Elect(39)

“I’ll kill them all,” I said softly. “Every last one of your family members. I’ll kill them.”

“Do it. I dare you.”

“You shouldn’t encourage me. I’m teetering on the edge of insanity right now.”

Phoenix shrugged. “First, the Nicolosi family would find out you’ve been offing my family members. Second, it’s almost impossible to find all of them, unless you plan on hacking our accounts and seeing where we send payments in order to buy silence. You see, in our family, money talks… probably because it’s scarce.”

I grinned and stuffed the knife back in my pocket. “Thanks, Phoenix. Great doing business with you.”

His smile fell.

“I’ll send Tex over to throw a bucket of water onto your face so you can clean up a bit. Wouldn’t want any of those cuts getting infected.”

“I could die and you’d probably smile while performing my eulogy.” Phoenix spat.

I paused, my back to him as I sighed. “You’re wrong. You were one of my best friends. When my dad beat me, you told me not to cry. When I told you I wanted to kill him, you said you’d get me a gun. When Trace was taken from me, you told me she’d come back. And now? Now all I see is my ex-best friend.” I turned around and faced him. “You look like the Phoenix I grew up with, you sound like him; hell, you’ve always walked around like the world owed you something. I just don’t know how the hell we got from there to here. I never wanted this. I would have never chosen this for either of us.”

Phoenix closed his eyes, and when he opened them it was almost as if there was a chasm between us. His choices, my loyalty to Trace, our past demons—there may as well have been a lifetime of separation from the door to the chair.

“I didn’t want it. But I was given no choice. He took it from me the minute I found out the truth.”

My heartbeat picked up. “Who? Who told you?”

“I know I’m an ass.” Phoenix licked his dry lips and broke eye contact. “And I know what I did to Trace was unforgiveable. Jealousy’s a bitch and all that, but honestly, the only way I can atone for my many sins is to keep you the hell away from him, away from the truth. I’m taking it to my grave not because death sounds like a really fun idea, but because the second I tell you anything, I damn you and the rest of your family along with me. He’ll stop at nothing.”

“But—”

“Just say thank you.” Phoenix laughed bitterly. “For saving your sorry life.”

I swallowed. “That’s just the thing. It was never supposed to be at your expense.”

“Better mine than yours,” Phoenix growled. “Leave me alone, Nixon. Go home to your perfect life, your beautiful girlfriend and loads of money. Go home, and if you come back, you better be prepared to shoot me in the head.”

I closed my eyes. I couldn’t look at him when I promised… “I’ll discuss it with the rest of the Elect.”

“Not good enough!” Phoenix shouted, his voice hoarse with emotion. “When we made our little club, we promised. If any of us got into deep shit, if any of us were putting someone else in danger, we’d shoot them. Do me the favor. Drown me, for all I care. But shoot me before they get the information because I don’t know if I’m strong enough, man. I don’t know if I’m selfless enough. Damn, I know I’m not selfless enough to crack even though I know I’ll still die. So, when you come back, bring your gun and some prayer beads.”

“All right.” I slammed the door before I could go back on my word.

We’d made that contract, the Elect contract, when we were teenagers. We knew the family business, saw lots of our uncles and friends die for information or die because they were rats.

We knew what happened to them when they were tortured.

One night, Phoenix had walked in. Blood caked his fifteen-year-old hands.

“I killed him.”

“What?” I grabbed some old clothes from the floor. “What do you mean, you killed him?”

“Uncle John.” Phoenix sniffled. “I killed him. Dad said it was time to break me.”

“Break you?” I repeated. “As in—”

“Time to learn the business.” Shaking, Phoenix fell to his knees in front of me, tears streaming down his pale face. “I didn’t want to hurt him, but Dad said we had to silence him for what he did.”

“What did he do?”

Phoenix shook his head. “I don’t know.” He wiped his sleeve across his nose and sniffed, “It must have been really bad, though.”