Dom #3
“Another Shadow group, but they’re information brokers. If you know something, they knew about it a week before. They work with The Company a lot and have a friendly relationship with one another for the most part.”
“Right,” I said, running over the conversation. “So that’s two for some bigwigs in Los Muertos...and the third would be...oh.”
Augustine didn’t really do much, but he somehow seemed to get taller. “And would that be the same conditions for mine as well?”
“It would.”
“I see...and they agreed?”
“They did. Once I pointed out that your death wouldn’t be too hard a blow to The Family.
The very structure you love so much about The Family means there are plenty of candidates who would bring stability back after an adjustment period.
Don’t worry, I had to make sure to add the condition that they could kill me if I tried for the position, to prove this wasn’t a power move.
I agreed quite easily, because it wasn’t. ”
I thought about it for a moment, wondering what would stop Augustine from killing Levi right then and there.
..and then felt my face go cold. Well, Levi hadn’t been planning on being alive to deliver the news to Augustine.
He had probably arranged for the information to be delivered to Augustine so he would know that my family and I would be completely off-limits, even if he were feeling spiteful enough to try to come for us after Levi was gone.
Levi still wasn’t caring about his own well-being; he was smug because he was still finding a way to keep me and my family safe.
“You fucker,” I hissed at him. “I swear to God, protecting us but not worrying about yourself?”
“I couldn’t include myself in the contract,” he said softly. “They wouldn’t allow it. They have their reasons, and you don’t argue with The Company.”
“So we’re protected, but you’re not? That’s bullshit, complete bullshit!”
Levi smiled. “But...you’re protecting me.”
“How the fuck am I doing that? As you pointed out, I can barely walk.”
“Because Augustine doesn’t do risk, not until it’s been calculated to hell and back. And while he took a calculated risk sending me here, I ended up behaving in a way that was outside his cost-benefit analysis,” Levi explained. “Because of you.”
“Okay, sure. What does that mean?”
“It means you are the wild card, the catalyst for all this madness,” Augustine spat out.
“I was right that I should have killed you years ago just to be safe. I cannot touch you or your family without activating the contract, getting myself most likely killed, and freeing Los Muertos to be aggressive in my territory again. At the same time, I cannot retaliate against him for this absolute disrespect because you cannot be trusted to act like a normal human being. I could kill you for trying to kill me because I killed him, and that would still fulfill the conditions of the contract, and I’m right back where I started. ”
I saw the blank shock on Will’s face that I was pretty sure was on mine.
It was...well, it wasn’t foolproof. Augustine could still find a way to kill Levi without anyone knowing it was him, because what was I going to do, blame him if he did somehow arrange for Levi to get hit by a bus?
There might be other ways to get away with killing one or both of us, but from the way the other three men in the room were acting about the Company and Syndicate, I didn’t think it would be a good idea to risk too much.
This wasn’t the original plan; I knew that much because Will and I both knew Levi had been going to his death when he’d gone to the meeting with Los Muertos.
By his original plan, he was supposed to die and leave this plan behind to make sure neither Augustine nor The Family, nor Los Muertos would come near my family or me.
I was going to strangle him for that at some point, he could be sure of that, but he had managed to find a loophole real quick.
Because he was right, I would go after Augustine if he laid a hand on Levi. It would have been a suicidal plan, but now? God, now I would know that even if I died in the process, I would be taking Augustine down with me.
“It doesn’t require Augustine to kill me?” I wondered.
“Nope, anyone in The Family can be responsible,” he said with a shrug. “Augustine has to give you carte blanche immunity and protection if he wants to keep his head.”
I stared at him. “You, uh...decided to skip right over negotiations with both of them, huh?”
“Do you know the story of the frog and the scorpion?”
“Turtle and the hare? Yeah. Not frog and scorpion.”
“It’s a good story to teach kids. Basically, a scorpion wants to cross the river, but he can’t swim.
He sees a frog and begs it to carry him, or he’ll drown.
The frog doesn’t want to, because, well, it’s a scorpion, and he points that out, saying the scorpion would sting him.
The scorpion insists he would never because that would kill them both.
So the frog agrees, takes the scorpion on his back, and begins swimming.
Halfway across, the scorpion stings him, paralyzing the frog and making them both sink.
The frog asks the scorpion why he would do that because now they will both drown, and the scorpion replies, it is in my nature. ”
I thought about that for a moment and snorted. “But you’re no frog.”
“I am not, and I know his nature,” Levi said, shifting his attention back to Augustine. “You will no more deal with me than you would a faulty gun, and I will not carry you over the river.”
Augustine ground his teeth and downright shocked me by letting out a bark of laughter. “Good God. I finally find someone worth standing not only at my side but one day sitting in my place, and he would rather waste his life on the riverbank.”
“Once grief pushed me to make a decision that changed my life for the worse. I’d like to think the second dose of grief has given me the chance to choose something better,” he said, his fingers lacing with mine. “Not grander, not more powerful...better.”
Augustine scoffed. “What a waste. We can discuss what will and won’t come of the future, but you are not Family. We’ll discuss the protection you and yours can receive later. I have your mess to clean up. William!”
Will straightened. “Sir?”
“Are you leaving or staying here?” Augustine asked, not bothering to look at the kid while basically asking him what he was choosing for his future.
Will straightened, and I thought for a moment he was going to collapse, but he swallowed hard. “I...The F-family was good t-to me and m-my siblings, b-but...not...it’s not for me.”
“Don’t piss yourself,” Augustine said curtly as he moved toward the door. “You were never important enough for me to have to threaten to keep around. You’re free, boy, but have fun telling your siblings you’ve turned your back on your father’s legacy.”
“S-sir,” Will said, but Augustine was already leaving, moving on to his next problem, I was sure.
“Prick,” I muttered.
“Will,” Levi said softly, making the boy cringe as he turned to face Levi.
“You deliberately went behind my back after going through my orders and personal deliveries. Then you turned around and alerted the love of my life to what was going on and involved him in a situation that could very easily have resulted in his death. And in fact, probably led to the injury I will have for the rest of my life.”
Will shuddered and nodded. “I’m sorry, sir...for the injury.”
Levi’s lips twitched. “It’s about time you found some balls.
..thank you. I’m still going to kick your ass from one end of this hospital to the other when I figure out how to develop depth perception with only one functioning eye, but.
.. thank you. You deserve better than The Family, you deserve better than me. ”
Will’s eyes widen. “No, sir, I—”
“Levi.”
“What?”
“I’m not your boss anymore. We’re unemployed, buddy, remember?”
Will’s lips twitched. “Levi...you didn’t coddle me like my dad, and you didn’t treat me like a problem like my siblings did or a lot of other people in The Family.
You let me do what I did best, and you never made me feel like shit for it, or because that was all I could do.
You’ve tried to help me, and you treated me like a person, not a pet or an annoyance.
I realized that if someone like you, someone who could treat me like you did while making Augustine trust and respect you, could throw all of it away because something outside The Family was better, then there was something better for me too. ”
Levi stared at him, and I realized it was one of those rare moments when the chatty bastard didn’t have a comeback.
I smiled at Will. “Good for you. I mean it, that’s a smart choice, and you chose a lot better than Levi’s dumbass did at your age.
And while you’re probably not going to want to hang out here because my family is going to show up and cause even more trouble, you have a place to stay.
Either with Levi, at my family hotel, whatever.
You helped me; you didn’t have to do anything, but you helped me save him.
I don’t care what you need from me, you’re going to have it. ”
“And me,” Levi said with a smile. “I’m not nearly as influential as I once was, but I’m not suddenly penniless and without a friend in the world.
Whatever you need, you only ask. But until you figure out what you do need, you can stay with me.
We might need to wait to see how his family reacts to everything before we start offering up the hotel. ”
“Mmm, good point,” I said, thinking about it. “We haven’t exactly explained everything to them yet, huh?”
“No,” Levi said. “And the last time I saw your family, I made a promise to them.”
“You made a promise to me too.”
“Mmm, I did.”