Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
I can’t even think about that possibility.
So, I warned the brothers. I ordered them to give Blade a wide berth. I also told them to let us have this. I lean back in my chair, waiting. The bottle behind my desk looks at me like an old friend that always tells the truth, and the urge to drink it is stronger than it has ever been.
I think about this morning—Ayita making too strong coffee and laughing at how the sun hits the pot. She hummed while flipping eggs. The woman was happy. For the first time in way too long, her joy warmed me. Now, that’s a distant memory because Blade is going to be here, and he’s going to demand information on the Feral Kings. I have to find a way to mitigate the damage. I can’t allow my brother to charge in half-cocked. Ranger and I will work on bringing the Kings down. I need my club and my brother concentrating on our future. We need this casino to be the only priority at the moment.
I remember ending Buzzard’s life like a bad movie I can’t stop seeing. He was the fucker who was reaming his dick into Mavis while she was snorting coke. I’d be a rich man if I had a dollar for every fucking time that I wished I’d made the bastard suffer more. I can’t go back, but God, the need to is almost staggering at times. I didn’t make the asshole suffer for what he did to my woman … I stop. For what he did to Blade’s woman. Olivia isn’t mine. She will never be mine. You’d think I’d get that through my head after all this time. My jaw tightens until my molars ache with that thought. I shake my head to clear it.
The door to my office opens so forcefully that it slams hard against the wall and rattles the fucking windows. Blade looks like a man who’s gutted from the inside. Sadly, it’s a look I know all too well. He looks at me and I can tell that right now he wants to choke the life out of me. If he only knew the number of times I’d welcome that.
“Why in the fuck didn’t you tell me?” he snarls, anger causing his entire body to vibrate.
“When?” I ask, flippantly. “When should I have told you? Back when I first found out? You didn’t even know who Olivia was. You were getting ready to head off to school.” My voice is flat, even though heat is climbing my throat. “I never told you after I killed the fucker, because it wasn’t a club concern. I contained it so war didn’t break out. We weren’t in any shape for a war back then. Hell, we still aren’t. We have to think of the community and the good this casino is going to do. Everything needs to keep smelling like roses. We have to rise above the need to wipe the Feral Kings off the earth—at least for now.”
“You should have told me everything,” Blade fires.
I shrug, acting like my heart isn’t involved when it comes to Olivia, just as much as his—if not more. “It was Olivia’s story to share with you. She had so much taken from her. I will not take the right to tell her story to others away. It will always be her decision. What did Olivia tell you?” I ask, though I already know the answer.
“I don’t think she gave me the whole story. Seems to be a habit with her. I know she probably has trust issues, but I can’t lie— it’s annoying the fuck out of me. I feel like she’s never quite telling me the entire story on anything important. Still, I wouldn’t change anything. She gave me a gift even more important than her body last night.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, not sure I want to know.
“Last night she told me she loved me,” he says, with a faint smile, despite his anger.
“She did?” my tongue feels numb, the words much too heavy to bear.
It takes everything I am not to reveal how those words make me feel. My hands want to turn into fists. My chest feels like it must be bleeding because my heart has just been ripped out. I push those feelings down, but it’s not easy. It’s so fucking hard that for the first time in my life I want to fucking cry.
Jesus.
Olivia is not mine. She never will be. I knew he would claim what I lost. I knew it the day I realized she was mine only in a life that no longer existed. I told myself I was okay with that because Blade is my brother. I want his happiness more than anything. Olivia is perfect for him. She deserves a man who can give her everything—can love her freely—without hurting another woman in the process. I deserve to stay on the periphery and keep watch.