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There’s nothing I hate more than wasting time. As I already lost too many precious hours by coming from Corsica to meet this fucker not once but twice, I cut to the chase. “You lied to me.”
His choice of defense is ignorance. “What are you talking about?”
I narrow my eyes. “Stop fucking wasting my time. My wife never cut a deal.”
He raises his palms. “Hey, I only told you what Lavigne said.”
He tries to act brave, but the trickle of sweat rolling down his temple gives him away.
I take the gun from my waistband and get comfortable in my seat as I point the barrel between his legs under the table. “Have you seen how much a man bleeds when you shoot off his nuts?”
The little color that’s left on his face vanishes. “Make me a deal.”
I caress the trigger, feeling the familiar curve of the metal and the perfect fit against my finger. “You’re not in a position to negotiate.”
“Fine.” He grabs a paper napkin and wipes his brow. “Give me your guarantee that I’ll walk out of here.”
I smile. “If you don’t talk, you’ll crawl out of here without your dick. The only thing I guarantee is that you’ll either bleed out like a pig or never fuck again.”
He cuts a jittery gaze around the room. Trapped. The realization reflects in the nervous twitch of his beady eyes.
“Fine,” he says again as if he has a choice. “I was going to come to you anyway. You and I, we can help each other. You need a man like me. I can get you any inside info you need.”
“Go on,” I drawl, letting him hope.
“Here’s the spiel.” He pushes away his bowl and leans his elbows on the table. “Your uncle paid me to say your wife made a deal.”
Cold rage unfurls in my gut, but on the surface, I keep my cool. “You neverbefriendedLavigne.”
“Never met the man in my life.”
I tighten my grip on the shaft. “Why?”
“We cut our own deal, your uncle and me. He said your wife was a traitor who needed to be flushed out. Said she made you weak. He said you weren’t the man your father used to be. So the plan was to pin her as a snitch, let you get rid of her, and then, when you were distracted with the nasty affair of dissolving her in acid or letting the vultures pick the meat off her bones or whatever the fuck you do with the bodies, he was going to take you out.”
“Take me out,” I say with a chuckle.
“He was going to make it look like a police raid.”
“With your help of course.”
He shivers in the stifling heat of the room. “He’d take over the business, and I’d get a promotion for nailing you.”
“Let me guess. Then, as a high-ranking officer, you let him run his business in Marseille in peace, and in exchange for smoothing his way, you get your cut.”
“Ten percent,” he says, bouncing his leg and glancing at the gun in the holster of the man who stands on his left. “For you, I’ll settle for five. Considering that the intel is priceless, that’s quite an offer.”
The only information I’m interested in hearing from his double-crossing, untrustworthy mouth is, “Which uncle?”
I already know the answer, but I steel myself.
“Nico.”
I nod, letting that settle and taking a moment to digest the bitter taste of betrayal. It’s the one line our kind never crosses. We never stab family in the back. No matter what. Blood is sacred. It’s a law my father lived by like believers adhere to the ten commandments. It’s a value he drilled into me. It’s the foundation on which he raised me. It’s the glue that makes us stand together and keeps us strong.
Yet my uncle disregarded that law. In a single act, he eradicated every value we ever stood for.
It doesn’t hit as hard as it should. I suppose, deep inside, I already knew even though I didn’t want to believe it. I only came here for confirmation.
