Page 95 of The Bronze Garza

“Who then, you?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“Fuck no,” he returns without a breath’s hesitation. “When you’re out, I’m out. There ain’t another soul I’d trust with my life.”

As we hit a stoplight, I drum my fingers on the steering wheel in thought. In the last three or so years, I haven’t spent much time with my brothers. After the Russia job, Reuben and I were back for less than a week before we embarked on another six-month-long international job.

We came off that one with the intention of taking a six-week vacation, to rest and catch up with family. But less than two days in, Henderson came knocking.

So, yeah, I haven’t had much time to catch up, spend one-on-one time with each brother to evaluate where their heads are at.

Before I left for Russia, Trent Garza was inked in my will to take over if something happened. It’s always been a no-brainer. Focused, calculated, cold and mean enough that he never makes decisions based off emotions or attachment. He’s dependable, a born leader, and takes every part of the job seriously, no matter how menial.

But, I suppose his trajectory has changed now that he has Lexi. Not that I blame him. He deserves a good, long life with the woman he spent his entire life waiting for.

The light changes to green. “Can I ask you something, Ben?”

“Shoot.”

“How did you...” I stop, think about my question, and rearrange it. “With Jules, in the beginning, did you feel...I dunno—you ever felt...”

“Guilty for wanting her?” he fills in for me. “Like I should’ve been helping her heal instead of thinking ‘bout fucking her six ways from Sunday? Like it was wrong and I was morally reprehensible?”

Agitation itches under my skin. “Fuck. Yeah. Exactly like that.”

“You’re also gonna feel like you’re taking advantage of her the first time you lose all self-control and kiss her.”

Nail on the fucking head. “When did those feelings stop?”

“When I stopped seeing her as a victim,” he answers. “When I stopped thinking aboutwhatshe went through and started seeing her forwhoshe is now. When I pushed past the sadness in her eyes and saw that what she wanted from me wasn’t to be treated with kid gloves, but to be loved flaws and all. And then...”

“And then?”

“And then I started to fall.” He rolls his head to me and grins like he knows something I don’t. “But you’ve already fallen, haven’t you?”

~

Trent lands thecopter in Chula Vista, and Reuben, True, and I jump out and into the waiting vehicles.

Over the years, I’ve curated a small, on-call team in Mexicali for non-sensitive cross-the-border jobs. They’re discreet and effective and I can always count on them to get shit done. For the past couple of days, I’ve had them do surveillance of the location we’re headed to now.

The target’s name is Parry. Some call him “Soul,” since taking them is what he does for a living.

Excepthedoesn’t—at least not anymore.

His reputation was built back in the day, the sharpest assassin in the industry. But he’s an old cat now, so he outsources high-paying jobs for cheap, to inexperienced goons like the Skullaz kid who ran over Lyra. After some deep digging and bribing, we found out he operates out of an old motel here in Chula Vista.

True’s phone rings as we drive off the lot. After answering and talking for a few minutes, he hangs up and tells me, “One of the men turned themselves in.”

“That was quick,” I mumble, adjusting my bulletproof vest.

“What a bunch of idiots,” True says through a laugh. “How do theynotknow of the ‘Castello Pact’?”

The men who kidnapped Lyra are from Skullaz Motorcycle Club. Under duress, they confessed that they kidnapped her because they thought she was connected to the Castellos, and they planned to use her as leverage to get their guy—the one who ran Lyra over—back from Stefano. Provided he was still alive.

“Probably fresh in the game,” I say.

Those fools couldn’t have concocted a more futile and harebrained plot. The Castellos have a pact: no rescues or ransoms. Anyone—whether family, friend, or lover—who got nabbed by enemies of the Castellos should consider themselves dead.

Kidnapping for leverage or ransom is a tried-and-true tactic that works well in crime rings, so the Castellos unanimously made the decision to neutralize it. A pact their enemies realized wasn’t a bluff when they kidnapped a Castello and found their threats and demands ignored. When the relative was inevitably murdered, the Castellos had a funeral and then it was business as usual the following day.