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“That’s where you’re wrong, buttercup.”
“Buttercup?” My nose wrinkles.
He shrugs. “Just trying out new nicknames. One’ll stick eventually.”
While I’m stewing in my annoyance and anger, he’s lighthearted and cheerful. It’s confusing.
“Whatever.” I lie down, not giving him my attention in hopes he’ll just go away already.
“Listen up because I’m only saying this once. I made a decision last night, one you can get on board with or fight, but just know that I’ll get my way eventually, so it’ll be a waste of time.”
I groan. “My head is throbbing. Can this wait?”
“No, it can’t. Now, I’m leaving ’cause I got shit to do,notbecause I want to. Once that shit is done, I’m coming back here to be with you, and that’s ’cause Idowant to. And every day for the foreseeable future, I’ll be doing the same. I’m not leaving you again, darlin’, so get used to it.” He leans over and kisses my forehead.
The warmth from his lips rolls through my entire body, lighting me up in a way it has no business doing, forcing out the irritation I feel I need to hold on to in self-preservation. But it’s a losing battle when he’s saying and doing all the things I wish he’d done when I was just a girl. That craving inside me is being fed, and I’m satiated for the first time in years.
“We’ll see,” I say because the doubt is still there, battling for dominance, and only time will tell which wins.
“Yeah,” he agrees. “You will.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-ONE
RIGGER
“Where are we at with Clancy?” Cy asks.
My leg bounces uncontrollably. This is the last place I want to be, but Cy called Church, and I can’t ignore orders.
“I spoke to Melville right before I came in. He assured me Clancy has been put in his place, and we don’t need to worry,” I say.
“Do we have anything to worry about if he can’t keep him in check?” Cy pins Golden with a look.
“No. I don’t keep our real set of books there, only the fake file. So even if they looked at them, everything appears on the up and up.”
“Anddidthey look at them?” Cy pulls a cigar from his pocket.
“No. They didn’t touch our computers. Seems like they were only interested in trashing the place.”
Cy shifts his attention back to me. “Are we working under the assumption that Clancy made up this so-called intel?”
I nod. “Mary spoke to each of the girls, and they all denied having drugs. I know none of them are on drugs because I had Monroe test everyone, and they all came up clean.”
“Good.” Cy puffs on his cigar, plumes of smoke building on the ceiling. “Melville only has a few more years in him before the voters decide they want young blood taking over. I’d rather not wait until that happens to have some leverage on Clancy.”
“I agree,” I say.
“Riot, I want you and Satyr to do some digging. I want to know everything about this kid, from where he grew up to how many shits he takes a day. Got it?”
Riot and Satyr both nod.
“Anything else?” Cy asks, knowing damn well we’re not done here.
“Yeah, there’s fuckin’ something else,” I say.
“Rigger, you know where we’re at with that.” His tone is admonishing, but I don’t give a shit.
“Ray can’t get away with this.”
