I fall against the wall and close my eyes. “Shit.”
Cap and me down two shots and just as we drop the glass and get ready to go find Royce, my shoulder is bumped, bloody tissues tossed in my face.
Vienna squeezes by us, blood trickling down her lip and slightly smeared over her T-shirt. “You’re welcome,” she bites out in a hissed whisper. “And you owe me one.”
Captain whips around, looking down the dark hallway that leads to the girl’s bathroom, where Vienna disappeared to and just came back from.
Royce rushes from the same hallway, headed right for us with a fierce expression, but my eyes cut behind him.
Raven steps into the light, her face blank, but her eyes are wild.
Her eyes snap up, crashing into mine with a fire so bright my shoulders stretch wide.
If she could reach, she’d catch me across the jaw.
My baby is jealous, and she wants to fight about it.
Suddenly her eyes leave mine, and her feet carry her away, back to the bitch who is gonna burn.
Collins hisses something at her, gripping her wrist and I push forward, but Cap stops me with a tight grip to my shoulder.
He dips closer to her with a hard expression, but she jerks away with a solid fuck you mouthed in his face.
A zing shoots down my spine.
The fuck is going on here?
In the next second, we’re exiting the club.
“We’re missing something,” Royce slurs right as we hit the pavement out front, not entirely convinced but desperate to believe it. “We need to find out what.”
The driver we hired for the night, one of our guards from the warehouses, rolls up and we silently slide in.
I agree, something is fucking wrong. There’s a reason for this and we need to find out what it is, but it’s not just with her actions, but Graven’s and our dad’s, too.
But back there? That was what tonight was about, bringing her loyalty to light by playing off her weakness, just like Maybell said.
Tested.
Reacted the only way she knows how.
Impulsive. Uncontrolled. Reckless.
Mine.
Like clockwork, the skinny fucker slides out the gate of the warehouses right at midnight to make his check-in call. He adjusts his leather fucking jacket, those dumbass headphones around his neck, like always, and pulls out his phone.
“We should jump his punk ass.” Royce sits forward.
I grip the steering wheel tighter. “Grab him.”
“Why?” Royce laughs. “Not like he won’t come in on his own if we tell him to.”
“He doesn’t get to be asked tonight. He’s fucking lucky I don’t run him over right now.”
Royce starts for his handle, but Captain unbuckles his seatbelt.
“Let me get him,” he insists and steps out.
Me and Royce look to each other.
“This shit’s messed him up, Madman. If we’re reading this wrong, if Raven really is playing dirty, or fuck, bartering even, she could tell everyone about Zoey.” Royce looks out the window. “Kinda fucked up we can’t ever have anything for ourselves. He shouldn’t have to share baby girl with nobody until he wants to.”
“You think she’d do that?”
I frown when Bass spins around, trying to punch Captain as he reaches out and grips his jacket, but Captain spins him and slams him against the fence.
Bass finally sees it’s him and chills some, but he still acts like a prick and forces Captain to push on him to get him over here.
“Not in a million fucking years, brother, but I didn’t think she’d ever be where she’s at either,” Royce says then pushes open the door.
Cap shoves Bass inside and slams the door before he has time to move and Bishop’s head smacks against the window.
Royce grins and sits back, eyeing him. “‘Sup, bitch.”
He gives us a careless look. “What do you need?”
“I need you to sit there, say not a fucking word and watch your mistake unfold,” I start, shifting to look back at him. “You can beg to keep the life we’ve given you after.”
“The fuck you talkin’ about?” he draws out.
“He said sit, Bishop. Not speak. You’re the dog, we’re the masters,” Royce adds with a malicious smirk.
I get us back on the road.
“If we’re leaving, I need to let—”
I cut him off. “Already let everyone know you won’t be back tonight.”
Bass moves his glare out the window.
We called our PI the minute we woke up sober enough to reprocess and regroup after last night’s shit.
He had what we needed in an hour, but Cap had a date with Zoey today, so we waited. It was the better choice anyway. This way we catch them good and fucked up, right before the end of the night when bravery and the sense of invincibility has come and gone.
“You didn’t wanna look like the rat, yet you went to Raven for a reason. Loyalty. That’s what we asked from you when we hired you. You fell short, Bishop.” I meet his eyes in the mirror. “We take a hit, you take a hit. That’s how this works.”
I pull over up the street to let Captain and Royce out and they slide into Captain’s SUV – always better to have a second escape if needed – and head for the edge of town.
He doesn’t say anything but his jaw clenches, a deep crease taking over his forehead.
Like Raven, he comes from nothing and holds only self-pride.
He keeps to himself, stays out of drama, can read people the best we’ve seen – it’s why we let him run our cash flow.
He gets respect because he handles business the way it should be handled, quick and quiet. Clean when he can, merciless when the situation calls for it.
Bishop’s no bitch. He’s a smart and solid motherfucker, we wouldn’t have him on our team if he wasn’t, but he sure as fuck is acting like one where Raven is concerned.
Thing is, the way this world is run, you keep your people tight and your lips tighter.
Your word and anonymity is everything. People won’t follow you if they think you’ll throw them under the bus when the heat’s on your neck.
He should have thought about that before he decided to hold back on us.
He’s hiding something, and that’s cool. At this point, we don’t need his ass to figure out what it is, but better believe he’ll be seen – the rat that led the way.
He can work himself out of that on his own.
We pull up behind a row of parked broken-down Hondas.
I spin in my seat to face him again. “You know who lives here, Bishop?”
“Nope,” he bites out.
I smirk. “Good. Now get the fuck out.”
The three of us step from our vehicles and rush for the door, an alert Bishop a few steps behind us.
We bust through the door and several around the room jump from their seats with slurred shouts.
Me and Cap pause in the center of the room while Royce moves for the sound system, yanking the cords from the wall and slamming it into the TV.
Captain tosses his bat in the air, catching it at the end and pointing it out at the few who attempt to step closer.
They pause once they realize who we are, then Bass steps through the door and his eyes widen as his gaze travels the room, spotting people who run in the outside circle.