Page 112 of Where Dark Hearts Devour
“After you, brother,” I say, cocking my head toward the exit.
Savero doesn’t conceal his gun, but I didn’t expect him to. All I needed was a slight upper hand, and I’ve got it.
We reach the exit, and the Mexicans walk on through, leaving me and Sav still inside. I wrap a hand around the back of my brother’s neck, shoving him face-first into the wall. His arm flies up, and I shoot a bullet straight through it before pressing the barrel to his temple. His gun clatters to the stone floor, and I flick it up with my foot, catching it in my free hand. I haven’t had as much practice at handling a gun as Savero has, but I’ve been preparing for this the whole drive here.
Miguel’s face appears around the doorframe. Nothing like a gunshot to make a mob man curious.
I cock the trigger of Sav’s gun and put a bullet through Miguel’s forehead. When the second cartel guy pokes his headaround the frame, he gets one in the side of his face. Both slide to the ground.
A thin smile creeps across Savero’s face. “Drink the water, did she?”
“What water?” I test.
“Well, something’s clearly happened to your precious woman, andyou’restill alive, so ...” He shrugs. “Is she dead?” His tongue clicks against his teeth on that last syllable, and I shove his head so hard into the wall blood starts to trickle down his cheek.
“If you think I’m telling youanythingabout that “woman,” you can think again,” I hiss in his ear.
I press one gun to his forehead and turn him around so he can see nothing but me. Then I press the other to his throat.
The smile on his face is designed to make me crack, but he’s getting nothing but steel out of me from here on in.
“Why?” I say. It’s not a question—it’s a fucking command.
“Why ... what?” A sneer curls his lip.
Man, he’s going to play with me till the end.
I roll my eyes skyward. “Where do I begin?” Then I level him with the kind of glare I’d give a murderer, not a brother. “Why did you try to drown me?”
His right eyebrow inches upward. “I didn’t like you.”
I grind my teeth. “Why did you try to poison me?”
His eyes narrow into slits. “I still don’t like you.”
I can’t deny the way his words form a fist around my heart. I had no idea his hatred wound this deep.
“What did I ever do to you, brother?”
His sneer sharpens. “You wereborn.”
My natural reaction is to step back in shock, but there’s a part of me that knows I need to fire at least one of these two guns. Not for me—I can deal with his hatred—but for Trilby.
I step up to his face. “I’ve donenothingto you. I even moved to the west coast because I didn’t want to get in your way.”
“Until something caught your eye—right,fratello?”
My teeth grind so hard I feel like I might soon be spitting them out. “Not that it matters to you, but I met her first,fratello.”
“Two nights earlier, right?” he says lazily. “I heard.”
I laugh in his face. “Bullshit. It was a little earlier than that,” I say, cryptically.
“What the fuck does it matter? She was engaged tome.”
“Because you wanted this port. Not because you wanted her.”
He enunciates slowly, so I don’t miss a beat. “She was collateral. That’s all women are fucking useful for.”
