Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CIDNEY
Lainey left for work this morning, and before she did, I made coffee and breakfast again as a thank-you.
I also promised that I would prepare a real dinner tonight, again as a thank-you.
She hesitated leaving me alone. This time, though, neither of us called anyone to babysit me. I assured her I would be okay alone.
I may have overestimated my okayness. I’m not sure if I really am okay. When she closes the front door, I watch, listen, and wait for her to turn the key, locking the dead bolt, and only then do I let out a sigh of relief. I also turn on the television for background noise.
Lainey’s place is small and tidy and probably doesn’t need to be cleaned, but I do it anyway.
I need to be busy, so I make myself busy.
I work hard, deep cleaning every square inch, including baseboards, sheets, and towels.
I know it’s probably an overreach, but it’s honestly a selfish move because I’m trying to keep myself busy and distracted from my own thoughts.
Glancing at the clock, I wonder when I should start cooking the chicken that I got out of the freezer earlier. I’m not quite sure when Lainey is going to be back. I didn’t really notice the time yesterday when she walked through the door.
I am standing at the sink, my fingers tapping against the laminate countertop, when there is a knock on the door. My entire body almost jumps out of my skin at the sound. Then I hear the voice on the other side of the door call out my name.
My feet begin to move, one in front of the other, toward that voice. I should have called him today, but I procrastinated and put it off. I wasn’t sure I wanted to deal with the drama, but now it seems as if the drama has come to me.
I walk to the door and check the peephole, because although I did hear his voice, I’m not a fucking idiot. It’s him. I unlock the door and step back slightly after turning the knob and gently tug it open.
Tilting my head back, I look into my cousin’s eyes.
The eyes of the man who essentially raised me.
Most would think it would have been my aunt and uncle, but it was always Justin for me.
He was my safe place, my guard, and the father figure I wanted in life.
He took me on, took care of me, and always protected me.
Until he didn’t, or couldn’t, or whatever it was.
Stepping to the side, I let him walk past me into Lainey’s place. He looks around, and I wait for him to say something snarky, but he doesn’t. I don’t know why I expect him to look like a monster, but he doesn’t.
He looks exactly like Justin Whitaker always has—clean cut and put together—but I know there are tattoos, and there is a roughness to him that no one would suspect if they were meeting him for the first time.
“I wanted to give you a few days to settle in before I came over here and pissed you off,” he murmurs.
I laugh softly because he’s not wrong. He jerks his chin toward the chair that Lainey always sits in, walks over, and sinks down onto the cushion. He crosses his ankle over his knee and leans back, waiting for me to sit down on the sofa, which I do.
“There’s a lot of shit going on at the club right now. But I need to know that you’re okay.”
“I’m not,” I state. I watch as he winces. “But I will be. I just have to heal,” I whisper. “Nobody can do that for me.”
“You won’t stay with me?” he asks.
Shaking my head slowly, I close my eyes in a slow blink, then reopen them and focus my gaze on his. “Will you let me choose the man I want to be with?” I ask.
His eyes widen before they narrow, and I watch his lips press together in a firm line.
He did not want me to bring that up and likely thought I wouldn’t.
I don’t know if I want to be with Goose or if he even wants to be with me anymore, but I want to be able to choose the person I want to spend time with.
Without the only father figure in my life hating him.
“Maybe we don’t worry about boyfriends for now?” he asks.
“That doesn’t work for me.”
He lets out a heavy exhale, likely annoyed as hell with me. I’m not asking him to sleep with the person I want to choose. I just want the option to choose without causing someone to get beaten up—or die.
“You want Goose, then?” he asks.
“I don’t know, and if I did, this isn’t the time to talk about it. I just want to know that I can choose who I want and live a peaceful life with you by my side.”
“You sure you don’t want to go to law school?”
I snort. I barely graduated from high school. I’m nowhere near smart enough or disciplined enough for that. He clears his throat, then places his foot on the floor before he stands, straightening his knees.
I watch as he walks over to the window and looks outside. His chin dips slightly, and I know he’s looking out at Goose, who is likely posted across the street and looking directly at him.
The stare-down lasts for a moment. Then Justin spins around on his heels, his eyes finding mine. He dips his chin ever so slightly before he speaks.
“I will support your decision to be with whomever you wish as long as they treat you with the respect you deserve and are entitled to. And that they love you, of course.”
“Including Goose or anyone else down there?”
Something flashes in his eyes, but he doesn’t tell me what he’s thinking. Instead, his jaw clenches, and he speaks through gnashed teeth, just one single word. I’m not sure, but I think it actually pains him to say that word.
“Yes.”
GOOSE
Sitting outside the strip club, I watch as the asshole turns his head to look behind him.
Just as we expect—as Maverick had known he would—he walks inside.
We aren’t busting him tonight. His chest is puffed out, his shoulders squared.
He thinks he is the fucking shit. And I think he’s a piece of shit. So there’s that.
Tonight is all about watching, waiting, and talking to the owners as soon as this snake leaves. The fact that I have to sit in a fucking car to watch him go in and out of this club makes my skin itch. I fucking hate being in cars. We call them cages because that’s what they are.
“You think this is going to work?” Maverick asks me.
I smirk, shifting my gaze from the club to him. “Yeah, I do. I don’t know how you came up with it, but I fucking love it.”
Maverick’s smile reaches his eyes, and for just a moment, it feels like old times.
There was a point a few months ago when I would have craved the old times to come back, but I don’t now.
Maverick is so fucking happy, it almost makes my teeth ache, and I’ve found the woman of my dreams, too.
My road may be a bit different than his, but it’s going to lead to that same happiness eventually.
“It was a joint effort, which is how we work best, so I can’t even say I’m not glad we’re working together again.”
He’s right.
We do work best together. Always have.
“Well, let’s get this shit done and handled so we can work together on some other shit in the future. Like security stuff. I think I’m a bit tapped out when it comes to going out of town on a protective run.”
Maverick snorts. “No shit. I don’t want to be away from my family for that long anymore. One night is too long.”
I love that for my brother. He has a good life, one that he cherishes, and while our parents didn’t give a single fuck about us, he’s breaking that cycle.
I want that too. I can’t deny that I’m a touch envious of him and Zadie, but my happiness for them outweighs that.
He’s got two babies and a woman he absolutely adores. He has everything in life.
We stay in the car, chatting about bullshit while watching for Goffredo. Two hours pass, then three before the rat shows himself. His clothes are disheveled, along with his hair. He’s been ridden hard, and he’s spent. He’s probably a couple thousand dollars poorer as well.
Good.
I’m going to thoroughly enjoy his demise. However, I would have liked to have actually meted out that punishment myself. This is the second best. I know Hogg will do what we ask of him, and gladly. He’ll take care of this, and as always, we’ll take care of him as best we can.
Leaning down in the seat, we watch as he climbs into his car as if he doesn’t have a care in the fucking world and drives away.
The absolute goddamn prick. He acts like he didn’t brutalize my woman, like he didn’t try to kill her, try to kill Lightning.
He’s just smiling and fucking strippers like he’s got not a single worry.
Well, his time is fucking up.
Maverick and I push the car doors open, then unfold from the seats before we make our way to the door.
The bouncer holds up his hand to stop us, and as much as I want to reach into my cut, take my gun out of the shoulder holster, and press it against his forehead, I don’t.
He really should be thanking me for that right about now.
“The manager or owner in tonight?” Maverick asks.
The bouncer shifts his gaze from me to Maverick, and I watch as his brows snap together. Even though I’ve bulked up quite a bit and grown a short beard, there is no denying that we still resemble one another a lot.
“Who wants to know?” he finally asks.
Maverick thankfully takes over this conversation, because I am clearly not the one who needs to be doing this. I am ready to shoot first and talk later, but it’s not this bouncer’s fault, and it’s not the owner’s fault, either, whoever he is. This is on Goffredo and nobody else.
“It’s about an opportunity.”
“Go ahead and let them in,” a woman’s voice calls out from a walkie-talkie.
The bouncer lifts his chin, his gaze finding mine before his eyes narrow and he speaks.
“Straight to the back, hang a left, and there will be a door with an office label stuck to the front. That’s the only room you go into.”
I love how he thinks we’re here to do something with the strippers and that he could somehow stop us if we were.
Maverick moves past him, and I do the same, following my brother even though I really want to say something snarky to the bouncer.
I don’t, and I like to think it’s because I’m maturing with age.
Or maybe it’s because all I want to do is get this shit over with, which I very much fucking want to do.
Following Maverick to the back of the club, I don’t even glance at the girls on stage. The music is playing, and I know they’re dancing, but I don’t really give a shit about them. I am here for one purpose and one purpose only: to bury and fuck over Goffredo Hagerty.
It’s my life’s fucking mission right now.