“How badly are you hurt?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Tell me, Tal.”
“A possible concussion from the accident,” he said. “And I took a bullet in the shoulder. Their doctor came and looked at it. In all, I’d say I’m in fair shape for a man who drowned and was revived.”
“What the fuck do you mean?”
“I mean, I provoked Matthews to kill me because I knew what you’d do, and I’m begging you not to do it.”
“I’m not going to leave you there to rot. I…” Love you. But the words wouldn’t come out. This wasn’t the right time to say those words. Javier needed to touch Talon when he uttered them.
“You what?”
“I’m going through with the exchange.”
Talon groaned. “For fuck’s sake, Javi, please don’t do it. This is your shot to earn the respect of the family. If you take out these shits who killed Ivan, they’ll take you seriously.”
“At the expense of losing you?” Javier’s chest ached at the thought of never seeing Talon smile again. Of not being able to run his fingers through his lover’s hair and kiss him senseless.
“You’ll never lose me. I’ll always be with you.”
“I’m sorry, Tal. I don’t need your ghost next to me. Now promise me something.”
“What?”
“You will not do anything crazy to provoke that son of a bitch or do any stunt to take your own life just to ease my guilt of having to come for you.”
“You know me too well.”
“Fucking promise me, Tal.”
Talon closed his eyes and swallowed. “I promise.”
“Don’t worry.” Matthews’s face appeared on the screen. “I’ll see to it that he keeps his promise.”
“And now I’ll need to keep mine.” Javier’s eyes traveled to where Kit had been listening to the conversation without saying a word.
“What are you talking about?” Matthews asked.
“I told you that whatever you do to Talon would be reciprocated to your boy. Please allow me to give the same treatment to Kit. It’s quite remiss of me to keep him in stellar condition while you have my man in such a filthy sty. Don’t you think?”
“Now you listen here, Javier—”
“I warned you, Matthews. Maybe now you’ll be more careful about the way you treat your bargaining tool.”
“Javier, you touch a fucking hair on his head, and you’re dead.”
“I just hope his lungs are as good as Tal’s. Don’t worry, Matthews. I won’t kill him.”
“Let’s meet up and do the trade now.”
“I didn’t say yet if I’ll actually make the trade, Matthews. I need forty-eight hours to think about it.”
“That’s too long. You have twelve hours.”
“Forty-eight hours or I’ll put the muzzle of my gun between those pretty lips of his and blow his brains out.”
Javier ended the call and shoved the phone back into his pocket. Talon was right. Javier’s entire family knew Kit was here and that he had a hand in Ivan’s murder. Some were already wondering why he wasn’t dead yet and why he was in a nice bedroom instead of the cold metal chamber where the family tortured whomever they had to interrogate. That had been the plan, but Talon’s disappearance had made Javier reconsider how to treat the boy.
Now, after seeing the way Matthews had treated Talon, Javier would have to change his mind. He steeled his heart against the fear in the boy’s eyes.
“Don’t look at me like that, boy,” he said. “You have no one else to blame but your handler. You see, we have a deal, and he’s been torturing my guy. It’s only fair I do the same to you. Right?”