“You’re not happy, Asa?”
“Not yet. I have a better shot at it since you saved Nino.”
Benito nodded. “I thought so.”
“Of course you did. That’s your thing, isn’t it? Is that why you pulled him out? To get to me?”
“I didn’t know you cared about him until you called. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here.”
“No? Not even now you have the Ps I asked you for?”
“How do you know that?”
Luis abruptly stood. “I don’t need to know this shit. If you two aren’t going to kill each other, I’m out.”
“We’re good,” Asa said before Benito could speak. “Just ironing out some details.”
Luis gave Asa a long look. “Don’t be a cunt.”
“Can’t now, can I?” Asa retorted. “You’ve showed him my arse.”
“I showed him you’re human. And so is he, man. He’s out the other side. Let him be.”
Asa nodded.
Luis left without looking at Benito again, and Benito wondered if that was it. If Luis had bullshitted him all the way here, and now Asa was going to finish the job.
He waited for fear to grip him.
It didn’t come. He took his bag from his shoulder and held it out. “You’re right. I have it.”
Asa laughed and reached for the tea mug on the coffee table. “I know I’m right. I knew it before I made you. There isn’t anyone else on the road persuasive enough to turn my muscle into rats.”
Persuasive. Benito let the bag drop as he took the word and tried to apply it to the mess his life was in. Another involuntary laugh spilled out of him. “So... you’re telling me you know I’m gonna giveyourmoney back to you and ask you to set me free?”
“Yup,” Asa said easily. “I should be more lairy about it than I feel.”
“What’s stopping you being lairy about it?”
“A few things. Nino for one. The fucking cheek of it for another. You’re an audacious motherfucker, Martell.”
“That amuses you?”
“It has to. Or we’re back where we started.”
“That would suit you, though, wouldn’t it? To have a reason to stomp me out for good?”
“Not really. Getting rid of you is hassle I don’t need, or I’d have done it in the first place.”
“You kept me on a fucking noose,” Benito snapped. “It would’ve been easier if you’d killed me.”
“Easier for you. What about that kid in the block? Your sister? You think her life would be better without you?”
“What do you care?”
“I don’t. But I’m not a monster. And I’d been watching them long enough to know she’d be fucked if I left her with just your ma to take care of her.”
Being so exposed should’ve left Benito reeling. And furious with himself more than ever.He’dtaught Asa to look deeper when he was trying to get under someone’s skin. If he’d taken that and turned it on Benito... well, fuck. Wasn’t that something?