AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t know…until now,” she admitted, and I considered gutting her on the spot for the whole world to see. She fucking lied, not that I wouldn’t have done the same in her position, but I wasn’t the one under the magnifying lens or putting my brothers at risk. Okay. I did questionable shit every day that gambled with our safety. The colossally gigantic difference was, I would protect them and handle the blowback of my actions if there were any. She wasn’t.
“A fucking dinky pinky, I have one of those too. Right here in my trousers, Andrei. Doesn’t mean shit unless you want to have a pinky war. So how about it, aye? Want to have a pinky date with mine?” I smiled at her as she hid behind me, deciding if I was going to kill her or let them, pressing my elbow against her nipple just to be doing something to piss her off.
“She knows what it means. We’re family and the time has come she knows the truth.”
“So what if she is, that doesn’t mean we’re handing her over to you without a fight, Andrei,” Stone said. His tone more closely resembled his normal timbre, but the pain was unmistakable. Always a good brother that one was. Regardless of the circumstance, family or not, if we handed her over to them, we lost our leverage with the Falbos. There was no telling if that was the motive behind his actions, though. He’d met his match and I knew it as soon as he stopped me from killing her. The fucked-up part about that moment was it was the exact second, I knew she was mine too.
“IfPakhanwanted her, he would have gotten to her before you. It’s that simple.” Two more musketeers appeared from the other side of his ride, and one whispered into his ear. I should have seen them; they shouldn’t even be moving right now. I was fucking distracted by her, and it wouldn’t happen again. Stone might believe her that she didn’t know, but I hadn’t decided if she was lying or not. How were we to know this wasn’t her ploy all along. Her being a Russian rat sent to infiltrate our clubhouse, shredding it from the inside out made perfect sense.
“He has a counteroffer for you all.”
“We’re not giving you a family discount,” I sneered while my eyebrows pulled together.
“Come now. We have a common enemy and you’re not my family, Mordicus. She is and that means her safety is what’s important to everyone it would seem. Every last one of the Crazed Kings could go to the slaughterhouse chopper and I wouldn’t give a shit. Her, though, it would upset people. People who shouldn’t be upset. Pakhan doesn’t want that, though. He seems to be quite found of you degenerates.”
“Maróidh mé thú.” I promised to rid him of his life one day and meant it. No one threatened my brothers except me.
“What’s the deal, Andrei? We’re burning daylight and I’m getting fucking bored,” Stone groused, intentionally moving his thumb from the latch to rest on the hammer of his piece.
“As long as the Crazed Kings keep her safe, we’ll double your supply at no extra cost while she’s under your watch.”
“Give me your word we’ll get double for at least six months regardless of circumstance and you have a deal,” I said, my tongue running along my canine’s jagged edge.
“Triple our supply for that time and it’s a done deal,” Stone added, stepping around me, holding his silencer toÉan’s temple as he pulled her by the arm.
“Done,” Andrei agreed asÉanswatted at Stone’s chest.
Chapter19
Stone
“No. You fucking put a gun to my headagain, Stone,” Bird declared, stomping her foot against the gravel.
“Get in the fucking car, Reggy. I apologized for it. I wouldn’t have shot you, but I had to make Andrei think I would.”
“For guns? Stone, I’m not a thing, I’m a person. You can’t kiss me one second and then use my life as a bargaining tool in the next breath. It’s not fucking right. If I wanted to deal with corruption and lies, I would have been better off to stick with Mordy. At least with him I know what I’m getting. With you, I never know which person I’m dealing with. Graham or Stone.”
“Gorgeous clueless bird, I’m one and the same.”
“No, you are not. There’s Graham and then there’s Stone.”
It was hard for her to see that I wasn’t two different people fighting over one soul, but the two personalities were one and the same. They coincided inside my body and losing one would mean losing the other. There was one small detail she was right about, though. I had considered allowing the blackness of Stone to consume the minute details that made me Graham, but that was before meeting her. She made me want to fight the darkness that brewed inside me and discover new corners of the light withing me.
“I don’t know. Maybe you’re right.”
“I know I am, Graham,” she huffed, grinding her teeth together, but relaxed with the next inhalation her lungs pulled from the air. Her doey eyes looked up to me, searching for something I wasn’t sure I was capable of giving her. Tenderness.
“Fine.” I blew out a cleansing breath. “I’m sorry, okay? I promise to never do it again. Come here.” I pulled her to my chest, wrapping my arms around her tiny frame, and pressed my lips to her hair.
“Sorry for what?” she asked with a coy smile playing on her lips.
“For not giving you the respect you deserve and for putting a gun to your head.”
“Twice,” she corrected.
“Twice,” I repeated with a huff. “Now, get your ass on the back of my ride, so we can go save Sticks from Annie girl.”
“We’re going to see Maryanne?” Bird blurted out in such a hurry her words ran into one another.
