46. Torin
FORTY-SIX
torin
“She’s not going anyway,” Cairo argues, standing with his pool stick and waiting for me to take my shot in our game room. “Neither of you can seem to stay away from her and?—”
“We run into her,” I counter weakly. That’s not a total lie, but not the full truth either. Stealing a look at Reeve who’s too busy for this conversation, I add, “Besides, according to that idiot, she’s not up to anything.”
“And we’re just going to take her word for it?”
“No.” I lean over the purple upholstered table, too many striped balls still lying on the table that are mine. “We either win her over or go up against her. And…that’s going to cause a war, brother.”
“Then this doesn’t end well with anything involving her. So, why are we having this conversation?”
“We’re not,” I emit through my teeth. “ You are.”
He death-grips his pool stick and, if I were close enough, he’d probably shank me with it. “So, you’re willing to die for Emilio’s daughter because you think she’s hot?”
I lug my stare up at my normally calm brother, but Reeve and I have been driving him nuts about this for over a week. “Emilio is never going to let up. He wants her, and our safest bet would be to be civil?—”
“With or without your dicks?” he leers back, brows pinched in annoyance.
Yeah, I may have bitten off more than I have with Bay Astor in the sense that one episode of fucking her makes me want to create a whole season of it.
“With,” Reeve interjects loudly. “Definitely with.”
I’d look at him to get him to silently shut the hell up, but he won’t see it with his main focus on his cell.
And he’s showing no side in wanting to assist me with calming Cairo down while he’s sprawled out on our couch like a sated cough.
“And if we are civil, Levi Wallace isn’t going to want us anywhere near her.”
I give up on concentrating on my number twelve ball and straighten my spine. He has a point. Levi is going to stand in our way regardless of the decision we make here today. And it still doesn’t help with the reality that if she’s looking to gain The Landings’ Titan seat, that if we’re on the wrong side of that coin, she’ll have us killed, or outcasted.
“I have a feeling she’s hiding more than us.” Cairo quirks a brow at my comment. “How is Levi not having her more leashed if he knows who she is?”
“It doesn’t sound like he does. Would you tell your significant other that you’re the daughter of your enemy? She’s scared. She may not know how he’ll react or maybe that’s she is that substitute to him. Levi lives and breathes South Shore. He’ll fight to his dying day for that town. Her sisters and father live there. I don’t think she could bear being separated from them if he casts her out.”
“We’re not hurting her without a cause,” Reeve says, showing up at Cairo’s side. “She’s not as complicated as you’re making her out to be. She’s a woman who wants peace.”
“But Emilio is choosing her,” Cairo says and the inevitable is laced in his tone. “And that means chaos.”
“Still leaves us with no solution to what happens,” I reply, rounding the pool table to get closer to them.
“ We woo her ,” Reeve signs.
“Woo her?” Cairo and I both repeat at the same time.
“The absolute fuck, Reeve,” I chide. “This isn’t a game for you to fuck a South Shore girl.”
His brows knit. “You say that as though I never have before.”
“And when the hell have you done that?” I clutch onto my pool stick tighter because now I want to spear him with it.
“I don’t write down dates, jackoff.” He pockets his cell into his jeans. “I’m honestly tired of this motherfuckin’ conversation about this woman. We’ve seen how not into Emilio she is. You told me she barely spoke to your brother at dinner, what’s the problem?”
“The problem is the Titan seat,” I say for the millionth time. Someone has to keep banging it into his head to take this seriously. “We’re one good conversation away from her seeing how beneficial taking The Landings seat is because she is his heir. We got our own DNA test from that hair sample you got.”
The one he received when he was macking on her in the middle of the hallway after that Friday night dinner. How he was able to get away with it, no clue.
“Let’s say she does,” Reeve states. “And let’s, for shits and giggles, say she teams up with her so-called boyfriend in South Shore and they run the shit. Getting on her bad side leaves us nowhere. You don’t think Emilio hasn’t thought of that?”
“He’s right,” Cairo claims, not sounding too happy that he agrees. “He’s got to have something up his sleeve. That seat takes away all his leverage.”
“He’s going to use us,” Reeve conveys. “He’s going to have us be the ones who bring her world down if she turns on him.”
“Or The Void,” I say, my brain running a mile a minute. “He’s creating that gang for his own purpose since the Forsaken Crew is ours.”
“And it’s growing larger by the day.” I meet Cairo’s gaze, reading his thoughts.
To possibly take us down if we betray him.
“You’re going to have to take the Crew to Wharf Bay.” I shake my head. “I don’t see another way to keep them all safe.”
“Emilio is never going to allow that to happen without questioning why. The Crew is made to protect both towns.”
“We could say it’s a practice run for The Void,” Reeve says with a lift of his shoulders. “Maybe we could half-ass train them and show him we’re serious about it. Start slowly giving them jobs”—he quotes with two fingers—“over in Wharf Bay. Since we run a lot of drug distribution there, we need it moved and they need to be there.”
I nod. “It might work if we pull them out slowly.”
“And Bay?” Cairo ping-pongs his focus between the two of us. “All she needs is a good reason. And we can’t be the reason she sides with Emilio.”
Reeve shrugs. “Then I’ll watch her. I’m the only one here who actually likes her. Torin can’t decide one moment if he wants to fuck her or kill her.”
“Because I don’t trust her,” I maintain.
And I can’t decide if I’m off my rocker or on my shit.
“And we can't put a hit on her,” Cairo imparts. “We can say goodbye to South Shore and that peace treaty for good. If Emilio finds out?—”
“We’re not going to kill her,” Reeve clips out. “This isn’t what she wanted. I bet if she could go back, she’d change all this. I’ve spent time with her. She’s not some power-grubbing whore out for her—” I step up on him, anger slicing through my reserve because he’s better than me. He’s far superior in the emotions department than I could ever be. Regardless of what he’s suffered in his life, he’s still Reeve. He’s witty and charming, and he loves and hates with everything he has.
I’m cynical.
My petty seeps through my veins quickly and hot. I don’t give second chances, not daring to deal with the same consequences. The same pain or heartache. I’ve dealt with my mother’s promises of stopping her addiction, the vow of getting help. I’ve trusted Ramsey to protect me when he was the one who became an abuser at some point. Emilio was only good enough until I got older and my being deaf in my left ear was something he believed better suited out of this life. I could wear a hearing aid to help assist; however, why would I when my brothers can sign and I can keep that so-called weakness a secret.
Regardless, when it comes to Bay and Reeve…
“Is that where you were the other night? There was no news on your dad so you ran to the enemy?”
Reeve meets my pissed-off expression with one of indifference. He’s not scared of me, never has been, and out of all of us, he and I have always knocked heads. We’re too different, two separate sides of the spectrum and he’s still the better man.
“She’s not my enemy until she gives me a reason,” he says very fucking slowly. “And until then, Wildes, I’m not gonna crucify her before she does.” Something transforms in his head because his hazel eyes bore into mine. “You’re becoming more and more like the men you’ve come to despise.”
“I’m nothing like?—”
“Emilio is forcing his hand with her loved ones to pay attention and love him.” He looks down at me in disgust. “And you’re oppressing yours with her loved ones to stay away. Don’t you see what kind of position you’re putting her in? You’re fucking deaf, not blind.”
I shove him, for no good reason other than he’s right.
“And what am I supposed to do in the meantime?” I solicit. “Wait for something to go down?”
“If you wanna waste your time, sure.” Reeve glances over at Cairo. “And you worry about your own shit. You have a job. If you don’t beat the shit or kill De Leon, that fucking prick is going to take over Wharf Bay. Torin and I will focus on South becoming, not only an ally, but a new place to stay when we pull from Emilio.”
Cairo is silent, stewing over his words, as am I.
Maybe we’re putting too much focus into this. Maybe she’s not who I believed she is or could be. Maybe Reeve is thinking with his dick and nothing more.
“This fails,” Cairo finally says. “It’s all our heads.”
“I’ll keep mine on straight,” I concede. “That mistrust will keep me on the path of not becoming Reeve.”
Said brother scoffs at that. “Yeah, whatever. She continues to hate you, then she’ll definitely fall in love with me.”
“How about you stay out of it because we know how you get .” Reeve may be a lover and the most chill out of all of us, but he’s the worst when he’s been hurt.
I’m talking heavy drugs and alcohol binges for days upon days.
“I’ll decide what’s best for me, Wildes,” Reeve retorts with a snarl. “If we allow you to take full control, she’ll have Wallace throw a hit on us and we won’t have to worry about that Landing seat, will we?”
I avert my gaze, demanding my temper stay put.
Looks like I’ll be the one babysitting.