“Reg,” Leo said, but I could tell there was no point. Reg hadn’t been ready for this, and it had taken him not just off guard, but right out of his head. More importantly, I could see the numbers being crunched in his head, and he was coming to at least one conclusion I hoped he would.
“Ojo por ojo, marcione,” Reg seethed. “Blood calls for blood, and you’re going to see plenty of it, I promise you that.”
“I already have,” I told him coolly. “I saw the blood of the one person who meant more to me than anything in this world, even my own life. And now I have his,” I glanced at Luis, who was most certainly a corpse now, “blood all over me as well. So I think blood found blood, wouldn’t you say? But hell, you were already willing to have Dom’s blood on you, why don’t we make it fair?”
I tossed the knife at him, watching him realize what was happening and recoil, but it was too late. A crimson smear spread over his shirt as the knife clattered to the ground, and hebacked away like it was a venomous animal. He stared down at it in clear horror, and I could see he couldn’t decide if he wanted to scream or snatch the knife off the ground and rush at me.
Well, I’ll be damned. He really did care about him—a monster who can love.
I didn’t see why that would be so surprising; wasn’t I proof? Was it not my love for another person that had brought all of us to this table? A monster could love, that much was true. People seemed to think it was this great existential quandary, but love could be found even in the blackest of hearts, just as it could be found in hearts of gold. The difference was that a good man would grieve their love and find a way to move on, but a monster? A monster will burn down the forest to find the people who dared lay a hand on the one good and precious thing in their life.
You’re almost there, Levi. Just a little bit more, and you’ll be free and clear. Focus.
She was right, and I forced myself to take a deep, steadying breath as I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. Pulling it out, I saw Will’s name and tapped the speaker button. “You’re on speaker, talk to me.”
“It’s...done,” he said softly. “Just like you asked, no issues.”
“Good,” I said with a smile. “Follow the rest of the plan.”
“Sir, I?—”
“William.”
“Right and...I’m sorry.”
I raised a brow. “Don’t be.”
The phone beeped, and I wondered what he could be sorry about. In the end, he was as much a victim of these ugly circumstances as Dom. Pulled into it by people like Augustine and me, and trapped by bastards like Luis and Reg. Maybe once this was all said and done, he would be able to find the freedom to choose his own path in life. Or maybe he would get loopedback in, unable to free himself, or perhaps like me, too unwilling to free himself as he gave in to forces greater than himself.
It didn’t matter to me; it was up to him now.
Reg was still staring at the knife, or maybe it was the blood on his shirt, muttering so low I couldn’t understand him. Leo, however, was finally coming out of the stasis he had been locked in and cleared his throat, taking his seat and looking in control. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting any of this, and now he had assessed the situation, he was prepared to handle it. That was good; that was precisely what I had been hoping for when I was told that someone from Los Muertos, but not part of Reg and Luis’ retinue, would be joining our talks.
“Alright, it should be obvious, but you have my complete attention,” Leo said, smoothing out the front of his shirt. “Not just because of this...display, but because of the reports I’ve been getting for days.”
Reports? Interesting, so perhaps not just an outsider, but the one these two had to report to...even better. “Good, because your attention is precisely what I’m going to need for a while longer.”
“Again, it should go without saying, you have my attention,” he said calmly. “Should I ask what all this is about?”
“Shouldn’t that also be obvious?”
“Perhaps, but I need to determine if this is strictly about hitting back for the wrongs that were done to you and yours, or if there is a grander plan,” he said, and despite his calm appearance, I could see his fingers twitching. He was trying to figure out my game plan and my state of mind. Good, I needed him on the back foot. People off balance were too busy trying to regain their footing to succeed at getting ahead.
“Oh, vengeance is certainly part of it,” I admitted with a shrug. “None of this should have happened in the first place. In many ways, this is my fault as well. I should have played the game a little more seriously from the beginning. But I admit,despite knowing enough about Los Muertos, I ignored what these two might be capable of. I should have realized when they tried to blow me up, but alas, my stubbornness and blindness got the better of me.”
And damn near cost Dom his life. Never again.
“And when the bounty was put on my head, and people began to take up the offer, that should have been the sign that I needed to pay closer attention, but again, my blindness made me think I still had a hold on the situation.” That was as much Dom’s fault as it was mine, but his was accidental, unconscious, while mine had been deliberate. If my head had been in the game, I might have seen the signs, but I didn’t, because I was distracted by him, by the promise of a life that was so much happier than the one I had.
How blind had I been? Even entertaining the idea that there was a happy ending waiting for me had been delusional, and I was far too old and experienced to fall for something like that. Yet even the wisest of men can be made the greatest of fools by love, and oh, what a fool I had been. If it had just been me who had suffered for that foolishness, that would have been one thing. No, it had to be Dom that suffered for it, and I had to accept that I was responsible because I had dared to dream a dream that had escaped my grasp years before.
I wish it hadn’t been that way.
So did I, but wishes didn’t change reality, and I was seeing everything with crystal clear vision. “And so I decided it was time to stop playing the game the way I have been and be a little more...proactive.”
Leo snorted harshly. “I think we can call that an understatement. In two weeks, you’ve turned this city on its head, and two of my best up-and-comers have been fighting to stay upright with no chance of getting ahead.”
“He was doingnothing, just chickenshit tricks and poking around,” Reg protested, his eyes wide and desperate. I couldn’t tell if he was fighting the accusation Leo had barely concealed or if he was grasping at the straws of his own sanity.
