Page 84 of Love Thy Brother
“Enfield’s in London, right?” Nash leaned forward. “Is it near Lewisham?”
Mateo shot him anidiotscowl. “South of the water, mate.”
“What is?”
“Lewisham. There’s no way some dumb cunt from Enfield is running product from there. They’d kill him first.”
The room took his word for it. I’d learned more about Mateo in the past week than I had in five years, but he was the only city boy at the table. Save Alexei, the rest of us were bumpkins who’d fought our way to something bigger.
“The Lewisham crew might know who’s working out of Enfield, though.” Cam drummed his fingers on the table. “You still have a number for Benito Martel?”
Nash winced and shook his head. “He’s out of the game. Asa took his crown, but last I heard, he was gone too. No clue who runs their shit now, and we’ve had no reason to find out.”
“You have a reason now, zolotoy mal’chik,” Alexei spoke up. “Can you find another source?”
“Not unless Martel knows something.”
“Ask him. You need all the information you can get before you act.”
Nash cocked a fair brow. “You’re talking like it has nothing to do with you.”
“It can’t have anything to do with me.”
A loaded silence cloaked the room. Alexei was sitting in Saint’s seat. He stood and pushed his chair beneath the table, resting his forearms on the back as he seemed to steel himself before his gaze settled not on Nash, my brother, or Saint, but on Mateo. “Russia owns London. You asked me what Sidorov wanted in exchange for his support against Liliana’s grandfather. I gave you a vague response at the time—you had enough to worry about—but the truth is this: he wanted me to disappear. To leave this place and become the no one I was before you ever knew me.”
Mateo’s scarred face folded into a deeper frown. “You’re gonna need to explain that better to me. I don’t speak Russian riddles.”
Alexei almost smiled. “It is very simple. He gave me my freedom a long time ago on the condition I would be gone from his life—from hisbusiness—forever. Since I came here, that has not happened. I believe the last time we spoke was the final warning I will get.”
“He’ll kill you?”
Alexei leered. “He might try, but whatever happened, it would mean, one way or another, I would not be here anymore.”
Cam growled, deep and low in his chest, the way our dad used to before he chinned someone. He didn’t reach for Alexei, neither did Saint, but their raw distress was heavy enough that Rubi felt it from the kitchen.
He returned to the table, stopping to squeeze Cam’s shoulders. “We don’t need Alexei to run some dickheads out of Porth Luck. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way. And that’s if we even have to. We still don’t know it was them in that fucking car. Coulda been the yuppies.”
“It wasn’t them.”
All eyes, even Rubi’s, turned to me. Goddamn, I needed more weed to deal with examination so intense, but I forced myself not to squirm in my seat.
Or flip my shit and walk out.
Cam waved his hand for me to explain.
I shrugged. “It makes no sense. Attempted murder is a long way from a few cartoons and some sketchy vandalism.”
“Thosecartoonsdepicted your death,” Rubi snapped.
“Exactly. Why would anyone plant that kind of evidence, then carry out the crime? It’s fucking stupid. Besides, you saw those drawings, right? They were funny, not sinister.”
“Not laughing, bro.”
“I’m not your brother.”
Heat flared in Rubi’s gaze before he caught himself and sank into the chair he’d vacated. “I respectfully disagree... about the comedic value of those bullshit cartoons, but I hear what you’re saying. You still want to ask Alexei about hacking them?”
“If you like.”
