12. Parker
PARKER
M ia’s name flashed over the screen, but I hit ignore.
She’d been my best friend forever, and I’d always kept my friends close. My enemies even closer, but still. It had been a little over a week since we’d saved Lafe and Little Love from Vicente. Over a week of my family cutting me out and avoiding me at every turn.
My feelings were starting to get hurt. They wouldn’t like it if my feelings were hurt. It was what got me in trouble in the first place.
My pride had been stomped on when Vicente uncovered my plan during the parade, so I took it out on him in a reckless tantrum.
I blew out a breath. It wasn’t my finest moment, I admit.
And I agreed with Andre; I shouldn’t have let Little Love accompany me to Lafe’s warehouse.
Except how the hell was I supposed to know that she was going to get kidnapped?
It was her MO at this fucking point. Everyone wanted to steal her from us, and she was so headstrong that she practically handed herself over on a silver platter.
I’d swallowed my pride and tried to apologize to Andre the day after, but he’d told me to get the fuck out and slammed his office door in my face. Bastard.
My phone rang again with Mia’s name flashing across the screen.
My, but she was being persistent. Too bad I didn’t have fucking time for her right now.
I had more important things to worry about.
Mainly getting my family to pull their heads out of their asses and get to work on a plan to take revenge on Vicente.
Or kill him. Either or both were fine with me.
It was what I had wanted for as long as I could remember anyway.
I called Jorge. “Boss?”
“I need the chopper prepared. I’m heading to the shore to check in on my teams.” I got up from the couch and headed for the closet.
It was time for me to stop acting like a fucking bum just because my brothers were mad at me.
I was sorry. I did try to tell them. I wouldn’t let Little Love out of my sight again.
Although to be fair, I did warn her she’d be the wedge between us. I just never realized how mean of a grudge Andre would hold. Grey, sure. He was a beast in more than a few ways. Lafe was too soft, but even he surprised me with how little he was willing to tolerate my presence.
I rubbed at my chest over my heart. It fucking hurt, and I didn’t like it.
I’d head to the shore, check on a few things and make sure my men weren’t burning the world down in my absence, and then once I caught my breath, I’d come back.
In all the years we’d owned this island, I hadn’t spent this much time here. Especially with my bastard brothers being assholes, it was starting to feel claustrophobic.
Jorge coughed on the other end. “I’m sorry, sir. All incoming and outgoing activity is currently prohibited.”
“ What ?” Andre had tried this before Lafe escaped, but seriously?
He wasn’t the fucking end-all-be-all boss.
“There are four brothers on this island, Jorge. We all equally run our own operations and this island.” My blood pressure continued to rise as I listened to extended silence on the other end. “Get the fucking chopper ready.”
“I can’t, sir. If anyone allows any unapproved movement, we will be stripped of our titles, our families evicted from the island and serve a hard labor sentence.” Jorge was whispering now, as if he didn’t want anyone else to hear this conversation.
Well, too fucking bad. I was about to shout the house down wherever Andre was holed up.
“All right, Jorge. I see that asking you to do this for me is detrimental to your family’s health and well-being.
I’ll just take matters into my own hands.
” I could get the fucking chopper ready myself.
But that wasn’t the point. Andre was making a power move he had no right to make. We had never operated this way.
I disconnected the call and stomped through the compound. My first stop was the offices. That was Andre’s happy place, where he felt like he was important. Nope. Not there. The next stop was the commons and kitchen.
What the hell? Where was my conniving oldest brother?
The very last place I looked, the most unlikeliest of choices, was where my brother was. Where a couple of them were, actually.
Andre, Lafe, and Little Love were sprawled out on the center couch like some loved-up throuple. What twilight universe had I entered? It wasn’t overtly obvious, but Amorette had her back pressed up against Lafe’s side, and her feet were in Andre’s lap. And they were watching some cheesy telenovela.
They all glanced up when I barged through the door. Their relaxed state a complete antithesis from my pent-up chaos, ready to erupt.
“What a fucking cozy sight. Are we playing house while Vicente plots his next move? Smart. Real fucking smart,” I seethed as I turned on the lights and snatched the remote up to pause the telenovela.
Little Love was confused while Lafe scowled at me, and Andre glared while continuing to caress Little Love’s feet. How fucking lovely.
“What the hell is your problem? I’ve been working with my contacts all day, gathering as much intel as I possibly can. I literally just walked by five minutes ago and stopped in for a fucking break. I’m sorry it didn’t line up with your schedule,” he gritted.
Andre gently moved Amorette’s feet to the side and stood up. He had an inch or so on me, but it was pointless for him to try and intimidate me. This was fucking Andre. Of course I wasn’t intimidated.
“What has you worked up? You haven’t placed our heads back on the chopping block this last week. You also haven’t had an opportunity to go rogue with only your own agenda in mind. What’s up your ass?” Everything from Andre’s sneer, to the way his gaze traveled down my body, was condescending.
I nodded. “My ass. What’s up my ass…” This was grand. My dear brother was a fucking moron if he thought I wouldn’t have a problem with being excluded. “I need off this fucking island and Jorge tells me you’ve grounded everyone.”
He tipped his head down and glared as Lafe quietly tugged Little Love closer into his chest. It was almost like she didn’t realize he was doing it. No longer was she spread out over the couch but tucked neatly into his side.
“You must not be too torn up over it if you can’t even keep your eyes on me.” Andre shot back.
That got my attention. “Oh, it bothers me all right. Just like how I feel like I’ve missed a few chapters to suddenly find cuddle puddles in the movie room.
I didn’t realize that you all had gotten so…
close.” The sight soured my stomach. They were all moving forward as if Vicente hadn’t held Lafe and Little Love hostage.
Acted like life was going on, and maybe it was; if they wanted to live in seclusion for the rest of it.
I, on the other hand, did not. I wanted to have my fucking cake and eat it too.
That couldn’t happen unless Vicente was taken care of.
Andre smirked, like he was enjoying my bitterness.
He would. Through the years, he’d tried to find ways get under my skin, manipulate me into doing what he wanted, and see things his way.
He had never succeeded. The closest was when he tried to send me on different jobs for Vicente, to show me just how far Vicente’s wrath went when he disliked someone.
The most memorable was when I was sent to deal with Pedro’s fiasco.
The weapons side of the business was always messy yet militant.
It almost made as much money as the Gallery, but Pedro, who had supposedly been Vicente’s best friend from childhood, was on Vicente’s shit list. Andre sent me in to show me exactly what happened when someone fell out of favor with our father.
It hadn’t been pretty. I was there for one purpose and one purpose only.
To put his eldest son, Sebastian, in his place.
When I walked into their home, Pedro was sobbing over his wife.
Over the weeks after he pissed Vicente off, he had been mentally beaten down.
He had lost his favorite hunting dog, wrecked his car, and had his eye gouged out.
I was certain Vicente was responsible for all of it.
The final blow was one of Vicente’s precious bastard sons walking in to put a bullet in his brain. He watched everything he held dear in life be torn away from him, so I ended it for him when he couldn’t take it anymore.
Contrary to what Andre believes, I learned the lesson. Just not the one Andre wanted me to learn.
Dealing with Pedro didn’t make me want to band together with my brothers to make it through this life. It made me hate everything the Institution stood for, which made me throw myself into planning my eventual escape.
Only now, Little Love had been dropped in our laps before that happened.
I glanced at her again. Her petite elven features, creamy complexion, and bright blue eyes pulled at me. She was the epitome of innocence, hiding a backbone of steel. It was a delectable package that I was finding more and more irresistible.
Her brow was slightly furrowed as she met my gaze.
You’re mine, Little Love. You just don’t know it yet.
“I’m leaving, and you can’t stop me. I need to check on a few things, and when I get back, we need to figure out what we’re going to do with Vicente.” I turned back to Andre.
He shook his head. “You’re not going anywhere. The guards have strict orders to shoot anyone who comes or goes from the island. That includes you, brother.”
Fury lit up my body. What the fuck?
“Who do you think you are? We’re equals here! You’re not the leader of us, no matter how you try to position yourself as such!” I roared, clenching my fists and doing everything I could to keep from attacking him.