Page 19 of Drowning in the Deep
“Does he have you working on something specific now?” Drake asked, clearly confused by what I’d just said.
I nodded. “Yes. He’s spoken to my boss, and they’re working together to get me to help Father with some new real estate he’s trying to acquire. It all sounds pretty boring to me, but at least I get to use my degree to help the family, which one would think would make him back off a little. But then, that’s never been the case before, even when I thought I was trying to help.”
Drake and I both knew I was referring to the situation with Daemon. He knew more than anyone how awful that had been for me at first. After all, he’d been the only one who’d managed to come and see me before Daemon flipped out and put me in that fucking dog cage.
“He definitely seems to treat you differently than he does the rest of us, even though he’s never been soft on any of us. Still, giving you to that bastard Daemon Petrov was just wrong,” Drake said, shaking his head.
I bit my bottom lip, knowing I couldn’t say anything bad about Daemon and also not wanting to upset my brother. He was trying to help. It wasn’t as if Drake didn’t know—or at least suspect—that I had deeper feelings for Daemon than he would’ve approved of. But now wasn’t the time to talk about that.
So I didn’t. “I just can’t believe Dad has stayed here for so long. I was hoping he’d take Lillian back to Boston with him, but now, it seems like Chicago has become his home away from home. I moved here to get away from all of this, but I’m starting to think that’s impossible and that he’d follow me wherever I go.” I took a deep breath, then a few bites of my salad while I contemplated whether or not to say more. How much of the horror that was my life did Drake need to hear about?
“He’s got to go back eventually,” he said, taking a drink of his water. “It’s not like he can trust Alex to run everything in Boston for him indefinitely. I do assume that Alex will take over for Dad one of these days, but I know he’s not ready for that yet. Dad still wants to control everything, and he’s got a ton of business associates in Boston. If he walks away from all of that indefinitely, his rivals are going to start moving in on his territory, and that will never do.”
Drake had a point. I kept thinking Father would leave, that he’d be in Boston more and Chicago less. So far, that hadn’t been the case. “I don’t know what’s going on. It’s like there’s some other reason he’s staying here, something we don’t know about.”
I could see my brother mulling over that idea. Neither one of us was brave enough to say what we were both thinking—that there was a really good chance that our father was sticking around in Chicago because he was hoping this marriage would help him acquire his biggest rival’s entire syndicate. Drake wouldn’t say it aloud because if someone caught wind of him saying such things, Father could squash him like a bug. I wouldn’t say it because I knew what such a threat would mean for Daemon, and I didn’t want to think about the ramifications that would bring to everyone. We would be at war, and there were always casualties in a war on both sides.
“Hopefully, Dad will be happy that you’re helping out with the real estate stuff and leave you alone for a while.” Drake smiled at me reassuringly.
I nodded, forcing a smile, thinking maybe I could fool him into thinking that I believed that might be the case. But we both knew Father would continue to exploit me in every way possible. He wouldn’t stop with simple real estate law. And if my family did find a way to take over the Petrovs, I would become even more entangled in all of this.
What that would mean for Daemon, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t think he’d ever agree to work for my father, and I thought my father would never trust him as a soldier. He’d probably want Daemon out of the picture. What did that mean for me?
I didn’t know, but Daemon’s solution to the problem was beginning to look like the only way I could gain my freedom from the monster that had haunted me my entire life. I didn’t like the idea of it. I’d been trying my best to avoid going there, but the bottom line was, there might be only one way to break free from Alexander La Rosa.
Kill him.
“Elisa, are you okay?” Drake asked, bending down to meet my eyes.
I managed a nod, still smiling, but on the inside, a fire was beginning to rage.
CHAPTER14
DAEMON
At the gun warehouse, my brothers and our lieutenants gathered around to shoot the shit and see what we had at our disposal to help us take out the Savages in their country home. Vin was eager to tell everyone what we’d discovered while I was more interested in making sure we had everything we needed to pull this off without problems.
All four of us checked the weapons before us carefully, making sure there were no signs of defects. Besides every size and caliber of gun imaginable, we had other weapons at our disposal as well—explosives, flashbangs, knives. Pretty much anything anyone might need was here, and they were all new, so we didn’t have to worry about them not working from overuse.
I picked up an AK-47 and gave it a close inspection, thinking it might work nicely, though I’d always carry my pistol with me. Going into a situation like this, it was important not to weigh myself down with a lot of extra items I wouldn’t need, but I also needed to be prepared.
“So Daemon flies this tiny little drone above the farmhouse, right,” Vin was telling the others. “You’d think something the size of a fucking hummingbird wouldn’t show us shit, but the thing worked pretty well.”
“What were you able to see?” Mikel asked, inspecting a handgun.
“Those assholes were hanging around the house like they were waiting for their ma to finish Sunday dinner. Not a fucking care in the world. Only two guys sitting on the porch smoking and shooting the shit. So fucking stupid.” Vin shook his head, still in disbelief at how relaxed the atmosphere had been out there.
I caught Tilda’s eyes where she stood against the wall, a few feet away from us. She had her arms folded, and I could tell she was still nervous. She wanted in on this, but she felt vulnerable. I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t want to have to face the monsters who ruined my life either—not unless it was to get revenge. That was what we were planning to give her.
“How many of those bastards do you think I can kill with this?” Vin asked, holding up one of the semiautomatic rifles. “I don’t mind spraying bullets everywhere because you can take out so many guys that way, but I sure hope I get a chance to use this knife on a guy or two.” He held up the blade so that it caught the dim light from the dome lights above us and moved it back and forth sharply a few times, like he was slicing through throats.
“I don’t get what it is about slicing through people that you like so much,” Dezzy said, shaking his head. “I’m all for taking out the enemy when it helps our profits to stabilize, but knives are messy.”
“That’s the beauty of it,” Vin replied, his eyes wide like he was envisioning the bloody scene now. “Slicing and dicing. You get an up close and personal feel when the life drains out of them.”
“You’re sick,” Mikel said, shaking his head. He never did participate much in our pre-battle excitement, and since he wasn’t going with us, he had even more reason to be sullen.
“You’re just pissed that you have to stay at the warehouse,” Vin said, jostling him slightly. Mikel brushed his arm away, and I put a stop to it before something stupid happened.
