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“I take the risk. The ships are mine. What was your intention? What did you expect or want to happen?”
“The feds would have received an anonymous tip.”
Well, at least he doesn’t lie.
“You realize that would ground the fleet at the very least and for quite a while. Feds are already chomping at the bit to put us out of business.”
“Us?”
“The family. Like it or not, you are a part of this family.”
“But you’re the boss.”
“And that burns you up.”
“Interesting choice of words.”
“How much did you pay Cash to get my wife into your car.”
“Your wife walked into my car of her own free will. And before you ask, she called me. Not the other way around.”
“How much?”
“Not enough for what you did to him, I’m guessing.”
“Is there anyone else? Any other traitors I should know about?”
“You cleaning house?”
I don’t answer.
“I’ll let you figure that out for yourself,” he says. “Let it be a surprise.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way between us, Lucas.”
“What other way can it be, Damian?”
I take the bottle from him and drink.
“What happens now? We going out back? The alley here is pretty suitable for the kind of work we do.”
I put the bottle down.
Shit.
“I deserve it, don’t I?” he asks, not quite looking at me anymore. “I beat the shit out of you. Repeatedly. When you were powerless. I can fight, at least. Tables are finally turned. Bet you’ve been waiting for that.”
“I haven’t been.”
“And you know what else? I’d have done what you did to Michela too if he’d told me to. Probably worse than you did, if I’m honest. I know what I’m capable of.”
“What he made you capable of.”
We sit in silence for a long minute, the only sound the beat of music beyond the door.
“Can I ask you something?” he asks, surprising me.
“Yeah.”
“Do you love her?”
I’m caught off guard. I don’t expect that.
He studies me while I absorb his question. I try to figure out when it happened, when I fell in love with her. When she went from being the object of my vengeance to becoming something—someone—I took care of.
Someone I care for.
Hell, maybe it was a decade in the making.
I meant what I said to her. I won’t let anyone hurt her. I will protect her. And it’s not for what she can give me. Because I have what I want. Her.
“Not going to answer?” He takes a swig of tequila. “I have a request.”
“What’s that?”
“You be the one to do it. You pull the trigger.”
Fuck.
Christ.
Fuck.
“I thought you’d found some peace when you stayed away so long after Annabel,” I say.
He shakes his head. “Not even close.” His shoulders are slumped, and I’m not sure if it’s tequila or life that has him looking like he does. “You?” he asks, surprising me when he turns to look at me.
I smile. “Peace? In the Di Santo house? Not even close.”
He smiles a sad smile. “I’m ready. I want this. I want it over. I’ve wanted it over for a long time.”
I look at my twin brother. The brother I don’t recognize anymore and not just because of the scars. Hell, maybe I haven’t recognized him in a long time. Since we were kids.
I stand. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
He looks up at me, eyebrows furrowing together.
“Disappear, Lucas. Don’t let me see you again. Just disappear and find some peace.” I walk to the door, push the curtain aside, then begin to step through.
Tobias stands aside. I know he’ll disapprove. He knows Lucas and doesn’t have any of the attachments I do. In a way, I wish Lucas were to me what Tobias is. A friend. A man I trust.
“Hey!” Lucas calls out.
I keep moving.
“Wait,” Lucas says.
I turn back to find him on his feet.
“Find some peace?” he asks, disbelief on his face. “You think there’s peace for me? You think I want to go back out there and find fucking peace?”
“I don’t know what you want from me.” I take a step out.
“You owe me this,” he yells at my back.
I turn to study him. My brother. He doesn’t hide his hate for me, and I realize at that moment that he’s far past finding peace.
And I understand something about him that scares me more than anything else ever could.
“You fucking owe me,” he repeats a little more calmly.
He wants to die. My brother wants to die.
And he wants me to be the one to do it.
“I don’t owe you that.”26CristinaBecause I love you.
The words won’t stop repeating.
After I take a shower, I’m lying on the bed in the dark, wanting to sleep but wide-awake. It’s the middle of the night and my brain is whirling. After what he told me, how he told me, and what I saw in his eyes, I’m baffled.
Damian is a monster. He warned me long ago and I never doubted it. Not even in the moments I took shelter in his arms. But he’s more than that.
