Page 36 of Sweet Revenge

“How are we going to eat?” Elisa asked me from the passenger side of the van. “It’s not like we can go through a drive-thru with what looks like a kidnapping victim in the back seat.”

Suppressing a chuckle, I said, “I don’t know that anyone can see through these tinted windows, but I’m not too concerned about it. Most people mind their own damn business these days, at least, that’s been my experience.”

“I don’t know.” She twisted in her seat to look back at the sinister form of her brother propped up in the back. He hadn’t fully come to, though he’d been a little more lucid when we’d gotten him ready to transport. His breathing wasn’t as shallow as it had been the night before, and his heartbeat seemed stronger when I took his pulse. But he was still a fucking wreck.

Glancing at him in the rearview mirror, I let out another laugh. He was still hogtied, and we’d also gagged him. Then, I’d stuck a black bag over his head and stuck some noise-canceling earphones on him. When he finally did become conscious, he’d be scared to death having absolutely no idea what had happened to him, where he was at, why he couldn’t move, see, or hear anything. It made me laugh for more reasons than I cared to count, since finding humor in that probably made me sicker than I was willing to admit.

“What?” Elisa asked, turning back around. The sun was just beginning to creep above the tree line in the distance, painting the sky in pastel shades of pink, orange, and yellow, colors that seemed too cheerful for such a shitty day. All of my days recently had been quite shitty, though being with Elisa made them better. “What the fuck is so funny?”

“Nothing. It’s just absurd, that’s all. I went to your father’s territory to kidnap his asshole son to bring him back to my own territory in an attempt to kick him out, that’s all.” I shrugged and fiddled with the radio, knowing most people wouldn’t think anything I’d just said was remotely funny.

She sighed, shook her head, and focused out the window. Satisfied with the eighties tune I found on the radio, I left it alone and went back to driving, fighting off the thoughts that vied for my attention. It would be best if I didn’t let my mind wander at the moment. Keeping my brain focused on nothing was always more pleasant than trying to make sense of my fucked-up world.

It was a losing battle. I couldn’t fight off the urge to go back over everything in my head, calculating all the threats, all of the options available to me, trying to choose the best response.

Ma was still in charge in Chicago. I had no idea what had gotten into her mind. Had La Rosa been drugging her to make her act so impulsive and stupid? I’d have her to deal with, as well as all of her lieutenants. By now, she’d probably sunk her long red claws into most of the guys who’d been on the fence about whether or not to back me. Unless my brothers had been doing some serious campaigning, I probably only had the backers I’d had when I left.

Minus one.

One thing that had become clear through the events that had transpired at the cabin was that I couldn’t trust someone. Whether it was one of my brothers or something else had gone down to make it so that knowledge of where I had been hiding became common knowledge, I still didn’t know. But I couldn’t trust anyone, that was certain. My eyes flickered to Elisa. Scratch that. She was the only one that I could trust. I wanted to reach over and grab her hand, but she had them folded into her armpits, her eyes still glued on the horizon out the window.

With so much time to kill, it was easy for me to think over the men I’d left behind, the ones I’d trusted and thought were on my side. I’d take a bullet for any one of those sons of bitches, but it seemed that one of them was willing to sell me out. I had no idea why. What promises had La Rosa made to whoever had told him where I’d been hiding? I hoped whatever it was, the bastard had already gotten a chance to enjoy it because they were going to pay the ultimate price when I discovered who it was. There’d be no coming back from this.

Even if it had been one of my brothers.

Their faces flashed before my eyes. Vin was a psycho who loved to murder, but I couldn’t imagine he’d sell me out to La Rosa. He hated that old asshole. He’d described vivid dreams to me of killing him and taking a bite out of his still beating hard. Sicko. Still, he wouldn’t betray me, would he?

Then there was Mikel. He loved the lifestyle, the flash, the eyes on him. He already got all of that from Hollywood, though. At any moment, he could walk away and be fine. Why would he bother to stab his own brother in the back to help that son of a bitch? It didn’t make sense.

Dezzy was the last brother I thought of but only because he was the least likely to let me down. Not only was he my right-hand guy, he was my best friend. He loved money, that was true, but he made more money working for me than he knew what to do with. He wouldn’t put a price on my head. No, there was no fucking way it was Dez.

So who the hell had told La Rosa where we were? None of it made sense.

Thankfully, I’d come up with a way to ferret out whoever the hell it was. As soon as I was back on home turf, I’d get to the bottom of it. Then, whoever had thrown that knife would pay.

Elisa let out a sigh, bringing me out of my thoughts for a moment. It was a welcome reprieve. “You okay, baby?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.” She adjusted in her seat, stretching her back a bit. “How many miles do you think we’ve put on this van? A lot, huh?”

I glanced down at the numbers on the dash, but I had no fucking idea what we’d started at. “I hope your brother paid for the unlimited mileage.” I chuckled, trying to lighten the situation a bit.

“This van was a great idea.” She moved her hands underneath her legs, practically sitting on them, a sign to me that she was nervous. I knew this sort of thing still freaked her out, but I was so proud of how well she had handled things. “Drake thought of everything. He really is such a good brother. Unlike some people.” She looked in the mirror at Alex’s form. “Asshole.”

“Drake’s a good guy,” I agreed. He had saved my life, after all, as well as providing me with a means to get where I needed to go. “You know, for two people who wanna break away from this lifestyle, the two of you sure are great at it.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her head swivel to look at me. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the road for a moment, but when I did, I glanced over to see a stricken look on her face, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open a bit.

“What?” I asked, confused. “That was a compliment.”

Elisa sniffled and looked away, ripping her hands back out from underneath her legs so she could fold them up again.

Silence filled the van as she suffered from my comment and I tried my damnedest to figure out what the hell I’d said wrong now.

I went over my words again and again in my head, but no matter how I rearranged them, I couldn’t come up with a reason why my compliment would upset her. I’d just said that she and Drake were good at planning for non-ideal situations. Why was that so wrong?

“Baby,” I finally said, reaching over to place my hand on her leg. She didn’t pull away. “What’s the matter? What did your dumbass boyfriend say now to piss you off?” I wasn’t sure if she would like for me to use that term or not—boyfriend—but I also wasn’t certain what else I could call myself.

“Nothing.” It didn’t come out in that tone women usually used when they said “nothing” but meant “something.” She really sounded like she meant it, not like she wanted to say, “Well, if you don’t know, I’m not going to tell you.” Still, I sensed something troubling her.