Page 31 of Coup De Grâce
Fear broke through the haze of anger, clutching my heart. “What are you talking about?”
“The people who are responsible for this…they’re still out there and they won’t let this slide. Rafe fucked them over. He tore down a system that they carefully put in place. And now they’ll make sure anyone associated with him is eliminated.”
The fear grew to absolute terror as I thought of not only my wife and kids, but all the men and women who relied on me. Dozens of people, all thrust into the line of fire, all because Rafe tried to do the right thing.
“Tell me.”
Michael shook his head. “Not yet. You’re not ready for what I have to tell you. You’re not ready for just how fucking big this is.”
“Then what the fuck am I supposed to do?” I shouted, jerking him away from the wall and then slamming him hard against it.
“End it. End all of it. All of this grieving and need for revenge has to stop. You can’t drag these guys any further into this.”
“You want me to walk away and just pretend my brother wasn’t shot? That won’t work. Not a single person wouldbelieve that I just suddenly gave up on the men who killed my brother!”
“Then use it,” he hissed. “You have him back. You’ve gotten your revenge.”
“I will never fucking have my revenge until this is over.”
He gripped my wrists and tore my hands from his body. “You don’t fucking understand what I’m telling you. They’re watching you. All of you. Every fucking thing you do, they’re looking for signs of what you’ll do next. Their eyes are everywhere!”
“You’re asking me to walk away.”
He blew out a breath and sighed. “If you love your wife and kids, you will do whatever it takes to make this end. Because if you don’t, they will come for you. They will torture them and kill them. They will make you suffer. And when they’re done with your family, they’ll move on to all your friends, their wives, their fucking kids. Every last one of them will be killed as a message to you. And only then will they put a bullet in your head. And I’m telling you right now, there’s not a single fucking thing you can do about it. They’re too big, too powerful. And you will pay for digging too hard.”
My pulse thundered in my head, making it impossible to think of anything other than the terror icing over my veins. I didn’t know what to do, how to protect everyone.
“Tell me…how do I get them away from my family? How do I make them safe?”
His jaw hardened as he stared at me. “Let me ask you one thing. Do you want to take these fuckers down?”
“Yes.”
“It won’t be easy. There will be days you’ll wish you had taken the easy route.”
He was right. I already knew that. But… “If we don’t take them out, will my family be safe? If I drop all this, if I walk away…will they be safe?”
He was silent for a moment. “You’re never truly safe. Because of Rafe, you will always be on their radar. You could take a job that seems to have nothing to do with them, and still, you’ll end up smack dab in the middle of a fucking job you weren’t supposed to have anything to do with. No, your family will never be safe.”
I swallowed hard, feeling like my whole world was crashing down around me. I would walk away from everything if it meant keeping them safe, but if that wasn’t possible, I would do whatever it took to make sure this ended.
“Tell me what to do.”
He glanced away, sighing heavily. “You can’t just give up. No one will buy it. They know how angry you are. They’ve been watching for too long. Play it out. Make them believe you’ve lost your shit and go rogue.”
“Push my family away, you mean.”
He gave a curt nod. “She’ll hate you for it.”
Eva. Could I do that? Make her so fucking pissed that she wished I was no longer around?
“There’s no other way. They all need to hate you.”
“And then what? I just walk away?”
“Essentially. You have to make them all hate you to save them.”
“Walk away from my family, my kids, my life,” I choked out.
