“Then why are you trying to make amends with him?”
“Because…we’re family.”
“Sometimes water is thicker than blood.” She looked at me through her lush eyelashes, a priceless jewel that sparkled in the darkest of places. “Damien is your brother. You don’t need this one.”
I needed him more than anyone else in the world.
“Even if he was receptive and you started to get along, would you want to be close to someone like that? You killed your father for a reason. Now you’re just turning the other cheek.”
“If I offer him something better than what he has now, maybe he’ll walk away.”
“Like what?” she asked.
“A cut of my business.”
She raised an eyebrow. “The business you gave up?”
I nodded.
“I don’t see how that could work. You made a deal with Maddox…”
“I know. It’s just an idea.”
She dropped her hands. “If you make a deal, you should honor it.”
“I know. But the real world doesn’t operate on right and wrong. It operates on survival. The biggest monster prevails…that’s how things really work. If I let Maddox push me out, it could affect every aspect of my life.”
She watched me with trepidation. “He could have killed Damien, but he didn’t…”
“I know.”
“You should really think about this, Hades. Because there’s no going back.”
Sofia was asleep beside me, her glorious body naked under the sheets. I kissed the top of her shoulder before I slid out of bed and pulled my boxers to my waist. I crept into the other room, closing the door behind me so I could have privacy.
I made the call.
Damien answered right away. “You’re alive. That conversation must have gone well.”
“The opposite.”
“At least he didn’t kill you.”
“I guess…”
“What happened, exactly?”
“He’s not receptive. That’s the short version.”
“Sorry, man. I know how much you wanted this.”
“I’m not gonna give up. I’ll try again tomorrow.”
There was a pause over the line. “Hades, if you keep pestering him, he might change his mind about killing you.”
“I have to make this happen.”
“But maybe it’s not possible.”
“Don’t say that to me,” I said coldly.
“And even if it is, it’s going to take more than a few days. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
I didn’t want to wait longer than a few days.
“I’m not trying to kick you when you’re down, alright? I’ve got to be the voice of reason for you. You’ll always get honesty from me.”
“I know.”
“You can keep trying, but realistically, this is going to take a while. You killed your father…he’s not gonna get over that overnight.”
I knew he was right.
“What if you brought Sofia with you?”
There was no fucking way I was bringing my wife anywhere near that place. “Fuck no.”
“I just mean, she’s persuasive. She’s got this way about her—”
“I know. I married her.”
“Just an idea…”
“This guy traffics women, and you think I should bring my drop-dead gorgeous wife around?”
“He wouldn’t touch Sofia. If he wanted to hurt you, he would have done it already. You’re off-limits.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“You’re alive, aren’t you?” he questioned.
I slumped into the chair and rested the back of my neck on the back of the couch. “What’s going on over there?”
“Holding down the fort. I cranked up production and am getting ready for a drop.”
I sat up on the couch, pressing the phone closer to my ear. “You did what?”
“I’ve got the cooks working around the clock.”
“Damien, what the hell are you thinking?”
“What?” he asked innocently.
“We made a deal with Maddox.”
“And last time we spoke, we agreed not to lie down and take it.”
“No,” I hissed. “We discussed that possibility. We hadn’t agreed on anything.”
“Well…that’s how I took it.”
“Then stop everything.”
“Hades, you know I can’t do that—”
“If he finds out, we’re fucking done.”
“Not if we kill him first. That’s what we should have done a long time ago. Cut the head off the fucking snake. Come on, you really picture yourself staying home all day, bored out of your goddamn mind? That’s not you. That’s not me. We’re going to fight this piece of shit and take back what’s ours. I’m sorry I rushed into it, but I thought we were in agreement about that. We aren’t pussies. I’d rather die the victor than live as a coward.”
I returned to the bar two nights later.
I expected the same outcome, but I had to keep trying anyway.
This time, the guys behind the bar recognized me. They didn’t serve me a drink and went to retrieve Ash right away.
My brother stepped out of the hallway and looked at me, just as pissed today as he was a few days ago. His nostrils flared before he approached my table, fists swinging by his sides. He stopped in front of me and leaned over the table. “You think I won’t kill you?”
“I know you won’t.”
“I guess I’m better-looking and smarter.” He dropped into the chair. “Your false sense of immunity is stupid.”