I pressed the earpiece into my ear, not sure where the other one was. “You’ll what? Hunt me down? There’s a whole ass cityyou’ll have to comb to follow through on whatever stupid ass threat you were about to lay down. I’m dealing with dead men, an explosion, and a kid who is in over his head because he and I have no other choice but to have him around. So if you could please shut the fuck up so I can get through this situation and get those that I can out in one piece, then please do so; otherwise I’m going to find the biggest, meanest, most experienced group of men to find you and smack you around for being an idiot!”
There was a pause. “That...was weirdly hot.”
“Jesus,” I muttered, not even sure where to go with that particularly unnecessary comment. “Look, I will text you, okay?”
“Don’t you dare hang up on me.”
“It’s not hanging up if I tell you I have to get off the phone,” I told him, grunting as I helped Will to his feet. “But I can’t...I can’t focus with you in my ear, okay? So I’ll let you know when I’m safe.”
“You’ll tell me where to find you, that’s what you’ll do. Otherwise, I’m going to start searching every hospital in this city, and if you think I can’t find you, if you think I can’t get enough help to hunt you down and make sure you’re okay, that means you haven’t done enough research about my life,” Dom growled in my ear.
Oh, God save me, he was still trying to help me, even with clear proof that he was nowhere near prepared for the kind of shit that could happen around me. He was still pretending like he had some control over things or could help me.
And God save me twice over...part of me liked it.
“I’ll send you an address...I promise,” I tacked on at the end with a wince.
“You promise?” he asked, the anger draining out of his voice.
“Yes. Many things have changed about me, Dom, and a lot sooner than you think you’ll come to learn what those things are, and we’ll see how willing you are to put up with them...but thathasn’t changed,” I told him. That phrase had always been the best way to get across to him that I meant what I said. For as long as I could remember, I had never used the words ‘I promise’ lightly, and I despised the idea of making a promise that I didn’t at least intend to fight tooth and nail to keep. So if I used those two little words, it was the quickest way I knew to show him I was completely serious.
“I hope that hasn’t changed about you,” he said softly.
“It hasn’t,” I told him, smirking as I reached up to my ear. “I promise you I’ll get you an address to check up on me personally...within the next twenty-four hours.”
“You son of a…” But he never quite got to finish insulting my parents because I hit the button on the earpiece to end the call.
“I’m going to assume he was going to say ‘bastard’ or ‘fucker’,” I told the disoriented Will. “No way he would speak about my mother like that.”
“Huh?” he asked as he looked up at me as I helped him to the car.
“Nothing,” I said as I helped him in. “Just a bit of personal drama. I’ve made someone very angry, is all.”
“Los Muertos,” he said as he hissed when he bumped his arm against the center console while getting in.
“They’re not pissed at me,” I said as I closed the door and walked around to the driver’s side. There was no point waiting for everyone else...there was no one else. I had just lost half a dozen perfectly good men because those bastards had decided they were going to make their answer known in the most...well, explosive way possible. Alright, I hadn’t seen that possibility coming, and maybe I should have at least considered it, but Jesus, who brings ready-made bombs to what is supposed to be a negotiation? Then again, I guess I had shot that in the foot from the beginning.
Come on now, Levi. We both know it wouldn’t have mattered if you’d approached it with kindness or even given them some room to move. The first would have just left them to walk all over you, and the second would have been an inch to a mile sort of thing. This whole thing was doomed to end like this from the start.
True, the only regret I really had, the one thing I could and would kick myself for later, was not having them killed the moment I realized they weren’t going to cooperate. That was fine, though. I’d made plenty of mistakes in my life, but the funny thing was, I was a fast learner. If I ever had them in a position where they were more vulnerable than usual, I was going to take advantage of it and make sure they never gave another order again. It was almost a shame that I couldn’t be sure that their deaths would get me the victory I needed in the city, or I would have it ordered and paid for by far better killers than them.
Alas, The Company was too damned expensive to use on what might amount to figurehead thugs enjoying theirtemporarypower.
I got in, grimacing as my injured shoulder brushed the seat, reminding myself to stay sitting forward. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Sounds good to me,” Will muttered, staring at the bar in his arm.
“Don’t touch that,” I repeated when he had an almost intent look in his eyes as I pushed the button and got the car started. Sighing at the feel of my phone buzzing in my pocket, I plucked it out and groaned. “Oh, perfect.”
“Who’s that?” Will asked as I whipped the car around.
I threw the phone into the console. “My father.”
DOM
“That son of a bitch!” I snarled as I smacked the decorative lion on the table next to me and sent it careening through the air to smash into the wall. It shattered into several colorful fragments, and I spared a moment to wonder where I was going to find a broom and dustpan to clean that up before Matty found out. She had put them in different places around the hotel because she loved them so much. She said she just liked lions, but it was funny how a woman with more than a passing interest in astrology, who also happened to be a Leo, was fond of lions.
“No,” I told myself, taking a deep breath and steadying myself so I didn’t lash out and smash something else. The last thing I needed was to rack up a bill for replacements. “We’re not going to talk about his mom like that...he’s a son of a prick. That’s better.”
