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Marco snorted. “There’s a reason people in our world keep to the adage until death do us part. Anything else is too dangerous.”
He was absolutely right. A girl like Brandy, who hadn’t been born into our way of life, would never understand our rules, let alone follow them. Hell, Bea had been born a Kowalczyk, yet she’d gone and royally fucked things up.
Marek’s voice was hoarse as he asked, “What had my son done to deserve death? Besides being a terrible judge of character.”
Bea’s eyes held mine, misery written all over her face as she answered, “He had an attack of conscience. When Piotr ordered him to take the girl, he threatened to tell you about my plans, unless I spared her. If I’d only known that we shared a brother, I would never have pulled the trigger. I would have done things differently. You have to believe me.”
Whether it was the Braterstwo, Marek, or the club who meted out her punishment, the result was still the same. She would have to pay the ultimate penalty for her misguided need for revenge, treachery, and greed. In the end, we all had to accept the consequences of our actions, and no one understood that better than me.
Her body jerked with the force of the bullet, Brandy’s scream filling the room as my sister fell backward. She was grown now, and yet as I watched the life leave her eyes, I knew in my mind she would forever remain my shadow. The girl in braids who peeked around corners and asked a million questions, even when I’d come home covered in blood.
“Stop killing people in front of me, you crazy assholes!”
Memories of my sister would keep, but Brandy wouldn’t. She’d reached her breaking point, not that I blamed her. There weren’t too many people that could handle being kidnapped, tied to a chair, then have three people killed in front of them. Honestly, it was a miracle she wasn’t catatonic at this point.
Each of her breaths was invaluable to me, which was why I would always protect her and her sister. But I couldn’t condone her betrayal, even if it was to save her sister, or ignore the fact that she was an undercover DEA agent.
The time had come for me to let her go, but I knew I wasn’t up to the task. It would have to be someone I could trust with her safety and that damn sure wasn’t Marco at the moment. That fucker was still on my shit list for threatening her, and I wasn’t all the way sure I wouldn’t still kill him.
I turned to Marek. “Are we square?”
He nodded. “A life for a life.”
It was a quote I’d heard many times from my father. A motto of the Braterstwo. Marek, like my father, stuck to the code. In all the years he’d served my father, the only time he’d ever slipped up was with my mother.
He’d paid for that mistake a thousand times over, so killing him had seemed like a waste. Especially when I may have needed the leverage to outrun my father. Now I was glad I’d never used it because I gained something even more valuable in the end. His loyalty.
“I’ll clean up things here and see to your son’s arrangements if you can make sure Brandy gets home safely.”
Brandy jumped when Marek touched her arm, his knife resting in the other hand, ready to cut her bindings.
He stilled, his voice low and soothing as he spoke. “You’ll be more comfortable once we cut you loose. After everything that’s happened, we should get you home so you can rest.”
She studied my face for a minute, her brows furrowed, before she nodded her consent. After Marek had removed her bindings and set the chair down, she ran her hands up and down her arms. Her eyes never left mine, two of the fingers on her right hand rubbing together.
When she made no move to leave, I prompted her. “You’ll be safe with Marek.”
She wrenched her gaze from mine and stared down at the arm Marek had offered her like it was a snake about ready to strike her dead. Licking her lips, she shook her head no. He let his arm fall to his side and walked away. Every few steps, she’d stop and glance over her shoulder, giving me the chance to change my mind. I wasn’t going to, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t torture myself and watch her until she disappeared around the corner.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I bit out through clenched teeth once she was gone.
Marco could thank Ryder for the only warning he would ever get from me. If he didn’t move quickly enough, well, that one was on him.
The DEA pulled me off the case after they found my boss’s body. Well, most of it anyway. Before they would let me return to work, though, they wanted a psych eval. I was told it was standard protocol for all agents coming out of the field, no matter the outcome of the case. But let’s face facts here, if they were waiting on me to pass a psych eval, I wouldn’t be going back. That didn’t stop the lady from incessantly calling me, though.
After three days, I finally relented, just to get it over with, so here I sat. She stared, her pen twirling in her hand, lined notepad on her perfectly pleated black dress pants. I suppose she was attractive in a brutal sort of way. All the lines on her face were sharp angles, especially her nose and chin. My mind wandered as I focused on the deep dimple in her chin.
She cleared her throat. “How do you feel the mission went?”
“Shitty. Sideways. Colossal disaster. Take your pick.”
“Hmm. Can you tell me why.”
There she went with the pen twirling. It was very distracting.
“It’s classified.”
That worked in the movies, didn’t it? I could hardly sit here and tell the woman I was a broken shell before, and now I was this inhuman thing that stared off into space for large chunks of the day. It didn’t take a psychiatrist to figure out I was mentally fucked.
