Page 125 of Renascence

There’s muttering in the background before his father comes on. “Liam?”

“William.”

“What’s this about?”

“Vitalli. For some reason, he thinks he can get to you by fucking with me.”

“I already told him I can’t be bought. When he threatened you, we didn’t think much of it because we figured you were somewhere far away.”

“Yeah, well, he found me. My girl’s face is all busted up.”

“Jesus. Will she testify that it was Vitalli?”

“It was his men, but it shouldn’t be hard trailing it back to him.”

“Good. Go to the nearest police station and file a report. Have them contact ADA Nichols. He’s prosecuting.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“Liam….”

His thumb hovers over the End button. “Yeah?”

“Nothing. Goodbye.”

He tosses the phone aside, closing his eyes. It’s like the call drained him of all his energy. I lay my hand on his shoulder, sliding it up to stroke the back of his neck.

“Liam, I’m sorry. You didn’t have to do that for me.”

“I didn’t do it for you. Well, not entirely. Maybe I just needed to see if they’d changed. Guess not. At least they’re still together. Seems I was the problem after all.” He shrugs me off, getting to his feet. “I gotta go talk to the guys.”

“Liam.”

He stops at the door, hand frozen above the knob. I try to speak, but no words come. What the hell would I say? The silence stretches on until he gives up, opening the door and stepping through it. It closes behind him, the finality of the resoundingclickechoing in my heart.

***Venom***

“She wants to do what?”

“Go to the cops,” I repeat, meeting Gage’s stare.

I’m already a little pissed that she doesn’t trust me enough to handle this, but now I have to tell that to my brothers. They won’t say it, but I know it’s what they’re all thinking.

“And how are we supposed to explain all this?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m bringing it to the table.”

“I guess it would be easier to let them do the work for once,” Razor weighs in. “This could be the first step toward our legit operation.”

“What do we do about Vitalli?” Chopper asks. “My contact gave me two locations where he could be keeping his money.”

“Where?” I give him my full attention.

“One right outside of ATL and another not far from here. Of course, there’s also his house.”

“I have an idea,” I announce. “We’d need help, though. Lots of bodies.”

Gage nods, not even asking me to explain. “I’ll call Jacksonville and SC, see if they can help out.”