Chapter Forty-­Three

Chapter Forty-Three

Tobias

T he shift is instant when Sean meets me at the front door, a loaded offering in his hand. I gather what I need from the living room before stepping into the kitchen and onto the plastic.

"Tobias—"

"It's pathetic, really, Antoine," I cut him off, "seeing you this way after all I've taught you over the years. Clearly, you weren't paying attention."

"You forget so easily that it was me who you sought for help."

"I never needed help. I told you that. I needed resources, man-power, money, things I wasn't able to acquire in a time that suited me. My impatience has always been a flaw. And seeking you out was my biggest fucking mistake. I told you I was a thief. And you were too ignorant to it, way too eager to play some fucking mentor to me. There was a better way than through you, but it paid off because I started stealing from you week one. Thanks for the tuition money."

Antoine's eyes flare.

"First, I want you to admit your best play against me."

He doesn't hesitate, too eager to gloat. "I might have called Jerry and made him aware of Miami to take care of your problem. I was doing you a favor, Ezekiel. You were taking too long to move in on Roman. "

He never knew I'd fallen for Roman's daughter and discovered the truth about the nature of my parent's death, which forfeited my vendetta against him. He assumed my fixation with Roman was the only thing keeping me from being at his side in France.

"So, if you got Roman out of the picture, you thought I would come running back to France and remain your errand boy?"

He shrugs. "I did not pull the trigger on your brother."

Sean lunges for him, and I turn and hold him back as he fights me to get to him, nearly knocking me back, and I grip his arms. "Look at me, brother," I urge as he grips my wrists to fight my hold. "Sean, look at me."

His nuclear gaze flits to mine. "Let's finish this, for us, for Dom ."

Sean gives me a solemn nod, his trust, and steps back, his lethal gaze flitting back to Antoine.

Fury rolls through me as sweat gathers at my temple with my restraint. It takes every bit of strength I have to slip my mask back into place and keep my voice even as I stare down at the man responsible for the worst years of my life.

Instead of taking Roman out to get me back to France, he manipulated my own fucking club to try and teach me a lesson, all the while keeping his hands clean so he could continue to use me. Satisfied that's the totality of the truth of it, I make peace with it. It ends here. Tonight.

"Are you familiar with the game of chess?"

"Save me the theatrics, Tobias. I'm open for negotiations."

"I'll keep that in mind, but I think you'll find this interesting."

Sean smirks as Antoine glares between us both.

I produce the first chess piece out of my pocket and run it along his line of sight. "My grandfather's first lesson to me was about the pawn." When he drops his eyes to follow it, I backhand him. Head jerking back, he gawks at me as blood starts trickling from his lips. Satisfaction hums through my veins as I again wave the pawn in his face and let the monster out to play.

"You see the pawn..." The second his eyes focus, I slam my fist into his nose again and am rewarded with the crunch of cartilage as his eyes water and a curse leaves him before he spits out a mouthful of blood on the plastic.

"Are you paying attention, Antoine? I don't want you to miss this." The second he's focused, I slam my fist into his face again, and he lets out a yelp of pain as blood gushes in a free fall and he mutters something unintelligible under his breath.

"What's that?" I taunt.

"I'm listening," he wheezes out.

I look to Sean. "Where was I?"

"The pawn."

"That's right. Like I said, the pawn can be one of the most powerful players once in motion. If played just right, it even has the ability to check the king." I pinch the piece between my fingers. "The pawn is whatever it presents itself to be. I revealed my own weakness early by telling you exactly who I was in our first meeting. That was a rookie error on my part, not to be confused with the rook ." I bury my fist in his face and this time he screams, before choking on the blood clogging his throat.

Giving him a few seconds to regroup, I grip his hair and jerk him to face me.

"Still listening?"

"Yesss," he hisses, his eyes filling with a rare fear.

"But you did the same thing the night we met. You showed me your weakness because you didn't see me as a threat, then or in the future, and you gave me everything I needed within a few words. And it was clear to me then—we weren't playing the same game."

He furrows his brows.

"Illusion is a powerful thing, Antoine. It can hide a lot. But you never really checked to see what was in my hand, not once , because if you had, you'd have spared yourself this humiliation."

I shake my head and sigh. "I guess I should give you some credit for reminding me of who I am, of my purpose, but my weakness is not something you should have ever tried to fuck with. You were always an afterthought for me and never part of the picture. If anything, you were my first mark , not a worthy fucking mentor. You never once had my respect, my ear, or my full attention. You want to fucking be me, but I've learned true leaders have to humble themselves to evolve. They have to recognize their weaknesses and use them to strengthen themselves." I avert my eyes to Sean as the aftertaste of my medicine coats my tongue. "And they have to know when to ask for help ."

Gaze lingering on Sean, I come to terms with that truth. Maybe at one time we were all phoenixes, baptized by our individual fires before rising from the ashes of our mistakes. But after the transformation, we declared ourselves a different sort of bird and managed to find our way back to each other. The truth of that is more comforting than anything I've ever felt. I was never alone, not once, and it's so evident now. When one of us falters, when our wings fail us and we lose direction, there's always another to coast us in.

Although I've spent years adrift, attempting to coast alone to save those around me from the destruction of my hidden path, they've refused to let me fly solo.

The synergy is back, and it's powerful. I can feel it between us now as we crest on the same breeze, wings wide open, scars from our separation the same depth, shape, and color. Sean dips his chin, confirming my line of thought as we feel the absence of one, never to be forgotten. And it's then I let the rage totally consume me.

"This is the illusion, Antoine. Ready? Watch closely." I cup the king in my palm, making sure he sees it before effortlessly shifting the pieces with a sleight of hand. "But this is who I am." I pinch the pawn between my fingers and lift it an inch from his gaping nose. "It's who I've always been , and I accepted that early on."

Cupping the back of his head, I press the chess piece against his gaping nose as he shrieks in pain, his body shaking violently in his chair as I lean in and whisper every word.

"But as I told you in the beginning, I never make the same mistake, twice . And because of that, you'll die a coward because you showed me your weakness in our first meeting— ego . "

I glance at Sean, handing him the king. "Shall we feed his greed?"

Sean nods, taking the king from my hand as Antoine jerks violently in his hold while he shoves the chess piece in, breaking some of his teeth while forcing it to the back of his throat. Antoine begins to choke, his face beet red as he gags.

Sean allows him some air as he tries his best to spit the piece out, blood pouring from his mouth between gasps.

"So, let's move down the checklist, shall we, Sean?"

"Let's," he says, as he holds a struggling Antoine in his iron grip.

"We stole his money?"

"Yep."

"Palo took his wife?"

A nod.

"We've trashed his reputation?"

"He's a fucking laughing stock, but in truth, he did that himself."

"We stole his kingdom and gave a set of keys to the lieutenant fucking his wife, and positioned him to our advantage?"

Sean's menacing smile appears, and he nods. "Palo is going to have a damn good year."

"Did I leave anything out?"

"His mistress just fled France." He shrugs. "Something must have spooked her."

Antoine snaps his gaze between the two of us, his features twisted in utter defeat as I step toward him and press the barrel of my Glock to the center of his forehead.

"And I didn't have to lift a finger because I'm just a pawn, who managed to find a queen and make her fall in love with me. But what good is a pawn, who can check , without a mate ?"

I press the gun into his skull, tilting his head up, forcing his eyes to mine and pull the fucking trigger.