Page 118 of The Silence Lies

He looks over his shoulder at the three men kneeling behind him. “Like I said, loyalty means a lot to us here. As soon as we heard there were men defying my orders, I brought them here. Though you have to know, there were more.”

“Where’s the rest of them then?” Levi growls.

Zeke smirks. “Bianchi’s bodyguard is very skilled it seems.”

I glance at Levi, but he’s too focused on the three men cowering underneath six guns. It kind of escaped me that we needed to run a clean up crew with everything else happening around us—not that we would have had a chance anyway. The sirens were already heading to the party by the time we hit the main road.

“It’s handled,” Zeke supplies as he turns to the group of men. Seemingly, he can read my mind, because he doesn’t waste a second explaining. “It was a gang shootout, or that’s what the rumor is. Officials won’t ask questions and Bianchi’s name won’t even be mentioned.”

“There still lies the question of what the fuck happened?” Levi states. I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I have a feeling what’s playing out in front of us is to do with the very man now laying on a plastic covered kitchen table with our leader by his side.

“There were some traitors amongst the brotherhood,” Zeke answers, glaring at the three men who seem to have already come to the realization they’re not leaving this place alive. “The Verdis have no dealings here, and I made that clear. Some of you forgot who was in charge.”

Zeke marches back to the three men kneeling on the ground. “You jeopardized everything,” he growls at them. He leans down to the first man in the small line up, tearing the white vest from his body with his knife. “My daughter.”

He steps up to the next guy, splitting the shirt down the center. “The brotherhood.”

When he reaches the last man, he realizes he doesn’t need to strip him, his chest already bared through the sleeveless leather jacket he’s wearing. Zeke sneers into his face.

The man doesn’t say a word, and I figure that’s how these men survive. Silence is the best option right now because I can practically feel the anger roiling off Zeke like a tempest. I sense that when he’s really in his element, it’s the point of no return.

“Pin him down,” he orders two men before turning to Levi and me. “Help yourself at the bar, I’m sure you’ll want to watch how I handle traitors.”

If I ever thought that Zeke was the one behind the attack tonight, I’m immediately proven wrong. All evidence points to a weakness in this gang, and Zeke is making damn sure he handles it. I can see now why Sera put so much faith in him. He’s true to his word, and that settles like a lead weight in my gut because we’re still facing the fact that nowhere is safe for Bianchi.

Levi and I perch on the stools by the bar as suggested. We don’t talk, we don’t drink, we just sit and watch as the fate of those three men is dealt by the hand of their leader. One by one, Zeke orders his men to pin them down. His knife glistens in the low light as he carves out the gang emblem tattooed on the first man’s skin.

No one else says a word, and aside from the stifled painful cries of the men on the floor, there’s only the music carrying out a symphony that matches the rage in Zeke’s mind.

The flap of skin flops to the floor beside the shivering man as shock rattles through him. No sooner is Zeke done with the first that he moves onto the next. It’s like a ceremony of de-badging. These three fucked up and their punishment is exile.

By the time the third guy has his tattoo sliced from his chest, the other two have passed out. Blood pools around their bodies from where Zeke cut so deep, but it only serves as a reminder of their treachery.

When Zeke is done, he turns on his heel and approaches us. He’s silent, stepping around the bar and grabbing a bottle of beer from the cooler. He pops the lid off, the sharp fizz of bubbles cutting through the silence. “Tell Bianchi I have this handled. I assume that’s why you came here tonight?”

Levi shakes his head. “We came down for answers,” he says, turning his head to the massacre behind us. “But I guess we got them.”

Zeke nods in understanding, respect flowing through him. “I will forever be indebted to Bianchi, she can be rest assured that there is no conflict between her and The Vultures.”

“Good,” Levi says approvingly. “Because we’re going to need all the reinforcements we can get.”

After a few discussions back and forth about how The Vultures can help us, we shake hands and move back out into the night. Tonight has been fucked up in all the craziest ways. From the attack to this, I haven’t forgotten about what happened between Levi and me. It still sits in the back of my mind, but I’m pretty sure there’s nothing either of us can say.

“At least we know for sure The Vulture’s weren’t behind the attack,” I mutter as we sit in silence in Levi’s Porsche.

He shrugs back at me, still staring off into the darkness of the marina. “They were and weren’t.”

“Right,” I huff, not really knowing where to go from here.

After a heavy beat of silence, Levi turns to me, his dark eyes searching mine before he finally gathers the courage to speak. “About tonight…”

My brows furrow for a second until I see the softness in his gaze and I realize what he’s referring to.

“I don’t like guys.”

“Neither do I,” I shrug.

“So what happened before was…” he pauses and suddenly the Levi I know with the shit poker face has me dumbfounded because I can’t actually figure him out.

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