“I never asked you to come back into my life.”
“Well, tough shit, because here I am.”
“Why?” Levi asked, and the mask of faint irritation cracked a little, and I could see genuine exasperation on his face. “What do you hope to accomplish?”
“Well, my original plan was just to find you and talk, and then to get on your nerves, so that’s the first two taken care of.”
“And your current plan?”
“Don’t really have one, just kind of going with the flow and seeing what comes of things. Honestly, if I can get you to talk more, I might be able to get a little happiness in my life.”
“You are thirty-three years old and acting like a six-year-old who got into the candy.”
“And you are thirty-three years old and acting like a moody teenager who left the table a while ago.”
He glared at me, then turned his attention back to his coffee, as if that was somehow going to give him answers. I was tempted to point out that if he was so intent on not talking to me, he could easily get up and leave. It’s not like I was going to hold him here, at least not physically. He had to have known that when I found him the other day at the cliffs, where the worst I had done was grab his arm and keep him from leaving so that I could say mylast piece. Other than that, he was free to go, but...here he was, staring out the window thoughtfully.
“One of them,” he said softly, stirring his coffee despite already mixing everything a few minutes ago. “I killed one of them. It was the first time I’d ever killed someone.”
I’d suspected that was the answer, but it didn’t suddenly make it okay. Not that I blamed him either, the owner was negligible to the point of criminal charges...right up until the charges were almost dropped, and what was left was him handing over money for getting Levi’s mother killed through his neglect. I’d had no one left to blame for the death of my parents, so all I could do was mourn and be angry. Levi, though, had a target for his ire, and it was obvious he had focused that anger where it belonged.
Could I say he wasthatwrong for what he’d done? In another situation, I would have said letting the law do its job was the right thing to do, except that’s exactly what he had done in the first place, and the justice system had failed miserably. A couple of technicalities and some money to grease corrupt palms were all it had taken for the tragedy of her death to be forgotten, and the people responsible walked away, their only punishment being to their wallets. Could I really say I wouldn’t have wanted blood in the same way Levi had?
It didn’t take me long to wryly admit that I don’t think I would have been much different. If someone were responsible for the death of one of my family, I couldn’t say I wouldn’t have gone on a hunt for blood. Especially because, well, actually?—
“Augustine,” I said softly.
“What’s that?” he asked, his eyes snapping to me.
I snorted softly. “That’s how you did it, how you got away with it...or both. You went to daddy dearest.”
His eyebrows tightened slightly before he looked away. “Yes. I approached Augustine and told him that if he wanted me tobe a part of the Family so badly, he could do me one favor, and anything else I asked from that point forward would be earned. But I would require his assistance in making sure those two didn’t simply walk away. They had already left their consciences behind; their guilt hadn’t been enough for the justice system, so I wanted to make sure they didn’t get to live out the rest of their miserable lives believing they were untouchable. I wanted to make sure they knew otherwise.”
“Knew otherwise,” I repeated slowly with a huff. “Matty always said not to assume because of what it does, but uh...lemme guess, this wasn’t just taking them somewhere and putting a bullet in the back of their heads, was it?”
“No.”
“Right.”
Levi continued to stare at me, letting out a soft laugh. “I didn’t have the stomach at the time for the nastiest of the work if I’m honest. I think Augustine knew that, which is why he arranged for them to be picked up and...mostly dealt with before I arrived.”
“He had someone else beat the shit out of them.”
“Among other things...for hours.”
My stomach turned uncomfortably at the thought of spending hours under the ‘care’ of someone that Augustine had personally picked as a favor to his son and the upcoming addition to his Family. Anyone on Augustine’s payroll would be extremely good at what they did, so if he had personally picked someone to torture those men, then they had been in a living hell for however long they were alive. I could only imagine what they looked like when Levi had finally been brought to them to see the handiwork he’d asked for...and what he’d done once he’d seen the results of his request.
“And?” I asked, figuring that if I was going to get the whole story, I might as well get that out of the way before I let myself react and see how I felt about the entire thing.
Levi glanced back at me, searched my face, gave a little snort, and leaned back. “I was young, angry, and thought I knew exactly what I wanted. When I walked into that room and saw what...had been done to them, I was so horrified that I was genuinely upset. I had thought no human being deserved what had been done to them and that no matter how much I hated them, that wasn’t what I wanted.”
“I guess that’s what you get for asking Daddy to take care of things.”
“Call him that again, Dom, and I will stand up and leave.”
I knew he was serious, so I gestured for him to continue. “Fine, then it’s a lesson to not expect too much from Augustine.”
“Oh. He had done exactly what I asked of him, what I demanded of him. It was less a Faustian deal at that moment, and more a be careful what you wish for sort of thing. I got exactly what I’d asked for, and found out that the reality was so much worse than what I thought was going to happen.”
