“Besides the obvious fact that I’m not your fucking enemy, you were a financial failure with a target on your back long before I got on the scene, Hector! You need me more than I need you. You have the resources to take this city, but you don’t have the knowledge. You’d be battering against a closed gate.
“Even if you got inside, we both know you don’t want the bureaucracy that leadership entails. You like your club and your soldiers. Do you want to sit on the City Council? My fatheristhe City Council, the board; he’s everything. If I fail, you’ll be dealing with a far uglier situation than you are prepared for.”
Hector’s face briefly slackened like Mason slapped him, and he was too stunned to react. Then, finally, he pushed himself out of his desk, his thick forearms exposed beneath his rolled-up sleeves.
“Did you call me a failure? You uppity, blue-blooded cunt!” Hector balled his hands into fists and lunged toward Mason.
James pulled me back, “Wait!” I screamed, partially because I was terrified. But, more importantly, everything suddenly made perfect sense.
Mason stepped back, narrowly avoiding the full force of the hit aimed at his nose. However, his chin still took the brunt of the blow. He made no sound as he swung back, connecting a fist with Hector’s eye. Hector lost his footing but used the momentum of his falling to drive them both to the ground.
I thought about the small gun holstered beneath my jacket and the brief lessons I’d been given on how to use it. Mason made me swear to only think of touching it if I intended to kill someone. Leave the showboating to him. I never thought I would need to use it, but the feral energy between them made me unsure. There was electricity stinging the air, raw, masculine, bloody.
I never knew that air could be bloody, but I recognized this feeling from when Charles attacked me. The violence tasted like copper, life and death stroking one another in a sensual caress. I was terrified and more alive than I’d ever felt. For a crazy moment, I understood what Mason meant when he confessed to me that the power electrified him. That as much as he hated this life and the things it had forced on him, he loved it too.
I stepped forward with no intention of touching the gun. “Stop it right now, both of you!” my scream had no impact on them as they grappled one another. I thought about kicking them.
“Claire, stand down.” James stepped in front of me.
“Back off, James,” I pushed at him, and when he wouldn’t move, I punched him in the balls. James dropped nearly to the ground with an audible grunt. He was only holding himself up by an impressive show of will. The two morons on the floor paused long enough to see what was happening.
“Do you two realize what’s happening here, or do you justneedto beat the fuck out of each other?” James groaned beside me in warning, obviously still attempting to protect me despite my less-than-kind treatment of his most delicate area.
They watched one another, neither one throwing another punch. “Why don’t you tell us what you suspect, Claire?” Mason asked as he stared down at Hector. He had managed to get the upper hand.
“Why don’t you come here and hold my hand, and Hector, why don’t you sit at your desk while we pretend to have acivilizedconversation?”
Hector gave me an appraising look before he grunted, “Only because there is a lady present. Now get the fuck off me before I throw you off.”
Mason pushed off the ground wiping the palms of his hands on his suit. Drops of blood welled along his knuckles as he took my hand. He looked at me apologetically, and I couldn’t tell whether he was apologizing for the fight or the blood he’d wiped on my skin. I quickly took stock of his injuries. He was fine, if not a little bruised.
Hector sat at his desk, straightening his shirt and unrolling the sleeves that had been up when we arrived. Had he prepared to fight Mason in advance? And if he had, why? There was something about their relationship or alpha men, in general, I didn’t get.
Finally satisfied that neither one intended to start swinging, I began speaking. “This is to drive a wedge between the two of you.”
“This isn’t summer camp.” Hector bit out in a dismissive tone. “No one cares if your boy and I are best friends.”
“Do you have a stronger ally, Hector? Anyone who has a better shot of taking David Sharp down?” he didn’t answer—not that I thought he would. “Exactly! And you, Mason, do you have a stronger ally?” he also didn’t answer, but we all knew the truth. “You’re each much more easily picked off alone than when your resources combine. What would have been more impactful than one of us being gifted a dead enemy and the other dead family?”
They all looked at me in surprise, but James spoke. “There could be other messages, but many of them may exist to throw us off. A traitor spilling his guts seems poetic, but what if Claire’s right and it’s not? Where did you get the idea?”
“Just watching the two of them escalate so seamlessly. It was the only part of all of this that made sense.”
“You think they killed my brother-in-law to weaken me, pick at my allies, and use my pain and jealousy against me?”
“I do.” I met his gaze.
“You’re not half as timid as I thought you were when I met you.” I guessed that was a compliment. “I don’t know if you’re right or wrong, but you make a good point. If I want that piece of shit dead, his son is my best chance.”
Mason stepped forward, “I want him dead, and regardless of you or anyone else, I will see it happen. Set your expectations accordingly, Hector. You’re with me, or you’re against me.”
“I'm with you, for now, Sharp. But I'll be in the market for better friends if you don't win soon.”
Mason grabbed a chair, seeming to sense that this portion of the meeting was over. He sat and pulled me into the chair beside him. James took the remaining one on my other side.
“Speaking of other friends, I hope you know better than to get into business with the likes of Delano Agrest. I hear he's been shopping around for insiders. He may make a tempting offer, but in some ways, he's even worse than my father.”
Hector raised one of those perfectly sculpted brows. “Why would you even mention him? He’s had no business here since before your father went to prison.”