2. Theo
2
THEO
I worked for a week straight.
Whenever I was off, I lifted or slept.
Nothing else.
Her voice was still in my head, the way she looked at me like I was her knight in shining armor. Despite the way I’d lied so effortlessly, just like I did when I played poker with the guys. I had a crap hand, but I lied until I won the pot.
I felt like shit for lying to her, but if she knew the circumstances, she would pardon me.
And if she knew why I was emotionally unavailable, she wouldn’t want to get involved with me anyway.
I waited for Bolton to contact me so he could uphold his end of the deal, and when he didn’t, I took matters into my own hands. The location of the Brotherhood was an open secret. In an old city like Florence, there were only so many places to hide. Territories were sectioned off by different criminal organizations. All you had to do was ask around until you found what you wanted.
So I headed to the Brotherhood late one night, an underground bar with topless waitresses and vacant rooms with dirty mattresses. The guys patted me down before I walked inside, but they didn’t recognize me, just assumed I belonged there since I looked the part. But once I was in the bar, several of the guys stared at me, making the connection in just a couple seconds.
One of the guys left his spot at the table, blond hair slicked back with too much gel. Covered in tattoos that went all the way up his face like he was some kind of clown, he dropped across from me, his pint in hand. “You’ve got a lot of balls coming here alone.”
“You’ve got a lot of balls fucking up your face like that.”
A flash of anger moved into his eyes, his ego cracked like a fresh egg. “Is this a death by cop stunt?”
“I want to talk to Bolton.”
“He’s not here.”
“Then should I visit him at home?” It wasn’t hard for me to figure out where he lived. Once I’d learned Astrid was his wife, I tailed her home. He did a great job covering his tracks and being invisible, but his woman had been the one to give him away.
My woman…for a night.
The man drank his beer before he left the booth and walked away.
I waited, arms crossed over my chest, and when the waitress came over, I ordered a beer. I knew how this worked. The little ants would return to the hill and ask their queen for orders. I’d walked into the Brotherhood alone, so I was outnumbered and outgunned. But they wouldn’t cross me, not when they suspected I had some kind of assurance up my sleeve.
It took minutes for Ink Face to come back, his already ugly features made worse by the unnecessary tattoos. Prostitutes probably rejected his money left and right. With me, they did it for free much of the time.
He sat across from me, glancing down at the beer in my hand and the way I made myself comfortable in their house. “He’s busy. He’ll call you when he’s ready.”
“It’s been a week.”
“And he’s been busy.”
“Then perhaps I should return to screwing his wife until he’s ready to uphold his end of the deal?”
He blinked, and that was enough to show his hand. He had no idea what I spoke of, and he wished he hadn’t heard it. He left the booth once again and returned to whoever was in charge while Bolton was away.
I drank my beer and waited.
A couple minutes later, he returned with a phone in hand. He set it on the table in front of me, the screen lit up with the duration of the call on display. He gestured to the phone before he walked away.
I watched him go before I put the phone to my ear. “What’s the holdup, Bolton?”
There was a pause, like he didn’t appreciate my lack of respect. “I’m busy right now, Theo.”
“That’s not my problem. If you aren’t going to be a man of your word, then perhaps I won’t be a man of mine.” Perhaps I would return to Astrid and tell her the truth, that her husband had twisted my arm and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. There would be no long-term future for the two of us, but we could have whatever time she had to give.
He was quiet for a while. “You burned that bridge to ash, Theo.”
Astrid’s face came to mind, thinking of the way I’d walked out of her hotel with her back turned to me. I didn’t like the way it had ended, and I would give anything to correct it. I felt responsible for her happiness, even though I wasn’t responsible for anyone but myself. “I could enlighten her about the circumstances.”
“I don’t think it’d make a difference at this point.”
I stared across the bar as a tightness started in my chest. What did he say to her?
“I’m putting my marriage back together right now, Theo. When I’m done, I’ll keep my word to you.”
She took him back? After everything he did to her?
Click. Bolton hung up.
I sat at a table in the bar, on my second drink before my guest even arrived. It was a cold night, the rain pouring down on and off as it often did in places like Paris in the spring. Headlights were visible when cars pulled onto the street. Few people were in the bar, most of them discussing business and private affairs in their corners.
I lit up a cigar so I could replace the booze with smoke and the smoke with booze. I constantly needed something, especially now when I felt like I had nothing.
Axel entered the establishment a moment later dressed in black, and he stopped by the bar to get a drink before he joined me at the table. His black wedding band contrasted against the fair skin of his left hand. Ever since he’d put it on, he hadn’t taken it off as far as I could tell.
He sat across from me and eyed the cigars on the tray in front of me but didn’t take one. Then he surveyed me, his eyes combing over my appearance like he saw invisible scars and bruises no one else could see. “What happened?”
I puffed the smoke out of my mouth. “A bunch of bullshit.”
He gave a slow nod. “I thought you looked like shit.”
I was tired from being overworked, and I slept like shit when I was supposed to rest. Bolton’s words disturbed me. I’d walked away from Astrid in the hope that she would forget about Bolton and move on with her life. Find a nice guy who worked in an office and was home every night by five, a guy who wouldn’t believe his luck that he’d landed a woman like her. “She went back to him.”
His eyebrow cocked slightly. “Bolton?”
“Yes.”
“Why the fuck would she do that?”
I sucked on the cigar and let the smoke fill my mouth for a second before I puffed it out again. “I don’t fucking know.”
“What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Seemed like something was there.”
“There was…but I ended things.”
Now both of his eyebrows were cocked. “What the fuck, man?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Bolton said he would give me the name if I broke it off with her.”
“Who put the hit on Killian?” he asked.
I nodded. “And said he would help me handle it.”
Axel gave a long sigh. “And you believed him?”
“He knows what will happen if he crosses me.”
“He already crossed you, Theo,” he snapped. “You’re already trying to kill each other.”
“It’s done, Axel.”
He shook his head. “Theo, Killian is dead. Been dead awhile now. You need to focus on the life you still have. Whether his bones rest in the cemetery or the bottom of the ocean doesn’t change the fact that he’s not coming back.”
“What if it were me?”
Axel turned quiet.
“And Bolton had my body and the identity of my killer. Would you let it go?”
He continued to stare at me.
“I don’t think you would, Axel.”
His eyes drifted away in his silence. “You would want me to choose Scarlett.”
“I would. But that wouldn’t stop you.”
His eyes found his glass on the table, and he stared at it.
“He wasn’t just my brother. He was my twin. I can’t let it go, Axel.”
“But you still trust him to keep his word?” he asked. “Because you fucked his wife, and he’s not going to let that go easily.”
“All I have to do is tell Astrid the truth.”
“No guarantee she’d believe you.”
I still remembered the way she looked at me, like I was the only man in every room we occupied. She put me on a pedestal I didn’t belong on. She accepted me with flaws that should be put on trial. “I think she would.”
“If she took him back, I’m not so sure.”
I didn’t know why she’d taken him back. I hoped it wasn’t because she was broken and desperate, like she didn’t have another option. Because a woman like that had unlimited options.
Axel turned quiet for a while. “Are you alright?”
I let the cigar rest between my fingertips. “I’m fine, Axel.”
“Come on,” he said. “Last time we spoke, you were going to give this relationship a chance.”
“It wouldn’t have worked out anyway,” I said. “It probably would have lasted a couple months before she wanted more…and I couldn’t give it to her. It would have been more painful for both of us in that scenario.”
“Or maybe it would have worked out.”
“It’s too soon, Axel.”
“Too soon?” he asked incredulously. “It’s been ten years?—”
“How long would it take for you to move on from Scarlett?”
He went dead in the eyes at the suggestion, his soul snuffed out by a powerful gust of wind.
“It would take your entire life, Axel.”