Page 88 of Broken By Silence
“The Velvet Room,” I answer. “It’s neutral. He won’t be looking for a set-up there. It’s public. It keeps Lottie close. It’s visible, and it’s completely safe if we do it right. Pacheco isn’t a threat, not if we don’t make him one, but if we don’t have the family’s support, then we’re fucked. We need to do this right.” We both know what ‘right’ looks like. Containment. Witnesses. The right faces in the right chairs.
Archer’s laugh is a short bark. “You want to invite this Pacheco toherplace? The one place that she can escape from the bullshit your father’s caused?”
Elijah finally moves. He pushes up from the chair and moves closer to Lottie. “If the families are pissed,” he mutters, “then Pacheco will come fast. He’s not sentimental. My contacts have told me Lorenzo’s been burning bridges, and he’s been making mistakes like someone who’s running on fumes. He’s got his mind on one thing, and it’s making him sloppy.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Elijah shrugs. “Wasn’t important enough. Figured if he was pissing off the families, they might take care of the issue for us. We don’t want an all-out war. We want to cut the rot out. If the others took care of that, I wasn’t against it.”
Crew’s voice cuts through us all. “And what about Lottie? He’s not going to give up on trying to get her?”
“She’smy wife,Crew. If I thought any of this was important enough to tell you all, I would have, but the last time you both learned anything about her, yous lost it.”
“She’s not just yours, Elijah. She’s all of ours.” Archer narrows his eyes at Elijah. “Any information that might affect her, we deserve to know.”
Elijah looks to Lottie, as if seeking approval, but she just shakes her head.“We need to know Elijah. How else can we be prepared?”
“Understood. Any other information I get, I’ll let you all know.”
Will movesus on after that, pulling a piece of paper towards him and starts scribbling names—contacts, people who will come if he calls. Favours.
He looks up at me once, as if he’s assessing me. “You going to be able to face all of this?”
“This is all for her. You won’t be able to stop me.”
He nods, not saying anything else as he continues.
“Tonight?” Crew asks.
“Tonight,” I say. “We call Pacheco. We set a place. The Velvet Room, at ten. We keep it public, bring witnesses. We let his men vet the room. We sit, we let the families talk…”
“What do the families actually do?”Oscar asks.
“They give us cover.” I keep my hands clasped so they don’t start saying things they shouldn’t. “If we kill him without their backing, it becomes a war. One we don’t want. I had another plan, one that would’ve kept things cleaner, but everything went to shit when I found out everything.” I don’t need to explain, but I grimace. “He knew anyway. I need the families to legitimize the move so I can keep certain businesses intact. The rest—territory, rackets, whatever—gets divided out between them. This keeps her safe.”
“We make it clear what we want,” Will commands. “We want Lorenzo neutralized. We don’t want an all-out war. I’ve been trainingArcher for years for things like this, but Oscar… if you don’t want to be there, you can stay with Lottie. Be her shadow.”
Oscar shakes his head.“I’m going to be there. She’s mine to protect, and this is about protecting her.”
“What about me?”Lottie signs.
“Where do you want to be?”Claire asks her.
When everyone opens their mouth, Claire cuts her eyes to them, effectively shutting us all up.
“On the stage. I want to dance. I’ll get Angel on shift, too. She can dance, and I’ll work the floor so I’m in your sights the entire time.”
“Perfect,” Claire claps her hands.
I look around at the others. Their eyes are bright, sparking with fury and the need for revenge. I feel it in the way my chest tightens.
They would burn the world for her.
So would I.
My mouth tastes like iron. I wanted to keep her away because my guilt tells me I don’t deserve to put her in harm’s way, but she had every right to be present, to exist in the space where decisions about her life are being made.
I pickup my phone and dial. For a second, it buzzes in my ear, and I think about everything—Lottie’s face as we broke her, Dad’s laugh as he carved the word ‘Coward’ into my skin, Lottie’s neck mottled with purple and blue from his hands.
