Chapter 13 – Dominic
Cash’s reaction to O’Bannon’s death was akin to a toddler’s temper tantrum. He let his Aces go wild and fell right into the mayhem. Every day, there was something new to discover. He looted businesses, burned cars, kicked down doors, and terrorized neighborhoods.
The most interesting part was he didn’t just stick to Marcosa territory; he hit everyone equally. Three of Haru’s businesses were demolished, and a fleet of cars went into one of Two-Bit’s men’s homes. He nearly blew up Ajilon’s place entirely, and the bar Kosas’s crew met up at was set on fire. Even Kieran’s territory got trashed.
It was like Cash needed to test his little truce from the get-go, and he was giving it his all. Yet the other leaders didn’t flinch. He could burn their shit to the ground, and as long as they lived, he was golden. It pissed me off.
Even if Mari wanted to put an end to things, she couldn’t trust the other leaders not to turn on her the second Cash commanded them to. So we watched and waited, hoping he’d burn himself out.
He never did.
In the span of a week, he became Seattle’s boogeyman. Not just in the shadows, but in the light too. People were terrified to leave their houses. The news was constantly streaming live updates, and we were getting more and more nervous glances from the rest of the country. Too many prying eyes were finding their gazes drawn to Seattle, and it made conducting business of any sort twice as dangerous.
Hence why our guest was so irritated.
Two-Bit paced the living room, tapping viciously on his phone, while Griz hung out by the door. He watched all of us like you’d watch an uncontained viper, ready to cut our heads off if we so much as twitched toward his friend. Boss? Who knew what the hierarchy really was. Nate watched him right back from where he perched on the arm of the couch beside Mari. If Griz’s pinkie wiggled toward his gun, Nate would blow him away without question.
With Mari protected and Two-Bit occupied, I got to take my time and actually study him. He’d always been unassuming, someone I barely considered a threat, and it was hard to let that original instinct die.
It was automatic to compare him to Mari, though.
“He takes after his mother,” Grey whispered at my side, where we stood adjacent to Mari’s couch.
That much was obvious. He was light where Mari was bronzed. Their eyes, noses, and hair were completely different. Honestly, if Rafael hadn’t confirmed it, I’d never have believed they shared genetics at first glance. There was something about the way he moved that reminded me of Mari, though. That self-contained strut that people who knew their place in the world had.
Mari got it from her position. Where did Two-Bit get it from?
“You think the Wolf knows about him?” I asked.
“I think he’d be stupid not to know his son procreated again.”
So, that was a yes. Yet Emmanuel had allowed Two-Bit to fall into federal hands. What an idiotic decision. Then again, maybe he thought blood ties were enough to stitch his grandson’s lips shut. Somehow, I doubted it. I got the feeling Two-Bit—Dante—wasn’t an Osorio where it counted.
“What are we supposed to call you?” I asked randomly.
Two-Bit stopped pacing, staring at me like he didn’t understand. “My name.”
The eye roll was second nature. “Obviously, but is that what you’d prefer to go by, or would you prefer Dante when we’re alone?”
Again, he looked like he wasn’t computing what I was saying. “I’ve never been an Osorio.”
“Neither have I, but it’s okay if you want to be Dante here,” Mari said.
Two-Bit looked wistful, and I wondered if anyone had ever said that to him. Rafael had kept his sons apart; it wouldn’t be too out of bounds to assume that he’d told his youngest never to use his real name. For a moment, I thought he’d cave, but he shook off the emotion quickly.
“Two-Bit is my name now. I don’t need you blowing my cover, so stick to that and we’ll be fine.”
“If that’s what you want.” Mari was almost gentle with him, and I wondered if part of her was aching to have another cousin so close, yet clearly out of reach. Anytime we broached the subject, she shut down, so we’d let it go. Maybe when this war was over and she had time to come to terms with Cameron’s betrayal, she’d open up. For now, we’d be there for her to lean on.
Grey readjusted himself, a silent request for attention. “Just how undercover are you?”
Two-Bit’s eyes flashed. “Very.”
“I’m not trying to screw up your job or steal information you aren’t giving. I’m just trying to understand how an Osorio became a Fed.”
Damn. All those years hating Greyson, and I forgot the fucker had the same thought process as me.
Two-Bit hardened. “Because I chose to.”
“You chose to turn your back on your legacy?”
He huffed. “What legacy? I wasn’t raised in this world, and I certainly don’t want to be here. This is the best I could do under the circumstances.”
This is the best I could do. It struck me that Two-Bit might not have been a Fed because he wanted to be. Maybe we weren’t the only ones cornered in a situation we couldn’t control. Grey’s barely there nod confirmed we were on the same wavelength.
“So you lose your name and your identity to get back at Rafael?” Nate asked. Two-Bit turned on him with a lethal glare.
“I’m not doing this because of some daddy issues. I’m doing it to take shitty people off the streets. If I lose myself in it, who cares. Whatever it takes to make a difference in this fucked-up world.”
The more I watched, the more curious I was. What had his world looked like before he came to Seattle? How long had he actually been a government stooge, and had he ever really wanted to join? There was so much we didn’t know about Two-Bit and so many obstacles keeping Mari from finding out, but I was going to. One day, we’d know everything about Dante Osorio—whether he liked it or not.
“If we’re done discussing me, we need to talk about him.” He jabbed a finger at the TV where the news was broadcasting another shot of Cash’s reign of terror. “Have you considered our offer?”
Federal help and a get-out-of-jail-free pass, if we killed Cash. Yeah, we’d thought about it.
“Our goals are aligned, but I’m still feeling some things out. I can’t move on Cash unless I’m sure that it’s going to kill him.” I knew Mari was hedging her bets, hoping Paez got in touch with us. There’d been no response to the text yet, but she wasn’t giving up. The cartel leader was still our best bet moving forward.
Two-Bit watched Mari for a long moment before nodding. “Your opportunity window is getting smaller, and your time is growing thin.”
My heartbeat tripped. He knew something. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“The higher-ups are getting restless.” Two-Bit rubbed his face, and Griz laughed bitterly.
“They’re considering bringing in the National Guard to lock it down if we can’t get this under control.”
All four of us stiffened.
Holy shit. I knew having eyes on us would be bad for everyone, but the government locking us in with Cash on a rampage would mean astronomical levels of destruction. You didn’t cage a sick, feral bear; you put it down before it killed everyone it saw.
“Jesus,” Grey muttered.
“Giving Cash a captive audience will only make things worse,” Nate said harshly.
“I know that and you know that, but it’s all about optics to them. With the way things look now, they don’t care how we fix it, only that it gets done.”
“Well, make them care!” Mari snapped.
Two-Bit threw his arms out. “I can’t do any more than I’ve already done, Mari. The truth is, Cash is outside of all of our wheelhouses without bringing a literal army into the city. He is unhinged to the point of insanity, and this type of chaos grows roots and spreads. As long as this continues, the rest of the world will see it as a weakness. A way to get at us. Your little upstart is becoming a national security problem. This needs to end, and it needs to end now.”
Mari stood, toe-to-toe with her cousin, growling, “And how do you expect me to do that? You and the others are cowards. You gave him the truce. You gave him a leg up in this city. You did this. Why is it that I’m supposed to take care of your problem now that it’s gotten out of your hands?”
“Because he came here for you. Because you should’ve stopped it sooner. Take your pick, Mari, but either way, you need to act. This is what being queen is. Sometimes your job is to clean up the messes that other people make. It may be fucked, but that’s the role you chose to take on when you took over for your brother. So, own it. Live it, breathe it, and kill for it before Cash destroys us all.”
“And will you be helping her, or is she risking her neck for your fucking gratitude?” Nate stood at her shoulder with barely contained fury. Griz straightened from his slouch, eyes alert even if he didn’t move closer.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Two-Bit said. The two men stared at each other until, finally, he turned to Mari. “What’s your plan?”
“Just because you’re here doesn’t mean the others will back us. Going after Cash right now is suicide.”
“They’re cowards who care more about the bottom line than the lives we’re losing. Until it affects them, they won’t raise a finger,” Griz muttered. There was obviously no love lost between him and the other leaders. Bet he struggled to hold his tongue in those meetings too.
Mari tapped her fingers against her thigh, brows furrowed as she tried to find a solution to this fucked-up problem. When she finally settled, it wasn’t happily.
“Then we force their hand.”
Four hours later, Nate and I watched from a nearby rooftop as Mari knocked on the door with Greyson at her side. We’d been up there for so long, the cold had officially seeped into my bones, but I didn’t waver. Not when my girl was in danger. Looking at Nate, I knew he felt the same.
“Why the fuck is he taking so long to answer?” Nate hissed.
We were both flat on our stomachs as we watched—Nate through his rifle scope and me through the long-range camera lens. He was the only real protection Mari had. We’d left Tennessee and Moore at the Celestine, still working with Killer to uncover how far Cameron’s deceit went. The kid was doing better than even I’d expected. He’d given the security team three leads already, men who were more loyal to Cameron than Mari. Considering how fast he’d obtained them, I was even more grateful we’d gotten him out. He was a good man and an incredible asset so far.
“He’s making her sweat.” I tried staying calm, but I didn’t like this plan. There were too many variables we couldn’t control, and all of us were too exposed.
“What an asshole,” he muttered, settling closer to the ground.
Finally, the door opened. It wasn’t the housekeeper like we expected but the big man himself. Kosas glared down at Mari, arms crossed and eyes everywhere. Mari and Grey were armed, but if he notified Cash before we got them out, it was going to be a bloodbath.
Nate made a minor adjustment to the gun, humming in satisfaction when he got a clear shot. Meanwhile, I took as many photos as I could. We’d need them.
We didn’t have any earpieces this time, so we couldn’t hear what was being said, but I could see the smallest tension in Grey’s back as Kosas and Mari talked. “He’s baiting them.”
Nate snorted. “He thinks Greyson’s too whipped to move without Mari’s say, I’m sure.”
That got a smile out of me. He’d always been her steady protector, but marrying Mari had altered something fundamental in Grey. He held her a little tighter, shielded her a little more, and had a far shorter fuse than he’d possessed before. I had no doubt that if Kosas twitched the wrong way, he’d be dead before Nate took the shot. Greyson would take pleasure in eviscerating him for his wife.
Mari’s shoulders relaxed, and she said something that changed everything. Kosas grew red, his shoulders shaking, hands clenched at his sides. He stepped forward, towering over Mari, and I didn’t like it one bit.
Nate stiffened, and I saw his finger inch toward the trigger. “What the fuck is he doing?”
“I don’t know.” My fingers tightened around the camera as Kosas got in my girl’s face. She stood there taking it as he yelled hard enough to spit in her face. It was fucking torture. “She better get what she needs from this.”
Because if Grey didn’t kill Kosas, I was going to.
“It’ll work.” Nate’s low voice was deathly cold, and I knew he was as pissed as I was. No one disrespected our woman.
Despite how much I wanted to reach down there and remove Kosas’s head from his body, I had a job to do. So, I angled the camera differently, setting the picture up so it looked like Kosas was inviting Mari in.
We were banking on Cash’s hair-trigger with these photos. He needed to believe that his so-called truce was a lie and the allies he’d been banking on were working with the enemy.
Us.
Hopefully this would get the other leaders to pull their heads out of their asses and fight back. We needed an army, and the irony was we had one inside the city limits—they just refused to help.
The time for playing both sides was over. They either helped Mari, or they died. There was no way they could sit back and watch it happen after this. Not if they wanted to remain in power.
“I just don’t want this to come back and bite us in the ass later. It’s becoming a bad habit.” Too many times in the last few months, history and other people’s choices had made things worse. With the fuse this close to lighting, we couldn’t afford another screwup.
Kosas threw his hands up and stormed back inside, slamming the door so hard we could see it tremble from where we were perched, while Mari and Grey walked back to the car. They’d drive around for a while, brushing off whatever tail had most likely watched them walk onto the Sideris compound, before circling back for us.
We stayed silent and alert as they made their way through the guards and to their car. Only when they’d driven off did we pull back and start packing everything up.
It was comfortably quiet for a few minutes before Nate cleared his throat. “I want you to know, I didn’t hide Cameron to hurt Mari or any of you. I didn’t want it to bite us in the ass.”
Shit. I hadn’t meant that to be a dig, but he’d obviously taken it as one. Sighing, I sat back against the wall of the roof, the camera bag between my legs. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
“You should’ve been. The things I hid, they had consequences.”
“Everything does,” I countered. “Look at why we’re up here. Those idiots made a decision, and now one’s going to pay with his life. That’s how it goes.”
“I know, I just—I needed to say that.”
But it didn’t seem to make him feel any better. “You know, I watched you while we visited Ace. I saw how you tried to warn her, and it wasn’t the first time. Mari made the decision not to ask. Even though I wish you’d told her, you were respecting her wishes. I can’t fault that.”
“I do. I should’ve pushed her.”
Smirking, I asked, “Since when does our woman do anything she doesn’t want to do?”
He laughed a little. “True.”
“You did the right thing, Nate. You keep doing the right thing.” It was uncomfortable to say it, but that didn’t make it less true. Since he’d come back to Mari, he’d done everything in his power to be good for her and make up for his deceit. I couldn’t fault him for that.
“I’m trying.” He stared at me for a long time before turning to look at the sky. “But you still don’t forgive me, do you?”
Did I?
No, I didn’t, but the longer he was back, the more I understood why he’d kept his secrets. I just didn’t like it. Life was all about doing things you didn’t want to do, though, and I’d already decided to forgive Nate. Mari was my family, and he was part of hers. If I wanted the future I was hoping for, I had to let go of my own feelings about Nate. I had to move on.
He’d hurt her. He’d hurt all of us, but he’d hurt himself most, and that was always going to be punishment enough.
“Maybe someday,” I said eventually, getting up when my phone went off. “They’re on the way back. Let’s go.”
I offered Nate a hand up, and even though he didn’t need it, he took it gladly. “I’m going to make it up to you.”
As long as he kept making Mari happy, we’d be square. “I know you will, kid. For now, let’s just get through this shitstorm.”