“What for?”
Benito shrugged. “Everything?”
“Be specific, man. I don’t even like you, let alone got time for this bullshit.”
“Asa wants a hundred grand to let me go.”
Luis’s brows shot up. Then he whistled. “That’s a lot of Ps. To be honest, I thought you were already gone. You’ve been dark a long time.”
“I wasn’t dark, just somewhere else. He wanted me out of the ends, so I left. Went back to my girls cos he said he’d kill them if I stayed here.”
“Girls? Your missus?”
“Nah. My mum and my sister.”
A frown marred Luis’s handsome face. “I thought you didn’t have any family.”
Benito laughed without humour. “I said that to protect them. But it wasn’t enough in the end. He found them anyway.”
Luis was silent a moment. Benito could tell he was weighing it all against everything he knew Benito had inflicted on other people and trying to decide if he gave a shit about Benito’s pain.
Benito wouldn’t have blamed him if he didn’t. He’d done more to hurt Luis than Luis would probably ever know. “You know it was me, don’t you?”
“What was?”
“Dante. It wasn’t his idea to creep on your boy’s family. It was mine. I saw how close you were getting, and I knew he was your weak spot.”
Confusion coloured the haunted haze descending on Luis’s face. His gaze darted between Benito and Paolo banging plates on the counter. “But why? Asa said you never wanted me back on the road when I got out.”
“I didn’t. But fucking with you kept your brother distracted and I needed that.”
“So you could fuck him over?”
“Yes.”
“Then Asa fuckedyouover?”
“Something like that.”
“It’s everything like that,” Luis snapped. “That’s why you’re here. Because it didn’t work out for you, and now you want a chance you’ve never given to anyone else.”
“I gave it to you.”
“Asagave it to me.”
“We both did. I knew you were his weak spot too. I could’ve exploited that. I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
Benito let out a slow breath. It took everything he had not to slump on the table. “I wanted you to be happy. Seeing you with him—” Benito nodded at Paolo. “It was nice. It made me think—never mind. Maybe I’m just a nice bloke. Ever think of that?”
“No. You’re a cold bastard, Martell. Always have been.”
Benito laughed. Couldn’t help it. “You’re confusing me with Asa. He’s the king, not me.”
“But you wanted to be.”
“I did.” Benito couldn’t deny it. “But I was sick, man... in the head. I’ve been away from it long enough to see that. Now, I want—”