68. Cairo
SIXTY-EIGHT
cairo
I knew it wouldn’t go well.
In fact, I was expecting her to wail me in the face and give me hell for even mentioning the word.
Except when she stills and slowly cranes her head in my direction, I don’t enjoy the look of pure horror on those pretty features when I just fucked her to the best of my ability.
Yeah, I thought we’d have a little bit more time to connect further together—preferably with me between her legs—but I just crucified myself with those life-changing words.
“You haven’t been eating, and Ozzy said you’ve been mentioning that you’re nauseous. You passed out the other day?—”
“That’s because of what he found,” she snaps, shoving at my forearm wrapped around her stomach, but I don’t move it.
I don’t trust her not to fly off this bed and end this conversation.
“It’s not a conviction. I think you should take a test.”
“No.”
I ignore the harsh answer because I know this can’t be easy to think about, rubbing at her naked skin with my thumb and providing a small bit of support. “When’s the last time you had your period?”
Silence fills the space around us while she thinks.
And thinks.
And thinks.
“You’re not alone.” Bay immediately covers her face with her hands, and I hate myself for bringing this up now, but it’s been going on for some time.
I told Ozzy to relax when he mentioned something was wrong, blaming it on the stress. But the more I got to thinking about it…I landed here.
She’s been hormonal and fucking miserable lately. I would’ve thought it would be because of a period, but the nausea was the first sign of knocking that out of the park.
“Don’t cry, Little T.” I heard the small whimper from her lips, and that’s another example of her not being her normal self.
“Go away,” she whines underneath her palm. “I’m not.”
“Okay. But will you take a test? For me?” Her fingers ball into fists, but those little round things don’t leave her face. “I’m not leaving you. I’m always going to be here.”
“Fuck off, Cairo. You and your stupid ideas.”
Stupid or not, it’s still wild how crazy attractive I think she is when she’s pissed or throwing a little tantrum over something she doesn’t want to deal with. And I mean what I said, if she’s pregnant with one of my brothers’ kid, I’m here.
I have to be here.
I got one brother drowning in fuck-knows-what and the other has to weasel his ass back into her heart after his failed murder attempt.
Both strong and remarkable candidates right there.
“I don’t want anyone touching you if you’re?—”
“Say it one more time,” she grinds out, looking out from under her forearm at me. “And I’ll cut your balls off and proudly wear them around my neck to remind you of how serious I was when I told you to shut the hell up.”
Yeah, this isn’t the time to push back on Bay Astor.
“Little T—” Her fist flies and hits the top of my shoulder, but it’s not hard. It’s just a warning shot to do what she says. “I’ll buy you ice cream if you take a pregnancy test for me.”
“What am I, twelve?”
“A flat-screen TV for your room?”
“Now I’m a fraternity boy?”
Geezus Christ.
I knew a wardrobe would be out.
Flowers, no.
Food, maybe.
A trip around the world, she’d tell me to go fuck myself again.
“Car parts.”
Bay scoffs. “You wouldn’t even know what to buy. I’m particular with my shit.”
It’s then I realize I don’t know much about this chick.
I don’t know her favorite color or the kind of music she’s currently listening to. I just know she’s got a temper, she’s possessive, wild, and still in love with my brothers.
And you still fucked her.
“I’ll give you anything you want in the world.”
Bay continues to stare at me. “Anything, huh?”
“Anything.” I lean in and place a chaste kiss on her lips. “I’m here. I promise you on my life, Little T, I just want to be sure. And if I’m wrong, you can punish me any way you see fit for filling your head with the idea.”
I see a ghost of a smile play along her lips. “I like that idea.”
“I figured you would.” She hums but doesn’t clap back with anything else. “Do you believe me? I need that from you, Bay. Because…” My next words fall flat. They lodge in my throat and continue to remain there.
“Because, what?” Bay softly whispers, coaxing my thought from my lips and setting off every alarm in my head in warning.
That’s how it’s always been with her.
I open up, there’s the possibility she’s going to fall through with everything I ever thought she would.
She destroyed Torin and Reeve and I’m lying in bed with her like she never did anything.
Like she was mine first.
She was mine first.
In that jail cell with her wild raven hair and livid blue eyes.
I thought about her for weeks after, but came to the realization I would never see her again.
Until I did.
It was fate, karma, or just being at the wrong place at the wrong time—I’m not sure.
But I’m still unable to get Bay Astor out of my head.
My phone buzzes off Bay’s bedside table, making me give up that little prison I just made for her.
Torin’s name appears, filling my chest with immediate guilt, but I’m quick to answer because hope fills my chest that he found Reeve, and we can get his father handled.
“Hey.”
“Get your fuckin’ ass down here!” he shouts over other voices in the background. “Wallace is down!”
I shoot out of Bay’s bed, legs swinging over the edge as I quickly get to my feet. “Where are you? What the fuck happened?”
“Ran into him… fuck !”
“Torin, where are you?” I swipe up my pants from the floor and mindlessly make my way out of her bedroom.
He sucks in a pained inhale that sounds like it is through his teeth and my stomach immediately drops. “The fucking Landings. Off South Breeze…where Reeve?—”
“I’m on my way.” I pull the phone away from my mouth and yell for Ozzy, then return to ask, “Are you hurt?”
“Fuck, yes,” he leers. “That motherfucker De Leon did a fucking drive-by .” My blood turns stone cold, but I keep striding through the house to get into my SUV parked in the driveway and yell out for Ozzy again. “Cairo, I think…he’s dead.”
I stop on a fucking dime.
My immediate thought is Bay. How she just buried her dad. How I just told her that she might be pregnant, and her best friend went out looking for my brother to ease her mind.
“Where is he?”
“Face down in a pool of blood on the sidewalk. Few feet away…he took a lot of shells, man.”
“Wildes!” someone yells in the background. “Get behind that car. They’re rollin’ back.”
I hear Torin grunt from farther away, and Ozzy suddenly appears in my vision. “We gotta go.”
The sound of fireworks—AKA guns—pepper off in the distance and my adrenaline skyrockets through the roof.
And I know all too well what this is.
An assassination attempt.
“He’s not moving, Black,” Torin says over loud gunshots. “That big piece of shit isn’t moving!”
“Cairo.”
My body locks up at the sound of Bay’s voice behind me, but I force myself to slowly turn around.
Our eyes connect, and hers are a mixture of worry and confusion.
And I hope that’s all they become.
Because if this woman has to go through anything else, I think we might lose her.
I think she might just die from heartbreak.
“We’ll be there in less than five, brother, hold on.” I hand the phone over to Ozzy to stay on the line with Torin because I can’t talk to him anymore. I have to deal with Bay real quick, and I don’t know what to fucking do.
I don’t want to lie.
I don’t want to leave.
I don’t want her to lose that cocky, stupid son of a bitch she calls a best friend.
If Bay loses him, I’m going to break for her. “I’ve gotta go, Little T.”
“Where?”
My chest tightens as I sit on the line of either causing her pain or leaving out information that she’ll never forgive me for.
“Out.”
“Cairo…” Her frown is so broken it takes everything in me not to move toward her and pull her in my arms. But Torin is down and Wallace… “What is it?”
I suck in a shaky breath. The seconds that tick by one by one are another which means she might lose the one man she’s loved for fuck knows how long.
“It’s Wallace, sweetheart…”
Her whole body looks like someone just sucked every ounce of energy from her and locked onto her soul.
I move, closing the distance between the both of us because I’m not going to leave her.
Not now, not ever.
Dragging her toward the door, I pull Ozzy’s cell from his jeans since he has mine and call Juice.
He needs to be here with the girls.
I need to be here for mine.
And God needs to be there for Levi Wallace and his stupid ass.