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Gavin stared at him. What the fuck? The fact that his lifelong enemy was a patient at this hospital was too convenient. Was this the only fucking hospital in the city?
“Fuck off, Pyre,” Paul growled.
He glanced at his men. “Find Stark’s mother. Two of you stay with her. The other two sweep the hospital floors and see if you can locate Stark.”
He stepped into Paul’s room and closed the door. “What are you doing here, Paul?”
“What the fuck does it look like? I have pneumonia.” Paul took off his glasses and glared as he advanced across the room. “You’re not allowed in here.”
“I’m allowed anywhere. No place is off limits. I thought after I fucked you up in your office, you’d realize that.”
It was true that Vega looked like shit, but his frail appearance didn’t mean he wasn’t dangerous.
“I have a lot of work to do, Pyre.”
He stopped beside the bed. “Restful day?”
“No thanks to you,” he said sourly. “You must have a death wish to kill Santana. You stirred up a hornet’s nest and don’t have the manpower you need to overcome the hell you unleashed.”
In his youth, he witnessed Paul’s futile attempts to wrench the title from his father. Despite the fact he had thrashed Paul soundly, Vega still didn’t respect his authority, which made his fingers itch for his knife.
“You’re losing your hold on the city, Pyre,” Paul said quietly. “Why don’t you just give it up?”
“Give it up to who?”
Paul gathered his papers and began to stack them, rapping them on the tray table to straighten them out. He was nervous. Gavin eased closer and saw him tense.
“You know something you aren’t telling me, Paul?” he asked, voice light and pleasant.
Paul studied his papers as if the information on it were more important than their conversation. “I’m too busy running my practice to delve into the underworld.”
“Yet you knew I got Santana. How?”
“I have my sources.”
“You’re lying to me, Vega.”
“I don’t owe you shit. You told me you’d find the crime lord who murdered Rafael, and you haven’t.”
“I will.”
“He’s too powerful. You’re in over your head. He’s giving us—”
Paul stopped, but it was too late.
“You’re joining forces with the man who murdered your son?” he asked.
Paul bared his teeth in a snarl. “I either join or end up like Manny. He’s rewarded me, offered me more than you fuckers ever did.” Spit flew as his emotions got the better of him. “How many can you kill? You think your name will protect you? You have nowhere to turn. Manny and Vinny are gone, and he’s already carved up that pretty wife of yours. Who’s next?”
He wasn’t aware that he moved. He didn’t hear the laptop crash to the floor when he wrapped his hand around Paul’s throat or notice Paul’s hand scrabbling over his suit. He wasn’t aware of anything until he saw Paul’s glazed eyes staring back at him. He was dead. The fact that he didn’t remember strangling Paul should have alarmed him. It didn’t. One less enemy was a plus in his book.
The door opened. He raised his head as Steven Vega paused on the threshold, leaning on a cane. Before Steven could do more than register that there was a man standing beside his father’s bed, Gavin had him pinned to the wall. Steven’s eyes were wild with panic as Gavin squeezed his skinny neck. Steven wriggled like a fish on a hook with tears in his eyes. He was so pathetic that Gavin’s beast retreated in disgust. He tossed Steven on the ground who landed on all fours and cowered.
“Your father’s dead,” he announced.
For a moment, Steven didn’t react and then his head snapped up. He watched Steven limp toward the bed and reach for his father, only to let his hands hover over Paul’s face.
“He sided with the man who took my place,” he stated. “You know anything about that?”
