58. Reeve
FIFTY-EIGHT
reeve
I love how celebrating the oblivious is becoming a thing around here. I’m starting to believe that, even through my doped-up state, I’m the only one who recognizes how bogus this all is. How my mother’s party is some bullshit scheme to get involved with the Titans again and try to manipulate Bay into helping.
And what’s not helping is seeing Bay in a tight little silver number that hugs those hips and shows off that even more voluptuous ass.
She doesn’t want to be here as much as I don’t want her to be. Nor does she want to involve herself in this, but she’s still gonna fucking do what she wants anyway. With power comes protection and wealth, something she can use to protect her family. She won’t need anything or anyone else, so it’s probably best she rid herself of me now rather than later.
Not that it matters anymore.
I’m not looking for a power play. I’ll follow Cairo and Torin around until their plan begins to break, and Bay decides to wipe us all clear.
Or maybe she’ll show mercy.
However, my attentiveness won’t fall on her. Bay Astor can wipe out anyone else in a room, but it’s the most dangerous pastime after all.
But it only takes one time for me to be burned and the faith and confidence are gone. She promised me she’d never hurt me, and she did anyway. Finding no way to avoid marrying my brother and keeping me faithfully at her side where I enjoyed being.
Though, in the grand scheme of things, she never belonged to any of us. Torin was right when he warded me off and said she was going to be nothing but trouble.
And trouble she was.
It’s funny how I never seem to fully grasp the concept of women and how they would do anything to use someone for their own requirements and discard them just as fondly. I mean, I thought females were supposed to be more empathetic in nature but Astor, nah…she’s seen too much to have that still filtering through her veins.
Yet it doesn’t mean I can’t still dabble from time to time and see what she smells like today. Shake her up a little bit because I’ve noticed that the tables have turned, and my presence is now a hurricane to her world.
It’s like a Vivian knockoff.
You don’t show them any attention, and they crave it more.
I watch her roam around the space, treading purposely out of the giant living space of Lorenzo’s home as she purposely avoids Avena, his wife.
She wants out.
I do, too.
I don’t need to be here, and there are at least six other people I could literally do than hang out with a bunch of middle-aged nobodies in suits and nothing intelligent to say.
Like a fly to shit, I don’t stop my body from following her through the set of French doors leading outside. She continues along the edge at a safe distance as I click the door shut, surprised to find no one out here.
And that’s when she whips around, aware someone is following her as her black hair swings around with her body.
Bay is a vision.
A goddess.
Soft where it counts and that’s all that matters. But those blue eyes are like beacons from every single one of my fantasies, and I’m aware—this time—that it’s all for nothing.
She was all for nothing.
I wasted headspace and got too deep when I should’ve walked more with caution. Yet, I’ve disassociated care with sex before.
I can do it again.
Bay is my biggest obstacle, but with the line of coke I just snorted, I’m feeling damn good that I’m going to be just fine here.
“For someone who can’t stand the sight of me,” she begins. “You sure do have a funny way of making up your mind.”
“Just came out here to make sure you aren’t planting a nuclear bomb, McQueen.”
“Right, because I have one of those shoved up my ass right now.” She watches me attentively. “What do you want, Reeve?”
“The same thing you want… out of here.”
She jerks a thumb over her shoulder. “Ever climbed over this wall?”
“Plenty of times.”
“Care to give a girl a hoist?”
“That requires touching you,” I allow myself another slow perusal of her body and still press out, “and I’ll pass.”
Her eyes slit, flicking on defense mode. “Then get the fuck out of here because you’re useless, then.”
“It’s rude to leave a party without saying goodbye to your host.” I jerk my thumb over my shoulder. “And isn’t your fuckboy in there?”
“Which one?”
Cute.
And she knows which one.
“The one that cold-cocked me like a bitch,” I return because Levi Wallace is a cunt of the highest degree.
I can still feel my brain rattling a few days later from the hit he delivered.
The saddest thing is that I’m never going to be able to turn him.
Ever.
It’s a fuckin’ shame.
“Don’t worry about him,” she deadpans, before turning back around to study the wall, but I stop her with my next set of words.
“Cairo is all business and no fun when it comes to these things,” I offer up. “And he doesn’t chase girls when they have a place or reason for being here.”
“Then he should’ve brought Vivian.”
I give a dismissive shrug. “Should’ve. At least she’d play her part.”
Bay steps forward, and there’s danger in that step. She’s ready to do what her boy did the other day, and I couldn’t care less. “And what fucking part is that?”
“You’re playin’ a very dangerous game here, McQueen. Emilio Wildes is in that house, acting the part of a devoted dad while bragging about his newly found daughter. This would probably be the time where you kiss his ass and get on his good side.”
“Doesn’t sound very in-character for me.”
“We all play a part.”
She eyes me for a moment before asking, “And what’s yours? The brother who can’t handle heartbreak, so he gets high and drunk all the time so the others can babysit him?”
This bitch.
“Don’t worry about my dynamic with my brothers or what we do,” I grind out. “It doesn’t concern you anymore. And I’d call it more of a cop-out and betrayal than heartbreak. You said shit, you lied, now you wanna be mad about it.”
“I’m not mad at you for hating me,” she counters tersely. “I’m upset you’re going to hurt yourself.”
I wave a dismissive hand in the air. “Don’t sweat me and focus on your game.”
“This benefits both of us?—”
“You’re not gonna get a cookie from me if you pull this off.” My focus falls down the front of her, thick thighs barely covered by any fabric. “I’d be semi-impressed if you did.”
“Is that all?”
“Sure, continue with your escape.”
Her red-painted lips curl upward. “I can’t yet.”
I open my mouth to press on why when my mother’s voice cracks through the air like a whip, and my whole body turns rigid at the sound.
“My, my,” she coos sweetly, the sound of heels against concrete ticking at my nerves. “What kind of scandalous happenings are taking place out here?”
Neither Bay nor I utter a word. Maybe it’s because we can both sense bullshit when we hear it.
My mother comes to my side, stopping just short of Bay, and the smell of musk and roses fills my nostrils, turning it in several knots.
“I have a few people I’d like you to meet, Miss Astor,” she extolls. “I was hoping I could steal you away.”
“She can’t,” I cut in. “She promised me a dance.”
And I wanna fuck.
It’s been too long since I’ve had Bay Astor, and I’m having withdrawals. No addiction is ever good.
That’s what makes them so fucking great.
“Of course,” my mother replies with a smile. “Later, then?”
“Sure.”
“And why don’t you come to dinner one night? Bring Reeve for me, sweetheart. He never comes home anymore and?—”
“I can’t,” Bay retorts before I see her swallow. “We’re not dating anymore…and I’m married.”
My eyes bore into her face, but she doesn’t seem to notice. What I wouldn’t do right now to wrap my palm around her throat and hike up the material of her dress just to show her how much she’s missing out on.
What we could’ve been.
“Well…Reeve is open-minded.”
“Reeve is also bi,” I add to my mother’s commentary. Leave it to her fucking ass to accept it now that she can’t do anything about it anymore. “He likes to fuck everything.”
Mom waves a hand in my face, attempting to shut me the hell up. “Whatever, dear.”
She takes a step toward Bay, and I stop myself from dragging her away.
I don’t even want Bay to breathe the same air as my mother because it’s toxic as shit. My mother’s prescence—her fucked up ideas to use Bay as her new fucking toy—I see it clear as day.
This isn’t a new friendship.
They’re not about to become homies.
This is a power move from my power-hungry, piece of shit, parent.
“Taking Emilio’s place is going to be difficult,” she says. “Especially when all the people he has enlisted in his inner circle are men. It’s going to be a problem.”
“I prefer men to women,” Bay states. “Less catty.”
“That may be so. However, we live in a man’s world. And they aren’t accepting. You’re dealing with prideful players who will be champing at the bit to take you out. I’d like to see us women stick together.”
“You want your Titan seat back,” Bay claims, not buying into her obvious bullshit. “However, I’m not particularly a fan of the business you may be in.”
Mom bows her head. “It wasn’t something I was proud of before. However, my girls are paid well.”
“How old are they?”
Here we go.
“Old enough,” my mother deadpans with a bit of bite to her tone. She doesn’t like being questioned and she definitately doesn’t enjoy believing someone might think she’s doing something fucked up.
Even, though, it is.
“I need a number.”
God, I used to love this woman.
Bay is smart as fuck, and it didn’t take my subtle hints for her to pick up on what my mother is all about.
Pimping out young teenage girls was never something I was going to take over. Especially after everything with my sister and the morality of it all. How fucked up it is. How my mother takes advantage of girls who are desperate to get out of bad circumstances.
“We’ll discuss it over a meal,” my mother concludes, shutting the conversation down. “Anything you want to negotiate, we can. I bring a lot of money to the table, Miss Astor. Think about it and your terms.”
I inwardly scoff because, even if Bay told her to change anything, my mother would never do it. Elaine is going to do what Elaine wants to do, and that’s the end of it.
No one is going to make her change her mind.
Not even her one and only child.
“Let’s go, McQueen,” I order, not giving a shit how my tone sounds—possessive and curt—because I’ve already had enough of these two, and it’s starting to give me a headache. “You two can chit-chat about underaged girls and how my mother brings old men in to fuck them later.”
She cranes her head over to give me the shittiest glower, but I don’t care. This woman is not going to sink her claws into Bay Astor.
Bay, thankfully, moves forward and I take her wrist and pull her with me back inside the house.
Her escape plan isn’t going to work, and she damn well knows it.
Besides, she’d never leave Levi Wallace.
But she sure as hell would leave me.