He smiled, walking up to the cab and opening the door for me, one eye still on that van as if he now found it as odd as I did. “Of course, it was my pleasure. Have a safe ride home, okay?”
I slid in, thanking him again before he shut the door and turned back to the van, his eyes hardening just as the cab pulled away.
I watched him for a second longer before turning to the van as we passed it. I was only barely able to catch a glimpse of a man sitting in the driver’s seat before we drove by.
Just a delivery service, I was sure. Everett and Steven had made me paranoid, that was all. Nothing more than that.
Nothing at all.
19
Everett
June 1st, 2022
Thismeeting seemed more like an ambush than anything else. Especially with it being here in Colorado rather than in Washington.
Not to mention that everyone was here, including Azrael, which was rare. He almost never came to meetings.
Malachi had rented out a private room in the back of some stripper joint across town calledThe Alibi, and although the room was filled with bright-colored couches, nobody was sitting save for Malachi, Azrael, and our sisters, who were all sitting on the same couch, legs crossed, eyes hard.
The music was muffled in this room, a couple of stripper poles stationed in the center, but I had a sneaking suspicion that none of us would get any show tonight.
My eyes found Greyson’s. He was the only one with different colored eyes than us. We all had shades of blue, even Malachi and Beckett, but Greyson? His were hazel. Just another reasonwhy he was separate from the rest of us. “How’s the hole?”
He instinctively rubbed his chest where the bullet had pierced him exactly 2 months ago now. “Hurts, healing.”
I was shocked he lived through that. Still, he should have been watching his back, and Azrael should have been too.
Azrael was the best of us when it came to fighting. He hardly ever got hit, and when he did, it was usually our fault, so the fact that Greyson had gotten hit while he was there shocked me.
“Let’s get to business,” Beckett began, stepping up to the arm of the couch Malachi was sitting on. “I respect the choices Greyson and Jack made—”
I laughed, realizing quickly why exactly we were here. “I have done this with multiple other girls. They,” I said, throwing my hand towards the girls, “have done it too. With both men and women. What is your problem with me havingthis onepay her debt with her pussy?” What thefuckwas happening? Malachi told me to do this. I was underhisorders. Why did Beckett keep coming after me for this fucking debt? It was getting goddamn irritating at this point.
“It has been very clear to me that the closer you boys get to these broken women, the harder it is for you to pull away from them. Their pussies aren’t magical, they’re a dime a dozen. Find a whore, fuckher, drop the debt, and move on. We don’t need the money.”
“Emily is not a dime a dozen,” Greyson stated coldly. “And as much as I respect you, Beckett, be careful how you speak about my girl or I’ll show you exactly how far I’m willing to go to protect her.”
Beckett spared him a bare glance before turning back to me. “Pelgard is dead, dismembered, if I remember correctly, the debt is waived.”
I searched his eyes, my confusion growing. “What is it aboutthis girlthat is causing you to order a meeting to get me to dropthe debt, which, by the way, we haveneverdone before. Not unless they really fuck us. Wealwaysget the payment, that is the point of this alias.”
“An alias you will have to drop if your idea of the college goes through,” Beckett stated. “He owed the Kingsmen less than 200,000 dollars. Chump change in our world. It’s nothing. Having her pay it off would keep her on the leash for years, Everett. Isn’t that how that works? How long are you going to fuck her before you grow bored and kill her anyway?”
I worked my jaw, my hands itching for my gun. “Did you want to fuck her?” I challenged. “Is that what this is about? You want a piece of her pussy so you’re trying to get me to drop it in order to have her all to yourself?”
His face twisted.
“Have at it,” I told him, my own gut twisting. “Any one of you can have at it, except for you,” I went on, pointing to Azrael.
His smile only grew behind his creepy broken mask.
“The debt is owed to the Kingsmen’s, not me. All of us. We can all pick up the debt.”
Beckett’s blue eyes flamed. “You’ve already fallen for her, haven’t you?”
I was going to fucking kill him. “I’m keeping our name where it needs to be on this fucking board,” I said through my teeth. “Letting people go isnotwhat the Kingsmen do, let alone Malachi Adler’s sons. We don’t let the prey go, we devour them.”
