“Fine, what’s your price?”
I grinned. I never imagined I’d find myself in a position to put fire under Augustine’s feet, but here I was. And so long as I was confident and smug, he would never realize there was an even stronger motivator for me to stop Levi as soon as I could.
There was only one way Levi could fulfill his promise to me and his promise to Mason that he would be out of my life after this. Because there was no way he could do all this and hope to return to The Family. No, the only way he could keep both promises was if he destroyed everyone who dared glance my way. And if Levi died in the process?—
LEVI
The man staring back at me looked like he’d been tossed into hell and come crawling back, a knife clenched between his teeth and stories to tell about the horrors, and the best ways to kill demons. A man who had come to know the worst of existence but had figured out how to make it work for him. I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was a man lost to the horrors of what he’d seen and done, or someone ready to walk from hell into something better.
It was hard to accept that I was staring at my own reflection.
With a deep sigh, I finished drying my face and grabbed my jacket, buttoning it and checking it repeatedly. It was the best suit I owned, just like the watch, and now there was my hair. I was meticulous as I styled it.
There wasn’t much that could be done about the dark circles under my eyes. I wasn’t intending to look untouched by everything that happened; there was no point. Anyone who knew anything about what had been going on knew I had been working my ass off for weeks. You didn’t show the kind of determination and work ethic without burning the midnight oil, and I wasn’t going to try to hide that fact.
Not now, not when I was getting to the last few steps of the plan I had been putting into action so diligently.
Cresson Point was going to be the place Los Muertos would always know wasn’t open to them. They would know that when they tried to take this region from The Family, they would lose too much every step along the way. Any more attempts to take what wasn’t theirs would be met with a fire and fury that would make even those rabid animals think twice.
I had been making that point, and now it was time to drive home the last nail in the coffin I planned to bury their ambitions in. One last thing to ensure Los Muertos would retreat and the city would be safe. It would be shaken and nervous because I hadn’t been gentle, but the time for gentleness had passed the moment I’d been forced to kneel in the dirty gutter and beg Dominic not to die on me.
A shudder ran through me, and I bowed my head, clinging to the counter at the memory. Dom had always seemed so incredibly strong, practically invincible. I knew that wasn’t the case, of course, he was human, as fragile and breakable as the rest of us.
Knowing something and seeing it were worlds apart, however. I had been forced to see his broken body as he lay there, his limbs in an awkward position, but I hadn’t dared to move him in case I made things worse. All I could do was cling to a gun whose bullets were low, trying to keep a frantic thirteen-year-old on the phone with 911, and pray they didn’t come back to finish the job. One of them had taken a bullet from me; I’d seen the spray of blood fly out of an open window, but it hadn’t mattered.
Nothing I’d done mattered. Everything I had worked for had gotten menothing. Every clever plan, every bit of careful information gathering, every little victory over Los Muertos had earned me that moment. Dom’s body sprawled out, bloodeverywhere, and the life leaking out of him, while all I could do was stand guard over him and his nephew, knowing I was potentially guarding a corpse instead of the living, breathing, warm, and irritatingly stubborn and loving man that I?—
Bile rose in my throat, and I turned, releasing the measly contents of my stomach into the toilet. God, I had watched Dom die in front of me. His heart had fuckingstopped.
Yes, the EMTs had brought him back after loading him into the ambulance. I thought my heart would stop right then and there when his gasp of renewed life cracked through the air and almost made me panic.
And then it had stopped again. And again, when they took him in for surgery.
And then his family had shown up.
Clearing my throat, I spat the remainder of the vomit out and went back to the sink. Taking hold of the mouthwash, I swirled it around and gargled, getting every last trace out.
Matilda wanted to know what happened, Dom’s status, and how it happened.
Mason had known, though, and he had stared at me from the back of the group. I knew he’d tell them, maybe not right that second, and he had in fact waited until Dom was out of surgery, and it was announced that he was stable and looking good for someone who had been run down by a van. That was the moment Mason told his family about me, about my past and present.
I was the reason Dom had died three times that day.
There were no words to express what that was like, to stand and watch the one person in the world who had come to mean everything, who had found ways inside my heart that I never expected, who brought things out I had forgotten existed...and watch them die. To realize everything that they were, all the light and warmth they brought into this world was beingforced away...and for what? Some power grab, some spiteful, pathetic message by little men grabbing at things no one would remember?
Well, alright, if it was power they wanted, then I would show them power. If they wanted to flash teeth and claws, then I would unsheathe mine, and together we would find out how soft their underbelly was. They wanted to play at war; well, I would bring them an actual war, and we would figure out which of us was paper soldiers.
My thoughts ground to a halt at the sound of footsteps outside the bathroom, and I waited. After a moment’s hesitation, I heard the soft rap of knuckles on the door, and I called out, “Yes?”
“Everything is in place,” Will told me, an uncertain quiver to his voice, but he didn’t falter. “They’re arriving.”
“Good,” I said, giving myself one last look over. “All of them?”
“Yes, sir, but two of them are, uh...lingering outside the meeting room.”
“Interesting, but not surprising,” I said with a shake of my head. That wasn’t predicted, but it was predictable. “Let them know I’ll be there. And Will? Don’t forget what we talked about.”
“No, of course not,” he said, and I glanced down to see his shadow lingering outside the door for a moment before walking off quietly. The poor kid had been trying his best to keep up with me for weeks, and against all odds, had done quite well. The chaos I was causing made him nervous and unsure, but he seemed to thrive. In another life, he might have made a good project manager, an actual personal assistant. In this lifetime, though, he was trapped with me, and he was making the most of his lot.
