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Brody shakes his head. “I don’t buy it. You’re up to something.”
“What am I up to? I’m currently a fugitive on the run. Just makes me look more guilty, and I’ll get caught eventually if I stay here. I give up, all right? You win. It’s all yours.”
“Wow,” Ernesto replies, slapping the table. “Well, all right then. Can’t say the best man didn’t win, but I appreciate your candor. Got to say, it’s not been easy fighting against my own brother. I never wanted it this way.”
“All I ask is that you leave enough for me to get flights out of the country.”
“Hell, sure. Whatever’s in your accounts, I won’t touch. Sound fair?”
He sticks a hand out. I take it, shaking while Brody examines me closely, looking for a crack in my armor. He finds nothing, sitting back and picking up the remains of his burger. “Charges will still be open,” he says. “I’ll let you get a flight out of the country, but you set foot here again, and you’ll go down for good. I’ll make sure of it.”
“Listen, you’ve won, all right. If you want to flood the city with drugs, you feel free. Traffic the girls in this place. Turn them into hookers. Do whatever you want. Just leave me out of it. I’m leaving the family.”
Ernesto shakes his head. “Never thought I’d hear it. Proves what I always said to dad about you, though.”
“What’s that?”
“At heart, you’re a pussy, always have been. You let me push you around in school. You let me take over when the going got tough. You ran from Brody instead of fighting him. You cried at your wife’s funeral. You cried when Alicia was born. I swear you’ve got no balls at all for man’s work. Go open an embroidery store or something. Hell, you looked in your element running that fashion magazine. You’re a fucking pansy, Hunter. Couldn’t even hold on to a teenage bride. You want a tip. You got to show them who’s boss. Knock them around a bit if they give you any hassle. People got to know you’re in charge.”
“Enjoy the spoils of your victory,” I say. “While you can.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’ll spend it all in a year or two. I guarantee it.”
“Yeah? Well, shows what you know. This new deal we made with the Cartel brings in enough blow per month to fuck your Ivanov deal up the ass. Fills the vacuum he left when you got him locked up. We’ll be rich, and you won’t be around to be corrupted by it, you precious fucking thing. Get the fuck out of here, baby brother, before I change my mind about letting you go.”
I walk out of the building, and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, letting those insults slide without reacting. I guess Bex did teach me something. How to hold my temper. I head straight over the road and around the corner to where the black van is waiting. I slide open the side door and climb in.
“We good?” I ask.
Eddie nods back to me, passing me the headset. “Like you’re in the same room.”
I slip the headset over my ears and adjust the volume on the console in front of me.
Brody’s talking, and like Eddie says, he might as well be standing next to me. The bug is picking up the sound perfectly. “I still don’t trust him,” Brody’s saying. “Don’t you think he gave up a little too easily?”
“You heard what he said. That bitch of his is annulling the marriage. He’s on the run from the law. He’s going to lose, anyway. He’s just jumping before he gets pushed. Relax, it’s all going to go fine.”
“I don’t know, Ernesto. I think we should kill him.”
“You didn’t just suggest I kill my own brother, did you?”
“Why not? You’ve already killed Oswald.”
“One, I didn’t kill Oswald. I hired people to do it for me. Two, Oswald is not family. He was a nobody. You were supposed to frame Hunter for his murder, but you couldn’t manage it, could you?”
“Not my fault the witnesses retracted their statements.”
“Yeah, but you got them to sign again somehow. How’d you do it?”
“Mixture of threats and bribes. Told Melanie and Buffy they’d get fifty grand once he was locked up.”
“What about the other one?”
“Catherine? She wouldn’t do it, but it doesn’t matter. Two will be enough to send him down, especially when you buy the jury. We do it right, and he’ll go down for Sofia as well.”
“I told you I wanted three statements, and you bring me two and say that’s fine?”
