Chapter Two
Natural Born Hustler
Roisin
The numbers on the digital scale read three point nine. I picked a baby bud off and watched it readjust and flash, three point six. I was more than aware that while I eyed the product, my customer was leaning forward to get a better view down my v-cut shirt.
“It’s fuckin’ May, you. Do you be wearing that jacket even in the summer?” He laughed, the sound nothing more than a dry wheeze that annoyed me.
“Stop worrying about what I’m wearing, before I decide to start taxing your ass for eyeball fuckin’ me, Allen.”
His jaw dropped, and I snagged the bag, dumped the contents of the scale cup into it, rolled and licked.
I held out my hand for the money just as the door to my dorm room busted open. My heart dropped, and so did the bag. I hit the floor beside it, certain I was being raided.
“You want to live? Get the fuck out, asshole.” A gruff, familiar voice barked.
My head snapped up to confront the sound, but a set of hands shot out for my shoulders, jarring my attention to the closest threat, instead. I knew from the way Allen was spoken to our invaders weren’t the police. They were mobsters from the Double Nickel Gang.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? You’re gonna spook all my goddamn customers!” I roared, as Lox Kelly ripped me off the floor.
“Shut the fuck up, princess. Move.” He shoved me toward Korbin and Kyran, who each grabbed an arm as I flailed.
They were twins, and shared a father with my dead brother, Keefe, but they weren’t any kin of mine.
“You have no right to come here.” I growled, ready to stand my ground.
Korbin laughed, and Kyran shoved at me, driving home the fact that I was outnumbered and surrounded.
“I hate you,” I hissed at them, “I hate all of you.”
“Your brother wants a word,” Lox smiled in that smug way of his.
“My brother is fuckin’ dead,” I coldly reminded him.
The twins octopussed themselves around me, like it was family day for the big, happy bunch of us and promptly marched me through the hall. What the hell could I do? Any fuss would lead security to me or looking for me; and the last thing I needed was them pilfering through the mess I’d just left all over my dorm room.
I set my jaw and marched all the way to their car. I was seething inside, but that wasn’t anything new where these guys were concerned. My brother’s crew liked to make sure I knew my place and stayed in it. Lox drove, leaving me pinned in the backseat between the twins.
I was so angry I couldn’t look at either of them. Not that they cared. We were never close, despite sharing a brother.
Still, I couldn’t believe they’d disrespected me like that, in front of a customer, no less! My face ached from the tension I carried in it by the time we arrived, but I still pinched my features as I stared up at Sean's mansion.
“Guess lunch is out of the question,” I huffed.
Kyran got out without answering and held the door open for me to follow suit.
The lawn was immaculate, but something about it looked even more special than normal. When we stepped inside, there was a team of men servicing the piano. Maids scurried about dusting shit that hadn’t been touched since my mother died.
I noticed Sean finally, on the stairwell. The way he looked at me was so peculiar. Something inside me knew my life was about to be thrown off course.
“I– I didn’t realize there was a funeral,” I guessed.
Sean smiled and waved for me to join him upstairs, rather than descending the rest of the way.
I slowly started up after him, pausing just outside my old bedroom door when he did.
“Who died?” I whispered.
There was a man standing nearby that I didn’t recognize. Sean cleared his throat and gestured me onward, but I couldn’t take my eyes off the stranger in the leather vest. His eyes were dark and dangerous, and I could tell by his stance and expression he was capable. It was a different type of capable than the men Sean and Keefe surrounded themselves with, but I recognized the energy all the same.
He suddenly started toward us, and I sucked in a breath, not expecting his brisk movement.
“No one died, lass. It’s a wee weddin’ is all.” Sean smiled, placing a hand on my shoulder that made my skin crawl.
He wasn’t a nasty man. I just wasn’t all that reassured by the gesture.
“I can’t do this,” the stranger interrupted. “I can’t go through with this while my daughter is on her way to—”
“Your daughter is fine, lad.”
“Yeah, I can’t trust that.” The gravelly tone doubled down.
“Me, either,” Sean shrugged, “I told you. I intend to have her when Menace’s time is up. Did you think I'd trust fate and the woman I intend to marry, to a man whose back is against the wall? Don’t get me wrong about our Sammy, she’ll be a good piece of insurance— No?”
The stranger’s face fell and he slowly backed away and fled down the stairs.
“Who’s that?” I whispered.
“That’s the man you’re marrying this afternoon.”
I snorted and bumped his arm with mine, “Be serious.”
Sean was such a terrible joker.
His pale gaze anchored on me, however, and I knew in my soul he wasn’t kidding.
“You can’t make–”
“I can, actually, love. I can do a lot. You have scales and contraband in your dorm as we speak.”
“Weed is legal, and you’re no snitch.” I shifted to pointedly look at him.
“Marijuana might be, but what my generals drop when they go back– Won’t be.”
My face twitched, as I desperately held out hope for laughter, or some sign of his teasing.
“You wouldn’t,” I finally managed.
Sean didn’t flinch.
“When the alternative is watching you hop around the streets and campus shaming me and our brother? It’s bad enough having a sister that toils in the shallow end of the drug trade like a common…” He trailed off and took a deep breath, “Now I hear you’ve been robbed? They tell me some gang members publicly disrespected you. Word is you were relieved of both property and product.”
He sucked his teeth in silent fury.
Meanwhile, my inner wheels were spinning as fast as his words. How the hell did he know Zander robbed me?
“Sean, it was–”
“Unacceptable.” His voice boomed, and I tilted my head away from the sound, “They’ve been dealt with. Now, you’re getting your just medicine; a husband to calm and keep you, lass.”
“Fuck you!” I spat.
“Aye, I told the lad he had his work cut out for him, I did.” Sean smiled, like I’d proven some point for him.