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28
River
The moment with Priest breaks,and we all move into the kitchen where Knox has taken over pouring shots. My heart is still beating a little faster than usual, from everything I saw in Priest’s eyes. It’s hard to believe that he once seemed like the coldest of all the men. Now that I’ve seen the fire inside him, I can’t help but be drawn to that flame like a moth.
Getting to see more of him, to understand his pain and suffering and know that he understands mine too, has changed everything between us. I want to see more and more of who he is inside. I can’t get enough.
Knox starts sliding shot glasses across to all of us, and I take mine, swirling the dark liquid around. He raises his glass in a toast, grinning in a combination of joy and savage pleasure at what we just did.
“To putting Julian fucking Maduro in a body bag one day,” he says, his voice practically a snarl.
We all drink to that, knocking back our shots. The whiskey burns going down, and I lick my lips. In my head, I make an extra promise to Hannah that one day this will be done and she’ll be at peace.
Gage looks over and catches my eye.
“When this is all over, I’ve been thinking about some things you could do with our business,” he says. “It’s no secret that you have plenty of skills, and you’d fit right in for some of the things we need.”
He talks like I’m one of them. Like when this is over, I’ll be a part of their everyday life. A part of their forever. A permanent fixture in their little family.
“Yeah?” I ask, leaning against the counter.
He nods. “Yeah. We’ve never really thought about expanding our little gang to include anyone else, but you’re a shoe in. We know you. We trust you. We’ve seen you in action.”
I like the sound of that. Of waking up every day and knowing I belong somewhere. With people who know me and see me. I wouldn’t have to pretend to not be fucked up. All the guys understand who I am and why I am the way I am, so it would be so freeing.
“Sure,” I tell him. “I’m up for whatever.”
He smirks a little back at me. “I know.”
“My vote is sexy cage dancer,” Ash says, leaning casually against the counter. “I mean, we have some good ones already, but River in one of those little outfits?” He wolf whistles and grins at me.
“That means everyone else who comes in would get to see her, Ash,” Knox points out. “It’s not like she’d be our own private dancer or anything.”
Ash shrugs. “Sure, but think about it. She’s up there, dancing for everyone, and the whole time we know that she’s going home with us at the end of the night. Everyone else wants her, but only we get to have her. That doesn’t get you going a little bit?” He rubs his chin. “Although now that you mention it... having her be our own private dancer does sound really damn good. We could get one of those cages installed in the back office.”
“In your fucking dreams,” I retort. “Plus, you’ve never seen me dance. I could be terrible at it.”
“The dancing doesn’t really matter.”
“Oh, so you just want me in a cage then?”
“Got it in one, killer.” Ash waggles his eyebrows at me, and I roll my eyes.
Gage shakes his head, interjecting into the conversation. “That wasn’t quite what I had in mind. I was thinking you’d help with something other than distracting Ash from his work. That’s already easy enough to do.”
“Excuse me.” Ash gives him an offended look. “I do my work.”
“Sometimes.”
“Yeah, now you do,” Knox throws out. “Because the only ass you want is waiting for you at home, and you’re not trying to dick down all the dancers anymore.”
Ash pouts, although there’s still a grin playing around his lips at the same time.
He’s the most model-handsome of all the guys, and I know he had plenty of women before I came into his life, but it doesn’t really bother me anymore. Now that I know about his past, I have a better understanding of how he became the person he is today. And he’s so fucking possessive, hungry, and affectionate with me that it would be impossible for me to doubt his feelings for me at this point.
“Anyway,” Gage cuts back in, getting back to the matter at hand. “We’ll talk about it once this is all done. If there’s anything you’re particularly interested in, River, we can discuss it. But like I said, I have some ideas for things you’d be good at.”
“I mean, sure,” I say casually. “I could do that. I could probably do anything you guys do. How hard could it be to run a nightclub, right? I could do it with my eyes closed, I bet.”
