Page 41 of The Fortunate Ones
“Yeah. The price tag to grab the boy was good, but to kill Luca Castellano and Wesley Hayes? That would’ve set Andre and me up for life. We could’ve finally gotten the fuck outta here. Lived it up on an island till we died.” Sven grimaced. “Guess that was too good to be true.”
“Guess so,” I agreed. I didn’t think about my end too much, but times like these sometimes made me more introspective than usual. The life we lived was dangerous. And even though I liked to believe we were on the side of right, we still straddled that line, leaving targets on our backs from both sides. I’d love to die old and in my sleep, knowing I’d left the world a better placethan it had been, but that dream wasn’t necessarily realistic. There was as good a chance as any that I’d die like poor Sven here was about to, tied to a chair with a bullet between my eyes. The thought was sobering, but I wouldn’t change a damn thing about my life, even with that risk.
“When you got the boy, where were you supposed to drop him off?” Luca asked. He had his arms crossed over his chest and his hip cocked, looking sexy as hell. I checked him out, licking my lips suggestively when he noticed.
“Don’t know. Never got that far. They’d have given us a location after we confirmed we had the kid.”
That tracked, and there really wasn’t any reason to lie. While Sven would likely protect his brother, he had no reason to hide whoever had hired him. At this point, he was probably hoping for an easy death, and he was earning it.
I glanced at Luca, silently asking him if he had anything else to ask. This was too easy. Boring, honestly. And I didn’t think we could get anything else of value from Sven.
“Where’s your brother now?”
“You know I ain’t telling you that. He might’ve driven me up the fucking wall and his stupidity signed my death warrant, but he’s still my brother.”
I waited for Luca to make his decision. Personally, as much as I wanted to get a little messy, I didn’t want to do it at the sake of him betraying his brother. They might not have much in the way of morals, but I had to respect family loyalty. I didn’t have any kind of relationship with my brother, but if he was in some kind of shit, I wouldn’t give him up, even if I hadn’t spoken to him for years. And my real family? The chosen one that was always there for me, no matter what? Yeah, there’d be nothing, fucking nothing, you could do to me that would make me betray them.
Luca seemed to agree because he smacked his lips together in frustration but nodded. “That’s fair. It might bite us in the ass, but if Andre comes for us, we’ll deal with it the way we dealt with this. At least we know one potential target. One more thing and then we’ll make this quick.”
Sven looked leery. “What?”
Luca walked over to the table in the corner and grabbed a phone. He held it in front of Sven’s face. “Give me the passcode. Seems like you were smart enough not to use facial recognition.”
Sven hesitated before sighing. “Fine. You won’t find Andre through that anyway. 742177.”
Finding whoever had hired them was a lot more important than locating Andre, and I was pretty sure the rest of us agreed. He was probably halfway out of the country by now anyway.
Luca typed it in, and sure enough his phone unlocked. “Thanks, man. Our guy could unlock it, but why give him extra work?” Luca looked at me. It was long and meaningful. A whole ass conversation without words. I knew what he was asking. What did we want to do with our hostage?
In most cases, a bullet to the brain was the obvious answer. But Sven wasn’t who we were really after. Yeah, he was a bad dude and should be behind bars or dead, but if we killed him now, where did that leave us? With another target on our back if Andre decided to come and avenge his brother’s death. Yes, they were killers, but it was fairly common knowledge in the underworld that they were in it for the money, not for the thrill. Those were the fuckers you had to worry about. Andre and Sven, they could be paid off to walk away. The question was if that was the right call in this situation.
I gave Luca a slight nod. It relayed,It’s up to you. I’ll accept either decision.
Luca met my eyes once before turning to Sven. He crossed his arms. “How serious were you about retiring on some island?”
Sven blinked, obviously not expecting that. He had been fully resigned to death.
“Don’t bullshit with me, Castellano. Just kill me and end this.”
“I could. But then I’d have your brother after me, wouldn’t I?” Sven didn’t say a word. “Maybe not right away. He’d probably lie low for a while, especially after this fuckup. But memories are long, and I have enough targets on my back. Is your death worth another one?”
He sounded conversational, but he wasn’t expecting an answer and didn’t get one. Sven watched him suspiciously through his good eye, waiting for the trap.
“If I could get you and your brother set up somewhere away from all this shit, would you step away? Stop taking contracts?”
Sven pressed his lips together firmly. “And be in your debt for the rest of our lives?”
“No. Clean slate. You two leave. Stay the fuck out of our business and city, drink mai tais and spend the day in the sun. No contact from either side.”
“And I’m supposed to just trust this? Andre killed your friend.”
“I’m aware. Listen, I know I should kill you. I want to, if I’m being honest. But it’s risk over reward. Unless the rumors are all wrong, you’re not in it for the kills. Don’t get it twisted, I know you don’t mind, but you don’t need to kill, do you?”
Sven grunted. Answer enough.
“So stop. You claimed the two of you were ready to get out of this life. I’m offering that to you. You know I can make it happen. Leave. Take the money and run.”
“And if I do and we come back one day?”
