9. Andre #2
“I wasn’t the only one asking about Vicente. There was someone else there before me. I don’t know who, and the locals wouldn’t share. They were nervous, like they knew exactly who had been there but were too afraid to tell me.”
What a clusterfuck. “Thanks, Mia. You can go now.” I reached out and opened the door.
She scoffed and glared at me. “Whatever.” Mia looked at Parker. “I’ll stay with Grey tonight. Then I need to head back home tomorrow.”
Parker stood up with her and caught her elbow. “About that…” He tried to contain his shit-eating smirk and failed. “I wouldn’t go to Grey’s place. You can crash in my spare.”
“I always stay at Grey’s.” Her face twisted up in confusion. “You’re a terrible roommate.”
That almost made me grin. Parker could be eccentric when he wanted to be.
“We’ve…” His gaze darted to me for a second as he considered his words, and that caught my attention. Did he not trust Mia? They were childhood best friends. If he didn’t trust her, I sure as fuck didn’t, either. “We’ve collected a woman. She’s ours now, right, dear brother?”
Mia looked at me, and I raised one brow. What the fuck was he playing at?
“Okay…So you’ve all finally broken the seal and brought a fuck buddy here. What’s that have to do with Grey’s guest room? That’s where all my stuff is at.”
“You see, Mia. Grey’s quite smitten with her. I’m sure he’s currently busy fucking her into next week. You’d be cramping his style, you understand?” Parker grinned full-out.
“And you’re all sharing her?” She glanced between us. That shocked her.
“No,” I denied.
“Yes.”
What the fuck, Parker?
“In a platonic way, of course. We’ve all taken responsibility for her. She’s like our new little sister. Right, Andre?”
Why was he constantly putting this back on me?
“Mia, it’s been a pleasure.” I ignored Parker and nodded my head toward the door. She huffed but left. When Parker tried to leave on her heels, I shoved him back. “Not you.”
He laughed and shrugged, leaning his ass against my desk. “And sit the fuck down. I don’t want your ass prints on my desk.”
Now that Mia was here, with no news of Vicente’s sinister plot, he was acting like his old, devious self. Yet I hadn’t forgotten why Mia was gone in the first place.
“What’s wrong, Andre? This is great news.”
“Are you done? Are you going to leave this ridiculous scheme alone?” I didn’t need to elaborate, Parker knew exactly what I was talking about.
The humor dropped from his face. “No.”
“Why the fuck not?” I exploded, pushing away from the wall and yanking him to me by his collar.
“Do you have any fucking idea how dangerous your games are? We have ourselves to look after. Hell, we have Amorette to look after, because she’s a fucking liability!
And you’re going to continue to put our asses on the line?
Abso-fucking-not!” Our noses nearly touched, then I shoved him backward.
He barely budged, straightening his shirt as he scowled at me.
“We’d already decided to take Vicente out.
You agreed, Andre. You fucking agreed! For us to thrive, he has to go.
It’s great if he didn’t know what Mia was doing.
Except the fact remains, he still took Amorette!
He still took her, and that’s a sign. People are talking.
We’re not safe, whether I sit with my thumb up my ass or not. ” He stopped, his chest heaving.
“We don’t know that. Vicente has always played his games.”
“We do know that, and if you’re ignoring the signs, you deserve the death that’s coming for you.” He tried to push past me, but I stopped him again.
“This family is all I’ve ever cared about. If you want to continue trying to thwart Vicente no matter the cost, be my guest. But not here.” I slowly shook my head.
Shock widened his eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re kicking me out of the compound?” His eyes nearly disappeared under his brows as he glared at me with something close to hate. That twisted the knife a little harder, but I returned his glare.
“If you’re going to get us all killed because you can’t stop stirring shit up, yes.” I grimaced. “You wanted to leave us anyway, so consider this my blessing.”
Parker vibrated with so much rage he was about to go off at any moment.
“We’re supposed to take Vicente down together!
I never wanted to leave you fuckers! I wanted to live my own life, and yes, for a moment, the only way I could see to do that was to leave you all behind.
” He seethed as he walked toward me, hitting my chest with both hands until I stepped back.
“Is this truly the life you want? You work yourself to death. You obsess over every little thing Vicente does or doesn’t do.
Everything is a sign to you, and it has to be fucking exhausting!
” He hit me again, and my back hit the wall.
“I’m not going to watch you get yourself killed!” I yelled, balling up my fist, ready to knock some sense into his thick skull. Pain started to gather behind my eyes. My fucking baby brother was trying to give me one hell of a migraine.
He stepped back and composed himself. Barely.
When he opened his eyes, fury burned in their depths.
“I’m not fucking leaving, and I’m living the life that you want for us.
Is that what you want for Lafe? He’ll be dead before he’s thirty.
Is this what you want for Grey? He’s finally focusing on something other than fighting his way to the whipping post. What about for sweet Little Love?
Regardless of whose bed she’s in, she’s ours now.
We took responsibility for her when we let her live and refused to let her go home.
You know Vicente needs to die. I just gave us a head start. ”
I huffed. “You want to bring Amorette into this? She’d hate the idea of a war. She hates murder. She thinks we’re all one step away from evil already. That bitch will either try to run again or turn us over to go home, because she’s stupid enough to believe Vicente will let her go.”
“She’s not,” he argued. “If she’s learned anything, it’s that she can’t trust anyone else. Don’t worry about Amorette. I’ll take care of her.”
This time, when he tried to leave, I didn’t stop him.
Parker was wrong…but he was also right.
Que chingado . I pulled my chair out from my desk with too much force and it rammed the wall. When I pulled it away, black scuff marks marred the wall. God damn it. I’d clean it off in a minute. Better the wall than my desk.
Firing up my laptop, I started researching and crafting a few messages. No matter what we did, Vicente taking Amorette was a clear fuck you. We were out, and everyone knew it.
We needed to know why.