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“There is no way Kenneth would see you as anything more than a means to an end. My father believed in the strength of blood, and let’s be honest, your father was a big fucking pussy. Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
He jerked in his restraints, wanted to gloat, but he pulled the shit in.
“What’s the endgame, Declan? You know Dominic is going to figure out that you’re the one leaking shit to the cops. You thought he’d already caught up to you. You always did reach beyond what you were capable of.”
Anger flared. “You don’t know shit,” Declan said
“I know you’re a pampered pussy, who never did a thing on his own, always in the shadows to steal from someone else, because you lacked the balls to do for yourself. You are exactly like your father, a fucking follower, and a goddamn coward.”
Declan pulled on the restraints again, but this time, he didn’t hold back. “He was the one to arrange the deal with Dominic. Dustin not fucking Kenneth, but he didn’t have the fucking balls to keep what he started. Kenneth swooped in and took over, practically cutting my dad out of the fucking deal he arranged.”
“So, you endeared yourself to Kenneth?”
“It wasn’t hard. Played on his ego, gave him the son he always wanted.” He laughed. “When he learned about your bitch, he thought you’d stay in Saratoga Springs cause she was from Saratoga Springs. He was in deep and needed a fall guy. You were that guy. He was pissed when you denied him. I played on your disloyalty...the man could hold a grudge.”
Brock showed nothing, even though rage burned through him. So, it wasn’t even about taking up where his father left off, his father was going to set him up. He wanted to fucking kill him again. “And my mother?”
“She hated him.” He ran his tongue along his lips. “We bonded over our hatred.”
But he killed her, killed all of them, and for what? Money. “You left a trail of bodies for money?”
“People have killed for less,” he said. “After that twenty million slipped through my fingers, I needed another plan.”
He was fucking high on the reveal, getting off on showing his fucking genius, and I just let him talk, because he was putting the nails in his own coffin. “Cents add up. You launder money, you manipulate the cents, just enough to not cause suspicion, and you can stockpile a lot of cash with no one being the wiser. Takes time, need to be in it for the long haul, but the reward is sweet.”
“You’ve been skimming from the mob?”
“I didn’t start it, but I stepped up.” Declan was being smug now, too caught up to realize the danger he was in. It explained why he was leaking the information to the cops. When he was ready, he could detonate the bomb, and while Dominic scrambled, Declan could disappear like a fucking rat.
I thought I was beyond the rage, but it rushed through me, all of it, everything, losing Cedar, her parents…all of the shit because of fucking greed, the goddamn privileged upper class.
I wanted to kill him. Wanted to pull out my gun and shoot him in the face, but a deal was a deal.
“You got what you needed?”
Killian stepped from the shadows, Anton and Dominic with him. Never saw someone go so white, so fast. Fucker even pissed himself. “What the fuck?” Declan looked at me then Dominic then back at me. “Man, you can’t let him take me. He’s going to fucking kill me.”
“And what the hell do you think I would do to you?”
“I think we need to have a little talk,” Dominic said, his boys dragging a screaming Declan away. Dominic looked at me, studied me a second, then said, “Consider the twenty million payment.”
I nodded my head.
He followed his men. I turned my attention on Anton. “Thanks, man,” I said, offering my hand.
He took it. “When a brother calls in a marker.” He nodded to Killian then strolled from the warehouse.
“You know Anton?” Killian said, looking to where he’d disappeared.
“Yeah, the underbelly of New York is a diverse place.”
“Your plan all along,” Killian guessed correctly.
“Yeah.” It was all how you looked at it. If I asked Anton to hook me up with Damian, my crew would take that as a sign of weakness, but if we’re called to help, then we’re the added strength.
“You knew I’d call Damian.”
“I counted on it.”
