15. Lafe
LAFE
S hit. I should have never brought her here.
Over the last week, in between dealing with Sanders’ fucking problems, I thought about Killer way too often. Mainly why I’d risked Maikel’s wrath and my happy way of life.
I sneered.
Like I was happy. Or living.
More like moving through the motions making the best of the gold-plated handcuffs Vicente had locked on my wrists.
And somehow, Killer escaped the apartment.
I shouldn’t have sent Blanca to take her food.
If I’d known I would have been able to wrap up today and come back, I wouldn’t have.
Fucking Sanders. He was the worst kind of f?ne , but he’d been in the business before I’d taken over.
Even if I wanted to get rid of him, I’d have to replace him with someone else, and there were no viable options.
Just thinking about it was like stabbing hot needles through my eyes.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I would bet Killer’s life he wanted to grovel for all the money he'd cost me, along with the three best men. I couldn’t stomach talking to him right now.
Then again, as I withstood the daunting weight of attention from my brothers, that seemed like the better alternative. At least there were no surprises there.
Parker smirked as he retook his seat. He was settling in for the show. Typical, considering he only cared about his own amusement. That was probably why he excelled so well here, and I floundered. I cared too much even when I tried to check myself.
Grey was sprawled over the end of the couch like he couldn’t give two shits about anything. Also typical for him. If it wasn’t a fight, and no one had lit his short fuse, he could give fuck all about anything else.
Then there was Andre. The self-proclaimed ringleader of us all.
Not that we viewed him like that, but he decided he was our babysitter somewhere during the many years we’d lived together.
If anyone asked him, I was sure he’d happily share he’d been stuck with brainless twits for brothers and business partners.
“Who is she?” Andre repeated, shuffling around the table, his hands raised as if he were going to strangle me. I was sure he’d love nothing better, but after our childhood with Vicente, I knew he’d never lay a hand on me… or any of us.
Well, except for fight training with Grey. That was our one time to really let loose on our pent-up frustrations.
I rubbed my hand along the side of my jaw. This was either going to be a painfully long, or extremely short conversation. Killer had done what nothing else had managed in a while. She, or the situation I found myself in because of her, made me so fucking tired. “Is she still alive?”
Andre’s top lip curled as he went back to the couch and sat down. “You think I murder women for giggles?”
Parker raised an index finger. “Well, brother mine, you did greet her by shoving a gun under her chin.”
That was the exact kind of scenario I’d tried to avoid by locking her away. Groaning, I turned my attention to Grey. “You have any vodka? I need a drink.” Andre wouldn’t be so offended if he shot her. And I needed to level-down as I tried to explain to them why I’d lost my ever-loving mind.
“When’s the last time you sampled?” Andre’s tone changed to one of concern.
I waved him away as I took the chair across from Parker. Grey went to get the vodka, and when he returned, he had four shot glasses and a half-full bottle.
Parker bent forward to read the label on the bottle.
I knew what it was. It was Grey’s favorite, orange blossom.
He quirked a brow, but Grey shrugged, not giving one shit.
Once the glasses were filled, we each downed ours.
I personally enjoyed the burn. The best liquors were so strong you could feel it all the way down in your sternum.
“Where is she?” I asked. Andre would eventually get the hint. I wasn’t about to divulge my reasons for bringing her here if they didn’t answer my questions.
Rolling the shot glass in his hand, Parker motioned to the guest room on the other side of the apartment. “Andre tossed her in there and shut the door.”
“You don’t think she’ll be able to get out?” I turned to Grey. The windows in the birdcages had no locks with a special kind of glass. We hadn’t taken those same precautions with our own homes. If we needed to escape, we wanted to ensure all avenues were available to us and only us.
He shrugged. “The alarm will beep if she tries to unlock or shatter it. And if she gets out, she’ll be shot. I think her self-preservation is too great for that.”
I didn’t argue with him, although if she’d already tried to escape, she must have thought the risk of dying was worth potential freedom. How strange that that was a better death than suicide. I’d prefer to control my own end, but I was selfish enough that killing myself would never be an option.
Grey poured another shot for me and nudged it my way. I happily took it. Where Andre tried to rein me in, Grey would enable me when he saw I needed it most. Now was one of those times.
“I saw her when I was sent to check over Maikel’s books,” I started, rolling my own glass between my palms. “Randall was dragging her to the chamber, and she refused to…” Refused to what?
Go willingly? Submit meekly? “She fought like hell. I watched her throw down some damage on a few of the younger soldiers. Every day, when I saw her, she was fighting.” I gulped. What a bitch response.
“You’ve gone there the most out of all of us. You’ve seen thousands of women carted through there. I don’t understand.” Andre scooted to the edge of her seat. “Was that it? She was a fighter, so you wanted to save her?” He seemed to be trying to figure out what I had been thinking. Good luck.
“Just because I’ve seen the women there, doesn’t mean I like it, Andre. I hate it there. I hate Maikel. I wished I could tear the place apart with my bare hands and dance over all their corpses.” We all hated that piece of the business. Right? Didn’t they feel the same?
Andre nodded, apparently agreeing with my unspoken question. “I still don’t understand why you would risk yourself, or us, for one woman when you’ve never put our necks out there before,” Andre huffed and threw himself back against the cushions.
“That’s not true,” Parker cheerily chimed in. “There was that one time. It just didn’t end well.”
I growled at him. He was my brother, and I loved him as much as I could in our circumstances, but sometimes I hated him.
“Since then,” Andre amended. “Vicente lets us get away with a shit ton. Partly because we do a hefty amount of his dirty work, partly because he doesn’t know what we’re up to.
” Parker snorted like Andre told a hilarious joke.
“But if he thinks we’re getting too ballsy, it won’t matter who we are or what we do for him.
And I don’t trust Maikel not to whisper in Vicente’s ear. ”
“Maikel won’t say a word,” I murmured with faux conviction.
I had him by the balls now, but that could just as easily be turned into ammunition against me.
My knee started to bounce. “He’d rather keep his head than tattle that I took a girl away from his Gallery.
I’ve never even sampled one of his girls.
” I hated that word. In the Institution, it was tossed around so much, no matter what the poison.
To use sampled when it came to people disgusted me.
“Mmhm…” Andre hummed, humoring me. “He didn’t mention anything when I spoke to him, but I’ll just need to have my people dig up something on him. Get in front of this by letting him know his days are numbered if he talks.”
“You could get in front of this by telling Vicente you took one of the girls for yourself,” Parker mused. “That would ensure Maikel couldn’t spin the story to fit his narrative later.”
“Absolutely not.” I glared at him. “If he knows I took her, he’ll think she means something to me.
I won’t have whatever he’d decide to do to her, purely for his own entertainment, on my conscience.
” If that was the case, I would have left her to her fate.
That hurt a hell of a lot less than being directly responsible.
That shut them up. While it would take Maikel’s power away, we all knew Vicente was sadistic enough to do exactly as I said.
Maybe not when I told him, or the next day or month, but all it would take is one minor infraction and he’d punish me through her.
We already walked on eggshells; we didn’t need to layer them up.
We’d already isolated ourselves as much as possible. To Vicente, we were unfeeling machines who worked and fucked. It was safer for us and everyone around us to maintain that image.
Andre was the first to break the silence. Shocker. “So, she drew you in with her fighting spirit?” The question was light but mocking.
Contempt pulsed within me, and I curled my lip instead of responding.
A humorless laugh escaped him. “Okay, so we established you were doing the one good deed of your life. What are we supposed to do with her?” His face evened out into a bland expression.
He apparently had plenty of ideas but wanted to hear what I had planned in my half-cocked attempt at being a hero.
I cleared my throat. I didn’t want to answer. Like any hushed midnight confession, the words were hard to stomach in the light of day. My momentary stupidity was glaring at me now. Not for the first time, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. How could I have been so careless?
“I gave her three options…”
“Go back to Maikel’s, off herself, or work with us,” Grey answered. A hint of a smile played at his lips. The show of emotion got my back up straight. He was so uninvolved it scared me if he was showing an interest.