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Mack
Isatatthisgaudy fucking table unsure how I even got here - how she convinced them tonotsimply kill me tonight. Fury pumped through my veins, my vision blurred with anger as I fought to shake the image of her in my mind - the one where she stared at that fucker the same way she looked atmeas she ran her fingers through the mounds of her cleavage as she propositioned him in a way that may have seen the promise of death that hovered over my head eliminated entirely.
“Don’t fuck us over this time.” I nodded at his parting words, finally reveling in watching Blaise sweat becausenowhe understood the stakes.
Over my dead fucking body. I didn’t care if it meant they’d wipe the slate clean.He would not touch her. She wasmine. For however long we were doing this, she wasmine, and tonight when we were out of this golden monstrosity, I would remind her of what that meant. She couldn’t simply go and offermy pussyup in lieu of some bullshit debt they held over my head. I would gut Johnny for even thinking that was a possibility. We might be at a stalemate during this function, and he might have just told me that as soon as this night was over they were all but coming for me, but what he didn’t know is that after tonight, I was coming for him, too. Because Marissabelonged to me.
Our table started to fill with wealthy members of the community. I hadn't paid much attention to the agenda, convinced that I would have a bullet between my eyes before the night was done, but as I allowed awareness to trickle through my body, I noted that Marissa was speaking demurely to a woman seated next to her.
If only they knew that this demure demeanor she had going was an act. She was a hellcat through and through. She hadn’t even flinched in the face of Johnny Juarez, and the more I pushed past my anger, the weight of what she had done, negotiated, had settled in. Who the fuck was she that she had that kind of pull over Johnny Juarez? The family knew her - intimately, but nottoointimately, because I suddenly recalled Johnny asking if she wasfinallyready to play with him. Which meant she hadn't slept with that dickwad. And she wouldn’t. Not when she was in my bed every goddamn night.
The blonde woman chatting to Marissa boasted a severe bob that seemed at odds with the rest of the women here. Where they weresoft, she seemed harsh - on edge, despite the way the two of them seemed to lean into one another to gossip. Two seconds later, a glass of tequila appeared in front of me, courtesy of Johnny himself. I knew that he was only showing me such hospitality due to the truce Marissa had struck - was showing me the kind of ally my uncle had flushed down the drain, but I had as much control over Uncle Adam as I did over the rising of the sun. He was a law unto his own, burning bridges just as quickly as he built them. He was like a goddamn growth hormone - great for expanding operations, but keep him in the loop for too long and suddenly he was bad for your health. It was the reason Da had him working on the outskirts of our operations. And I guess he liked it like that because no one gave a fuck if he burnt bridges as our gun for hire.
Fuck, this night had taken me for a loop, and I was suddenly thankful for the drink laid before me, sipping on it as if it were my mother’s milk. I may have been raised wild, but I knew the difference between the kind of tequila you shot, and the kind you sipped. Juarez had served me nothing short of the best, and if I didn’t hate the slimy fuck so much, I might have thanked him. But if he was looking to me to lead the way with good manners, he’d be staring into the abyss for a long time because I had fuck all except a quick death to offer him.
Conversation from the table washed over me as my muscles began to relax, aching from the rigid way I had held my body. I was supposed to be dead - I was pretty sure Benson SinClaire was counting on it and, suddenly, the prospect of returning to the compound and seeing his expression as I walked in almost made this entire night worth it. The thought alone was enough to make me euphoric.
I turned to look at her, unsure of how I gother- how we ended uphere.
Ma would like her.As thoughts went, it wasn’t all that strange, considering. I knew she didn’t want to answer questions, but I could think of some creative ways to make her answer - ways that we wouldbothenjoy.
Her hair tumbled down her arm, her cleavage pushed a little higher as she sat there, and my chest clenched as I just sat there watching her. Did Johnny know how well she threw a knife? Who had she been before she joined The Society? And what did she plan on doing with them?
Because there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was planningsomething- was under their roof for a reason that was neither wealth nor prestige. I wanted in on her world - wanted her to share all her fucking secrets with me, and if she was in trouble,Iwanted to be the one who protected her.
Fuck. I came here wanting nothing to do with The Society and their breeding program, but the thought of Marissa being the mother to my kids warmed something inside me that I didn’t know existed. I’d make a terrible fucking family man, but something about her made me want totry.
She looked better without the diamonds, her neck covered only in my marks. Had Johnny seen them? I wasn’t sure, but I fucking hoped so.
If I hadn't been staring right at her, I would have missed it, but the blonde with the severe bob slid a piece of paper to her, and just as quickly, she snatched it away, tucking it beneath the skirt of her dress. I had no fuckling idea where she planned on hiding the thing, not when her dress didn’t leave an inch of her to the imagination. I didn’t say anything, I simply sipped my drink andwatched, seeing her in a new light. It struck me then that she probably worked in the same way back at the compound - but it was so subtle, so discreet, that it was easy to miss. Because the more I looked at the bottle blonde next to her, the more I realized that she didn’t actually fit this scene. But instead of simply dropping the note and running, the woman had seated herself next to Marissa, struck up a conversation in a seemingly organic way, and once the table had zoned them out, content that the two of them were doing nothing more than gossiping, she slid the paper towards her beneath a glass of wine. It was almosttoowell done.
They maintained their conversation, despite the message already being delivered. Was she workingforsomeone orwithsomeone? The thought of her beholden to anyone from my world was almost too much to handle but, still, I remained silent, content to watch my girl in action.
She smiled and laughed, and I noted that not one of the emotions that flickered across her face was reflected in her eyes, and I knew that the way she was with me, behind closed doors, was something that most never saw. The blonde woman removed herself seamlessly, and not one person at the table batted an eye at her departure. It was done so organically that even I was impressed.
And despite my inability to tear my gaze from her, Marissa didn’t look at me once, offering me the cold shoulder. It was as if we were back to square one as I watched her morph into the cold, hostile creature I had met in the early days of our relationship.
An old guy in a suit began talking to me - doing that thing where people felt obligated to make small talk simply because we happened to be seated at the same table. The reality of having to sit through this mind numbing bullshit was almost enough to send me back to Johnny. And while I was entertaining the nonsensical shit that was coming out of Colonel Sanders, I felt Marissa stiffen next to me, her entire demeanor changing. It was difficult to pick up, but I had spent enough time inside her to know her moods. Something had her spooked.
I smiled blandly at the old fucker before casting my gaze back on her. The seat that the blonde had left vacant was now filled by none other than Blaise Albrecht. I had been thrown into more than my fair share of social situations with him. His father was a property mogul who had taken it upon himself to see theupliftmentof Boston. My da had most of his projects shut down because the thing about Boston was that it didn’t matter how large your purse was, it was about the connections you held, and in my hometown, the O’Rileys would always trump the Albrechts.
Of course, where Albrecht Senior failed, he sent in his son, forcing Blaise to attend nearly every fucking function I happened to be at. He had approached meonceon behalf of his father for the entire duration of our acquaintance, and after that first time, he had never approached me again. Sure, he arrived at the same places I was at, but we didn’t speak, he simply avoided me and headed towards the bar. I wasn't sure what the hell his father thought he was doing, but he definitely hadn’t made any headway with the O’Rileys. Which was why it was fucking strange that he was sitting at my table next tomygirl. I slid my hand up her thigh, sliding beneath the slit where I knew her warmth lay, offering her support in the only way I knew how. Her entire body seemed to relax into my touch, the rigidness of her posture loosening to analmostnormal position. Here was a girl who was cold and calculated and kept the entire world at arms length, relaxing into my touch, and if that wasn’t better than winning the lottery, then I wasn’t sure what was.
“There a reason you’re sitting next to my girl, Blaise?” I wasn’t even going to pretend to be civil. He knew where he stood with me - knew exactly what I thought of him and his family, and this was not The Society’s playground. As much as I hated Johnny, I knew that for whatever reason, if shit went down between Blaise and I, Johnny would end the fucker because ofher.
Blaise ignored me entirely, staring down at her with his beady eyes that made me want to murder people. But Marissa didn’t cower - didn’t cringe, she simply lifted her chin and stared right back at him. I wasn’t sure what the fuck had happened between the two of them, but I would end him. I had been looking for an excuse for years, and Johnny just might be the solution. Because if the Cartel took him out, my family would face zero repercussions from SinClaire and his band of merry nitwits.
The muscles in her thighs clenched with fear as he leered down at her.
“I see you still like it rough, and it’s a good thing, too, if it’s O’Riley you ended up with.” His gaze seemed to fixate on her throat, and I heard the sudden intake of breath as she caught on to what the fuck he was implying.
“You think because I bloodied your face with my fists once, Imustbe into roughing up my girl. You’re the same bitch now as you were then, it’s refreshing to see that some things truly never change.”
Marissa didn’t look back at me, instead, she kept her gaze on him, seeing him for the threat that he was.Good fucking girl.But that didn’t stop her from leaning into me, and wasn’t that a great fucking feeling.
“You should bethankingme, O’Riley, I broke the bitch in for you.” Marisa tensed again, and I wanted to pluck his eyeballs from his skull for filling my girl with fear. This fuck didn’t know who he was dealing with.
He took my silence as encouragement to keep talking, and it would be his last mistake.
