Iheardthem die.
With my purple alpha hearing. I was two floors up, I wasn't supposed to be there, but I came back earlier from my friend's house and snuck in to play a computer game.
Then came all those days and nights when Anzo drugged Mauro, trying to wipe his memory clean. But every single day, I snuck into his room and repeated everything to him. Detail by detail. Whispering,"Remember. Remember. Always."I forced him to hold on to it. Made that memory unshakable, carved in stone.
And yeah.
It was me.
I gave the feds everything they needed and then some to take him down. I made sure to destroy him while keeping myself off their radar.
He thinks it was my brothers. Probably deep down, he suspects all of them. Even Rocco.
Everyone, except me. For all his intelligence, he never saw it coming. Maybe because we, purple alphas, are seen as less clever. Meat not brain. So I became his blind spot.
Me. Too dumb to betray him.
He. Too smart to suspect me.
Anzo leans down slightly. "Your fucking arrogance, Rocco, is really testing my patience," he growls. "Don’t think you’re untouchable just because I let a few of your little stunts slide. Your day’s coming, asshole."
How nice that he can't read minds, though I’m sure he wishes he could. If he did, he’d find more inside our heads than he could ever handle.
"Anzo," I say, trying to pull his focus off Rocco, "we need to talk about what you’re planning to do with Eliano and Mauro."
Anzo straightens slowly, and I hear the mechanical joints connecting his cybernetic arm to his spine click faintly as he moves.
He looks at me like I’m a fly buzzing around his face.
"Those two’ll sing the second the feds or even local cops start squeezing them."
I don’t know how to answer. Mauro and Eliano have already been cut from the inheritance. Anzo thinks they hate him most, but he’s wrong to leave me off that list.
Still, here we are. Those two don’t have much to lose… except if they talk, they’ll have to deal with Anzo’s payback. And Anzo doesn’t let shit slide. He’d chase them to the ends of the earth.
The question is: will they risk it? Will they flip and take a deal? Enter witness protection?
I get why Anzo wants to make a preemptive move. But they’re still my brothers. And the idea that he might actually want to get rid of them permanently? That’s out of the question, even for me. I have a soft spot for my brothers.
"Let me take them," I say. "They’ll be safe at my place. No feds around them."
Anzo’s jaw tightens.
"Not happening. They stay here."
"You can’t keep them locked in cages forever. If the FBI raids this place and finds them, dead or alive, it’s not gonna end well for you."
"Really?" Anzo sneers, ice in his tone. "So many brilliant advisors these days. Before I run a few volts through your system, think real hard about whether what you’re saying makes any fucking sense."
"It does," I say flatly. "If I were you, I’d pack my shit and disappear. Head to the Caribbean. Lowen’s not some cheap Russian outfit. If the feds get hard proof, they can authorize an emergency operation in twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
Anzo rubs his forehead again, smearing even more blood across it. Uh, Betas. I stare at him with disgust. Their senses are dull, muted like the humans who once roamed this planet. He could be soaked in blood and wouldn’t even notice.
I can. I do. I still smell it on him. All of it.
Most of all… my parents’ blood.
My grandfather’s. My uncle’s.
