“I need you to tell me everything you know. And if that means I have to see your ugly mug more often then so be it.”
He runs his hand along his jaw. “Never been accused of ugly before.” Again, he’s unbothered. Like his bullet proof vest nothing can affect him.
“Have you learned anything?” Sticks tries to break the tension between us by directing Crow’s attention to him. I would like to say that it works but it doesn’t.
Anytime Crow is near I have to remind myself repeatedly not to punch him in the fucking face.
“They’re investigating on the deaths of The Crowned Devils MC but have no credible evidence and are only going by leads,” he informs Sticks.
“Then should we be worried?” Pax asks.
“The FBI wouldn’t be sticking their nose in business unless they have something. It’swhatI’m trying to figure out,” Crow tells him.
Pax sighs disappointedly. “Can’t really talk our way out of this one can we?” Ever the pacifist.
Crow lets out a chuckle that sounds unused. “Unless you have a hell of a lawyer.”
“And we can’t kill them.” Now it’s Snake’s turn to sigh disappointedly.
Sticks shakes his head at him while Dex smothers a laugh.
“No killing,” I warn Snake specifically. “Figure out what they have and soon before it’s too late,” I order Crow.
He raises a brow. “Didn’t I just say I was going to do that?”
My damn finger twitches again. “I’m making sure you don’t fuck us over.”
His hard eyes narrow. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“You fucked me over once, Crow. Just making sure there won’t be a repeat performance.”
“You’re still harping about that?” He asks genuinely baffled. I say nothing in return. “My father literally died because you fuckers didn’t include him in shit and you’re still harping about that? Over an unfortunate mis-fucking-communication?” His voice doesn’t rise but I can feel his quiet anger. It’s the one thing that Crow and I have in common. Our anger never rises. It’s stays cold and lethal. Then again we both served. Him in the Army and I in the Marines. Perhaps it’s a quality only we have.
“You’re calling fucking another man’s woman a miscommunication?”
It’s so silent that one can hear a pin drop. The tension so heavy and think in the air that not even a chainsaw could sever it.
“One that I had no knowledge of. If I had known I wouldn’t have touched her.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I would expect you from one veteran to another to believe my character.”
“Your character means shit. You weren’t my brother in arms. You didn’t fight by my side.”
“No, I didn’t but I had brothers of my own. You don’t think I didn’t see the Dear John letters? How that fucked with their head. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone let alone partake in it. I didn’t know, Oak. Lana-”
“Don’t say her fucking name around me, Crow.”
He shuts his mouth in a firm line. His eyes cut mine. It’s his only tell. Mine freeze and his harden to stone.
Deep down I hate to admit how much we are alike.
“I’ve apologized, Oak. Countless of times. But maybe it’s not me you want the apology from, maybe it’s her.”
I’m silently fuming.
I hate how well he can read me.
