“Because Augustine doesn’t do risk, not until it’s been calculated to hell and back. And while he took a calculated risk sending me here, I ended up behaving in a way that was outside his cost-benefit analysis,” Levi explained. “Because of you.”
“Okay, sure. What does that mean?”
“It meansyouare the wild card, the catalyst for all this madness,” Augustine spat out. “I was right that I should have killed you years ago just to be safe. I cannot touch you or your family without activating the contract, getting myself most likely killed, and freeing Los Muertos to be aggressive in my territory again. At the same time, I cannot retaliate against him for this absolute disrespect because you cannot be trusted to act like a normal human being. I could kill you for trying to kill me because I killed him, and that would still fulfill the conditions of the contract, and I’m right back where I started.”
I saw the blank shock on Will’s face that I was pretty sure was on mine. It was...well, it wasn’t foolproof. Augustine could still find a way to kill Levi without anyone knowing it was him, because what was I going to do, blame him if he did somehowarrange for Levi to get hit by a bus? There might be other ways to get away with killing one or both of us, but from the way the other three men in the room were acting about the Company and Syndicate, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to risk too much.
This wasn’t the original plan; I knew that much because Will and I both knew Levi had been going to his death when he’d gone to the meeting with Los Muertos. By his original plan, he was supposed to die and leave this plan behind to make sure neither Augustine nor The Family, nor Los Muertos would come near my family or me. I was going to strangle him for that at some point, he could be sure of that, but he had managed to find a loophole real quick.
Because he was right, Iwouldgo after Augustine if he laid a hand on Levi. It would have been a suicidal plan, but now? God, now I would know that even if I died in the process, I would be taking Augustine down with me.
“It doesn’t require Augustine to kill me?” I wondered.
“Nope, anyone in The Family can be responsible,” he said with a shrug. “Augustine has to give you carte blanche immunity and protection if he wants to keep his head.”
I stared at him. “You, uh...decided to skip right over negotiations with both of them, huh?”
“Do you know the story of the frog and the scorpion?”
“Turtle and the hare? Yeah. Not frog and scorpion.”
“It’s a good story to teach kids. Basically, a scorpion wants to cross the river, but he can’t swim. He sees a frog and begs it to carry him, or he’ll drown. The frog doesn’t want to, because, well, it’s a scorpion, and he points that out, saying the scorpion would sting him. The scorpion insists he would never because that would kill them both. So the frog agrees, takes the scorpion on his back, and begins swimming. Halfway across, the scorpion stings him, paralyzing the frog and making them both sink. Thefrog asks the scorpion why he would do that because now they will both drown, and the scorpion replies, it is in my nature.”
I thought about that for a moment and snorted. “But you’re no frog.”
“I am not, and I know his nature,” Levi said, shifting his attention back to Augustine. “You will no more deal with me than you would a faulty gun, and I will not carry you over the river.”
Augustine ground his teeth and downright shocked me by letting out a bark of laughter. “Good God. Ifinallyfind someone worth standing not only at my side but one day sitting in my place, and he would rather waste his life on the riverbank.”
“Once grief pushed me to make a decision that changed my life for the worse. I’d like to think the second dose of grief has given me the chance to choose something better,” he said, his fingers lacing with mine. “Not grander, not more powerful...better.”
Augustine scoffed. “What a waste. We can discuss what will and won’t come of the future, but you are not Family. We’ll discuss the protection you and yours can receive later. I have your mess to clean up. William!”
Will straightened. “Sir?”
“Are you leaving or staying here?” Augustine asked, not bothering to look at the kid while basically asking him what he was choosing for his future.
Will straightened, and I thought for a moment he was going to collapse, but he swallowed hard. “I...The F-family was good t-to me and m-my siblings, b-but...not...it’s not for me.”
“Don’t piss yourself,” Augustine said curtly as he moved toward the door. “You were never important enough for me to have to threaten to keep around. You’re free, boy, but have fun telling your siblings you’ve turned your back on your father’s legacy.”
“S-sir,” Will said, but Augustine was already leaving, moving on to his next problem, I was sure.
“Prick,” I muttered.
“Will,” Levi said softly, making the boy cringe as he turned to face Levi. “You deliberately went behind my back after going through my orders and personal deliveries. Then you turned around and alerted the love of my life to what was going on and involved him in a situation that could very easily have resulted in his death. And in fact, probably led to the injury I will have for the rest of my life.”
Will shuddered and nodded. “I’m sorry, sir...for the injury.”
Levi’s lips twitched. “It’s about time you found some balls...thank you. I’m still going to kick your ass from one end of this hospital to the other when I figure out how to develop depth perception with only one functioning eye, but... thank you. You deserve better than The Family, you deserve better than me.”
Will’s eyes widen. “No, sir, I?—”
“Levi.”
“What?”
“I’m not your boss anymore. We’re unemployed, buddy, remember?”
