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I brushed my hands together and fixed him with one last glare. “You’ve heard my terms. Talk to your boss. Tell him you’ve seen enough to believe I’m not actually threatening your territory. One more attack on me and my friends, and I’ll make sure you never see your son or your girlfriends again.”
Cullen sneered at me, but he also dipped his head in a slight nod of acknowledgment. That was enough.
I stepped around him and brushed my fingers across Rafael’s arm. “Let’s get out of here. I think Robert’s finally got his head out of his ass.”
We walked out the front door and strode around the block toward my car. Rafael stayed silent until we’d climbed inside and I’d started the engine.
“Nice work, there.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed thickly, realizing a lump had risen in my throat as the adrenaline rush of the confrontation waned. A knot of doubt echoed it in my stomach.
Would Sheeran’s men actually act on my demands in the end? Or had I only succeeded in pissing them off more?
It’d felt good in the moment, but looking back, all I could remember was the fury that’d radiated off both men.
What did I really know about laying down the law? This was all part of my mom’s legacy, the kind of life I’d meant to leave behind.
The life that kept nipping at my heels no matter what I did.
“Do you think this is actually going to work?” I couldn’t help asking as I turned the car toward our apartment.
Rafael shot me a measured look. “I think it’s a solid plan, better than anything I’ve been able to come up with. If I saw a better way, I’d let you know.”
I blew out my breath in a huff, ruffling my bangs. “I just feel… weird. Most of the threats we’ve given I don’t evenwantto act on. And this one… Cullen’s girlfriends deserve to know he’s been cheating on all of them, especially his baby momma. I just promisednotto do that if he gets Sheeran to back off.”
Rafael reached over and gave my shoulder a quick squeeze. “We all make deals we’re not totally happy with to survive in this world, Lou. You’ve got her info. You can always find a way to tip her off after we’re sure the Harvester doesn’t have Sheeran gunning for you anymore.”
“Yeah. I’ll do that.” If we ever got to that point.
But Rafael was right. When you were dealing with career criminals, there wasn’t much you could do that would feel totally right.
This might not be how I wanted to live, but I had no idea how else I could defend the new life I was building for myself—or the lives of the men I’d inadvertently pulled into this mess.
TWENTY
Rafael
Patrollingthe neighborhood around the apartment always left me feeling a little more grounded than when I’d left it. Yeah, okay, maybe I was stalking the streets a little more often than was typical policy, but with all the stirring up of Sheeran’s goons that we’d been doing, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
If they tried to run Lou out of town again—or punish her for ignoring the Harvester’s demand that she leave—I was going to be right here kicking their asses to kingdom come.
This afternoon, there was no sign of any trouble. Just regular people going about their regular lives with no clue about the darker underbelly their city held.
That was fine. They could keep their ignorance if I got to keep my peace.
As I rounded the corner to bring me back toward the apartment building, the phone in my back pocket buzzed. My hand leapt to it.
That was my newer burner—the one I’d been using only to reach out to my old contacts from my time working under the Deadly Rose. I’d wanted to keep the number those former acquaintances and colleagues got totally separate from everything else about my new situation.
You could never be too careful when it came to the Devil’s Dozen.
This call could be more incoming information about the Harvester’s Boston crew. Maybe even a warning about an impending attack—or the news that Sheeran had been ordered to move on to other things.
Hey, a guy could hope, even if I didn’t put much stock in those hopes.
I hit the answer button and brought the phone to my ear. “Hey. What’s up?”
The voice that carried from the other end didn’t sound like any of the guys I’d been speaking to lately. “Rafael? That is you, right?”
