AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I shook my head. “They care about you too much to force you into anything. They’ll support whatever decision you make.”
Sofia nodded, the wind whipping her hair around her face. “Thank you, Grayson,” she said softly. “For being honest with me.”
I smiled at her, my hand still resting on her waist. “Always,” I replied.
The lines around her mouth hardened as she looked away from me. “Sometimes it feels like you’re the only one who’s been honest with me since I got here,” she said.
I felt a pang of guilt in my chest as I heard her words. Teo had been so protective of her, but maybe he had been too overbearing. I knew Jace had shared some of his story with her, but I also knew he kept most of the unsavory parts out of it.
In fairness, so had I. Maybe we hadn’t given her enough space to make her own decisions.
“I haven’t,” I said. “I’ve just answered your questions. That’s the only difference. You’ve felt like you have an ally in me because of course you do, but that’s the only thing I’ve been doing differently, Sof.”
Sofia looked at me with an intense gaze, as if she was trying to read my mind. The wind continued to howl around us, and I couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease in the pit of my stomach. There was something about her that made me want to bear my soul, to tell her everything.
Even though I probably shouldn’t.
“So what haven’t you told me?” she asked. “What’s your story?”
I swallowed. Of course. She was a reporter. I should’ve seen this coming. “So you know my parents are addicts and were in the throes of addiction when I was a teenager,” I said. “And you know that Teo literally beat up the kid who was assaulting me when we were in juvie. Sam told you about that, right?”
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’ll tell you all of that in detail later. When we got out of juvie, I had a choice to make. I could either go back to my parents and the life I knew before or try to make a better life for myself. Teo was already set to be the boss of the Blades and he trusted me. When we were in juvie, Teo was scary. He never lost his head, but he was always scary. But he wasn’t omniscient or anything, so I kept my head down, read a lot, and tried to keep up with all the gossip. You have no idea how much teenage guys talk in juvie. Anyway, I managed to impress Teo. We became close friends. He seemed to think I was smart--”
“Youaresmart,“ Sofia cut in.
I waved her off.
“And there were people waiting for him to step in, but all the same, as soon as we got out, I became his right-hand man, his advisor. I never thought I’d end up here, though. I watched him carefully, learning everything I could from him. And when it was finally time for him to take control of the Blades, he made me his second-in-command,” I said, then tucked a strand of dark curly hair behind her ear. “The fact that I’m essentially helping Teo run a criminal empire wasn’t part of the plan. But sometimes life takes you in directions you never expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“I don’t know. I really didn’t think I was going to make it past twenty,” I said. “But here I am, past thirty, running a gang. It’s not the most glamorous of lives, but it’s mine.”
“Have you seen your apartment? It’s pretty glamorous, Gray,” she replied, smiling at me.
“Okay, yes, crime totally does pay,” I said. “But still. There’s always a cost.”
Sofia stepped closer to me and I could feel the heat radiating off her body. “What’s the cost for you?” she asked, her hand now curled around my bicep, her breasts pressing against my chest.
I took a deep breath, trying to fight down the arousal that was threatening to overwhelm me. I was suppose to take her out and distract her, not fuck her against this railing until she could see stars.
“I guess...the cost is that sometimes I’m the one making the hard decisions,” I said finally, deciding to take a safer route with my answer. “The ones that will make us more money but might get someone hurt. The ones that will keep our rivals at bay but may mean we have to take out some of their people.”
“But you like the danger,” she said, cocking her head.
“Only for me,” I said. “When anyone else is in danger, when you’re in danger, Sof, it makes me do crazy things.”
She looked up at me, her face impassive. Her lips were parted slightly and I could see her breath coming swiftly through her nose. “How crazy are we talking?” she asked in a low voice.
Breaking into your brother’s apartment crazy, I thought, but said no such thing.
“Crazy crazy,” I replied, then pressed another kiss against her lips before she could question it. Her grip around me tightened, her body flush against mine.
I deepened the kiss and moved her so that her back was against the railing. She moaned into my mouth as my hands moved from her waist to her legs. I hoisted her up onto the railing, and she wrapped those gorgeous legs around me.
She slipped a hand into my hair, her nails clawing into my scalp as she continued to moan in my mouth.
