3. Torin
THREE
torin
“ Go ahead. Do exactly what your brother did.”
“I’m nothing like my brother, Wildfire. I’m worse. You’re addictive and beautiful. You’re so fucking raw and sinful that I’d go through hell just to know what it feels like to be inside you. You’re an addiction…a hard one to kick. I don’t know if I want to kill you or fuck you into next week.”
I flip another page of my book. Some slowly written mystery I plucked out of my library because I couldn’t bear the thought of sleeping.
Every time I do, it’s one of two things: I see her, or I hear him .
The combination of hate and obsession mixes inside me like oil and water. Neither one of them settling well.
Drinking her out of my head has backfired. I see nothing but her blazing blue eyes and am haunted by the sounds of her moaning in my ear.
I’m nothing short of addicted but in several capacities now.
I want to fuck her until I can’t feel anymore.
And I want to kill her because my brother decided to show up from the dead and haunt me in my dreams.
I don’t know what’s reality and what’s fiction anymore.
I’m unable to settle on what’s right and wrong and who’s lying and who’s not.
My intuition is off, and I can’t seem to fix the damn thing to point me in the direction of where I’m sitting and where I need to stand.
“I’m glad to see you’re still picking up books. It keeps that head sharp with creative ideas.”
I immediately scowl at the printed pages. Ramsey’s voice from behind me sets my already fragile nerves on end.
“What do you want?” I don’t bother to look up or around at him, hoping to fuck he takes off after a few comments.
But when I hear the bottle of whiskey clink against one of the glasses, I know he’s going to be here long enough to make a few.
“Figured I’d play big brother,” Ramsey emits. “It’s been a while, and I’m past due.”
“ Save it ,” I leer, turning a page so aimlessly I almost rip the damn thing from the binding. “I don’t need your help, nor did I ask for it.”
“That’s the same shit Lennox used to say.”
This motherfucker.
Blood boils in my veins as I clench down on my teeth, but I decide to keep my arguments for later.
Maybe if my brother speaks his peace, he’ll fuck off somewhere and kill something else other than my quiet time.
A glass shows up to my left.
I don’t want it.
However, I mindlessly pluck it from his hand to get this shit over with. If he needs to make himself feel better, good for him.
It’s still not going to give up his spot in hell.
From my peripheral, he sits across from me in the accompanying black leather chair, and nothing.
Not one word.
Not a single inkling as to why the hell he’s in my house, how he got in my house, or of any plans or fucked-up ideas he has in his head.
My patience runs out.
Glancing up, I glower at him.
It does nothing.
Ramsey takes a small sample of the whiskey, ignoring me, and allows whatever it is he wants to do or say to sit on his tongue for a moment before swallowing.
I’m about to ram the whole damn glass down his throat if he doesn’t hurry up and leave me alone.
“History repeats itself,” he begins, rolling the light brown liquid around in his glass to observe it. “Emilio with Bay’s mother. Judah with Bay. You with Bay. It all ends in death, brother. Stop it now.”
It would take an idiot to not be privy to the idea that my oldest sibling would always choose violence. On any other day, with anyone else, I’d maybe listen with open ears.
However, this isn’t any sort of dumb-ass predicament.
“What do you want?” I repeat, resting my arm along the chair and bouncing my leg across my knee.
“To get this shit settled so we can move on like we were always supposed to.” I lift my shoulders in response, accelerating his reason for visiting. “As hard as it may be to swallow, brother, Lennox did everything wrong and should’ve stayed.”
“For what? None of us—besides you—wanted to be here. Especially after Mom left.”
“I never said anything about wanting to stay here,” he retorts flatly. “But someone had to appease Emilio. If not, he would’ve kicked us all out on our asses.”
“So, you’re trying to tell me that you did it out of the kindness of your heart?”
“Who else was going to take care of you and Lennox?”
Who the fuck cares?
And I’m never going to be sold on Ramsey having an ounce of empathy in his veins. He didn’t give a flying fuck about us, and he can’t tell me different.
“Don’t act like being our stepfather’s bitch was such a burden for you to bear, Rams. I’m not buying it, never have, and you can walk out of here and choke on my expensive-as-fuck bourbon while you’re at it.”
“Wake up, Torin,” he orders, his voice hardening in response. “Lennox was on the wrong side. Matteo De Leon was always a fucking clown, who was doing everything in his power to take people down. He’s still doing it.”
“And?”
“And I know it wasn’t just Bay who murdered our brother. De Leon had a hand in it because Lennox had a hard-on for her, and that was a problem.”
I can’t deny the allegation as much as I would love to.
Lennox would write about some girl with onyx-colored hair and blue eyes. Then she flipped it to blonde.
It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.
It was also out of character for my brother to write about things like that.
“Prove it,” I shoot back, desperately needing his evidence because just talking about it will do nothing for me.
Not anything more than what I’ve already done.
“Bay Astor holds the fifth Titan seat. She’s the granddaughter of Penn Northcott. I’m surprised you haven’t put that together yet.”
My face skews because, no, I hadn’t.
And that’s impossible.
“Her mother was Amelia Northcott. Emilio wasn’t fucking with some random bitch. Why do you think he wanted her so bad?”
My skin practically crawls on itself.
It’d be another reason why Emilio wants Bay. Why he’s been so obsessed and gung-ho about forming a relationship with her.
However, why not kill her and claim it for himself?
I stare at my brother, trying to read him, but he gives nothing away. Ramsey’s poker face is one of his adopted talents over the years.
“What does that have to do with Judah?” I press back. “Why would he attempt to strangle her if?—”
“That seat could destroy this whole place. And I have a feeling that Lennox found out about who she was and all the power she had. With it, and her running around with Levi Wallace, it was going to fuck up everything he and Matteo built. All the dreams he had built for that Pistol Posse bullshit.”
“Bay wouldn’t?—”
“She has. And she has always kept Matteo De Leon exactly where he is. Insignificant. And who do you think helped her with that?”
Wallace.
Always Wallace.
The two of them are like flies to shit. Always together.
Always fucking.
Always doing whatever the hell it is that they do.
“It still doesn’t explain why De Leon would have been a part of this. Judah was his right-hand man.”
“I don’t think De Leon knows about who Bay was and is,” Ramsey replies. “I know when Judah told me about it?—”
“You’ve known about this the whole fucking time,” I seethe, seconds away from throwing my drink right at his head. “And you let me get close to this girl?—”
“You’re in love with that girl, and she’s in love with you,” my brother chimes in flatly. “If we could keep her on my side, why the hell wouldn’t I want that? Plus, I could keep an eye on her.”
“She killed Judah.”
“And you know the old saying; keep your friends close but your enemies closer. She will never fall under Emilio’s fake shit about wanting to be Daddy of the Year. And, frankly, I’m not saving the old man.”
“He dies, we’re fucked.”
“He dies, you have the Forsaken Crew, and I have The Void. Why do you think I haven’t felt a certain type of way with your friends and how you planned on ripping it from Emilio?” He scoffs then and takes another small sip of his drink. “The man simply won’t die.”
“Are you telling me you want him gone, too?”
“What has he ever done for us that would make me want anything else?” I open my mouth to tell him that he’s always been good to Ramsey, but my brother beats me to it. “He never investigated Lennox’s death. I had to figure it out. Do you know how many of Matteo’s men I killed to find out the truth? He buried our brother with body parts I had to dig the fuck up on my own.”
Of course, I know all this.
However, Emilio never confirmed it was Judah. He always made it seem like maybe he was still out there somewhere.
“Was…it him?”
Ramsey averts his eyes from me, and it tells me everything I need to know.
Our brother is dead.
And I naively believed he was going to come home one day.
“Regardless of who pulled the trigger that night, brother,” Ramsey mutters, and I can barely hear him. “She’s a menace to everything you and I have suffered for. She’s already torn your friends apart. And now she has Ozzy under her palm. What do you think that’s going to do to him?”
My heart slows, because did he just say?—
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I hedge through a snarl. “Ozzy is?—”
“Married to Bay. Officially and legally.”
I drop my glass and rise to my feet. He’s fucking with me. This whole conversation was to get under my skin and do fuck knows what.
“Get out,” I command, on the verge of jumping his ass. “We’re done here.”
“Ask him.”
Oh, I will.
Meanwhile, Ramsey just threw me for a loop because Ozzy was never part of the plan. My cousin was purposely left out of it, for good reason. He’d never come out of the shadows to see Bay. It’s where he liked to be. It made him feel good.
“You’ve got ten seconds,” I warn, clenching and unclenching my fingers into fists.
“He went over my head, Torin,” Ramsey claims simply. “I didn’t know Emilio was going to change plans.”
“He would never give Bay to Ozzy,” I argue back. “He knows damn well that?—”
“I can’t answer that. I don’t know what happened. My plan was to handle this all by myself, but I can’t now. I have Ozzy floating around, doing whatever it is he’s doing, and I didn’t think you’d appreciate my killing him next.”
“You fuckin’ touch him, and I’ll watch him murder you.”
Ramsey scoffs at that, then joins me in standing. He has about two inches on me, lean and almost regal looking, but he got that shit from Emilio.
“Make a choice,” he tells me. “The boys or her. You can’t have both.”
“And what if I don’t?”
“Then you’ll fall. Just like Lennox. You have so much faith in Emilio you think he would’ve kept you without us?” Ramsey slowly shakes his head as if I’m a complete dumbass. “We’re Morrisons. Not Wildes. If our mother had done her job, we still wouldn’t be fighting this hard. That bitch left us, and not once did she come looking for Lennox.”
“I don’t give a fuck about her.”
“Then give a fuck about what you do care about. Bay and Wallace have planned all this, and now another chess piece is going to move. Their cover is blown. The secret is out. De Leon will have his day?—”
“Why didn’t you kill him?” I blurt at the mention of his name. “If you believe he killed Judah. Why does he still exist ?”
“Because, despite my best efforts, no one would give him up. Just her. And Wallace.”
“Wallace?” I can’t help but blurt his name, and it sends a cold shiver down my spine. I’ve always hated that motherfucker. And, in the midst of that animosity, I never really understood the full reason why. Except, maybe, until now. “He’s never been mentioned?—”
“With Bay comes Wallace, Torin,” Ramsey tsks haughtily. “Bay’s mission was to take down De Leon before his gang got going. However, that dickhead couldn’t keep his hands off her and his friends. I believe Wallace pulled her out of there and bided his time. Roger was holding the Titan seat. So, I highly doubt Wallace was telling him he was using his daughter as bait.”
And she wouldn’t leave De Leon.
I remember always coaxing her to get away from that asshole. That he was no good for her. That I’d treat her better.
I knew she was smarter than that.
Apparently, she was.
Bay had a role to play and an assignment to do. At the time, it made no sense that she’d be dating Wallace’s enemy and he’d be okay with it.
Just like she was dating me and he didn’t attempt to kill me yet.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” Ramsey says, pulling my head out of the past. “She’s involved with Ozzy, and Emilio is adamant about giving her The Landing’s seat. She’s going to take it, Torin.”
“I don’t give a fuck about?—”
“I didn’t sacrifice myself for that bitch to take the damn chair,” my brother snarls, showing his first sign of emotion. “You need to take it. I’ll back you up, and we’ll mow down South Shore together.”
I shake my head. “Cairo will never go for that shit.”
“Make him,” he clips sharply. “They killed our brother . I don’t give a shit who pulled the trigger. They’re all responsible.”
Everything makes sense.
Ramsey laid it down perfectly for me to pick up and read. It’s not some magical thing or some imaginary line between us. Bay inserted herself purposely, and I fell right into her trap. Everywhere she went, Bay was perfectly placed.
She knew I’d never hurt her.
“You wanna go rogue.” It’s not a question but a confirmation of what Ramsey wants to do.
“Yeah,” he exhales, as if breathing out his anxiety over the matter. “Emilio is not going to kill her. And he’s leaving us high and dry. I’ve known about her for years. Lennox knew who she was. I’m not sure how, but he did, and he told me. He was supposed to keep an eye on her, but something must’ve happened. He must have heard something coming down the pipe, and he decided to take her out himself. He failed.”
“ You’re the only thing I’ve seen since leaving that’d make me go back to keep you from harm. I can change everything. We—together—could be the most powerful couple in all of Rhode Island and the surrounding states.” The screen goes black, the moonlight disappearing and erasing my brother and Bay from the frame. “I can’t bear seeing you with him anymore.”
“We both know Lennox didn’t have it in him to kill a woman,” Ramsey mutters. “Especially a girl. He was going to bring her back. It was a risk, especially since Emilio didn’t know yet about who she really was. But he was adamant about it.”
“And what were your thoughts?”
“I wasn’t a fan,” Ramsey replies honestly. “However, I would’ve rather have seen him home than with De Leon. I could’ve kept more of an eye on things.”
I’m not fully sold on that, but the reality remains the same.
Bay was behind my brother’s murder.
She was there.
And now, she has to pay.