51. Cairo
FIFTY-ONE
cairo
The look on Vivian’s face when she showed up at her dance practice was priceless. She knew she was fucked the moment we all walked in with our immediate sights set on her and zero fucks as to interrupting her whatever the fuck this was.
“Yes?” she inquires as if she doesn’t know why the hell Torin, Reeve, and I are in the middle of a bunch of girls in leggings and high socks. “If you needed to see me so much, Cairo, you could’ve?—”
“Shut the fuck up,” Reeve bites out, coming around to block off her side. “No one wants to be here, and Cairo definitely didn’t want to actively seek you out.”
Her brown eyes latch on to mine, batting innocently at me, as if she’s done nothing at all.
But she’s definitely done it all.
How she got information from Bay’s mortgage company is beyond me, but she did. Then she got someone to buy it over value and the deal is locked. I’ve tried every which way to offer more—Torin’s fucking idea—but the bank won’t budge.
And I know Muncy and Vivian aren’t sitting on half a million dollars.
Torin and I aren’t either right now, but it was worth a damn shot. We’re still building our wealth, we’re doing good for ourselves, but for a fucking piece of shit house?
So, since we failed with that lovely mission that had nothing to do with us, I still feel at fault. Vivian saw me kiss her, and I initiated it, not Bay.
She didn’t ask for it, nor did she flirt to gain it either.
I did it because I wanted to.
It could’ve been too many hits to the head, blood leaving my body at a fast pace, but I kissed Bay Astor, and I haven’t found myself regretting it.
Yet.
However, it doesn’t solve the issue that I put her in this predicament with my actions. It’s probably a good life lesson to stick with my gut and not fuck with her, to begin with.
Bay has a sick dad in the hospital that needs a home to come back to and two young sisters to take care of with nowhere else to go.
Except with us.
Reeve is all for it. Torin seconded it, and I’m fine with her family crashing at our place, but Vivian is only going to become more of a fucking problem.
She’s only going to cause more of a fucking issue.
More petty bullshit that I, personally, don’t want to be bothered with.
“What is it?” she presses, rearranging her hair in a ponytail, clearly unaffected by the three of us standing here.
She can stand behind her daddy’s bogus title all day, but the only reason he keeps getting sheriff is because Emilio keeps putting him there.
Everything else is null and void.
He didn’t earn it, he doesn’t deserve it, and Torin and Reeve are ready for me to give them the green light to annihilate this bitch, once and for all.
Their feelings are involved while my head is clear and rational.
We kill Vivian, and Muncy is going to sniff around. He’s going to know. I haven’t asked his only daughter to marry me, and we both know it’s not going to happen. The dude also has to know that she’s annoying as fuck.
She suddenly disappears after rubbing it into Bay’s face that her home is being taken away and Torin and Reeve look like the most likely suspects.
“Now she wants to play stupid,” Torin mutters loud enough for us all to hear. “Cute.”
“Bay,” Reeve says with venom in his tone. “We’re coming to see if you fixed the problem you caused.”
“No,” she replies simply and so not surprising.
Torin tenses at my side but doesn’t utter a word. Meanwhile, Reeve’s in her fucking face, about to rip her throat out.
“I don’t hit women, Viv,” he grounds out, drawing the attention of the room. “But I’ll make an exception for you. I’ll make you bloody and broken just to hear you beg and plead for mercy that I won’t give you. Last chance. Give. It. Back.”
“No.”
That simple word is the end of this conversation.
I’m fully aware that coming here to ask Vivian to do anything was a long shot. She’s too in her feelings to ever let it go.
And now that she’s seen or heard me with Bay, she’ll try to chokehold me to her side. It won’t work. I don’t bow or worship her anymore after the shit she pulled on my brother, but she sure tries.
“Should we break her legs now or later?” Reeve asks casually, signing his question for Torin and keeping his voice down. “I’m voting now.”
“Too many witnesses,” I claim, as Vivian’s smug smile shows brightly, like I’m doing it for her and not for what I just said.
I’m not sure where in her fucked up head she thinks I give a shit about her, but I don’t.
Never will.
“ How about before her recital? ” Torin vouches. “ It’d be fun to see her on crutches. ”
“ Honestly… ” I give away a small smirk to Vivian because she doesn’t know what I’m saying, and she loathes when we sign around her. “That’s not a bad idea if she wouldn’t go rat us out to her dad. ”
“ Then we should sew her mouth shut.” That from Reeve, and it’s a possibility. However, it doesn’t mean that we can’t make Vivian pay for her bullshit.
“ Let’s go ,” I say, watching all the tap dancers and ballerinas stare at us with fear laced in their eyes. “ We gave her one last chance and she fucked it. ”
“Stop signing,” my ex barks out through her teeth. “Just say what you want.”
“Already did,” I claim as Torin turns on his heel to leave the place. Vivian immediately steps forward and clutches to my forearm with a death grip, aware that I’m not far behind.
“Cai,” she soothes softly, peering up at me with fake kindness in her eyes. “You know why I did it, right? I can’t stand the thought of you cheating on me and?—”
“Like you did me?” I quirk a brow because, I’m over it for one, and I have every fucking right to return the favor. And fucking Bay wouldn’t only be icing on the cake, but it would release all the pent-up lust that has been building for that woman.
I’ve had a taste.
I’ve felt her body crushed against mine.
It took everything in me not to shove my hand down her pants and feel if she was wet for me. If she felt anything for me besides the side glares and shitty little remarks she leaves.
When I heard her voice in the ring, demanding that I focus, I was surprised I heard it at all.
Maybe it was because everyone was on the edge of their seat, not expecting Matteo to do as well as he did.
Rule number one: don’t underestimate anyone . Matteo De Leon isn’t just a punk-ass gangbanger, but a desperate one. I’m not going to be surprised when he tries something else.
Dude’s a fucking prick.
“That was a long time ago,” Vivian objects with a sharpness to her words. “I was young?—”
“And still stupid.” I want to pull my arm away, but I let her have this. I allow her to touch me and think she can sway me a certain way just for the denial and rejection to batter her in the face. “You’re not gonna win, Viv. I’m not sure why you keep trying. Really, it’s quite pathetic.”
“Cairo—”
“Vivian…I’m going to let Torin and Reeve bend and break you after this. Maybe even before, call it an early closing present.”
“You can’t be serious?”
“I am. Bay Astor is their girl. You fucked with something they will demolish the world for.”
“Together? They share her?” I shrug, not giving her information that doesn’t concern her. “Have you?”
“Have I what?”
“Have you fucked her ?” That question comes out like a shrill in front of all her friends, and my lips, those motherfuckers heave proudly.
“Enjoy the rest of your practice.”
“ Cairo .” Her nails begin to dig into my skin, and that’s when a tick of my patience cracks in half.
My chest bumps into hers, which gets her to release me from her clutches. “ Vivian. You fucked up, darlin’. And you fucked up good. Not only did you take her home away, but you drove her closer to me. She’s comin’ to live with us.”
Her expression falls to the ground until she raises her chin confidently. “You won’t be there.”
I cock my head to the side. “Won’t I?”
Vivian’s eyes bore daggers and hatred into my face. “You can’t do that.”
“I can do whatever the fuck I please. Because I won the Titan spot. I have my city. I have my boys. And I may…just share their girl.”
“Touch her, and I will lay all your secrets out, Cairo. I’m serious.”
“Which ones?”
“The ones where you’re trying to get away from Emilio.”
I shrug. “So?”
“He finds out you’re going to rip the Forsaken Crew away from him, he’s going to?—”
“If he hasn’t figured that out, I’m not sure he should be doing anything slightly devoted to what he’s doing now.”
“You’re betraying him.”
I push my lips out and shake my head. “No. My father created the Crew. It’s mine by birthright.”
“You’re fucking adopted,” she spits out, as if that’s the worst thing that could ever happen to me.
I can’t help the chuckle that rips through her anger. “My bad. My name gives it to me then.”
“I have recordings of you. I have talks about when you plan to move on to South Shore and—” My opened palm seizes her throat and I squeeze, hard.
“I’m tired of your threats and the fact that, in your head, you have power over me.” I bow forward, hovering over her face that’s currently turning a shade of pink. “You don’t. You won’t. You’re just a means to a fucking end. The only reason why you’re not dead yet is because Muncy would miss you. So, if you want to call off the imaginary wedding, go ahead. If you want to be my bitch, you’ll give the house back. Anything else…you’re not getting.”
Her hands come up to squeeze the one that’s cutting off her oxygen supply. “You can’t?—”
“Here we go the hell again,” I drone, pressing my fingertips deeper into her soft skin. My anger is starting to boil over because she does have shit on us. Emilio, from my knowledge, doesn’t know what we’re doing.
And if he does, he might sike Ramsey on us.
Vivian can’t go.
She has to be appeased.
However, I’m not in the mood to make peace with that part today. I’ll have to talk with the boys about how we’re going to proceed moving forward. Even if I have to be Vivian’s good graces to buy us a little more time, I’ll do it—high as fuck and drunk.
“Enjoy the rest of your day, Viv. Feel free to tell everyone that the red marks on your neck are because I fucked the shit out of you. I’m sure you’ve already been feeding everyone a load of bullshit. It’ll keep with the theme so when you suddenly disappear it’ll be easy to make it look like I’m devastated and that I give a flying fuck.”
Releasing her, I go and join my boys to go over what I learned.
My ex-girlfriend is a cunt, that’s old news.
But she’s one with some shit on us.