17. Andre
ANDRE
“W hat the hell do you want?” I growled into the phone.
This was the third time Matías called today, and I didn’t have the brain capacity to deal with him today.
“You’re being idiots. I have no idea why, but I’m trying to keep you four assholes alive. Meeting at my place tonight,” his cold tone relayed exactly how stupid he thought we were. I gripped the phone so tight it was in danger of cracking.
We’d made mistakes, but that was to be expected when you didn’t have all the fucking puzzle pieces staring you in the face.
“You’re making me regret answering your call.”
He snorted. “The only reason you picked up is because I’ve been pestering you non-stop.”
“Why is that? We’ve never been close. There’s not a goddamned reason that you would help us.
” I sat back against the seat of the SUV.
My brothers weren’t the only ones going crazy inside the compound.
I’d taken a vehicle out to drive the perimeter of the island and check on our pads and runway.
Now, I was parked facing the ocean on the north side of the island, the one spot where the compound couldn’t see me if someone was looking.
“Look, it wasn’t my choice that we weren’t close growing up. I tried when we were kids, and you and your brothers shut me down every fucking time.”
“You were fucking with us!” It was hard not to raise my voice. “Vicente would send you out to make nice, then use you to fuck us over.”
“I had no control over what he did.”
“But you didn’t stop him either, did you? You let him use you.”
“Two times. That was the number of times he messed with you as a direct relation to me. Then I started sneaking past him. And I refused him when he tried to set you up again through me. But you didn’t fucking know that, did you?
Because you decided that I was just like him, all your brothers followed your lead,” he spit out.
“You don’t even refer to us as your brothers . That’s a big fucking sign.”
He scoffed. “Because you’ve never been my brothers. No matter how hard I tried.”
“You always had Valentina, Vicente’s little princess,” I fired back. “You didn’t need us.”
“That snake? I tolerate her because I have to. If you want to speak about someone in Vicente’s ear, it’s her.”
I rubbed my hands across the steering wheel and counted to ten. This was getting us nowhere. “If you don’t have something of value to share, then I’m hanging up.”
“I have information you want, but you’ll have to come to me to get it. And bring Amorette.”
Steam erupted from my ears. “You don’t have the right to demand our presence, much less hers.”
His bitter laugh sliced into my skin. “Oh yeah, I do. Otherwise, you’ll all die, trying to do this on your own. You need allies.”
“And why the fuck would I trust you?” There was still the issue of the hit placed on my head.
All of us going to Matías’ could be the trap to get us off our island.
I started to tell him how stupid I’d be to leave with that threat over my head, but I didn’t.
If he didn’t know, I wasn’t going to give it to him.
“Better question, why are you helping us?”
Lifting us away from the parade was a solid, but I still couldn’t overlook the possibility that he was playing with us, gaining our trust to hand deliver us to Vicente.
“Because I can. I’ll see you at six, or I’ll just assume that you’re good with dying.” He hung up.
“Fuck!” I screamed and banged my hand on the steering wheel. “Fuck,” I muttered when I’d released some of my anger on the vehicle.
It creaked when I started driving back to the compound, but hell, this was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.
Once I was back, I hunted each and every one of my brothers down. And I still didn’t have Amorette. Where the hell was she?
In the kitchen making lunch for everyone, apparently.
I tried to hold onto my anger, but watching her float around the kitchen as she hummed under her breath was too adorable.
And I didn’t fucking need adorable to diminish my sour mood.
I needed to hold onto it as long as possible because that was what kept us alive.
If I started letting things slide like they didn’t matter, we wouldn’t make it to the weekend.
Blanca was seated at the table working on something when she noticed me. She stiffened, reading me immediately.
“Amorette, we have company.”
She stopped and turned around with her lips pursed into a little bow. Fucking sexy as hell.
Thoughts of her lips wrapped around my cock pelted me.
“Blanca, finish whatever she’s doing. Amorette, we have a problem.”
She gave Blanca a few instructions, wiped her hands on a towel, then walked straight to me.
“Where are we going?”
“Where else? To my fucking apartment.” I placed my hand on the small of her back and guided her in front of me.
* * *
“For the record, this is a stupid move,” Parker grouched as he sat on the plane.
One of our men was piloting us so we could all sit together.
Every fucking one of us. He was right, this was one hundred percent foolish.
But we were running up against wall after wall, and Parker had tried to call Dae back three times.
He hadn’t answered and didn’t call back. Not even the courtesy of a text.
“How do we know this wasn’t the very thing Dae was going to warn us against?” Lafe bounced his knee as he twisted his glass. His glass of seltzer water. All of us had seltzer water since we’d put alcohol on a ban to try and help Lafe stay away from the drugs.
He didn’t ask for it, and we didn’t talk about it, but it seemed like the brotherly thing to do after Amorette reamed our asses.
I settled a dry look on Parker, waiting for his response.
He didn’t give one shit about my dry look.
“It’s not uncommon for him to go dark. If it was something that truly put us in the line of fire, he’d reach out.
He wouldn’t let a favor go just because he was busy.
Whatever he had to share, it wasn’t urgent. ”
“Sounded pretty fucking urgent,” Grey muttered as he tossed back the last few gulps of his water. He made a face, not happy with the beverage of choice.
“Mm.” Lafe continued to fidget and reach for his pocket, only to stop halfway.
“Did you bring anything with you?” Amorette asked quietly as she touched his knee.
His eyes glared intently where her fingers grazed his knee.
He said nothing for a few minutes, then shivered and covered her hand with his.
As soon as he had her hand trapped under his, he sighed.
“I didn’t bring anything with me,” he said quietly, not looking any of us in the eye. “I’m regretting it.”
“No,” she said firmly, scooting closer on the couch. “This is a process, and I’m proud of you.” She turned and leveled me with a death stare.
“We’re all proud of you,” I supplied. Of course, we were. Just because we didn’t say so didn’t mean we didn’t believe it. Or feel it. Fuck. I scrubbed a hand over my face. What was she turning us into? Pretty soon, we’d be too soft to run the Institution.
That was only another reason this was a terrible idea.
* * *
We landed at the same strip as before, grabbed an unmarked SUV, and drove to Matías’ place. A few of our men followed behind us, and a few stayed by the plane.
Over the last few days, we’d already stretched ourselves too thin, and we were feeling it. Another time, I would have brought twenty or more men, given the circumstances. But this time, we had to make do with eight.
The weak security burrowed under my skin and I scratched at my arms when no one was looking. This was the plan. We decided the only way forward was to untangle our businesses and take over the others. There was no way in hell that was happening unless we protected our assets.
We’d have to start recruiting soon. There was no way around it.
I hoped Parker had a plan on how to figure out who we could trust. Grey and Lafe were useless in that department. Grey didn’t give a fuck about anything outside his hotel and Amorette. Lafe had said he had an informant, but he couldn’t hold eye contact with me when he said that.
He was fucking lying. I wanted to know why, but I wouldn’t put him on the spot. Not then.
We pulled up to the back of Matías’ house and climbed out. I held out a hand and Amorette took it as she gazed up at what had been her prison for a week. She had no tells on her face; she could have been dropping by the doctor’s office for everything she gave away.
We all barely hit the paved walkway to the door when it opened.
Amorette gasped, and her spine shot straight up. She wanted to run to him but checked herself. It was written all over her body, how she struggled not to attack him.
Grey eyed him coldly as he took point. Parker followed behind him, then Amorette. Lafe and I brought up the rear. During the short walk up, I took in every inch of Matías’ skin.
He’d been beaten recently.
Badly.
His left eye was swollen shut, and the right side of his jaw was bruised. Also swollen. He was wearing a long-sleeve button-down shirt, but it seemed like a few bruises poked through at the neck.
Once we were inside, he shut the door. Locked it. Then set the alarm.
“My house is constantly swept for bugs. Very few guards come inside. None without explicit permission and never without cameras capturing every angle,” he said over his shoulder as he led us deeper into the house.
He took us to the living room and braced his elbow on the mantle while he watched us all file around the room. Huffing out a short laugh, he shook his head. “Go ahead, sit down. Make yourself at home. You’ll realize sooner or later that I’m not your enemy.”
“Funny,” Parker quipped. “That’s exactly what an enemy would say.” He grinned like the lunatic he was. I wanted to strangle him. We were all away from our one safe haven, and he was stirring shit up before our asses ever hit the seats.
I gritted my teeth and circled the couch before dropping in the center.
The place was decorated but sterile, like he’d had someone come in and turn it into a showroom. No personality. No pictures. But I couldn’t cast stones. We didn’t have any of that shit, either.
After making the first move, I turned and raised my brows at the others. They took the hint and found seats. They spread out strategically, and Lafe managed to get Amorette into the center. If she realized what we were doing, she didn’t give it away.
I fought a smirk. Of course, she realized. But we were coming to learn that she had a perfect poker face when her emotions were wilding out of control.
“Care to share what was so important that you couldn’t tell us over the phone?” I gave Matías my full attention and clasped my hands between my knees.
“This is the one place I have absolute faith isn’t bugged or compromised.”
Parker barked out a laugh. “Oh, fucking please. Like our compound would be?”
He met Parker’s stare as best he could through a swollen eye. “Yes. It is.”