“He’s not brought anything on the Soldiers—in fact, he’s taken a lot of the heat off.”
“Yeah. I stepped in when the shit went down with Pete. Surely that has to count for something.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Nothing you’ve done up until now can change anything. There’s no place in the Soldiers of Fury for someone like you.” Rocky looked Mitch up and down with obvious disdain.
“So—what happens now?” Finn asked.
“Now? Now we talk about the Brutes.”
“I don’t understand.” Finn’s voice shook as he darted a glance at Mitch and looked to his brother again. “What do the Brutes have to do with this?”
“Mitch here has just scored himself a starring role in the showdown.”
Mitch’s blood ran cold.
“Mitch will be coming with me to meet with the Brutes, and Mitch will have thehonor of taking out Slider Popov.”
Oh fuck.He swallowed hard. At least Rocky was letting him stay around and, better than that, keeping him close to the key events. It could be lost worse, and maybe he should be grateful he still had all his body parts. He forced a smile onto his face.
“Sure, Rocky. This is my chance to prove myself once and for all. I won’t let you down.”
“This isn’t a fuckingchance for you to hang around. Like I said, we don’t want your sort around here. But you can pull the goddamn trigger. If everything goes according to plan, then you get to keep your balls. If something goes wrong, then you take the fall. Win-win.”
Finn looked horrified. Mitch forced himself not to react. He’d never killed anyone in his life—pulled a gun, sure, fired to maim, yep, shot to kill,never—and even though it wasn’t going to happen this time either, just the thought made him feel sick to the stomach. The situation wasn’t ideal—he didn’t need the additional attention on him, and the distrust wouldn’t help—but at least he could keep an eye on Finn.
“Get outside and wait with Stack. He’s gathering some of the boys together. Tell him I’ll be ready to leave in fifteen. I want totalk to my brother. Alone.”
He nodded. “Sure, Rocky.”
At the doorway, Mitch looked at Finn. He wished he could say something to remove that look of horror from Finn’s face. Instead he closed the door. He had a message typed and sent to Ross before he even hit the end of the corridor.
