Page 30 of Dangerous Deviance
“See ya, pussies,” he said.
No. I wasn’t going to let them get away with disrespecting our family like that.
I grabbed the letter opener from one of the mail trays and stabbed his palm, holding him in place. A howl like a wounded wolf split through the walls.
“Fuck! Fuck, man!” he screamed.
The tanned one reached for his gun, but Derek was faster, shooting him twice in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
I knew Derek would have a few words for me about acting impulsively, but I didn’t care. Our family’s honor was at stake.
I grabbed the tattooed one by the skin on the back of his neck, pinching it tightly in my hand. I lifted up his head, craning my wrist until he could see me. He blubbered, his wails more irritating by the second.
“You’re going to deliver a message for us,” I said in a low voice.
“Whatever you want, man, please just—”
“Tell your boss that he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with,” I said calmly, “And we don’t appreciate his mistake.”
I let go of his neck, letting him fall into the desk, the letter opener tugging on the wound with his weight. Then I ripped it out and he cried, his face a mess of snot. He staggered toward the door. Axe stepped to the side, letting him through.
“And take this trash out with you,” I said, motioning at the corpse. The tattooed man scrambled back over, picking up his friend by the shoulders, but he grunted and whined. It must have been hard to move a dead body when his hand was punctured.
I locked eyes with Axe. “You want to help this poor asshole out?”
Axe gave a subtle nod, and I let out a long sigh. Damn it. Not only did we have to deal with the naked women and the dead men in the forest, but Miles Muro was deliberately insulting us, sending us his expendable drugs and throwaway henchmen.
The room cleared, and Derek shook his head. “What the hell was that?”
“What?” I snapped. “I’m not going to apologize for defending our family.”
“We could have dealt with them later,” he argued. “Dealt with Muro personally.”
“We do nothing, and Muro sees us as weak. The rest of the crime rings too. And then what do we do?”
Derek thought about it for a moment. His eyes scanned the room, his fingers tapping his chin. He knew I was right. I might have been the most reckless of the three of us, only matched by our half-brother, Ethan, but I still knew that sending a message was something that wehadto do. There was no way around it. We couldn’t keep playing nice like Gerard wanted us to do. We had to make movesnow, and that meant showing Muro that we were serious.
“I would have done the same thing,” he finally said.
Relief filled my chest. I let out a breath. “What do we tell our father?”
“We’ll tell Gerard now,” he said.
Derek pulled out a burner phone from the desk drawer, then dialed him, turning on speakerphone. We both leaned in, listening.
“Son?” he asked.
“It’s Derek and me,” I said. “Muro sent lidocaine.”
“Not even actual coke?”
“I doubt there was any in there,” I said. But hell, I hadn’t felt a thing. Still didn’t. “And that wasn’t what the shipment was supposed to be.”
“Right. I was looking forward to the product, the distribution, at least,” he said. Sure, he was. I gave side-eyes to Derek; the corner of his mouth lifted in response. With such an easy few decades of running the family mafia, Gerard had plenty of chances to experiment with our products. Leaving us to take care of business.
“We sent a message,” I said. He would know exactly what that meant.
He cursed under his breath. “Damn it, you two,” he muttered. “You retaliated, just like that?”
