“The fuck does this have to do with anything?” Connor said.
“Hey, am I talking to you?” Eduardo said. “No? Then shut the fuck up and let two old friends chat.”
I couldn’t see Connor from my vantage point, but I could practically feel the confusion from the silence.Old friends?He had no idea. None of them did. There was a reason I kept everything distant—and it wasn’t because I was afraid of my own past.
It was because I was downright embarrassed by it.
And this factoid wasn’t even in the top ten reasons why.
“Every step of the way, you’ve acted either with silent judgment or outright fury, in your now brother-in-law’s case,” Eduardo said, starting to laugh. “I’m sorry, I can’t help but laugh at the absurdity of that situation. You’ll forgive me for finding it amusing that your sister wound up with the club whore.”
I slammed my fists on the table. One of the Bandits drew a gun. Eduardo coolly motioned for the man to lower his gun.
“I didn’t call your sister anything, Mason,” Eduardo said just barely loud enough for me to hear.
It was true. In a strange, fucking odd way, Eduardo had never treated Hannah with anything but…well, I wasn’t going to say respect. He’d gangraped a girl before. I’d just leave it at he hadn’t said or done anything to heryet.
“In any case, this is a fight you cannot win, and I’m not talking about the fight with us,” Eduardo said.
“Then what the hell are you talking about?”
Eduardo raised his eyebrows in a “playful” yet taunting manner.
“You know damn well what I mean.”
My past. And myself.
“The fight you have with us is a good cover, I’m sure. And, hey, let’s be honest, Damian and Derek were kind of shitheads.”
He leaned forward.
“But there’s only two outcomes to this fight. Either you win, and you have no choice but to face the terrible things you’ve done. Or, you lose, and you die. I’m not sure which is preferable for you, Mason, but it sure is pretty damn telling that it’s not clear which is better, isn’t it?”
“Get the fuck out,” I said. “Before I leave you no choice but to give me the second option. I’ll be taking you with me if that happens.”
Eduardo smiled, clapped his hands together, let out a sigh of relief like he’d just taken a swig of beer on a hot summer day, and rose out of his booth.
“This is a fight you can’t win, Mason,” he said. “You’re more like a Bandit than a Black Reaper. You’re older. You’ve done shit that makes ‘em look like kids. You’re too late to save yourself.”
“Go!” I said with a little more force than I meant to.
Eduardo laughed as he motioned for the other Bandits to follow him. I took my gun back out but never targeted it at them, only making it clear I would fire if I had to. The three of them piled back into their truck and roared off seconds later. Connor motioned back to the countertop, and we took our seats back there, giving us a better view.
“What the fuck was that all about?”
I shook my head.
“Fucker’s getting desperate,” I said. “He knows he’s going to lose a battle in the streets, so he’s trying to get into our heads. Figures he’ll go for the single one first. Won’t work, though.”
Connor, wisely, said nothing. There had been enough words spoken tonight.
And unfortunately, more than a few of them were true.
I was most certainlynotmore Bandit than Black Reaper. For one, I had fucking standards, even if that was different than having fucking hope. For another…
Well, shit.
Eduardo was right.
