30. Torin
THIRTY
torin
I wouldn’t have been there if Cairo hadn’t called and said Reeve was at Breeze Bar.
He didn’t need to say anything else.
I recall the place too well. I’ve been there way too many times. And I’m not surprised she was there, too.
It’s fitting.
Just like old times.
I only briefly caught how Travis Muncy reached out to Cairo as he explained what was happening at rapid speed, something about Bay’s call, everything else was a moot point.
Ideas of Matteo De Leon pressed up against Bay Astor reared up old and ugly memories and shot up right into my fucked-up head.
Too much need and want in those thoughts.
I was obsessed with Bay—shocker. She may have been a blonde then, but those fucking eyes are what did and do it for me every time.
Every single fucking time.
I planned to go in covertly and get them out. But the moment I snuck into the back room and found that meaty son of a bitch’s hands all over what’s mine, what’s always been mine, and what will forever be mine until I say it’s fucking not, that strategy went out the fucking window.
“Why didn’t you just shoot him?” Cairo mutters, fingers wrapped tightly around the leather wheel of his Benz.
He’s annoyed, I don’t need him to explain it. However, I’m not the source of it tonight.
“And have you bitch at me about going rogue?” I shoot back. “Hard pass.”
“You did good.”
Eh, I wouldn’t say that.
Good would’ve been doing what my brother just said and finally putting a bullet in De Leon’s head.
However, I have enough problems, and the thought of Matteo watching Reeve fuck Bay sat on the top of that list.
I liked that idea better.
“My father wants Bay to sit on The Landings seat.”
My head whips around to glower at him. “ What ? She’s not sitting?—”
“He’s not gonna give it to you.”
Emilio.
We’ve known that forever.
However, Bay sitting on it is going to have my whole head on the chopping block. I’m surprised I haven’t had several hits on me since I dropped her in the middle of the Atlantic.
But the more time that goes by only positions me into thinking she hasn’t told Wallace.
“And you want me to do what?” I press back. “Follow her?”
“No.” Cairo rocks his head back and forth. “Our plan still stands.”
“Our plan was killing Emilio and me taking the seat afterward.”
“Our plan was killing Emilio and Ramsey so that you could take the seat afterward.”
Eh.
My brother is a psychotic motherfucker, and if he died, I wouldn’t shed a tear over it. But that was by someone else’s hand.
Not mine.
I’m already down one brother. I don’t know how I feel about downing the other.
“I’m out of planning that shit,” I profess evenly, returning my attention to the road. “Keep me out of it.”
“She wants us to find the video?—”
“I said keep me out of it ,” I leer through my clenching jaw. “Don’t believe her, brother. Whatever the fuck you do…don’t fall for that shit.”
“It’s not gonna hurt, Torin. De Leon showed you that video, dude. We both know he’s shady as fuck and?—”
“I said don’t ,” I bark out, clenching my fingers into tight fists. I can’t take any more talking about Judah. The nights are getting worse. Judah’s disappointment in me has reached an all-time high, and he won’t fuck off from me already.
I’m haunted by his aftermath and what’s expected of me.
If he were sitting in this car right now, he’d be bitching my ear off about offing Bay not Matteo.
“Fuck,” Cairo mutters at the same time I see Bay’s car parked in the middle of the street. Two bodies are on the sidewalk; one throwing their arms up in the air every which way, and the other standing there not doing much at all.
Reeve and Bay.
Cairo pulls up behind Wildfire’s Nova, throwing on his hazards as he peels out of the car. I follow like fly to shit. Reeve needs to get home so Cairo can get some damn rest tonight. I know he’s been concerned with how shit went down. That Reeve is off the rails and I’m not fully cognitive of the world and reality.
Judah isn’t real.
In my mind, my dreams, or my nightmares.
He’s not talking to me.
He’s not bitching at me.
Whatever the fuck is happening in my head, it’s some PTSD bullshit that makes up stories and thoughts of what I need to do.
My brother doesn’t possess the power to do all this. It’s impossible.
But it still fucking happens anyway.
Every night or day when I close my eyes, there he is. Plain as fucking rain, standing or sitting there with a glower and a bunch of fucked-up ways with how he’s disappointed in me.
“ Reeve ,” Cairo rants out through my inner thoughts. “Get in the fuckin’ car.”
Our brother glances over at us approaching, but he seems to suffer the same as I do.
The lack of being able to pry ourselves fully away from Bay Astor.
“Matteo is going to be lining these streets any minute now,” she chides Reeve, giving him a small shove to his chest. “I don’t know how many times I have to tell you to stop fuckin’ around.”
Cairo grabs the back of Reeve’s tee and begins guiding him to his Benz. “You’re a fucking idiot, do you know that?”
“Yes,” Reeve replies. “I’ve been knowing that.”
“The fuck were you doing at Breeze Bar?”
He shrugs. “I didn’t drive. I went with two girls, and they took us there. I didn’t know what it was.”
They both walk by me, getting to Cairo’s car, but I don’t move an inch.
I can’t when Bay’s blue eyes connect with mine, and everything around us ceases to exist.
I’m in this fucked-up play of back-and-forth.
I want her out, but I want her in.
I want her with me.
I want this shit to go away, and I want to forget.
But then I don’t.
If she could do what she did to Judah, what could she do to me?
To my brothers?
Take Reeve.
Need I say more?
“You need to stay away from him,” I upbraid evenly. “I don’t want to see you near him again.”
Bay bristles, then breaks free from her spot and begins for her car, but she has to get by me to get to it. And I conveniently step in her way because I haven’t heard her confirm that she heard me.
“I need an answer, Wildfire,” I issue out. “Next time?—”
“Get out of my way, Pretty Boy,” she grinds out through a clenched jaw. “We don’t have anything to say to each other.”
“I’ve got plenty to say.” I inch forward, and Bay flinches back a bit. “Your time with him is over. You’re mine now.”
She scoffs at that and averts her blues off me. “You done?”
There she is.
My beautiful Wildfire with clapbacks for days and a fucking attitude that only makes me hard. That only makes me want to break her into moaning for me.
“I am when you answer.”
“I just did.”
“Bay.” She defies me by not giving me any of her attention, but, you see, this is what pisses me off. The fact that she doesn’t believe I have a say. That I’ve never had a damn say. “That’s the last time you’re in the same room with De Leon.”
“Fine with me,” she replies instantly. “Anything else?”
She swings those blue eyes to me, and yes, there’s plenty else, but those things need to die.
My want and need for her has to reach a point where I can stop myself from getting too deep, and I haven’t ingested enough alcohol to continue on.
Which is probably for the best.
“The next time I find you—” Her fist hits my cheek so quickly it’s apparent all the bourbon I have been drinking is slowing my motor skills.
My face flies to the side, and a slew of pain thrums through my head, but I’m not mad.
I knew I had that shit coming.
It was only going to be so long until Bay Astor came back.
To fight me.
“You fucked up, Pretty Boy,” she grumbles, getting up in my personal space, but I don’t make a move to take her out of it.
No, she smells like gasoline and car exhaust.
Always something different. Even smells get caught up in her web.
“You should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” she continues, her voice this warning that doesn’t fully ring in my head. “If you ever?—”
“You wouldn’t have done that if Cairo wasn’t here,” I call out because she flinched away from me before. And no one knows what I’ve done. Not Reeve, not Cairo, and even my cousin. “Consider that your first and final time you get to hit me.”
“Consider that the first and only time you’re going to get a hold of me to kill me.”
“Kill you,” I mutter, slowly craning my head to look down at her. “Wildfire, what I have planned…you’ll wish you were dead.”
Her face is flushed red, but she doesn’t back down because she has the backup of the only rational asshole here. And Cairo would never allow me to go too far with her.
Especially when she just went out to rescue Reeve.
“Let’s go,” my brother calls out, reminding me he’s still a few feet back. “We need to clear the street.”
“But who’s gonna see Wildfire home?” I taunt before my face contorts into a smirk alluding that I’d be more than happy to volunteer to ride with her.
“I am,” Cairo replies. “Can you drive?”
He slams his keys hard into my chest as though he’s trying to make a point for me to fuck off.
Message received.
For now.
“I’m fine,” I deadpan, reaching for Bay to brush my fingers along her jawline when she slaps my hand away. “So mean, Wildfire.”
I know it’s at the tip of her tongue to tell me to go fuck myself, but I don’t give her the chance, pivoting and making my way over to Cairo’s Benz to get the hell home.
Reeve and I need to sleep this shit off. We need to get our heads screwed back on.
However, I don’t know the first thing to do to get over a combination of heartbreak, betrayal, and revenge all tied together with a bright bow on top.
Bay Astor ruined me.
And I don’t know how the hell to get over it, her, or what she’s done.
Nonetheless, I don’t have to worry.
When I close my eyes, Judah will tell me how much of a fuckup I am, and it’s time to either put myself out of my misery or her.