“Makes sense,” I say, putting the gun he gave me back in the SUV. Victor grins at me, like I’ve just met his dark approval and leans down to kiss me on the mouth. My fingers curl in the front of his t-shirt and my eyes close as the heat of his lips takes over me. When Hael told me he’d follow Victor into hell … He wasn’t wrong. I’d do the same.

“Run along and make nice with your other boyfriends,” Victor purrs, slapping me on the ass. But when I roll my eyes and start to move away, he grabs me by the chin and holds me in place so he can look straight at me. “No fucking around with them.” I tear my face away and scowl at him, but he just smirks back at me. “Not yet,” he adds which mollifies me, but only a little.

I end up wandering into the garage to find Aaron and Hael gossiping in low tones yet again. As soon as they see me coming, they stop and turn to watch me. Aaron’s gold-green gaze and Hael’s honey-brown one both track me from head to toe. I can’t say I’m displeased with the attention.

“Are we … going to do a drive-by?” I ask, because if you put guns plus stolen car plus gang war then … well, what does that equal? Hael shrugs, but Aaron nods.

“Yep,” he says, his voice sad and far-away as he looks at me.

“Nantucket,” I reply, without skipping a beat, and he smiles. I’m so tempted to tangle my fingers in his chestnut hair, tease the waviness with my fingers. Until Oscar said what he said earlier, it didn’t really occur to me that Aaron and I are moving in together. Like, for real. Like we always dreamed. Me, and him, and the girls … and probably the other Havoc Boys most of the time, too. It seems like they only go home to check on whatever family they have left. That, or in Vic’s case, to meet a contractual obligation.

The truth of the matter is: everyone really only lives with Aaron.

“Nan-motherfucking-tucket,” Aaron sighs, slipping a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and offering one up to me. “Now that you’re here, we should just … like, enjoy all the sins together, huh?” He lights up his own cigarette and then cherry-fucks mine until it’s burning. We smile at each other.

“Well, you know,” Hael purrs, leaning in close and smirking at me. “Only if Daddy Vic says it’s okay.” He leans back as soon as he sees Victor coming, trying to keep his expression neutral.

“The fuck are you gossiping about in here?” Vic asks, and Hael just shrugs. Victor snorts, takes a drag on his cigarette, and then gestures with his chin in the direction of an open office door. “We got about”—he checks his phone, smoke still hanging from his lips and dangling around as he talks—“an hour until sunset. Come here, Bern.” Victor shows me into the office and then slams the door behind us.

His flint-like eyes spark with interest, and I know before he says a single word or makes a single move what his purpose is for bringing me in here. My breath hitches as Vic and I stare each other down, my gaze sweeping his muscular arms and their blanket of ink, trailing down his long legs to his boots. When I lift my attention to his face, he pushes back his dark purple hair and smirks at me.

I’m sure he can tell by the look I give him that I know what he’s up to; he isn’t a very subtle motherfucker, now is he?

Vic doesn’t waste any time in undoing his pants.

“Victor Channing,” I warn when he starts stalking toward me. He grins and pulls the cigarette from his lips with two fingers, offering it up to me. “What are we doing in here?” I don’t need to ask, but it’s all part of the game, now isn’t it?

“Quick fuck before we go,” he assures me. “Super quick.” He pauses for a moment and looks me over again, like he’s considering something. “You taking those birth control pills that Oscar gave you?”

I glare at him.

“Is it your business?” I query back, and he grins at me in just such a way that I lose my mental faculties for a moment. “Just because you’re my husband—”

“Maybe I deserve to know because I’m your boss?” he presses, watching me inhale two lungfuls of nicotine before I pass the cigarette back.

“You’d love it if I weren’t taking those pills.”

Victor smokes the cigarette for a moment, the button on his pants undone, but the zipper still up. He thinks for a minute and then shrugs.

“I mean, not gonna lie about that.” He looks me straight in the face and smiles like the asshole he is. “You know I’m just dying to get you pregnant.” Victor flicks the cigarette into a metal ashtray and closes the distance between us, slamming his palms on the wall on either side of me. “But I really don’t want any other acronym in our name taking what’s rightfully mine.”

“What are you talking about?” I stammer, feeling my body flush with righteous anger. I wonder if Victor knows that Hael and I jacked-off together? I should probably tell him, if not. “Don’t be such a dick all the time; you get more flies with honey.”

“You knew I was piss and vinegar when you married me, Bernie.” Victor puts his big palm on my waist and yanks me close to him. I can feel his cock, straining against his pants, nice and thick and ready for me. “And I’m not budging on this shit. I get the first baby.”

“Jesus Christ, Victor,” I growl, but when I go to slap him, he snatches my wrist and slams my hand into the wall just hard enough to make me cry out. He looks fucking feral right now. His eyes blaze with possessive need when he looks down at me as I struggle to extract my hand from his grip. Holy shit, his grip strength is off the charts. “I don’t want any kids right now; I have Heather to think about. Shit, until recently, I wasn’t even sure if I was going to live to see my twenties, let alone any decade beyond that. Don’t ask me to think about babies right now.”

“So, yes on the pills?” he clarifies, grabbing my other arm when I try to shove him back and pinning that, too. “Look me in the face, Bernadette, and tell me you’ve been taking the pills.”

“I’ve been taking them!” I scream in his face, my breathing hard and fast. I am pissed now. If Vic wanted me worked up for the drive-by, well, he’s succeeded. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business; it’s my body. I choose what I grow in it and when and how and if.”

“Maybe,” Victor says, which seriously makes me want to strangle him, “but in any good wolf pack, the female watches the females; the male watches the males. I won’t allow any of the males in my pack to give you a baby until I’ve done it. Do you hear me?”

“Let. Go. Of. Me.” My lip curls up in a snarl as Victor releases me, and I slap him in the face. He rubs his hand over his cheek and grins. “By the way, I respected your wishes at the beach, and I didn’t technically fuck anyone else. Hael and I did, however, masturbate in that fucking Ferrari together. And I don’t regret a second of my hard-won orgasm.” Victor’s teeth clench together, and he looks at me like he reciprocates my feelings of rage. Tit for tat, baby. “And oh god, was it good.” I rub my palm down the front of my body, cupping my pussy through the leather pants and giving my kitty-cat a squeeze. “I came so fucking hard, made that pretty leather seat all wet.”