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“That’s stealing!” I bark out. “Our father deserves to pay for what he did. We’re at fault here, Tim. The Malones are! But now Micah’s the one being tortured, and Minka’s not…” I shake my head and pray for the rage to burn out of my blood. “He doesn’t get to claim her.”
“Are you worried about Micah?” He pushes a hand through his hair and laughs humorlessly. “Or Minka?”
“Both! I’m worried about them both, because it wasn’t Micah who fucked Pastore over, but you saw him in that fucking video. They’re gonna kill him! They’re gonna torture him until the very end. And Minka…”
Vigilante. Penguins.
She’s mad, she refuses to forgive me, and to add a cherry on top, she decides thatnow, while I’m out of town, she might hunt down a violent criminal who doesn’t mind abusing women and doing time for it.
“I didn’t know she dated Pastore. I wasn’t making a fucking power play on the asshole.”
“I know—”
“I was just loving her!” I explode. “I was making a life away from this bullshit. And it’s not like this is her fault either. She went out to dinner with a dudeonetime. One time!”
“They’re gonna find fault in everything we do.” He steps forward when I won’t stop, and slams his palm to my chest and brings my enraged eyes to his. “It doesn’t matter at this point who dated who or who fell in love. What matters is that Pastore’s taken offense. He’s making a play against our family, so now we respond.”
I sway on my feet and breathe through the adrenaline coursing through my veins. “Now we respond.”
“So what the fuck do you wanna do?” he demands. “Walk in, take Micah back, and end as many of Pastore’s men as we can on the way through? Or do we do it up right so he knows who the hell he’s messing with?”
“What…” Minka. Vigilante. Micah being tortured. “What do you wanna do?”
His hand remains on my chest for a moment longer. His eyes, glittery with anger and studying mine. “When the status quo stands, and each family in this city lives in reasonable peace—” he scoffs, “or at the very least, everyone knows where they sit on the totem pole—it’s because we’ve each demanded that placement.” Releasing me, he takes a step back and sets his hands in his pockets. “It’s because our father, no matter how much we loathe him, commanded respect and accepted nothing less. There was no fucking around, Arch. No second chances. And if Malone blood was spilled, he made damn sure crimson flowed both ways.”
“You want us to hit them back.” The red haze clouding my eyes makes way for reality. For practicality.
But with that comes the mind of a cop.
For as long as we’re not discussing Minka, I can focus. But with that focus comes warning lights flashing in every part of my brain.
“An eye for an eye,” I continue. “We need to spill blood and remind Pastore who he’s fucking with.”
“Not necessarily.” Reaching up, he presses his hand to my uninjured shoulder and squeezes. Not just a brother, but the leader of the family, speaking to the youngest of the original four. “We achieve nothing if we race in there without thinking shit through. We might get Micah back, but then tomorrow, Pastore charges our home and makes a mess of his own. It’ll become a game of cat and mouse. Everyone loses men and respect, and while we’re paying attention to that, maybe Cordoza moves in and silences us all. You know he can. He’s done it before.”
Estefan Cordoza is the boss of all bosses. The oldest, the most feared. And maybe he’s notlikedby any of us, but he’s damn well respected. Revered.
“He’s put an end to this turf bullshit before, Arch. So whatever we do, it needs to be quiet, it needs to stick, and it needs to not bring the Cordoza hammer down on our family. Because when we leave, the other three Malones still have to live here.”
“So, what?” I ask impatiently. “What’s gonna get Micah back, make Pastore sit down, allow Cordoza not to squash us,andstill let us walk away alive and free? I need to go home,” I growl. “Soon. So we need a plan that goes beyond a band-aid fix that lasts only until we get on a plane, and then Cato ends up in Pastore’s warehouse with missing digits.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Felix singsongs his words and strolls out of the house. Suspicion etched into his every feature, he flashes a taunting grin when we turn and face him. “Secret Malone Society discussions?” He stops a few feet to my right and claps his hands together. “Tell big brother Lix what’s up.”
“There’s no fucking secret.” I shove away from the other two and turn to study the manicured garden that adds an air of sophistication to what the rest of the city knows is bloodshed and cockfighting. “We need a way to get to Pastore. We’re discussing what we’re supposed to do without making your mess worse.”
“Mymess?”
When I glance over my shoulder, I catch sight of him throwing his head back and laughing.
“This isn’tmymess, Arch. I’m not the first link that left the family weak.” Then he looks to Tim. “Or the second.”
“Give it a rest,” Tim snarls. “We’re done listening to you bitch.”
“I stayed!” he pushes on anyway. “I fucking stayed. I raised Cato. I kept the Malones on good terms with the others, even when Dad screwed everyone over. Now, the familyyoudeserted needs help.”
“Dammit, Felix!” I spin, ready for the next round of uncountable wars I’m going to wage today. “Enough already!”
“You’re rusty.” He calms his tone so it’s a direct contrast to the rage in mine. “You have no fucking clue how this family—hell, how thiscity—works anymore. But I do.” He takes a step forward, challenging, as though making up for sixteen years of annoyance all in the span of a day. “I was here all along, and I know how we’re gonna fix this.”
