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“It’ll be haunted by the time I’m through,” Francis predicted as he got out. He slammed the door shut behind him and went to the oil drum. He hefted the bomb and brought it around to the driver’s side and opened the door. Blake shook his head wildly but tamped down his panic as Francis placed it on the seat, then wiped his hands on a rag. Blake didn’t know if he’d have enough time to get out of the handcuffs but he had to try.
“Wait! Frank!” Blake begged. “Can Ipleaseshow you something?” He held his breath as Francis took his phone out of his back pocket. “It’ll only take a minute but it might be important.”
“There’s nothing you can say to stop me,” Francis said as he came around the car and opened Blake’s door.
“I just want you to see something.” Blake scooted and leaned forward until his cheek was almost touching the dashboard. “Get my wallet.”
“You could have a million dollars in here and it won’t make a fuckin’ difference,” Frank muttered but he snatched Blake’s wallet out of his back pocket.
“Just open it,” Blake said as he sat back. Francis flipped it open and his face fell. “I asked Speed for a picture and he said that was the best moment of his life before he met me.” It was a picture of Speed holding Francis’s twins, right before their christening. He’d only met them an hour earlier and Speed said he’d fallen hopelessly in love and swore to protect them. “He wants you to have more time with your girls before it’s too late,” Blake said softly but Francis’s face twisted.
“He stabbed them in the back too, as far as I’m concerned.” He slapped the wallet shut and tossed it at Blake. It bounced off his chest and landed between his feet. Which wasperfect.“Feel free to whine or moan about everyone’s feelings while I’m talking to Speed,” he said, leaving the door open as he headed back to the drum.
“No. I’ll sit right here and keep quiet,” Blake said. He’d wait until Francis’s back was turned to retrieve his wallet.
His big brother was a former cop so Blake had been handcuffed for all kinds of reasons. Most of them prank-related. And Blake had dated a few…intense women and had found himself involuntarily restrained in one of his date’s closets once. So he kept a handcuff key tucked in one side of his billfold and a hairpin in the other. Being a West meant being ready for all manner of fuckery.
“Suddenly it all makes sense,” Blake whispered as he watched Francis through the windshield. He’d wondered if Lane gravitated toward characters like Lavender, Reginald, and the others because he missed the chaos and fuckery of brotherhood. “Huh,” he grunted thoughtfully, then pushed out a hard breath. “I hope I live to ask Lane.”
ChapterNineteen
“No, no, no… Where are you?” Speed’s stomach sank as he came around the corner and saw the empty driveway. He parked and Speed was sweating as he raced up the lawn and crashed through his front door. “Blake?” Speed went to check the garage and slowed as he passed the dining room. He froze when he spotted Blake’s phone on the table next to a box from the printer.
The phone rang, stopping Speed’s heart and his hand trembled as he crossed the room and reached for it.
Speed knew. Before he picked up the phone and saw Francis’s number on the screen, Speed knew that he’d fucked up terribly and they were in trouble. He was furious and terrified but Speed was ready to beg on his hands and knees for Blake. Tears spilled from Speed’s eyes, muddling his vision as he swiped at the screen.
“Please. Anything but this, Francis.” He shut his eyes and prayed as hard as he could but Francis’s cold laugh crushed Speed’s hopes.
“Nice little life you got there, Speed. But it looks like you’ve misplaced something. I’ll give you a hint: he’s been a realgood boy.”
“You can’t—!” Speed protested, then told himself to calm down and reason with Francis.
“I’dneverhurt your girls,” he said, reminding Francis that family was supposed to be off limits.
“Don’t act like this is the same, Speed. I’ve been watching you. He’s a smart kid but the two of you…it’s disgusting,” he growled.
“You know what? Fuck you!” Speed screamed and clapped his hand over his mouth. “I’m sorry, Francis! It’s the same to me. He’s mine and he’s my family. You can’t do this.”
“You took my family from me!” Francis yelled back. “You took my father. You think I was just going to let that go?”
“Me? It wasn’t me, it was the FBI. They—”
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Speed! I know it was you and I’m sick of your fucking lies!”
“Fine! It was me!” Speed admitted. It was obvious that Francis had been in Lake Cliff and watching Speed for a while. “He killed my fuckin’ parents, Francis! What else was I gonna do?”
“We were your family. Whatever Mickey did, it was business and just the way things were. You knew what it was like when Mickey and Jimmy were at war with the Italians. They did what they had to do and Jimmy’s the one who pissed all of that away when he gave up and turned on Spillane.”
“Are you listening to yourself right now?” Speed demanded. “He executed my parents and you’re telling me I should have let that go?”
“You fuckin’ lied in our faces! You acted like we were brothers but you were always a snake, Speed. And now you want me to honor some kind of code? Go fuck yourself,” Francis said, then snorted. “You’re gonna have to because your pretty boy won’t be putting out much longer.”
“Please! Don’t hurt him!” Speed begged. “Tell me what you want and I’ll do it. I’ll give you money. More money than you’d know what to do with. Or you can kill me. I don’t care. Just let Blake go.”
“No. That’s too easy. You’re not buying your way out of this and I want to see you suffer. You tookeverythingfrom me. You took my dad and I lost a brother. I thought we’d be the last ones standing, that you were the one person I could always count on but you were playing me the whole time.”
“But I couldn’t count on you, could I?” Speed said. It took all of his control not to swear and shout at Francis. “You would have turned on me in a heartbeat. And for what? Wanting to have a family like you had. Don’t act like you loved me like a brother when you would have killed me if anyone found out.”
