Page 6 of The Echo of Forever

I smiled.

“Aww,” I mused, picking up her sorry excuse for a weapon and returning it to her. “You actually thought I’d die.”

Had I gambled with my life fucking with multiple organizations outside of Everwood? No doubt about it. But did I secure an alliance with the head of the mob in New York, who had an ironclad partnership with The Delegation? Without question.

The Delegation wasn’t a secret society within a society, but an entity comprised of six Black families deep into organized crime. I wiggled my way into the O’Sullivan family’s fold by accident, but I liked them, especially the Don’s wife, Blair.

It’d been her I wanted to work with, and then I met her husband, and those plans shifted for the better. They got something that always belonged to them and I got a gun supplier who wasn’t pussy.

Solei scoffed.

“Die? No, dickhead. I thought I’d have to deal with your brother for another six months alone. And your grandmother, don’t even get me started on her.”

Oliver, who had already stretched out on the sofa, lifted his middle finger.

“Fuck you, Solei. Stop trying to deflect and tell him why you really called us over here.”

I looked between them, wondering what the fuck they’d been up to while I was away.

“I broke a rule,” she confessed.

The frown pulling at my lips deepened.

“Are you trying to piss me off? Elaborate and do it quickly.”

I knew my siblings well. The only rule Oliver had broken and would probably continue to break was fucking on women from the society. He liked playing with fire.

But Solei was a wildcard.

There were too many messes of hers I had to clean up over the years. Most of them…

“What’d you do with the body?” I asked as soon as she opened her mouth to speak.

Oliver started to laugh, and I knew I’d gotten it right.

“Just outside the city,” she whispered, avoiding eye contact. “Like before.”

I closed my eyes and took a breath before turning to open the door.

“Let’s take a ride,” I ordered, walking away before I talked crazy to her. “Both of you!”

Solei had a problem, but right now, mine was more important. Dealing with her habit would take a special kind of patience I didn’t fucking have at the moment.

“Are you mad?” she asked, leaning between the seats once I pulled from the curb.

I ignored her and eyed the cars on the left side of the street as we passed them. My gaze shifted to the rear view just in time to catch the dark blue Nissan Sentra hit a U-turn and follow after we cruised onto the next block.

“What was the reason this time?”

She flopped back with a huff.

“Found him digging through my office drawers,” she said. “It was either I dead him right there or do it later and run the risk of information being passed along.”

I let what she said marinate before replying.

“Or,” I started, hitting my turning signal and driving in the direction that took us out of Everwood. “You could’ve knocked him out until Oliver got there.”

At the first sign of shit not going how she expected, Solei’s default was to end a life. Not every man she’d killed had been up to no good, though.