He folded his arms, a lazy smile on his lips. “Is that any way for a son to talk to his father?”
A different, spiky tension wrapped barbed wire around my fascia.
Vander eyed the black barrel, sniffing at the now familiar smell of acrid, soapy rot. “You boys have learned a lot since the first time we met.”
I shifted, rebalancing on my feet. “What. Do. You. Want?”
“What I’ve always wanted,” he said. “You.”
I worked my jaw. “I’m paying your tithe. I’m doing your contracts. What the fuck else do you want?”
“I have you the way someone has a dog. Throw meat and it snaps at the right thing.” I ignored the obvious bait at calling me a dog, as he continued, “I don’t want a dog. I don’tneeda dog. I need a successor.”
“Tough shit.”
He laughed, bitter and humorless. “You’ve had five years to kill the Crowne girl. I’m starting to think you want this life. Secretly.”
A nearly imperceptible shift happened in the room. I could feel the question, the burning glares, as Vander revealed the truth.
“Either finish your contract and kill Gemma, or join me. Permanently.” He stood up, brushing at nonexistent dirt onhis thighs. “You have until the fifteenth of this month. If she’s alive, I’ll assume I have my answer.” He walked to the door, pausing, his fingers curled around the frame. “You can’t have both, Santos. You don’t get Gemma and your little family.”
Then he left.
Silence followed, the creaking of the Ferris wheel in the wind loud.
“You’re gonna explain what is happening,” Raze said. “Right fucking now.”
“What did he mean you have to kill Gemma?” Lock added.
I exhaled.
“That’s the contract,” I said. “That’s what she demanded for the ink.”
I tell the story, the entire story. Me stalking Gemma, finding her as she tried to kill herself. The look in her eyes after I saved her. Knowing the minute I left her alone, she would find a way. Tattooing myself. Showing up, showing her her life was forfeit, her only agreeing if once our contract ended, I ended her.
“I knew,” Lock said. “I fuckingknewsomething was up. Five years ago you told us she tricked you into this contract. You said you would figure a way out of it. That we would be free. You—” He broke off in disbelief and indignation.
“Not only did you drag us into this,” Raze continued for him. “You knew there would be no way out.”
“There is a way?—”
“You will never fucking kill her!” Lock raged, his voice hoarse.
A moment later, the anger drained out of him. He slid down the wall, to the marbled tile floor, arms over knees.
Resigned.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“And he knows?” Raze said, drawing my attention back. “Vander knows?”
I rubbed my jaw. “He figured it out. I don’t know how. Probably the same way he found us that day.”
“And you didn’t try correcting him?” Raze asked. “Lying?”
I could have.
