1. Grey
GREY
A ndre’s fucking voice beat at my head like ice picks to the ears. What was he yammering on about?
Parker’s voice joined in. But both were too muffled for me to make out what they were saying. Bastards. Couldn’t even let me sleep off my hangover in peace.
I readjusted my head on the pillow. Holy fuck. That hurt.
Groaning, I stopped. Their voices stopped too.
“Grey.” Andre’s voice echoed around my head as he touched my shoulder. “You alive, you fucking asshole?”
He needed to get the fuck away before I taught him another lesson in the gym. It’d been too long since he’d sparred with me. Even with my body on fire, I could still kick his ass.
Why was I hurting like this?
I reached for the last thought before I went to sleep. The recesses of my mind were so thick and my thoughts so jumbled I couldn’t pick out the last thing I did. Or saw.
The strain of searching increased the throbbing pain in my temples. What the hell had happened to me?
I peeled my eyes open and found Andre bent over me. His lips were pressed together like when he was livid with one of us. Too fucking bad if it was me. He had a better chance of getting Lafe clean and sober.
“You with us now?”
Blinking again, I raised my hand. “Water,” I croaked.
My mouth tasted like shit and I was dehydrated as hell.
Andre rolled his eyes and walked away. I closed mine and opened them again when I heard him coming back. The lid crackled as he broke the seal.
I slowly pushed myself up and sat back against the pillows. He handed me the water and I took long, healthy pulls from the bottle. Parker had his arms crossed and his chin tucked as he leaned against the wall. Lafe sat in the window seat with one leg up, staring out the window.
Glancing down, I caught sight of the red and purpling bruises over my chest, stomach, and sides. Damn, I didn’t think anything was broken, but I should still see Doc, just in case.
If I wasn’t mistaken, this was the hotel on the other side of Vicente’s city.
After finishing off the bottle, I tossed it into the trash next to the bed. Andre had started pacing, muttering under his breath.
I snapped my head up. Where was Amorette?
“Where is she?” I growled, fisting my hands against the sheet. If they let her run…
The fights. And Bruno fucking drugging me.
“ Where the fuck is she?” I yelled when none of my goddamn brothers answered me.
Andre sighed, running a hand through his hair as he turned to face me. “I guess I’ll be the damn adult.” He tossed Parker and Lafe a glare. “Vicente took her.”
Lafe tensed like he had something to say, but he remained quiet.
“Then we fucking get her back.” I tried to swing my legs over the side, but pain radiated down my leg. Bruno had caught me on my fucking hip with his meat tenderizer.
“Sure, Grey. Let’s walk right into Vicente’s hands after he tried to have you killed.” Andre paused to take in a deep, calming breath. “We can’t go off half-cocked to get her back when we don’t even know where she is. Do you think he’d just leave her at his mansion?”
“We don’t know if we don’t check,” I grunted, scooting to the edge of the bed.
“Lafe, call your boys up. I need painkillers. Fucking strong ones.” I could see Doc later.
I needed to numb the pain enough that I could lay Vicente’s men out if I needed to.
It wouldn’t take much. Outside of Bruno, they were brainless muscle with no strategy behind their fighting.
“Donnie was already here. He gave you a shot.” Lafe continued to watch the air outside.
“Well, it fucking wore off.”
“Use your goddamn brain, Grey!” Andre shouted. “You’re not even asking the important question. Why would he take her in the first place?”
I shrugged. Like, I gave a damn. Amorette didn’t belong with Vicente. Andre could ask those questions when we had her back. I pushed up from the bed, my knee and hip popping.
“Where’s my phone?” I glanced around the room. It was pristine. Like they’d walked me in here ten minutes ago and tossed me on the bed. The sun was setting over the water, so Vicente had Amorette for almost a full twenty-four hours.
“We don’t fucking know. It was a burner.” Andre tossed up his hands.
I narrowed my eyes at Lafe, then at Parker.
Lafe was probably beating himself up, thinking Amorette left on her own. She wouldn’t have. Not there. But Parker… He had a smart mouth and started shit for no reason. He should be eating this up like the giddy fucker that he was.
Instead, he worked his jaw and glared at the floor.
“What’s your fucking problem?”
He glanced at me without raising his head. “We need to call Jorge. See if he’s heard anything.”
“Don’t you think you’ve fucking done enough?” Andre whirled around. “If we call anyone, we’ll call some of my contacts…”
“Why are you two being stupid about this?” I hobbled to the kitchenette and riffled through the cabinets. I doubted there was any medicine here, even the kiddie stuff, but it didn’t hurt to look.
Shit. Nothing.
I returned to the little circle my brothers had created by the window.
“Our baby brother—”
“Andre!” Parker yelled, pushing away from the wall.
“What’s wrong, Parker? You don’t want Grey to know the truth?” He sneered.
Lafe kept his gaze trained on the outside. Who knew if he was even listening to anything they were saying.
“I can’t help it if you’re content to sit and rot under Vicente’s thumb. That’s not the life I want. It’s not the life I’ve ever wanted.” Parker balled his fists up at his sides.
“Your baby brother,” Andre repeated, pointing at Parker, “is most likely the reason Amorette was taken.”
Red descended over my vision.
Parker clenched his teeth and tensed his shoulders. I didn’t think twice. I didn’t ask questions, and I certainly didn’t wait for answers. His body language was enough to tell me Andre was right about something.
Cocking my arm back, I let it swing and caught Parker right in the cheek under his left eye. He didn’t block his face, because the fucker expected it. That was the thing with Parker. He fought with words. He fought with shady behind the back action. On occasion, he’d fight with his fists if needed.
But only when he felt guilty did he let me wail on him.
He staggered back and cursed, clutching his face.
“ Mierda dios mío !” he grumbled, righting himself against the wall.
My entire body raged from the swift movement, but the pain only incited my anger. I turned to Andre. “I’m getting her back. And if I find out this was your fucking plan to—”
He hit my shoulders with both hands and shoved me back. I grunted, struggling to keep my feet.
“Fuck you! If I wanted to get rid of her, I would have chosen a different way than to lose her to Vicente while I was saving your ass!”
I stepped forward, ready to shred my body to pummel his face which looked just like Vicente, when Lafe jumped between us.
I was so shocked, he didn’t even have to use any pressure to push me back.
“Stop. You’re all being fuckwads. This is getting us nowhere.”
“And where do you stand, Lafe?” I let out a breath and relaxed my body.
“He wants her back.” Parker stepped up next to Lafe. “We’re going to get her back. That wasn’t ever a question. Right?” He pinned both Lafe and Andre with a glare.
“We’re going to get her back,” Andre confirmed, exasperation coating his words. “Sit your ass back down. Lafe, get him some meds, Parker, just… get out of my fucking face.”
Satisfied they were on my side, the only side, I shuffled back to the bed and gingerly sat down on the edge. Parker threw himself over the couch like a spoiled brat, and Lafe resumed his window seat.
Sighing, Andre propped one hand on his hip as he spun around, giving us his back. Then he scrubbed his hand over his head, leaving his hair sticking in different directions.
“We have to do this very carefully. Vicente taking her means that he doesn’t give a fuck what we think or what we’ll do to retaliate.”
“The bastard is expecting us to hit back,” Parker ground out. “He wants us to.”
“We have networks. All of us have men and women we work with. We call them,” I tossed out. It wasn’t like Andre to be so dense or hesitant, like he was afraid of his shadow.
“No,” Andre gritted through his teeth. “We have to be smart about this. If he’s going against us this openly, people will notice. And if they think they can curry his favor by turning on us, they will.”
No one said anything. Andre was right. The only people we trusted with our lives were in this room. And even then, we didn’t like each other. This was a forced bond.
Everyone else? They’d slit their own throats stepping on each other to get Vicente’s approval. He thrived on enticing that kind of chaos among the masses.
“Call Pilar.” Lafe turned his head to stare at Andre. “Call your mother. She won’t go against Vicente, but she will tell you if Amorette is there.” There was a tightness to his voice that indicated he wasn’t sure what he wanted that answer to be.
Fuck that.
Still, Pilar was a good option. Andre was the only one who still had that option available to him.
“Shit. Okay. I’ll call Pilar.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and dialed her number, pressing the button for the speaker.
The blaring ring grated against my sore ears. Like hell I’d ask him to turn it down though.
It rang five more times before clicking over to a generic voicemail. Andre hung up without leaving a message. Pilar might love Andre, but if Vicente took her phone, there wasn’t a damn thing she would—could do about it.
His hand barely lowered before it rang.
He picked it up immediately. “Ello.”
“Andre,” Pilar whispered into the phone.
“Pilar. What’s going on there?” His words were rushed. Urgent.
“Son, what did you do?” She was livid, her voice shaking.
“I’m not sure what you mean, besides Vicente taking something of ours.” A blank mask settled over his face. He hated when she questioned him.
“Why? Why bring that girl here? What did you do for Vicente to do that?” A door shut on the other end of the line as she was moving farther away from someone.
Lafe and I both perked up. Parker remained in the same position, as if he were listening to a boring call from his men.
“Is she there?” Andre asked in a measured tone.
“No! Of course not. You think Vicente would leave her here? You think he’s so kind?” She laughed, the bitterness leaking through the phone. “You pendejo . If you cared about this girl, you should have never brought her here.”
I stiffened.
“You’ll be lucky to ever see her again.”
“Where did he take her?” I jumped up from the bed and Andre tried to wave me away. I didn’t give a damn. “Pilar. Where did Vicente take her?” I growled.
Silence filled the line.
“She’s not your girl at all, is she, Andre?”
Andre glared at me. “She belongs to us. Do you know where Vicente took her?”
She sighed. “No. He wouldn’t tell me such things. I doubt he even knows where she is. He has men for that kind of thing. Don’t call me again until you’re back on his good side.”
The phone beeped three times, and he dropped his hand and lifted his gaze to me. “Are you satisfied that she’s not at the mansion?”
I curled my top lip. “It’s not like Pilar is in Vicente’s inner circle. She could be there, and Pilar would never have a clue…although it’s a start.” I turned to Lafe. His shoulders slumped and his eyes drooped. Too fucking bad. Now was not the time to check out. “I need those fucking drugs.”
Each bruise was like fire under the skin, and the longer I was up, the more my body smarted. The places where he’d caught me with the hammer hurt even worse.
“Okay.” Andre paced the small space between the couch and bed. “Okay. If we were Vicente, where would we take her? Is she bait or collateral damage?”
She better fucking not be collateral damage. This dodge-and-kill game I played with Vicente would stop, and I’d raze his operations and his legacy.
I smirked.
He wouldn’t die until his legacy was a bad memory, and even then, I might have too much fun killing him.