“You’re going to say yes, aren’t you?” he asked. “You’re really going to close up shop for one man.” He sighed into the phone. “That’s so disappointing, Hades. You’re the only opponent who can challenge me, who actually gives me something to strive for. With you gone, I’ll be bored. So, are you sure you want to do that? Come on. Friendship is just as stupid as love. Men like us need power, loyalty, and sex. That other shit is for pussies.”
If it were anyone else, I would never cave. That made me realize how much of a liability Damien was, that I had someone I would do anything for. But it didn’t change anything. My business wasn’t worth his life. “I agree. Loyalty is everything…and I’m loyal to Damien. You should have been loyal to your own fucking brother.”
The psychopath had the audacity to laugh. “He would have done the same to me.”
“I doubt it.” I remembered the relief on his face when I got Maddox on the phone. He thought he was free.
“Then I would have been disappointed in him.”
This man really was the devil.
“That’s your final decision?” he asked, talking like he didn’t just shit all over his brother’s memory.
I’d be lying if I said I weren’t upset I had to give everything up. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t annoyed with Damien for getting mixed up in this. Nothing about it was fair. But nonetheless, I knew my answer. “Yes.”
Tuscany was a large place. For hundreds of miles, there were small villages, wine estates, and countryside. It extended all the way to the west until you reached the sea. It was easy to hide in the beauty, to disappear off the face of the earth.
Maddox sent me the coordinates, and we drove our vehicles off-road until we were deep in the lush landscape, so far away from the nearest person that gunshots couldn’t be heard by anyone within miles.
I sat in the back seat and saw Maddox leaning against the front of his truck, his arms crossed over his chest, his annoying grin on his face.
It was evening, pitch black with the exception of the headlights from the cars. The stars were bright overhead because the country was asleep, its lights dim. I sighed as I stared at him, wishing I could just blow him into a million pieces.
But that would be stupid.
I had to play his game.
I had to lose his game.
I stayed in the vehicle and examined the scene around me, watching my men hop out of their trucks with their rifles across their chests. Normally, Damien would be in the seat beside me, and we would be taking in everything as a team.
Now I was alone.
I knew he wouldn’t reveal Damien until I showed my face, so I got out of the SUV and walked across the soft grass to the open space between us, no-man’s-land. My suit had been replaced by a t-shirt, jeans, and a leather jacket. The watch Damien gave me for my birthday was on my wrist.
I stopped fifteen feet away from Maddox, my pistol snug in the back of my jeans. With my arms resting by my sides, I stared into the cold eyes that made me furious. Not only had he hurt my family, but he’d played me like a damn violin. He had me by the balls, and his squeeze only tightened with every passing second.
I hated that goddamn smile.
One day, I would kill him…just not today.
He pushed off the hood. “Drag him out.”
Two men moved to a truck parked in the rear. They opened the bed and yanked Damien out by his feet. After he fell to the dirt with a quiet moan, he was pulled to a stand and then was marched toward us. With cuffed hands and a gag in his mouth, he was a bloody prisoner. His face was black and blue from the beatings that had happened throughout the day. One eye was swollen, and judging from the way he held his body, a couple of ribs were broken. When he was shoved to the line, his eyes moved to mine.
He wasn’t scared. He was just sorry. This was all his fault—he knew it.
“You sure you want to do this?” Maddox asked. “Because this asshole doesn’t deserve a second chance. He’s an egotistical idiot who thinks he’s got it all figured out. That kind of arrogance will get you killed…and he would have been killed if he weren’t valuable.”
I couldn’t hold Damien’s gaze longer than a few seconds. It was too difficult to look at him that way, to see a strong man I admired reduced to blood and bruises. I’d murdered people in cold blood…but seeing the pain on his face made me sick. “We have a deal. Let him go.”