Page 3 of The Best of Us

“Try again.” I shoved one hand in my pocket, my voice flat. “You said, and I quote, ‘you have no idea who you’re messing with.’ That tells me youdohave a name for us.”

Silence.

He was contemplative. Still fearful.

Good, just how I wanted him.

I lifted my chin to Hudson, a request to talk next.

“Let’s start with something easier and go from there.” Hudson stood in front of him, blade still in hand. “Who do you get your stash from? Where can we find him?”

A low hiss left Daniel’s mouth, and he rolled his lips inward, trying to suppress the truth I could easily drag out of him. “You going to press him for answers the way you are me?”

“A life for a life.” I accepted the knife from Hudson, swapping places with him. “What’s it going to be? Save yourself, or save the asshole who you’re selling drugs for?”

He squeezed his eyes shut, sweat rolling from his temples, streaking the dried blood on his face. His wrists tugged against the bindings.

“I just needed some extra cash,” he gritted out. “I wasn’t trying to hurt her.” His voice broke as he added, “He can’t find out I did that.”

“Did what? Find out you tried to steal from a woman?” Hudson pressed. “What, your gang have a moral code and you crossed the line?”

I exchanged a look with Hudson. Even he thought that was laughable.

Daniel’s shoulders hunched, his breath coming fast. “No one can know I told you anything.”

I leaned in slightly. “Then let’s make this simple. Where can we find your boss?”

He hesitated.

I wasn’t a total asshole. I could beamenablewhen necessary.

“There’s a party Friday night. A rave at a closed-down factory in SoHo. The guy I work directly for will be there.” He rattled off the address, and I made a mental note. “You can’t keep me until then, or he’ll know something is up.”

I handed Hudson his knife back. “We’ll let you go, but we’ll be monitoring your every step. Bodycam on you inside the rave as well.” Rolling down my sleeves, I buttoned them at the wrists, my voice low as I warned, “You bought yourself time with this information, but staying alive after the rave depends on if you told us the truth.”

While we only killed in self-defense now, or if left with no choice on an op, he didn’t need to know that. Fear of the unknown was a much better motivator in getting someone to walk the path of righteousness.

“Don’t make me hunt you down again. I won’t be so nice next time. Am I making myself clear?” I maintained eye contact so he could see the truth in my eyes. Read it. Believe it. Accept it as fact. His life was in my hands.

“Understood.” The word left his mouth low and bitter, but his compliance was appreciated.

Keeping my white shirt clean of blood was also a wise choice on his part.

Hudson returned his knife to its leather holder and tipped his head toward the door. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?”

Right.He followed me into the other room, and we both tossed our masks now that we were alone.

“I think we can handle going after his boss at the rave without calling anyone else in for help.”

“I agree.” There was no need to drag my brothers up here for an easy op. Enzo was home with his family in Charlotte. Alessandro was with his pregnant wife in Nashville. And I highly doubted we’d need to bring in the other guys we worked with for a quick grab and bag of a drug dealer from a rave.

Hudson tamed his messy hair with his fingers, and I did the same, remembering I had a date to get to. “So, was that too easy, or are we just getting too good at this?”

“You having doubts about what we do?” Was my sister’s wholesomeness starting to get into his head? While Izzy’s moral line was still much farther north than all of ours, mine no longer sat comfortably below murder like it once had. “It’s Izzy, isn’t it?”

“She works with us. She knows what we have to do sometimes.”

That wasn’t an answer. He was buying time to tell me what was really on his mind. I could only imagine the influence she was having on him.

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