15. Andre
ANDRE
T his wasn’t going to work.
I could already tell with Lafe fidgeting in the corner chair, and Amorette sitting on the back of the desk as she watched us all with wary eyes. Grey had stopped by at some point and was now propped up against the door frame with his arms crossed, judging me.
What the hell was I doing?
Pacing like a fucking idiot because I had contacts in the US, but not ones who I could engage on this Dae.
I’d heard of him, although I didn’t actually know him.
I had no idea Parker knew him. Or he knew Parker.
That was more accurate. My baby brother made a habit of learning as much as he could about anyone and everything.
I should have seen how desperate he was to leave us just because of that.
“I don’t think he’s going to call back.” Lafe settled back in his chair, his arms draping over the sides and his fingers just barely grazing his thighs. When I glanced at him, his gaze was steady on mine.
He looked…good.
Alert. There was color back in his face, he’d put on weight, and he seemed more present than he had in years.
Hell, Amorette was good for him.
I wasn’t sure if I was thankful he’d forced her into our lives or pissed that she called us out on being shit brothers. It stung more than it should when I’d made our family my priority for so long. I flicked my gaze at her. Yeah, I was conflicted. For a lot of reasons.
“Don’t you have any contacts in the US? Others in the Network you can reach out to?” Amorette asked as she gently swung her feet back and forth. Her dainty fucking bare feet captured my attention. They were so tiny.
“No. I reached out to the two I thought were discreet enough to help. If he’s to be believed, what information he gathered has nothing to do with the Network. And I don’t want to give our positions away if we don’t have to.”
“You mean you don’t want people to know we’re scrambling to stay afloat while our father tries to remove us from the board,” Grey inserted like an accusation—an accurate one.
I grunted, and Parker shook his head. “He’ll call back.
Dae won’t lose the chance to secure a favor.
He thrives on building an empire based solely on who owes him.
I think he gets off on it. To be fair, I do too.
But whatever pulled him away was more important to him.
Which narrows the list of potential issues that could have pulled him away. ”
“You know this man–he wouldn’t have purposely set us on edge and left us hanging out to dry?” Lafe asked Parker.
Again, Parker gave a short shake of his head. “No. He’s not like that. As much as he enjoys collecting favors, he hates the bullshit of politics. Only plays as much as he has to.”
Grey pushed into the room and walked around to lean on the back of the desk next to Amorette. I glared at where his greasy fingers were touching. Bastard.
He smirked and tucked his hand on the inside of Amorette’s thigh before sliding her close. The joke was on him. Amorette could dirty up my desk all she wanted, since she’d be the one wiping it up.
“Where does that leave us, then? Because I’m getting fucking tired of staying on this island,” Grey huffed, suppressing his smile.
“Fucking too right,” Parker muttered.
I sighed, more in exasperation than defeat. “Your plan was a good one, Parker. Hit Vicente where it would hurt the most while damaging his reputation with his people. Only he was a step ahead of us.”
“What makes him so powerful?” Amorette glanced at each of us before settling her bright blue eyes on me.
“Fear,” we all said.
“Money,” Lafe added softly.
“Manpower,” Grey grunted.
“A psychopath’s true power lies in his ability to be unpredictable, Little Love.
He hurts people for fun, pits men against each other for sport, and just when people think they have him figured out, he tears down all their beliefs by being even more vicious and bloodthirsty than they thought possible. ”
Amorette’s eyes widened. “How do you defeat someone like that?”
“Well,” Parker started wryly. “I planned to take him down slowly from the inside out. It took me fucking years to get those men in place, and now we’re back at square one.”
She swallowed, “How many businesses does he have under the Institution?”
“Pharmaceuticals,” Lafe pointed at himself, then went around the rest of the room, “fights, fine art. What Andre does for him is more of an HR function where he gets rid of any troublesome employees.”
I was not impressed with his attempt at humor, and he grinned when he glanced at me.
“Then there is the Gallery, weapons distribution. Maikel has a partner to run gambling in the clubs. The last segment is the financial sector. Think money laundering and embezzlement. Like any other corporation, he has people to manage his own books, properties, and other operations.”
Blowing out a breath, she rubbed two fingers on her lips as her gaze became unfocused. Grey couldn’t help the shit-eating grin as he looked down at her. He was just eating up every inch she was pulled into our world.
“If you have any ideas in that beautiful brain of yours, I’d love to hear it.” Parker scooted to the edge of his seat. I had the same thought, but I—and Lafe and Grey—stared at him in disbelief. When did Parker start giving out compliments like that?
Flattery to get his way in a club? Maybe. Although, any kind words dripped with venom, and the women would be fools to believe them.
He was completely serious now.
“If you redirected his businesses and flow of funds, how much would that cripple him?” She glanced at me.
Standing a little straighter, I faced her. “It would hurt, but he still has people to do his dirty work for him. Which was why the public loss of face was so important. We could do that. We manage a large part of the Institution, but we’d have a war on our hands.”
“How’s that different from what he’s already been doing?” Her brow furrowed, and I blew out a breath.
Grey and Parker busted out laughing. Parker so much that his laughter turned to annoying chortles.
“Little Love, that’s exactly what I’ve been saying! The time to play it safe is well behind us. I’ve actually had another idea working for quite some time. I’ve only recently started to put some effort behind it.”
His eyes glittered as he waited for us to ask about it. I’d be damned if I was the one to beg him for ideas. Lafe, however, had no such issues.
“All right, then. What’s your idea?”
“We do exactly that. Divert the businesses away from him and steal the Institution right from underneath him.”
If a bomb exploded in the room, I wouldn’t have heard it for all the ringing in my ears.
What he said made sense. Too much sense.
But it didn’t take a pendejo to see how difficult that would be.
We’d be fending off threats left and right.
The road to actually succeed would be steeped in blood and sacrifice.
When those sacrifices were the lives of my brothers, or even Amorette’s, I wasn’t sure I was willing to pay it.
My clothing started to itch and my shirt collar was suddenly choking me.
“How have you started doing that?” Grey raised a brow at his brother, the humor gone.
“Making connections. It’s all about networking, and we can’t assume all of Vicente’s people would so easily be swayed to our side. In fact, we’d be stupid to assume they wouldn’t stab us in the back as soon as they had the chance.”
“I thought you wanted out of the Institution?” I could barely spit the words out past the fear clogging my throat.
“Ideally, I—or we—would walk away from everything here without a backward glance. But I always knew that was a far-fetched dream. Taking over was my backup plan.”
Lafe lost some of his confidence as he gazed down at his lap and plucked at a loose thread at his knee. “I hate the Institution. I don’t want to be any more involved than I’ve been forced to,” he said softly.
Parker clapped him on the back. “Sometimes, we have to do things we don’t want to for the greater good.”
Silence fell between us, and I stopped pacing. I was suspended right there in the middle of the floor, reviewing Parker’s ridiculous plan. I should be thankful he was filling us in, right? I might be able to stop any of his fuck ups that would get us in more shit this way.
“Damn it!” I turned and slapped my hand against the wall. No punches. I wasn’t Grey, leaving holes in plaster because of my anger issues. But I needed an outlet. Too much was building inside me.
First, from the call where Dae left us hanging.
Now, from Parker trying to actively put targets on all our backs.
It was too much. The more I thought about how to keep us all alive and mostly intact, the more impossible it seemed.
“He has too many people behind him. Too much power and fear in his name. The best we could hope for is to come out of this with half of us alive,” I growled, facing the wall.
I couldn’t look at Parker, or I might strangle him.
“All right, hermano .” Parker was too fucking chipper.
“I’ll give you time to stew on it. When Dae calls back, I’ll come to find you.
I’ve already alerted my people since that’s the only way he could get at us.
You all should do the same. We can pick this back up when you’ve had a chance to let the inevitable sink in.
You know as well as I do, that this is the only way to guarantee we all pass thirtieth birthdays.
You’re just the lucky one.” Parker ended on a sarcastic note.
“I think you all should do it.” The words were so quiet, I almost didn’t hear them. But who they came from…
Whipping around, I glared at Amorette. What the fuck?
Our captive love with a savior complex and a moral compass so bright it fucking blinded me wanted us to take over the largest criminal institution in South America?
“What the fuck did you say?” The disbelief in my voice refused to be hidden.