Chapter Forty-One #2
I blew the smoke out. “We control a lot more than that, and you know it.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I hear congratulations are in order,” I drawled, putting out the cancer stick. A bullet to the heart didn’t kill me, so why in the hell should I be worried about some fucking tobacco?
Jeremy’s jaw clenched as he looked away for a moment. “Don’t congratulate me for a throne I didn’t want.”
Sullie stepped down, and Jeremy was officially the king of St. Louis, leader of the Crew. I also knew all about his street racing empire. Romano had been trying to push his trafficking through there for months.
I smiled. “You and I have a lot more in common than you think.”
His head snapped back to me. “You wanted to be over this empire,” he hissed.
“There was a time when I just wanted to be a normal kid,” I explained, my face hardening as my lips thinned. He looked down. “But that isn’t an option for men like you and me,” he finished.
“That’s right. Would you care to explain why you came into my house threatening to kill me?”
He scoffed. “I wasn’t going to kill you; I just liked putting a gun to your head. You know, since you put a knife inside me?”
I winced. “I am sorry about that.”
He waved me off. “Had worse done to me. Besides, you did it to save Gwen, and for that I am grateful. What I am not grateful for is going to Dean instead of me,” he said, referring to Dean’s job offer.
I tilted my head slowly, studying him. “You don’t play baseball, Mr. Jones.”
“No, but I run guns.”
My demon inside smiled. “Oh, I am well aware of that. But are your friends?”
“They're your friends too,” he deflected
“Haley is a friend. Everyone else is still on eggshells, and I know that will take time to go away,” I explained with a sigh.
“Not that I give a shit what you people think about me. But Karina does, and for her sake, I'm willing to make amends and heal. Let’s cut the bullshit, shall we? Do they know?”
His eyes held mine. “They will soon enough.”
“So why street racing?” I wondered out loud, sitting back in my chair. “You went out and built your own thriving underground in St. Louis. Why? Did your uncle’s old ways bore you?”
Sullie and Dom had been running drugs and weapons to Mexico and Canada for the last thirty years.
Romano wanted a piece of that but ruined his chances when he tried to take over St. Louis through trafficking and baseball. Sullie’s crew pushed back and kept their booming business under wraps. The majority of their buyers didn’t even know the weapons were shipped from the Midwest.
“I'm going to need protection,” my angel’s brother finally said.
“And you think I'm going to give that to you?”
He smiled. “That and more.”
I huffed a laugh. “You are bold, I’ll give you that, Jones. No wonder you survived prison.”
“And now you have my cellmate working for you.”
Xander. My jaw tightened. “Yes.” No point in denying it.
“Who am I protecting you from?” I asked.
His eyes flicked up from the desk to mine. “A common enemy. A greedy one.”
My mind drifted back to a phone call I had a few weeks ago…when I was inspecting Gwen’s dagger.
The Russian Mafia.
“What’s in it for me?”
He raised a brow and his gun. “I don’t kill you for kidnapping my sister.”
I smiled, enjoying how protective he was over Karina. Slowly, I stood and held out my hand. “I look forward to working with you.”
He stood, and we shook hands. “You just made a deal with a demon,” I said darkly, rolling up my sleeves.
“I’ve dealt with worse men, Stevens,” he said, looking out the window, his mind clearly somewhere else.
One someone else.
Not my business. “Well, I have no idea what Karina is cooking downstairs, but you might as well join us.”
Jeremy looked down and smiled. “It’s one of Mama’s recipes.”
“Ah.” I didn’t say much else. I knew Kay and Jer’s mother went downhill after the death of their father. He looked back up as I rounded the desk. “You hurt her, I’ll kill you,” he warned, his jaw tense.
I nodded once. “I’ll let you have the honor if I do, Jeremy. You have my word on that.”
Both of us exited my office and descended the stairs in silence. The ache in my chest intensified. He might have just made a deal with a demon, but I felt like I just made a deal with something much heavier.
A brother.
As we entered the giant living area, Kay was setting the table. She turned around, and her eyes went wide at the sight of her brother. Tears formed as she asked thickly, “Do I need to set another place, or are you here to hurt the only man I've ever loved?”
“I’m here to be the brother you need me to be, Kay,” he said softly. She nodded and flung herself across the living room. I watched the moment from afar, a smile playing on my lips.
We ate, we talked, and fuck, we even laughed.
Jer and Karina told me stories from their childhood, and I listened, memorizing every single detail. The food was phenomenal, and knowing my angel made it with love only made it better. She held my hand on top of the table through the last half of the meal, unashamed of me—her demon.
Later, when the dishes were done and our stomachs couldn’t handle anymore, we drifted to the living room.
I had never sat on this furniture. Most days, it was just décor more than anything else. I didn’t have the time, but now, I would make the time. Karina tucked her feet under her as she snuggled into me and Jeremy sat across in an armchair, sipping on a whiskey I’d poured for him a few minutes ago.
“Okay, both of you need to cut the shit,” Karina finally said, looking at us.
“What shit?” he asked.
“You didn’t just show up, Jer. I know you snuck in and pointed a gun at Col.”
“How—”
“Bella knows everything,” she stated flatly.
Jer shook his head, cursing under his breath. “Sullie stepped down.”
“I know,” she said, crossing her arms. My arm was around her shoulder, my fingers drawing slow circles on her shirt. “You taking over the running?” she asked. I smirked into my glass before tossing the rest of it back.
My angel was smart.
“How in the hell do you know about that?” her brother growled, surprise evident in his tone.
“If you weren’t taking over, then I would have to. Uncle Sullie wasn’t going to send me in blind. Besides, I've known about the weapons for a while. I found a crate of rifles in Sullie’s storage room in college,” she explained, and then softly added, “Thank you.”
We all knew she didn’t want to take over the Crew. She deserved a better life than that.
He sighed. “Okay, so you know. Then you need to know that just because that Italian fuck is dead doesn’t mean we won’t have enemies. I came here to ask for protection.”
My angel looked at me, her eyes pleading. “Did you say yes?”
“He's your family, Karina. Of course, I did,” I replied. Now that Karina knew—which I was planning on telling her after I fucked her later—Jer and I began discussing business. He said that he would be introducing me to his right and left hands, Dontell and Leon, the next time I was in St. Louis.
“I have to go to New York next week,” I began. “How about you and your men accompany me? I have some...loose ends to cut off. If Connors is on board, he'll be coming too.”
Jeremy nodded. “Consider it done.”
The men who have been trying to kill me helped me take down our biggest enemy, and now, they are working with me.
Funny how shit turned out.
An hour later, I was buried inside my angel as she clawed at my back, adding to my scars.
“Col,” she moaned, arching her back as my cock stretched her. I smiled into her neck, loving her nickname for me, how whole it made me feel. “Dr. Stevens said to take it easy,” she reminded me, breathless as I pulled out and thrusted back into her sweet pussy.
“Daddy has to fuck you good, angel,” I whispered in her ear as I began fucking her slow. “I missed you so much, Karina.”
"Oh, fuck,” she cried as her thighs tightened around my body, holding me closer.
“You going to be a good girl and come all over your demon’s cock? Hm?” I picked up the pace, gripping her hips as I pounded into her. Bullet in my chest be damned, I needed to feel my angel come. Knowing that I—her demon—was the only one who could make her come only urged me on more.
“Yes! Yes!”
I kissed her before I rose up and wrapped my hand around her throat. Her blonde hair was splayed out on my pillow, and her gorgeous tits bounced with every punishing thrust. Giving her throat a gentle squeeze, I growled, “Milk this cock, baby."
That did it.
She screamed my name and how much she loved me, tightening around me. I saw stars, heaven, and most of all—her.
Our future flashed behind my eyelids: happiness, power, love…
children. Knowing that, someday, she would be swollen with my child and that she would love that baby with everything she fucking had—did it for me.
My head fell back, my jaw slack as my hands found her hips, pulling her down onto my cock over and over as my spine tingled.
As I spilled inside her, I dropped down and said three words I’d never thought I would say.
“I love you.”