“That was so sexy,” I purr to them.
Joy winks, and Rook slips his arms around my waist, subtly feeling up my ass. “All for you, Officer.” He presses a soft kiss on my lips.
“I can’t wait to get you both naked,” I growl.
“Soon,” Joy breathes, jutting a hand out for The Ivory.
He looks shocked by it, but he accepts it, allowing her to pull him to his feet.
“Gracias. She hits harder than you, by the way,” he says to Rook, spitting blood on the ground.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he chuckles, pecking me once more before, sauntering toward the Attic. “Let me grab you an icepack, Jefe.”
“Much obliged,” Ivory grunts.
I can tell he’s not pleased—who would be after getting their ass handed to them?But Angel is fawning over his bleeding nose and lip, and he’s grinning.
Barely fazed.
“My turn!” Byron stalks after Linetti, who’s literally running away. It’s hilarious. “Where you goin, sonyeon…”
“Kang! Stop…”
We’re all laughing as two cartel men come dragging a large crate.
“Beer’s here!”
Linetti stops, distracted by booze, just long enough for Kang to tackle him to the ground.
Fuckin’ savagery, man.
Even after the parties ended, we still found ways to let loose. It’s who we are.
It wasn’t about getting fucked up and numbing ourselves to the reality of our situation anymore. We were on a mission, training and keeping ourselves sharp was imperative.
“You realize that’s where you fucked up, right?” I murmur to Ivory while he watches with glee as Byron Kang beats the ever-loving shit out of Linetti. His eyes flit to mine. “The lockdown… you stopped feeding us vices right when it mattered most. We were at our strongest and we only got stronger.”
He purses down a smirk.
“And then when you brought in your team to replace us, you left us alone and unoccupied, but you kept us together,” I sneer. “I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
Ivory takes a deep inhale. “If someone didn’t know better, they might think I’d been sabotaging the integrity of this island from day one…” He sighs. “But I would never do that.”
He winks, patting me on the shoulder.
I’m just staring at him. This vicious, brilliant fucking sociopath…
Mymentor.
It’s insane, but on some level I still see him that way. Because I can’t erase thirteen years of learning from this madman. In many ways, he made me who I am today. Like a father-figure—as creepy or fucked up as that sounds, all things considered.
He was the only male figure in my life to look up to. So he became that… My surrogate dad. And like many fathers, he was also an abusive piece of shit. But you don’t stop loving them because of that. You can’t. It’s tattooed onto your insides.
The point is that thereisgood in Manuel Blanco. I’ve seen it firsthand. And while we may have gone off-course in our conquering of this island, which I blame fully on the Pen, together we still made Alabaster Isle ours.
I’ll toast to that, motherfuckers.
As the pale glow of dawn sprawls over the island, finally, we drag ourselves into the mansion.
