31. Bay
THIRTY-ONE
bay
The dinner is too fancy as well as equally disturbing, and I feel as though Ramsey is picking out his next mate with how openly he’s observing me.
Every move and word I make is promptly dissected.
Dude’s a fucking weirdo.
I haven’t forgotten that night we stole the Forsaken Crew’s guns and how Ramsey’s lack of empathy and abundance of violence drew out his personality.
And why Daddy Wildes wants me to get along with these two fuckers…yeah, he has some serious issues and I’m running out of time. Sooner rather than later, I’m going to have to talk to Levi. And I’m already fully aware of how this is all going to go down.
However, I’m in a very unique situation here.
If Emilio Wildes can be taken down, South Shore is free of its Northern enemy. No longer will we be running through vulnerable territory and having Emilio execute my neighbors and friends.
However, I can’t help but feel like the sacrificial lamb here, but I’d rather it be me than any of my family. I just have to keep reminding myself of that and shove my hatred for this situation in a deep and dark place until I’m ready to unwrap it. And that includes keeping Dad out of all of this.
“Did you? How much power do you really hold?”
I glimpse over to Torin, the look of pure irritation that I’m here painted all over his face.
I heard his warnings. I also know that I shot his ass last week, too.
I’m almost willing to bet that he’d love to return that favor, but Daddy Wildes is present and he’s still working on gaining my good graces.
Yet, I can’t turn down the opportunity to drive my point with Pretty Boy.
“More than you think.” I can’t help but drag my tongue against his earlobe and feeling his whole body twitch against my side.
He’s affected by me.
And, fuck me, same.
Torin reaches for his drink, and I straighten myself back into my chair just for my focus to fall right onto Reeve.
Because he's right in front of me on the other side of the table, standing next to Ramsey and looking hella impressed that I’m here.
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
In a white long-sleeve shirt that’s rolled up at his forearms, one soaked in ink, Reeve’s lips are quirked in a cheeky smirk and a black rosary hangs around his neck, contradicting his attitude and how sinfully his eyes are caressing my body.
He’s religious?
Who the fuck cares?
“Hey, Bay Bay McQueen,” Reeve conveys with those memorizing hazels, leaning his tatted forearms over the back of the chair next to Ramsey. “It’s been a minute.”
Ramsey stains his neck to glance over his shoulder and he scowls. “Why don’t you take your kind of pain in the ass somewhere else, Stanton. We’re having a nice family dinner, not a night in with the boys.”
And with his eyes still locked and loaded on me, Reeve quips out with reservation, “Get fucked, Wildes.”
And this is my cue to leave.
“Thanks for dinner, Mr. Wildes,” I say out loud and politely to the table. “But I need to take off now.”
Ramsey immediately rises from the table, dabbing at the corners of his mouth like someone with fantastic decorum.
“We haven’t even eaten yet,” Emilio grinds out, but I can’t do this.
I’m outnumbered here and the more men that show up that aren’t from my side of town, the more I’m likely to start losing more and more ground.
“You’re lookin’ flushed, McQueen,” Reeve so generously points out. “Did you want me to show you to the little girl’s room?”
“Yes.”
Reeve steps back from the table and gestures with his hand for me to walk out the way I came.
I don’t bother saying another word and I stride out from the room and into the foyer where Reeve takes the lead and down a dark hallway to our right.
The lingering scent of saltwater and sage fills my nostrils as he guides us and the moment I’m about to step inside the bathroom, Reeve’s arm shoots out to block me from entering.
"Hey, Bay Bay," he greets slowly as if he didn’t just two minutes ago.
His voice licks up my body and causes my nipples to harden. He lets his hazels that I can’t see, but kinda memorized, fall down the length of me in a slow leisurely way.
I lean my back up against the drywall with my shoulder to keep myself from actually growing weak in the knees.
“Fancy seeing you here.”
I steel my spine and remain locked in his eyes. “Don’t you have a surfing contest to go to or something?”
“Or something.” He chuckles, placing his other arm on the other side of my head, caging me against the wall. “Still mad?”
“At what?”
“Us stealing your boyfriend.” My eyes cramp together into slits. “I’m going to take that as a yes.”
“You can fuck off now.”
“McQueen, baby…I told you to stay away from these men. Unless…” He drops his index finger down my frame and back up. “You out here tryin’ to kill ’em with that dress?”
It’s nothing special, something I borrowed from Nessa a few months back and never returned. Though, it does show off every inch of my body.
“Always been the plan, Reevie.” He smirks at my nickname for him, liking it more than I ever thought he would because it’s just a name. “Why are you here?”
“Visiting a friend.” He leans closer, that intoxicating smell of him causing my body to melt into the drywall. “And you didn’t answer my other question.”
“I’m always mad.”
“Don’t look too pissed now. However, I’m hoping it’s because I’m around and you’re gettin’ to like that.”
“Mhm.”
His smile widens. “So, since plan A didn’t work and those men are still breathing in that dining room, what’s plan B?”
“Going to the bathroom. Did Torin call you to come rescue him or something?”
“Noooo, I just happened to run into you myself. Lucky night, I guess.”
I turn my head and Reeve catches my chin, his thumb running once down my jawline. His touch sparks excitement and a whole lot of rebellion in my blood. It wants me to say fuck Torin, his brother, and let me take Reeve for a ride.
Stupid idea.
Still sounds like a whole lotta fun, though.
“You know you walked into the lion’s den, right?” My eyes meet his again and he’s serious.
Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt if he was. Minus all the bullshit between me and his friends, he seems like the mellowest guy of the bunch and the one to give it to me straight.
I roll my eyes against his warning, no matter how true it is. I don’t belong here. “I was invited.”
“I know. So what, pray tell, does that motherfucker have on you to step into a place that you have a very good possibility of not walkin’ out of?”
“Nothing that I can’t handle.”
That’s obviously a lie.
“You don’t trust me.”
My brows ascend to the ceiling. “Now you’re getting it.”
The new pain in the ass bends his arms so that he can get closer and rest his elbows along the drywall. “Did you hit your head or something, or are you suddenly suicidal? ’Cause if you are, baby McQueen, let me know and I’ll pep you up real quick.”
“What does that include, exactly?”
“Not a butcher knife sticking out of your gut while I fuck you,” he quips lightly. “That’s how Ramsey likes it. Torin would bend you over and slam his small dick into you and be selfish out it. I was thinking more”—his fingers trail down to my collarbone and slide down the side of my ribs—“your legs wrapped tightly around my head.”
My stomach somersaults at the thought of gripping his pretty face between my thighs while he licks and nips my— stop .
I place my hand on his hard chest to keep him where he is. “I don’t think your boss would like you fraternizing with the enemy.”
“My boss being…”
“Torin.”
Reeve chortles again, a deep amusement lacing in each exhale of the rhythm. “Torin is definitely not my fuckin’ boss. Have you walked around thinking I was his associate or servant this whole time?”
“I—” Reeve’s chest presses hard into mine, sandwiching me and my exhale to not happen.
I can’t say I don’t like the feel of him. I’m also unable to lie to myself and convince my head that he’s not attractive and kinda sweet in his own cocky, self-assured way.
Still not an option.
And I don’t want him within the crossfires of what I already have going on with Torin and Cairo. Two dudes I’ve equally pissed off.
“You’ve heard that Torin runs the Forsaken Crew,” he mutters over me before his hand finds my hip and he squeezes. “But he doesn’t. Or I should say, he doesn’t do it alone. Cairo’s daddy created the crew and all of us street urchins just flocked to it. We run the Forsaken Crew as a unit. I’m just as powerful and as much of an asshole as he is, but I tend to direct it to people who show me they deserve it. So…from here, it looks like the South Shore girl wants The Landings.”
“I never said I wanted anything.”
“But you’re here.”
Because Emilio sent me a threatening picture of my little sister, you fuck.
“You’re playing a dangerous game of chess if you think you’re going to fuck both crews, McQueen. Those consequences are gonna hurt.” He bends closer, smelling of the ocean, so smooth and therapeutic, that it’s definitely welcomed. His cheek brushes mine, sending a cool chill down my body and to my toes when he whispers, “You shot Torin…what do you think is going to happen when you keep putting yourself in the wrong spot?”
“And Emilio strapped a bomb to my man’s ankle.”
“Still sticking with that story, huh?” Reeve pulls his face from mine. “You don’t look into him.”
“What?”
“Emilio. I know you’re not gonna fuck him physically, but I’m willing to bet you’d fuck him over.”
I would.
If I had the power to.
Reeve cranes his head to look down on me. “Why don’t you fuck me over? You on top, me on the bottom, my mouth lavishing every inch of your body.”
This guy…and his beach boy vibes and how smoothly he just speaks about fucking like it’s the weather.
I’m not immune to it, haven’t had the time nor the practice, but I can’t say I’m too pissed that it’s him trapping me in this hallway just to get a few minutes of my time over the alternative in the dining room.
“No, you’re definitely not what you seem,” he replies. “I have a feeling you’re gonna be in a lot of trouble.”
“Can’t convict me until you have hard evidence. Isn’t that how our justice system works and all?”
“Not in this one. We were screwed to ever become friends before it even started.”
“Who said anything about being your friend?”
“My bad.” He bows his head down, but I know he’s not embarrassed.
No, Reeve has swagger for years to use up.
“I meant I want a text message from you at night saying hello, fuck off, come over, I wanna sit on your face. I’m not picky…I’ll take anything, really.”
“I don’t text boys from the other side of the ugly black line that divides us,” I calm.
“I’m not a boy,” he vouches, deep and husky. His lips hovering over the corner of mine. “And I personally don’t have anything against South Shore, baby. Don’t let a war that had nothing to do with us fuck that up.”
He left one thing out.
The Landings has something against South Shore and he’s part of the crew that terrorizes it. That it’s not going to stop because I decided to hang out with him, nor is it going to be a romance that ties two towns together.
His palm then rounds my hip, falling away and that’s when I feel him fidgeting in my purse.
“If you’re stealing from me,” I ground out into his ear, “you suck at it.”
He surprises me when he drops his face even lower and places a soft kiss to the column of my neck.
My skin instantaneously burns from the contact causing a tingling sensation to form in my stomach and float its way up my chest.
“I’m just borrowing.” His wet tongue licks a quick trail upward before his lips wrap around my flesh again, causing a shaky exhale to leave my mouth.
The second thing on the agenda is to get laid, my God.
I shouldn’t feel this needy for a guy’s touch because just the gentle push of Reeve’s body against my own is turning me on.
“What are you doing?” I half-ass, so I can prepare myself. If he says he wants to take me somewhere I’m not going to say no. I’m almost stupid enough to get wrapped in his sweet words and attention.
However, at the end of the day, we’re still not on the same side, but it doesn’t mean I can’t have ten minutes of him and his dirty thoughts.
“Making sure we don’t have to go through this again.” His mouth opens wider, taking more of my neck and sucking on the already sensitive flesh there. I honestly don’t even care if he leaves a mark because I can cover it up pretty well. “You gonna text me?”
“No.”
His teeth delicately sink into my skin as a weak warning that he doesn’t like my answer but isn’t totally surprised by it either.
He turns us both so that my back is now to the hallway we just came down and he chuckles so deep and fucking delicious in his throat. “Good. I wouldn’t want to miss any of the fun.”
My phone is shoved back into my small little satchel, and I stare up at hazels that look like galaxies of greens and browns.
“Why are you lookin’ at me like that?”
I feel a small blush creep up through my already heated skin, but I ignore it. He can call me out, I don’t care. “You don’t like me looking at you, Reevie?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” he counters, propping his elbow on the wall next to us. “I’d just prefer for you to look at me like that when you’re not double-guessing yourself.”
“About?”
“Me.”
My eyes clench on their own and I’m allowed a few seconds of chaos in my head before I open them and still find Reeve standing there.
“Too bad you’re not totally on my side, because maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to convince you to go somewhere. So I can get on my knees and disappear between your pretty thighs and show you how interested I am in learning more about you.”
Fuck. Me. Damn.
I clench my legs together, my pussy beginning to throb at the thought of his shady blonde hair threaded through my fingers as his mouth explores.
“Might have to take a raincheck on that, though, baby,” he whispers, and before I can form a retort or question on why, a hard body presses possessively into my spine, followed by the familiar smell of cedar and melon.
“Because it’s finally my time to have some fun with the major pain in my ass from South Shore,” Torin whispers into my ear, dispatching a violent shiver to sprint up my spine.
And that’s when I know, I really fucked up by coming here.