34. Lafe
LAFE
“S he might have escaped,” I said, then rolled my lips together. I didn’t believe she’d do that, but did I really know her? No. “This would have been the perfect opportunity to leave.”
“Little Love wouldn’t have done that,” Parker argued as he glanced out the window.
We hadn’t stayed at the mansion. As soon as Bruno went down, pandemonium took over. On top of that, Vicente left with Pilar. If we had the cajones to stop him and question him, we couldn’t have because he was gone.
So what did we do? We fled to one of the few hotels not affiliated with Vicente.
We took the coward’s way. It was already a boon for Vicente to let us live for jumping between Grey and Bruno.
“I agree with Parker. She wouldn’t have run. Not then. Not when Grey was hurt. That’s not who she is.” Andre paced the small room with his hands clasped behind his back. He glanced over at Grey, sprawled over the bed still passed out.
We’d had Donnie come and check him out and treat his wounds. He’d assured us he would live and gave him a painkiller to ease his suffering when he woke up. I’d laughed, and after Donnie gave him the shot, he glanced at me. I waved his unspoken question away. It was too late anyway.
But Grey liked the pain. It wasn’t often that he had a real beating like this.
“Grey’s going to shit a brick. We literally handed her to Vicente on a silver platter.” Andre stopped and punched the wall. His fist crashed through the plaster, and he cursed as he shook his hand out.
Worry for that ridiculous girl clouded my mind, even as my thoughts just wouldn’t rest. I’d coked myself up too much. I wouldn’t sleep for at least two days. But I never slept when I was away from the compound unless I was completely wrecked.
“But Vicente didn’t set this up to kill Grey?” I ground my teeth, as was my habit when I had this many drugs running through my system.
Parker stopped, then let out a bitter laugh.
“I think it’s not as simple as that. He wanted Bruno dead.
He found out recently that Bruno had been letting some of his targets walk away alive because he had started working for Yair in secret.
But…” Parker rubbed his forehead as he clenched his other hand into a fist, pressing it into the wall by the window. “I fucked up.”
“You fucked up?” Andre repeated slowly.
“I did. I fucked up.”
“How did you fuck up?” I walked over to check Grey’s pulse just to make sure Donnie had been telling the truth. He was being too still.
“Mia’s on a job for me,” he started, but we all knew that. They were best friends. Childhood friends. And she worked for him more than she did for any of us, even when she had been fucking Grey.
“The job I have her on is researching Vicente’s past. His family, his childhood, his business dealings we’re not privy to.” He looked away from us as if he couldn’t believe he was admitting this to us.
“What the ever-loving fuck, Parker? Why would you have her do that? He’ll torture her, then kill her if she’s lucky.” Andre gripped his hair as he swung toward Parker.
He squeezed his eyes shut and blew out a breath. “I think he’s already figured it out. I haven’t spoken to Mia in two days. I think that taking Amorette is a warning shot.”
“Vicente wouldn’t kill Mia. Not right away,” I argued half-heartedly. Her father was his biggest supporter. He’d turn her over to that sadistic son of a bitch before he killed her.
“And what, setting Grey up to take Bruno out was just a fun side benefit?” Andre sank onto the other queen bed.
“These are all hypotheticals, right? I don’t have concrete evidence for anything. But Mia said she was being followed the day before I took Amorette out. Then Grey’s fight gets called early. On top of that, Amorette goes missing. It’s too many coincidences in a short period of time.”
“Why? Why would you jeopardize us like that?” I shouted at him, tugging at my hair. This was going to be Suzette all over again, except this time, I’d have to watch people I loved get tortured and killed.
Vicente would never let them die without hurting them, us, for days, weeks, hell , months, first.
“I know you’re perfectly content to stick around, Lafe, but I fucking hate this life.
I hate Vicente! You all want to stay here and be his foot soldiers, fine.
But I was working on getting leverage to walk the fuck away from this life!
” Blood rushed to Parker’s face and veins popped in his forehead and throat.
“You were going to leave us?” Andre asked, completely emotionless.
Andre had always worked to keep us together at any cost. I hated him as much as I loved him.
Parker shrugged, then faced the window again, bracing his arm against the wall as he watched the parking lot. “That’s irrelevant right now, isn't it? The question is, what are we going to do to get Amorette back?”
“You’re positive she didn’t run?” I wanted to believe she was stronger, smarter, than that. But she’d tried to run before. To her, we were scum. Less than.
“I’m positive. Grey’s wrapped around her fucking pinky, and she looks at him with the same moon eyes when she doesn’t think we’re watching her,” Parker answered, a strange note of defeat in his voice.
This was grand. My sociopath brother–the one who was most like Vicente and didn’t give a fuck about anything–was defeated. What the hell was I supposed to do with that?
Nothing.
I was the coward of the four of us. Hell, the five of us. I’d taken Amorette because she’d been everything I wished I could have been. She had fire where mine had been beaten out of me. She had conviction where I had doubts.
I admired that she tried to escape so many times. It was proof that she couldn’t easily be swayed to save her skin. She was a fighter.
Killer.
“If what you’re saying is true, Vicente will take us out. Maybe not right away, but he’ll slowly kill everything important to us, then take our heads last.” Andre grabbed his glass of water and chugged half of it.
A twisted smile played at the edges of Parker’s lips. “It was always going to come to that, brother. Whether I helped this along or not, this was always going to happen. No one lives for long around Vicente. Even his favorites.” He sneered at his reflection in the window.
“We have to save Killer,” I murmured. “Grey will go on his own if we don’t help him.”
Parker nodded. “If you don’t help, I’ll save her by myself. She got into that mess because of our sorry asses.”
“You’ll start a war with Vicente over this?” Andre braced his elbows on his knees, watching Parker like he already knew the answer.
“Between Mia and Amorette, he already started the war. But will you help me finish it?” Parker turned and glared at Andre, then at me.
Taking a slow inhale and letting it out, Andre nodded. “I stand by my brothers. Always.”
“Lafe?” Parker turned to me.
My face screwed up. “I’m in, but I’m telling you now. I can’t survive losing anyone else the way I did last time. I can’t do it.”
“We’re not going to let that happen.”
“We don’t have to ask Grey what he’d want to do.” Parker glanced over at him.
Lights played over the wall as a car pulled into the parking lot. We all looked toward the outside, listening for someone coming closer. Laughter and shouts carried to us, but they were far away. Not our problem.
I turned to my brothers.
“So it’s war?” I asked.
“It’s war,” they agreed.