I stared at the man, debating whether or not to ask if he was insane.
“No.”
“You should read it.”
I wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t taking my eyes off the fucker.
“Why don’t you tell me what it says since you wrote it.”
He didn’t bother denying it when he flipped the screen around once more. “Seems as though our leader has been battling his demons for a long time. It pains him that he has to hurt his family and loved ones this way, but he would see them all again soon.” Alejandro straightened and met my gaze squarely. “It seems he’s made you his successor.”
I’d been in the game long enough to know that wasn’t how it worked. There was a chain of command, an order of process. The rules might have been bent to allow me a chair at the table, but that wasn’t something that simply happened normally. It took years of loyalty and a large amount of money. Under normal circumstances, the spot should have gone to Joaquin after Cortez was cut off. But this, there was no way Eduardo would ever simply give me his throne. It was as likely as the man offing himself.
“Why would he do that?”
“Can we sit?” Alejandro took a step back, not to get away from the barrel of my gun, but to shift around me in the direction of the sitting area. “We have much to discuss and very little time.”
I wanted to tell him to go to hell. It was on the tip of my tongue, but my need for answers had me following him at a reasonable distance. I watched him as he lowered himself into one of the high back chairs; I stayed standing. He didn’t offer me a seat.
“You’re sitting. Now talk.”
He dusted long fingers down the soft material of his coat, brushing away invisible pieces of dust, apparently in no hurry to get on with it.
“Would you believe he’d been very impress with your work the last two months?” He lifted dark eyes to fix on my face. “You’ve proven yourself to be agile and savvy. You took a failing community and brought it back to life. It’s flourishing. Even I didn’t see that coming. You have a talent for this, a knack for keeping your house in order.”
I frowned at the man studying me as if he couldn’t quite figure me out. “What the fuck are you talking about? What does any of this have to do with you betraying Eduardo?”
His features became one of deep annoyance. The lines hardened to match the disappointment in his eyes. “You’re smarter than these questions, Nero. Why haven’t you figured it out yet?”
The condescension had me gritting my jaw. The implication that I was too stupid to grasp something so basic had me wanting to shoot the man just on principles alone.
“What I know is you’re a traitor. You killed your master.”
For the first time since I could remember, the other man barked a laugh. “I have no master. I am just one in a long line of watchers who maintain balance and keep order. We are enlisted to intervene when the bigger picture is threatened.”
“Who’s we, and what’s the bigger picture?”
He shrugged. “It changes with every new shift in power. In the beginning, Eduardo understood that. He knew, like all the other leaders, what was expected of him. He knew who he worked for and who he answered to. I was placed here to make sure he followed those directives and to take care of the situation should he forget. Now, that you have been given the throne, those directives fall to you.”
I started to shake my head. “I don’t want—”
“Don’t you?” He arched an eyebrow. “Then why are you here, Nero? Do you think I don’t know what your plans were? I’ve known since we parted ways earlier this afternoon that you would be here tonight. I knew the moment Mia was threatened, you would seek justice. Just as I know you will accept my offer by the time we part ways tonight.”
He wasn’t wrong. My plan had been to eliminate Eduardo and claim his position. I had done it for Mia, but I had also done it for Puke and the baby at the hospital. I’d done it for the broken and desolate. I’d done it for change.
“You’re smart. Much smarter than the others. You see the potential in what others see as trash and adapt quickly. There is always room for people hungry for change, if you’re willing to take the plunge.” He pushed to his feet and stood before me. “Accept what I am offering you. This is where you belong. You know I’m right.”
“You killed the man you swore to protect,” I gestured with a nod of my head in Eduardo’s direction. “What makes you think I’m stupid enough to trust you?”
The hint of a smile lingered around his eyes before it vanished with a blink. “This is a partnership. I will guard and protect you. I will be your eyes and ears—”
“In return, I do what for you?” I interjected.
“In return, you make money. You pay your dues. You continue what you’re doing and you don’t hide things from me, or lie.”
“Did you kill Eduardo because he lied to you about Cortez? You want me to be honest with you, I think you owe me the same,” I countered when he sighed heavily.
“As I’ve said before, my job is to clean up messes. Now,” he drifted a full step closer. “Do we have a deal?”
For the second time in twenty-four hours, I was offered a palm. With Luis, it was peace for Mia’s sake, but Alejandro was a viper. He was the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Getting into bed with him could cost me everything, including my life. Trusting him could cost more. He’d proven more than once that he was a liar and a manipulator. He had no loyalties to anyone and had no qualms about murdering the person he was meant to protect.
But if there was one thing I understood better than anything else, an enemy was only dangerous if they weren’t kept close.
I accepted the devil’s hand.
“Deal.”
Fifteen minutes later, I was exactly where I started, in a silent parking garage wondering how my life could change so drastically in the blink of an eye and how was I supposed to keep up?
I killed the engine on my bike and booted the kickstand into place. The seemingly endless day had my weary bones slumped in the seat, too tired to dismount and head upstairs. But while my body hurt and begged for rest, my brain was a hamster pumped with crack. It raced a million miles per hour, questioning its own sanity.
Was I really the new boss? Was the entirety of the whole city in my hands? I didn’t know the first thing about caring for that many lives. I didn’t know how I was supposed to run things.
“Don’t worry,” Alejandro had said once our gloved hands had parted. “I will do everything in my power to ease you into this new transition. As of this moment, consider me your personal guard.”
A guard who had killed his last master. He could deny it all he wanted, but the truth wouldn’t change.
Alejandro, Eduardo’s right hand man had killed him because of a lie, because Eduardo hadn’t told Alejandro Cortez was still alive. As his leader, Alejandro had no right to any information Eduardo didn’t want to give. He had the power to forgive Cortez and bring him back into the family — a stupid and dangerous decision — but one a boss was allowed to make. He didn’t have to explain himself. It made me think that what Alejandro had said about partners was true. That Alejandro didn’t work for Eduardo. But that raised the question: who was Alejandro? He worked for someone, someone above Eduardo. I guessed the Syndicate. They were the only ones with the power. The only ones with motive to have someone like Alejandro in every house.