Levi, your moral compass was fixed. His could be adjusted with time, as he has been, but you would always be his magnetic north, and you would always try.”
“God forbid someone has morals and thinks killing people is wrong,” I scowled.
“Once I realized that you would never see sense and would always be a thorn in my side when it came to Levi...I did consider killing you. It would have been simple to arrange an accident. Wait enough time after he’d left Cresson Point, have you die in some accident, and never have to worry about you again.”
God, and I’d thought conversations with Levi could be surreal, but here I was, having it topped by Augustine talking about his serious consideration of killing me. “I hope you don’t expect me to thank you.”
“I wouldn’t expect you to,” he said in a flash of irritation. “My one regret is that I didn’t make sure you weren’t in Cresson Point when he returned. I had hoped, rather fruitlessly it seems, that you wouldn’t be around. Or if you were, he would have hadenough time and space away from you not to seek you out. I underestimated that particular flaw in him.”
“Only an inhuman asshole would think that loving someone and having a real friend would be a flaw,” I pointed out. “So let me guess, you wish you had killed me. So we’re going to circle around to you potentially trying to kill me now.”
