Page 23 of Traitor
I nodded toward the door. “Consider it a test. If she tries to leave, shoot her on sight. I didn’t handcuff her down there, so this will show me whether or not dinner was legitimate.”
He furrowed his brow. “What happened over dinner?”
I slid my hands into my pockets. “Remember, if she comes up? A bullet right against her skull will work just fine.”
My plans were coming along swimmingly, especially after the successful raid on Mateo’s second-largest warehouse on the island. Without it, he didn’t stand a chance in the ports this month, and I knew it would throw him off balance.
Especially given the bodies my men dropped and the blood that flooded the parking lot.
“Mmm, I should go back and look at those pictures,” I murmured to myself.
A knock at the door stopped me in my tracks, though. My ears perked up as I moved quickly for the hallway, gazing down it as I watched one of my men open the door. I poised my hand over the butt of my gun, readying myself for whatever fight Mateo had brought to my front door.
“Simmer down, brother. It’s just me,” Ronnie said.
I sighed. “You didn’t call.”
He walked through the front door. “Since when do I have to call to pay a visit to a house I let you stay in free of charge?”
Not for long, asshole.“What do you want? It’s late.”
He sauntered down the hallway. “Can’t a brother come visit his other brother for a glass of wine or whiskey?”
I blinked. “I already sent you the update of the warehouse raid. Did I miss something?”
He walked by me and patted my shoulder. “Come. I’m in the mood for the driest red wine you’ve got stocked.”
I rolled my eyes, but entertained his stupid notion nonetheless. If people thought I was unhinged, then that simply meant that they hadn’t met Ronnie. He was my half-brother. We had different mothers because our father was a fucking horndog, but the family had taken care of me nonetheless.
But, there were times when I questioned his loyalty.
“So! How much of a threat is Mateo now that his second-largest warehouse has been demolished to nothing?” Ronnie asked.
I poured each of us a crystal glass of whiskey. “Bah, he’ll be too distracted with trying to get things up and running again to be any kind of a threat to us.”
He took the glass I handed him. “Then, it might shock you when I tell you that four of the men from the crew that night were found dead on the gravel road leading up to the warehouse?”
I blinked. “Sorry, what?”
Ronnie sipped his drink. “Dead as doornails. And who do you think was responsible for that?”
I eased myself into a chair in front of him. “Possibly Mateo.”
“More than likely, Mateo. So, what’s that you were saying about him not being a threat?”
“Oh, come on, Ronnie. You would’ve done the same thing. He did what we thought he’d do: he got up, went to go get a bit of revenge to make himself feel better, and now he’s in scramble mode. I know that man’s docking schedule like the back of my hand, and he’ll be hurting this month and all of next month until he can find the funds to throw into getting that warehouse repaired.”
“Or purchasing a new one altogether.”
I pointed at him. “Or, that.”
He threw back the rest of his whiskey. “We need to make sure we stay two steps ahead of him. And if we know for sure men are going to die, we need to know that before he does. Understood?”
I snickered. “I already knew those men for that job were disposable. Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
He slammed my glass against the top of the table. “Don’t you throw that kind of shit in my face when this was your idea in the first place. Don’t forget who came to my office pining over some grand, master plan that you wanted to execute. I didn’t hand over my men for you to lead them to slaughter. You told me no one would be killed in this process, and now I’ve got four men dead and one missing.”
I furrowed my brow. “Since when do we operate under the assumption that no one dies?”
