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Dad grunted his agreement, then raised an eyebrow in a suggestive, oily manner that made my skin crawl.
“She’s good stock?”
“Come on, Son. She’s quality tail?” I stared at him, unwilling to answer. Dad sighed and shook his head. “Vincent?”
“She’s good stock,” he said tightly.
“Good hips?”
“I said, she is good,” Big Brother said, enunciating every word. God, I fucking loved my brother.
“You should have had a doctor look her over. Make sure she’s clean.”
I stood up, glaring at the sonofabitch. I wanted to hit him with every fiber of my being. The vulgar old fuck. I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of telling him she was a virgin.
“Don’t talk like that around her. Don’t talk like that about her. Keep your goddamn mouth shut when it comes to her.”
The old man’s eyebrows shot up. He was surprised to see me stand up to him. I’d done it in private, sure, but not in front of other people. And probably with a lot less heat. I was ready to start shooting flames out of my fucking nostrils. Then he smirked and stood to face me.
“What the fuck are you going to do about it?”
“I’ll kick your ass, old man. I will wipe the floor with your smug fucking face.”
I meant it and he knew it. I saw him react. It was tiny but it was there. The old man flinched. He actually looked pale under that South Florida tan on his swarthy skin. Then he covered it with a laugh.
“I didn’t think you had it in you, Son,” he said, slapping my shoulder like he was proud of me. But he was still close enough to whisper, “It’s not good to show your weakness. Never let a woman be that important.”
I jerked away, suddenly not sure if I wanted to scream or cry. I clenched my fists, resisting the urge to reach for my gun. I always wore one, but usually I wore two. But since today was my wedding day, I only had the little one on my ankle.
I should get Evie one, I decided. Teach her how to use it. She might not like it, but it was for her own safety. In our family, learning about guns started early. I didn’t fuck around with them. I didn’t worship them, or even like them, really, but I respected them.
When Evie was in the suite, I kept all my deadly weapons in a locked safe.
My father’s words about showing him my weakness were setting off warning bells in my mind. He was already planning on how to use that information against me. He gave me another smirk before striding out of the room, his old guard of semi-retired fuckwits following him.
Carmine and Joey were almost as scary as the old man.
But they didn’t scare me. Not since I was a boy. Only one thing did. Losing the people I loved. And that number had just grown. Hell, it had fucking doubled.
Tripled. Fuck, more than that. Evie had made what I could lose fucking infinite.
If I lost her, I’d lose everything.
I felt protective of Vince and Mikey and some of the guys, sure. But the way I felt about Evie was a whole other level. She was fucking tiny. Delicate. She was a huge presence, but her physicality, her purity, made her more vulnerable than anyone else I gave a shit about.
I had never felt this protective of anyone. Not since her. Not since the day my mother died and I knew, deep down, that I had failed her. Well, fuck if I would ever let anything like that happen again.
My brother looked at me. Mikey looked at me.
“Well, fuck.”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“You okay, man?”
I shook my head.
“No. I want him gone.”
“He’ll go back in a few days.”
“No, I mean gone. For fucking ever.”
They exchanged a look.
“Taking him out is a big fucking deal.”
“I’m not sure patricide is a good idea on your wedding day, little brother,” Vincent said dryly.
“Yeah, I know that. I fucking know that.”
I ran my hands through my hair.
“Can we just fucking neutralize him? Get his nuts over a barrel?”
“You mean, send him south for good?”
“Yeah. Out of our hair and our lives. Forever. Without spilling any more blood.”
Mikey nodded slowly, giving Vince a look.
“Maybe . . . I think maybe there is a way to do that.”
“How?” Vincent didn’t use a lot of words, but the question hung heavy in the air.
“I know a guy. He’s a fed.”
“Turn the old man in?” I laughed. “How do you do that without implicating the rest of us? Someone would come after us for snitching. Hell, I might shoot myself for that shit.”
“This guy–—Connor—he’s cool. He knows how far to take it.”
“He’s corrupt?”
“I’d say the opposite, actually. His sense of right and wrong is above the law. Literally. He does what he has to do to protect his people. Some of them are bikers. It’s not black and white with him.”
