Page 81 of Ruthless Vengeance
“We’ve done it before?—”
“But most importantly, Marco, it’s going to take time.”
“Which we don’t have…” I groan.
Andre nods, his face grave.
Three days. That’s all I could have left.
I rise from my seat, my heart pounding in my chest like a ticking clock. “Then I guess it’s time I started laying the groundwork.”
Andre raises a brow. “What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking we use Cillian’s ego against him.” I grab my jacket off the back of my chair. “He thinks that I’ll play his little game and keep my mouth shut while he drags me into his filth. But he’s forgetting one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“I always set my own rules, and I play to win.”
“Marco.” Andre gets to his feet. “What are you planning?”
I slide my arms into my jacket. “I can’t say anything just yet. I need to talk to someone first.”
“Why won’t you tell me who?”
“Because you’ll talk me out of it, and right now, this is the only option I can think of that could actually save our asses.”
My brother eyes me for a beat. Then he nods.
“Fine. But try not to get killed. I don’t fancy taking Cillian down on my own.”
I pullup outside the safehouse where we’ve been keeping Ben under close watch. Dom’s car is parked out front, as expected, and when I kill the engine the curtain in the front window shifts.
By the time I climb out of the car, Dom has unlocked the door and is waiting to usher me inside.
“How is he?”
“Pain in my fucking ass,” Dom grunts.
I swallow a laugh.
“How much longer do I have to be on babysitting duty?”
“That depends on how willing he is to do me a favor.”
Dom leads me down the narrow hall and into the main living space of the house. It’s not much better than the apartment I found Ben in, but that’s his own fault. If he had proven himself to be a decent human being, I would have gladly set him up in one of my family’s apartments in the city.
Instead, he’s proven himself to be a complete waste of space, hence why I chose to lock him away in this shithole of a safehouse.
I find Ben sitting on the worn couch, flipping through a newspaper like he’s got all the time in the world.
His buzzed blond hair is starting to grow out, and his jaw is starting to sport the beginnings of a beard. At the sound of my footsteps, he glances up and for a moment, I see a flash of Clara in his green eyes.
“I knew it was only a matter of time.” Ben turns his attention back to his newspaper. “You don’t strike me as the patient type.”
“I need you to arrange a meeting. With Bruno and Carlos.”
Ben’s head snaps up. “The Tommaso boys?”
