Page 59 of Volatile Obsessions

“Yes!” he bellowed. “But not this way!”

“Then how? What else did you expect after she had you and Roscoe wipe out more than half of our guys that one night. Did you not think I’d retaliate on the same level?”

Vic opened his mouth to counter, but not a single word slipped free.

Not one.

He just sat there, eyeing me indignantly, until finally he laid an elbow on the window sill and turned to observe our shrouded surroundings.

“They were casualties, Rome, casualties we’ve replaced,” he explained quietly.

“As is the delivery driver. He’s replaceable,” I retorted.

Chuckling, he shook his head and sighed deeply as if I were clueless. “She doesn’t just trust people like that. Finding someone who’s going to keep quiet isn’t as easy as you think.”

“You do realize that makes no sense, right? There’s an excess of people willing to keep their mouth shut for the right price. As you so kindly pointed out, you just replaced over thirty-five people in a span of mere days,” I stated, jamming the key in the ignition.

The engine roared to life with a simple flick of my wrist.

“That’s different!” he snapped, turning back toward me.

“How is that different, Vic? It’s the same damn concept. They know they can’t talk.”

“It’s different, trust me. Lux and I are two different people. How we operate business is different, too.”

They weren’t really, but I didn’t feel the need to exhort my opinion. In fact, I had no inclination to keep this conversation going much longer. If Vic wanted to believe he and Lux were so different, then by all means, the man could live in denial for all I cared. What bothered me most was the fact he was questioning me about something that shouldn’t’ve been an issue to begin with. He knew damn well many a pawn wouldn’t make it out alive.

“So let me get this straight… Eliminating people off the board is okay, but only if it’s on your terms?”

“That’s not what I said,” he muttered.

“But it’s what you implied. You had absolutely no problem with us taking out Ramos, or letting Lux wipe out our people, which for the record was a grand betrayal on your part. I’m surprised anyone was willing to fill in their shoes after the fact.”

Silence, once again, fell upon us. He could try to spout it however he wanted, turn it inside out and all around, but the bottom line is, he knew I was right.

“You could have at least warned me, allowed me to prepare myself,” he said after a beat, his tone resigned. “The day I had… Trying as fuck.”

Interesting…

“Explain,” I demanded, falling lax in my seat. This I could tolerate another five minutes for.

Vic shrugged. “Having to go through Roscoe for everything just made the process more tedious than necessary, that’s all.”

“Why did you have to go through Roscoe?” I pressed, and although he tried brushing it off with a wave of his hand, I didn’t miss the way he initially tensed up.

“Lux and I are not exactly on speaking terms right now.”

Very interesting…

“Why?” I pressed harder, and again, he tried playing the nonchalant card.

“We had a disagreement.”

“About?”

“Not important. She’ll get over it. Like I said, we’re very different people. Don’t always see eye to eye on certain things.”

She’s not the only one.

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