37. Bradley
brADLEY
Three days after capturing Harris and rescuing Zira, I sit with Damian in his office and watch as he pours himself his third Scotch in as many minutes.
“Bad day?” I ask casually as he tips the glass against his lips and drains it.
“Bad year,” he mutters. “Are you here to kill me?”
“Kill you?” My brows twitch. “Why would I do that?”
After a beat, Damian faces me. “I know what my General did was out of order. I never would have commanded someone to go after your life or the life of anyone connected to your organization. You’re all off-limits.”
“You sound jealous.”
“Of the protection you get by being you?” Damian snorts. “Not jealous. Admiration, if anything.”
“Are you sure?” I watch closely as he moves back to the large desk that’s too big for the room and almost dwarfs him when he sits behind it.
“Aye. I know how it works. I respect the Suit as much as any Captain or any of the other families. I admire your strength because this?” He motions around his room.
“The shit with the Cartel? The families under me? Keeping our businesses afloat, dealing with offshore deliveries and customs and keeping everyone paid? I deal with one family, my own. You deal with everyone.”
“And yet your General saw fit to threaten me by trying to kill my driver and then me. I fail to see how that admiration or respect is being enforced throughout your organization.”
Damian pales slightly. “It is.”
“Is it?”
“You know it is. You think I want to waste time worrying if the Russians are going to kick down my door because I’ve messed with you?
” He leans forward into his desk. “For every greedy family that wants to remove or fight the Suit, there are ten others happy to be making millions they otherwise wouldn’t stand a chance of seeing. So aye, it is.”
Only time will tell if Damian’s telling the truth, so I let it slide for now. There are much more important matters to be discussed than the state of his family. Steepling my fingers together, I study Damian over the top of them.
“Harris.”
Damian rolls his eyes. “That cunt.”
“Did you get what you needed from him?”
“Aye. He held out for a while, trying to convince us that the real mastermind behind everything was that girl you’re so keen on.”
It takes all my strength not to bristle at the ‘that girl’ comment and instead, I keep my expression calm.
“Kept saying she had all the diamonds originally and even tried to act like you were working with her to scam everyone out of a payout.”
I won’t even dignify that with a denial.
“But…” Damian sighs deeply. “He cracked yesterday. Took about seven fingernails before he did, but he gave us the location of where he stashed the diamonds and you’ll never guess where.”
“Where?”
“That apartment your girl used to stay in. Got the key from some guy called Peter and hid it all there. We recovered them all and with the files and information Raven provided, everything is accounted for. There’s a handful missing, but not enough to be a concern, and given how they were stored inside vehicles, I’m not surprised some went missing. But he’s all yours if you want him.”
“And the diamonds?”
Damian groans slightly. “They’re where they belong thanks to Valentina. Deep in the pockets of the Cartel with all their weapons safe in my stores. My men are running a quality check to ensure everything is up to code, but it’s safe to say I won’t be dealing in diamonds anymore.”
“Perhaps find a different way,” I agree. “Or hire dock workers who aren’t so loose-lipped when there’s a drink in them.”
“Aye.” Damian shakes his head. “Unbelievable. This whole thing has just been shit after more shit.”
“Indeed.” Brushing away his concern, I stand and adjust my shirt. “I’d like to see Harris now.”
“You’re taking him with you?”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
Damian nods knowingly. “Alright, I’ll have someone take you. And…” He stands quickly. “We’re good, right?”
My stomach tightens faintly. “I got involved as a favor to you, Damian, because of how well we knew each other before I was voted into the Suit. You repaid me with demands, pressure, and attempts on the lives of those I hold dear. You need to get a firmer hand on your organization because next time, I won’t be so forgiving. ”
“So… there can be a next time?” His expression lights up faintly and I roll my eyes.
“Goodbye, Damian.”
“Goodbye, Bradley.”
As promised, one of his men takes me through the estate toward where they house prisoners and as I walk, I debate my end in all of this.
Anyone else would have met a harsher fate for even daring to threaten the Suit and many know how close Frank came to death at the hands of the Irish.
Is it our past together when I was so young that stays my hand or the fact that without all of this, I never would have met Zira?
Her influence on me is clearly subtle, but I’m not angry about it.
Knowing she’s at the Empire State waiting for me to return adds a bounce to my steps and a playful lift in my heart. Never did I think I would be the man with a woman to come home to, but suddenly, it’s my life. And yet the greatest challenge is admitting to her just how much she means to me.
I almost did when I rescued her, but she fainted in my arms before I got the chance to say it all and those words remain locked just beneath my throat, begging for release.
Rejection doesn’t scare me, but a future without Zira does.
The guard leads me into a small, dark room where Harris sits in the middle.
His head lolls forward against his bare chest that’s covered in an array of small cuts and longer lacerations.
Blood streaks down his body and splatters the floor around him, and his hands are nailed to the armrests.
His swollen fingers are all absent their nails.
Seems Damian didn’t stop even after he learned what he needed.
“Take your time,” the guard says as he ducks out of the room.
The sound of his voice draws Harris’s head up from his chest and he glances around, then settles on me with a glare.
His eye socket is completely swollen, robbing him of vision in one eye, and his jaw hangs awkwardly but doesn’t appear to be broken.
The beating I gave him after dragging him off Zira was less than he deserved, and the urge rises once more now that we’re face to face.
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” I say while walking forward.
“Some cunt,” Harris drools. “You f-fucked up my face.”
“And you hurt Zira. Cracked her cheekbone. Dislodged a tooth. Bruised her vocal cords. But don’t worry. She’ll heal.”
“That bitch?” he slurs, following me around the room with his one good eye. “What she pay you? Dick sucking? Such a fucking slut, that one, but if you think she’s good, just fuck any other hole and you’ll see she’s nothing special.”
The insult should just roll off me, given everything that’s happened, but I just can’t let it go. He’s a twisted, desperate man who can’t even reach for an apology after everything he’s done. His hatred for Zira runs deep, but from everything I’ve learned, I know the source.
She got away. She showed she was better than him, and he can’t stand it.
Near the table at the back, I pick up a length of twine and walk back to Harris while he cranes around to try and see me.
“So?” Harris croaks. “I’ll suck your dick if it gets me outta here. Better than her as well. The others didn’t believe me when I said she was the mastermind, but you, you were there with her, weren’t you?”
“Is that the only place you remember me from?” Walking around to face him, I stop an inch from his knees and lean forward. “Nowhere else?”
Harris frowns and his eye darts back and forth over my face. Just as his lips part, likely with words of confusion, something finally clicks behind his eye and he gapes at me. “Shit. You’re the brick house fucker from the jewelry store.”
“I am,” I reply softly, winding the twine around each of my fists. “And you’ve insulted her for the last time.”
I surge forward, lifting my leg and slamming my knee into Harris’ chest. He and the chair topple backward to the ground, and I land on top of him with my knee still pressed to his chest. He grunts and yelps but it cuts off abruptly as I rapidly loop the twine around his throat and pull it tightly.
“You’ve subjected your presence on Zira for the last time, you hear me?
She never deserved to live a life with your foul shadow haunting her.
That woman is completely selfless and gave up her life for a brother who only cared about trying to kill her and making off with diamonds.
That wasn’t family. That wasn’t care or love, but don’t worry, I’m going to show her what love is.
I’m going to show her how she deserves to be treated, with love and respect, and never again will she even think about the times you hurt or tricked her. ”
Harris spasms beneath me as the twine cuts into his throat, choking the life out of him. His face turns purple, his eye bulges, and he jerks repeatedly to try and shake me off, but he can’t do it. Spit flies past his lips as he chokes and gurgles the tighter I pull the twine.
“And you know what? She’s going to be richer than you could ever dream, she’s going to be loved more than you ever were, and I’m going to make sure that not one single person remembers your pathetic existence.”
A slick, gurgling sound rises from Harris and his eye rolls back in his head.
“You never should have touched the woman I love.”