48. Cairo
FORTY-EIGHT
cairo
“I know it’s not ideal, but you said you needed a place so…” Bay allows the rest of her sentence to trail off because, well, I did say we needed to buckle down for a little while. I just didn’t expect her to lead me back to the middle of nowhere where she stole my car.
Dozens of cars are still out here, some still charred from the night I tried to light this whole fucking place on fire and wanted to murder her in the middle of the woods.
The sounds of crickets fill the night air as I turn off my car and allow the back of my skull to hit the leather headrest.
“Do you want a bite?”
“I don’t eat fast food,” I deadpan because she insisted she was hungry on the way here, and despite her bitching about it, I caved.
Again.
“What were you doing there?”
Questions.
Always questions with this chick.
“Ozzy brought us.” I stare out the windshield, feeling her gaze on me. She wants more; I’m supposed to give it to her, but I don’t feel like talking right now.
“The last time I checked, the plan didn’t include you in it.”
Bay says that as if I give a fuck. As if I needed her permission to be on the little mission Wallace threw her in.
I said I was going to get the fucking video. I don’t need her to linger and beg De Leon to give it up.
“Why can’t you follow simple-ass instructions, Little Terror?” I inquire because she’s doing it. She’s driving me fucking crazy because I’m starting to actually care what happens to her.
This wasn’t the plan.
This was never the fucking plan.
But now that Torin and Reeve have fallen over the edge of no return and have several bones to pick with her, I’ve been needing to spend more time when I can’t.
“I don’t answer to you,” she retorts, and it takes everything in me not to snatch her up by her waist and remind of her how she answers to me.
Every little moan and whimper. Every sharp inhale and exhale, they were mine.
Her mouth was mine.
That whole fucking moment belonged to me, and I couldn’t follow through entirely with Vivian’s romantic weekend because my cock was rock hard with reminders of it, and I didn’t want to give Viv the wrong idea.
Not that she put up much of a fight about it.
Apparently, Bay had her locked into a supply closet until she left. Paid a hefty amount to the receptionist to have it done, too.
It took double the amount to get the chick to talk, but it was worth it.
“So, I’ll ask again,” Bay states, turning her body slightly to face me. “What were you doing there, Sinatra?”
I continue to look at the moonlit junkyard of sorts because she’s not going to get a reaction out of me. “The same exact thing you were doing.”
“And that was?”
“We’re not playing that game,” I reply evenly. “We don’t hide shit from each other anymore.”
“Yes, we do.” I crane my head over to her, careful to not take in the tight-as-fuck jeans she’s wearing and the dark gray t-shirt that’s filled out by her tits. “You didn’t tell me you were coming to help.”
“Last-minute thing.”
“Alright,” she settles, lifting a cheeseburger to her lips. “I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe you .”
My eyebrows knit, but I still mutter, “Thanks.” And return my focus back out the windshield.
“You’re mad.”
“I’m not.”
“You are because my trust issues with you didn’t flutter away and disappear like you were hoping they would.”
She has a point.
Though, I’d be stupidly naive to think they would disappear into thin air.
“They will with time,” I emit for the both of us. “I’m good, Little T. Promise.”
My phone takes the perfect opportunity to buzz in my center console, and I pluck it out to see the latest news.
OZZY: We got two.
CAIRO: We good to come back?
OZZY: No.
CAIRO: Make it quick, brother. She’s already driving me fucking crazy.
“Same.”
I slowly steer my focus to Bay, used to having sisters who do the same shit.
Looking over my shoulder and being all up in my business.
But she smiles at me, unconcerned about what I just said about her and how I’m trying to keep the illusion alive that nothing’s changed between us.
However, it has.
She’s a gravitational pull, and it’s hard to keep a rational head around her because it’s so strong. The attraction mixed with appreciation and the respect I’m beginning to have for her makes me want to reach for shit she’s already started with my brothers.
Bay doesn’t need any more boy problems. She has enough on her plate and in her mind right now.
“Wallace and Oz scooped up two of Matteo’s men for the?—”
“They’re not going to talk.”
“What makes you say that?”
She takes another bite of her burger, and with her mouth full, says, “I’ve been there, done that. I’ve seen Matteo threaten his men. I’ve seen him make them shit their pants. He rules with fear, an iron fist, and a whole lot of pride. Levi might try his best…but he’s not going to get any answers.”
“Then why did you do all this then?”
“Not my idea.”
“It was Wallace’s?” She bobs her head while she chews. “You don’t want the video anymore.”
It’s not a question. Bay is shutting down.
And I don’t think I’m going to like what that looks like.
“Why don’t you want the video anymore?” I press when she doesn’t acknowledge me. “This is what you wanted.”
“I know,” she mutters, then lifts her shoulders. “But I think dealing with a pissed-off Torin is better than one who’s going to be eaten alive by guilt for the rest of his life.”
“He’ll get over it. You said you were innocent so?—”
“You still don’t think I am?” She stops chewing and throws the spotlight on me to answer.
I don’t think she murdered Judah.
I’m not sure entirely what happened. It was explained to me, but I can’t see her setting him up.
I remember Judah, but I wasn’t around him a lot. He did a lot of drugs and brought around different girls, but he wasn’t violent.
And that’s why none of this makes sense.
The part where Matteo would’ve killed him, yes.
But Bay…I don’t see it. Regardless of how I felt about her before or what I thought she was going to do, in reality, Torin moved the wheel on her breaking things off with Reeve, and De Leon dropped the bomb with the video.
She didn’t fuck shit up.
Everyone else did.
“I don’t think you killed Judah,” I answer honestly. “But some shit doesn’t make sense.”
“With all due respect, Sinatra…I really don’t feel like breaking it down for you. But…one day, I will. If you want to know all of it.”
“I do.”
She bows her head. “Okay.”
Then she goes back to eating her artery-killer of a snack.
“He still bugs you?”
This time, Bay is the one who looks out the window toward the charred cars. “Yeah. Always. You’d think…it would’ve gotten better with time, but…there are so many fucked-up memories with him that I just can’t…”
I’m a bit taken aback she gave that up so easily. But I’m also empathetic to how it still makes her feel.
“Don’t let him. He’s nothing but a piece?—”
“There’s more to Matteo than meets the eye,” she cuts in. “He might look stupid to you—and he is—but he’s also calculated. He knows exactly what he’s doing.”
“Tearing you apart from the guys.” She bows her head and bites down into her cheeseburger like she’s ripping Matteo’s head off. “That’ll be fixed.”
She hums in disagreement but doesn’t choose this time to argue.
“It’s not the end of the world,” I assure her. “They’ll both get over it.”
“Yeah, but will I be alive for that part?” She steers her eyes over to me. “I’m not Vivian, Sinatra. I don’t need you to convince me things are going to get better. They’re not. Not until the evil that threatens my future is gone.”
“And does that evil have a name?”
Bay’s chest rises before she says, “Emilio. Then Matteo. Then nobody.”
I gaze at her, studying her expression just as the radio to my car and the headlights turn off. We’re in complete darkness, and I knew the answer.
I just wanted to see if she was sticking to it.
But she forgot Ramsey.
And I know she hasn’t had a proper dose of him yet, but he’s never going to bow.
“And what happens to everything else, Little T?”
“Ask what you really want to ask me,” she challenges, steering her attention back to me and that’s her and I.
Fucking honesty.
“What are your plans for the boys?”
“Does that include you, too?”
I nod. “Yes.”
“Nothing.”
“We’re still doing this, Little T?”
“We’re still doing this, Sinatra. Nothing’s changed.”
“So, I can officially call you an ally?”
She extends her wrapped burger to me—ketchup, mustard, lettuce, extra pickles—and holds it there. “Make it official. I did.”
“How?”
Her face heaves upward, and it hits me again all at once.
Bay Astor sucked my cock like she was born to serve me behind closed doors and made me lose my entire mind.
“Is that what that was?” I ask. “I thought that was making sure I didn’t forget about you.”
Her lips coil into a cocky smirk. “We both know that could never happen for you. Now, eat the damn burger, Sinatra, or I’m gonna think you changed your mind.”
“I don’t eat that shit.”
“And I don’t suck off just anyone and allow them to shove their big dick into my pretty little mouth. Eat it.”
“I’m starting to think you’re coming up with plans to kill me again.”
She rolls her eyes. “My fuckin’ God, you baby, eat the damn burger .”
I know it makes no difference if I do or not. I’ve already made my allegiance by promising to grab the damn video from Matteo, but I’ll give her this.
As stupid as it is.
Wrapping my fingers around her wrist, I lean over the console and take a bite of the hideous food she just had to have and force myself to chew.
“Good boy,” she muses before I release my grip and glower at her.
“Shut the fuck up.”
“It’s so sexy when you do things for me, Sinatra. I’m starting to think you like me.”
“Hardly.”
Deny it all you want, Black. The girl is sinking deeper underneath your skin.
It’s at the tip of my tongue to say I’m not looking to get balls deep inside Bay Astor and turn into a crazed zombie like Torin and Reeve, but I am.
There’s a fine line that’s always been there, and I have to sit comfortably on Wharf Bay’s Titan seat before I’ll feel more at ease with anything.
“I’ll let that lie slide,” she conveys to me, for me, and I take it like a bitch because consenting to it being false only opens up more lies. “You should’ve taken a video, so if this burger does kill you, Torin and Reeve would know who’s responsible.”
My face skews at the dark humor, but Bay only laughs again but I know she’s hurting inside. That it’s killing her as much as it is Torin.
“We’ll get the video,” I promise. “You don’t need to—” Her car door flies open, causing the overhanging light to flick on, and my Glock is in my palm within seconds, pointing toward the intruder who just scared the living fuck out of me.
“Are you fucking stupid?” I bark at Torin, whose elbow is propped up against the open window. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
He blinks a few times at me before steering his gaze to Bay, who is currently backed up against the center of my car and ready to act. “Question is, what the fuck are you doing in here?”
I shove my weapon back into the holster clipped on my jeans because he fucking knows what I’m doing.
He invited his damn fucking self.
“Wildfire,” he drones, as if he’s not happy to see her either. “Movin’ on already?”
“Can’t you see it, Pretty Boy?” she grinds out next. “I’m all heart-eyes and swooning over your boy’s cock.”
His eyes pinch a bit before he snaps his focus to me. “You gonna do this with us or what?”
“Do what?” Bay solicits immediately, turning to look at me for answers.
Torin holds my stare, not acknowledging a word she says. “Someone is gonna need to keep Ozzy in line.”
Right, because Wallace would probably allow him to tear Matteo’s men limb from limb with zero fucks given on the side. We came to make sure that, for one, nothing happened to Oz. And, two, he asked if I could look after Bay.
“I’ll be there,” I reply then nod toward the woman in the car. “Let me get her home.”
“I want to talk to Levi,” she commands. “ Now .”
“Don’t you want to know how your husband is doing, Wildfire?” Torin taunts. “That’s either fucked-up or there’s already trouble in paradise.”
Bay’s leg shoots out, attempting to nail Torin somewhere on his body, but she misses, and my brother is quick to slam her door, lucky not to jam her foot in the process.
“Knock it off,” I lightly scold. “You’re going to get yourself hurt.”
“Someone needs to knock him on his ass?—”
“Bay.” She continues staring out the window, but Torin has already disappeared as her chest heaves uneven breaths. He scared the shit out of her, but through the silence, it’s a reminder I’m still waiting for her and she slowly cranes her head over. “Let me get you home…to see Mae and Ellie, and if I see Levi?—”
“I could call him,” she retorts. “But I want to see him.”
“He’s busy.” Her nostrils flare because she knows I’m not going to tell her where they are. “Since we have two of De Leon’s men, Ozzy wants to gain intel from them, just like you and Wallace agreed on. I’m here on his behalf because he trusts me and to keep you from getting hurt by Matteo or one of his gangbangers. Torin is here to bug the living shit out of you.”
She doesn’t speak, and it’s almost as unnerving as when she does.
“You good?”
“Do I have a choice ?” she clips back.
“How about I buy you ice cream?—”
“I’m not a child, Sinatra. Buying me chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream isn’t going to make me forget that my best friend just kidnapped two of Matteo’s guys. My ex is going to be looking?—”
“Then you should get home so we can keep you and your sisters safe.”
She scowls. “You suck at this.”
Fucking brat.
“I’ll make it up to you then, like I said.”
Bay drags her eyes away from me. “You don’t make me wet anymore. Don’t bother.”
Now, there’s her lie.
Starting up my car, I get us out of the woods. She doesn’t say a damn word to me the whole way back.
We need to get this resolved so we can be a unified force again.
And with Bay Astor, I have a feeling we may be unstoppable when we do.