13. Torin
THIRTEEN
torin
It must be something that’s going to piss me off for me to be sitting in Emilio’s office while he takes his time smacking his lips and tasting his bourbon.
My fucking God, this man is a waste of space.
I’m almost half tempted to click a balloon to the waistband of his pants and let Wallace have fun with him.
“Are we going to start this fuckin’ meeting this century?” I solicit flatly. “Or did you need more time to suck on your drink before we get started?”
My father doesn’t spare me a glance, too used to my smart-ass comments, as he swirls the liquid around in his glass. “I wouldn’t be so excited about this news if I were you. It’s not working in your favor.”
I strum my fingers along the arm of the leather chair I’m sitting in. “Well, let’s get it over with, shall we?”
Emilio’s blue eyes shift over to me, unamused as all hell. “I have some news. And I’m waiting for your brother to get here.”
“I’m sure you’ve already told him.”
Because those two are like butt buddies galore. Nothing is kept sacred between them, and I’m the odd man out.
“I haven’t.” Emilio narrows his gaze. “So, shut the fuck up and wait.”
Fucking Christ.
Minutes go by before my brother strolls in without a care in the world. He’s in black jeans and a red shirt and ignores that I’m even in the room.
“Father,” he greets. “What’s going on?”
“An announcement,” our father prompts immediately, because God forbid, we make Ramsey wait. “And I want the both of you to be accepting and welcoming of it because it’s not an option.”
“Are we finally getting a dog?” I ask, even though I already have two.
Emilio stares blankly at me. “No. You both have a sister.”
A fucking what now?
I blink, repeating his words in my head before my father comes in with the winning fatality.
“Bay Astor…she’s my daughter. My blood daughter.”
“I’m sorry,” Ramsey interjects. “What?”
Emilio leans back in his chair, and I think he’s lost his entire fucking mind. There’s just no way.
“How ?” I leer. That girl is trouble.
My trouble.
And the last fucking person I want her near is Emilio.
And Levi Wallace.
But Emilio first, because this man is not the kind of parent you write long epilogues about when they die.
You’re actually relieved.
Emilio may have taken my brother and I in when our mother was, and is, too fucked up on pills, but that’s because he needed heirs. He required someone to pick up his name and run it with when someone finally got the jump on him.
“She was stolen from me?—”
“That girl is no Wildes.
“She’s more of a Wildes than you are, son.”
Like I really give a fuck about that name.
I’d be proud to be a Wildes if Emilio treated me with an ounce of respect. But, because of my hearing disability, I’ve been treated like I’m worthless.
“Her real name is Haven,” Emilio continues over the rim of his glass, blue eyes looking intently at me. “I was told she died and it stopped my searching for her. Until recently.”
“What prompted that?”
“I saw her.” Emilio looks off at something between Ramsey and I. “Roger Astor, the previous owner of the South Shore Titan seat, took off with her after Penn Northcott was brought in to the authorities. It was his daughter who drowned, not mine.”
“For?” Ramsey retorts. “Why would he want a little brat?”
“Because I killed her mother. And, after Penn was ripped off the fifth Titan seat and no longer held the power, he picked up Haven and ran.”
“Still doesn’t answer the question,” I insert. because no rando is going to steal another man’s child without a reason.
Emilio’s jaw ticks. “Because he was fucking Aurora behind my back. He was lookin’ to take my child away from me and my woman.”
Because you’re a fucking psycho. Makes sense now.
However, word on the street is that Aurora had already broken up with Emilio and father dearest wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“So, what’s your plan?” I receive my father’s attention again. “She’s South Shore. She’s Levi Wallace’s so-called woman. She dated Matteo De Leon. This chick jumps gang dick like the fucking Easter bunny.”
“I desire a fresh start with my daughter,” he vouches. “And you’re more than welcome to leave if you can’t handle the truth. And watch your fucking mouth.”
“The truth is that she’s the enemy. She’s what we are at constant war with.”
“And I’m hoping to change that.”
He’s out of his damn mind right now. That woman is not going to switch sides like that.
“And if she doesn’t?”
Something sinister stretches over Emilio’s face and it’s exactly what I was afraid of. “She will.”
Or she dies.
He doesn’t need to say the words because history repeats itself.
“I don’t believe this is a good idea,” Ramsey finally consents. “Torin is right, she’s South Shore. She’s been brought up by another family, and she’s not young and easily manipulated.”
Emilio shifts nonchalantly in his seat. “I’m not worried about it. I have enough to use against her to sway her my way.”
“I don’t get it,” I emit. “If she doesn’t want anything to do with you, then why push it?”
“Because she’s my blood,” Emilio leers. “She’s mine.”
Just like he believed Aurora was his, too.
Emilio obviously doesn’t take female rejection well, and I’m starting to believe that I may have that in common with this son of a bitch.
“Might not want her to get too close,” I advise, even though it’s about to out one ear and out the other. “She might just kill you her damn self.”
My step father scoffs. “She doesn’t have the balls to go up against me.”
“But Wallace does.”
That comes from my brother.
Ramsey is a stupid, crazy son of a bitch, but I’m glad we’re on the same side, because this doesn’t end well. And it sure as hell doesn’t end up with us all being a happy-go-lucky family, where I’m fucking my stepsister every night.
If anything, she just became more of a threat to me. Even more than Wallace. If Bay truly is the long-lost daughter of Emilio, she’s heir to everything I’m standing on right now.
The Landings.
The Titan seat.
My entire existence and the plans that Cairo, Reeve, and I have set in stone. She will ruin everything.
And, as much as I wanted her, I’m going to need to fall back. Pussy is a dime a dozen around here and hers can’t be that magical. This so-called crush that I have going on with her, I need to snub it out because there is no future with us.
Not that it wouldn’t have lasted more than a week, but still.
Going after Levi’s chick would’ve been the icing on the cake for me that’s all bullshit bragging rights. It doesn’t gain me anything but him trying to take my head off and I like mine.
It gets me where I want in life, and I have a pretty good face on it.
“Wallace can be taken out,” Emilio advises. “Then she’ll have no one.”
No one with power, maybe, but she has a family.
Ramsey and I both steal a look at each other. I’m pretty sure he and I are thinking the same thing.
“You kill her boyfriend, you just pushed yourself back ten steps.” I rifle my attention back to Emilio. “You don’t have a pot to piss in with this fight. You might as well let it lie.”
“And why did Roger bring her back?” Ramsey asks.
“Because he felt protected and wanted to come home, I’m sure,” Emilio surmises flatly, tapping his glass with his index finger. He’s getting annoyed. I’m not sure why or how he believed we were going to jump for joy with this news. Our father is blinded by this idea and Ramsey and I are going to have to fight the war that’s coming if he keeps this up. “The Nameless in South Shore was formed already, which meant he had an army.”
“And the Forsaken Crew?”
Blue eyes meet mine. Emilio is losing interest in them. Because they’re rightfully not his, but Wharf Bay’s.
Cairo’s.
Ours.
“Since Ramsey and I are building another crew, I’m not worried about not being protected.”
I’d be using the term very loosely, because they’re a bunch of West Coast clowns with the attention span of a gnat and no sense of direction. They’re all just gangbangers.
“And the Titan seat?”
The one that’s never really spoken about, but Ramsey has told me that he doesn’t want it.
Which means, it’s mine.
“Depending on how Haven acts…it’d be hers in a perfect world. However…” He continues to stare at me. “I’m assuming you’ve had your eye on it?”
“Unless Ramsey has a claim.”
Emilio rocks his head back and forth. “He isn’t interested.”
“Then it’s mine,” I deadpan.
He perks a semi-surprised brow at me. “Yours?”
“I’ve been one of your heirs since you hooked up with our mother. I’ve earned it. I’ve worked for it.”
“But you’re not worthy of it.”
This bitch...
Rising from my chair, I’ve had enough of this bullshit talk. I knew it wouldn’t come easy, but I was his only option.
“Sit down, Torin.”
“Fuck you, old man,” I snap back, wanting to reach across his desk and knock a few punches of sense into him. “I’ve done nothing but be your soldier and done everything you’ve wanted me to do.”
“Like steal your brother’s guns?” His face lifts, and I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am. He shouldn’t know about that.
Which means he has someone within our crew who’s a rat.
“Of course, I was going to steal them,” I answer back smoothly. “Were they ours before?” Emilio remains quiet, mulling over my comment, but it doesn’t mean he’s still not privy to my ulterior motives. “Anything else?”
My father slowly shakes his head.
“Good. When this backfires on you, don’t expect me to help you. She gets Wallace to try to successfully take you out this time, don’t ask. Do you understand me?”
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Emilio retorts simply and without a care. “I don’t see it happening any time soon.”
Good luck with that.
And I stride from the room, because my boys and I, we got another problem.
If Bay plays along as daughter of the year, she’s going to get that Titan seat.
And that’s not the plan.