29. Torin
TWENTY-NINE
torin
I want to believe it.
I desire with everything in me the child being created in Bay’s womb is mine, but I’m up against Reeve on that venture and, even then, his case is stronger than mine.
Not that it matters.
And not that she has to know.
It’s not only an open door that my brain automatically took without question, but regardless of whose child it is, it’s ours.
All of ours.
“Hard night, man?” I glance up from the kitchen island to find Cairo approaching his espresso machine. The boujee prick needs the best caffeine in the morning or he won’t function right.
“I’m fine.”
The sound of cabinets opening stops and I know he’s turned his full attention onto me. “You shouldn’t be gettin’ out of bed.”
“If I stay in it any longer, I’m gonna off myself.”
“You just may if you fall and bleed out.”
I sigh at his overbearing and cautious attitude toward my physical health. Shit’s been annoying for days. “I know how to scream for help, brother.”
Cairo comes up to the other side of the counter and gives me his full focus. It’s a look in his dark eyes; that’s how I know this is going to be a conversation.
One I don’t want to have.
“How did it go?”
“How did what go?”
“I thought you said you were going to go see Bay—” My nostrils flare as I shake my head.
We’ve been through enough.
She’s been through enough.
“You need to talk to her about the pregnancy.”
“You mean the one she doesn’t want to keep?” Cairo’s expression immediately darkens. “I know that girl like I know myself. The first solution is to abort the problem. The second is denial. The third is more denial. The fourth is acceptance. Then?—”
“You’re in denial if you don’t think she needs you.”
“Ah, well…” I shove back from the counter and clench my teeth together from the uncomfortable bullet holes still on the mend. “You took my place, didn’t you? She’s fine.”
Cairo glowers at me. “You know damn well that’s not?—”
“Don’t bullshit me, brother. You picked the perfect time to play hero.”
“I said that’s not how it fuckin’ happened. And someone had to step up and make sure you didn’t succeed in your little plan to kill her, didn’t they? I’m not the dumbass who wouldn’t relax and calm down, was I? I told you we’d figure it out, and you went rogue.”
I did.
It still doesn’t change the fact our roles are reversed. That he’s on the inside, and I’m out.
Again.
Fuck this.
“It’s all good,” I surmise flatly as I stand firmly on my feet. “You do you. And I’m going to figure out where I fit in all this.”
“Where you’ve always been. Nothing has changed. Now we need you to help with Ramsey and?—”
“We kill him,” I say easily. “There’s no other way.”
Cairo stares back at me, devoid of any emotion, when he replies, “You could do that? Because now I’m thinking you and Bay have more in common with gunning down people who meant something to you.”
“Something you should’ve done with Viv years ago.”
His jaw tics, but he’s careful to keep his shit in check. “And have Muncy up our ass. Yeah, good idea.”
“Do you have a better one? Because Ramsey isn’t going to lie down and follow her. He’s also not going to hand her The Void. I’ve only accelerated the problem.”
“Then why the hell did you?—”
“If Wallace is dead then Emilio would’ve used her sisters as leverage to gain more control. I haven’t heard you publicly announce you’re standing next to her. Furthermore, it was one less issue. Plus, he wanted to kill me first. It was only fair that I responded.”
“We didn’t talk about it.”
I smile at him. “Why? So you could go talk with him?”
He scowls at me because he knows I’m right. I’ve casually run the Forsaken Crew, but Cairo is the heart. It’s his father’s crew, after all.
Sure, I may have recruited dozens of them, but it still doesn’t mean I was supposed to rise and take The Landings.
In fact, I never thought the day would come when Emilio was buried ten feet deep.
Yes, ten.
I don’t trust that the fucker wouldn’t crawl out of it.
Nonetheless, sometimes, violence can’t be stopped. And Cairo doesn’t understand, nor can he comprehend what it feels like to have a so-called father who thinks you’re a disappointment. Who will gladly shove you aside for something better.
Bay is his daughter.
However, I’ve never been more to him than a soldier, and a broken one at that. There is no persuading him to see any differently. He was set in his ways and nothing was going to change that. And eventually, he’d grow tired of Bay resisting him, and he’d replace her, too.
“We on a pity party now, Torin?” Cairo grinds out. “Because I don’t have time for this.”
I gesture for him to continue doing what he came in here to do. “By all means, get your coffee, and fuck off.”
“No more moves unless we speak.”
Pushing my cheek out with my tongue, I nod. “Okay. So that means if Bay comes to you wanting to abort that child, we’ll talk about it, right?”
“That’s her right.”
My eyes clench at him for being so fucking understanding of such a thing. I understand women’s rights and shit, but that’s our baby. That’s…
“And no one else gets a say?” I leer back. “We just never get to experience something that could bring us back together as a family?”
Cairo’s dark features don’t lighten and give me any sort of comfort. He’s in diplomatic mode, and there’s no getting through that. “Not if she doesn’t want it, Torin. We can’t force her to stay pregnant.”
I can.
I can tie her up to a bed, feed her, and wait the nine months or whatever for her to give us that child.
“You can’t ,” Cairo repeats, his voice harder now. “She’s scared shitless right now, and we’re not in the best position for her to be?—”
“When is there a right time, brother? When The Landings and South Shore are skipping and holding hands with each other? We don’t even know if that’s going to happen.”
“They announced her Queen of South Shore today,” he snarls angrily. “So, yeah, I do think it’ll happen.”
This motherfucker.
So fucking naive.
“Why?” I press back casually. “Because you’ve fucked her, you think you’ve got a free pass? That it means something to her? Because let me let you in on a little secret…she can disconnect better than any man. What you’ve done means nothing. She lives, breathes, and is South Shore. And now with her dad and Wallace dead, she’s going to avenge and come back ten times harder. Nothing is stopping her now, brother. All good queens reign long and prosperous. She’ll be one of them. And that means you’ll always be the odd man out because she doesn’t need you.”
“So it comes to this? You’re jealous of?—”
“I’m not jealous,” I emit tersely. “You could never take her away from me, period . Bay Astor has been and always will be mine. That shit is written in the stars and trust me, you don’t fuck her like I do.”
Cairo blinks at me. “How many pain meds did you take today?”
I scowl at him but don’t answer the question. I’m taking the prescribed dose, and no, I’m not taking any more than I should. The last thing we need is another addiction problem.
Well, the kind that makes you a raging asshole, anyway.
Shit, apparently, I don’t need pills to be that.
“Give it time,” Cairo echoes out. “Don’t underestimate how she feels about you.”
“I don’t need a lecture or a pep talk,” I retort. “I need you to not allow her to make any rational decisions when it comes to that kid.”
“Then stop acting like a bitch and talk to her about it.”
“When? Do you want me to stroll up to her house and walk right through The Nameless?”
“I’ll handle that.”
Of course, he will. The prick has an answer to everything.
“She feels alone,” he tacks on. “She doesn’t have you or Reeve. Ozzy is out there now searching for that moron, and I got you healin’ up. She just lost Wallace, brother. I’ve finally got her to not go out and hunt De Leon down herself.”
I steal a glance at him. “How?”
For the first time in this conversation, I watch Cairo hesitate before he says, “I told her I’d give him to her on a silver platter. I figured, we get him, we solve the problem.”
“How noble of you, brother.”
He glowers. “Stop being a fucking asshole. I’m doing this for all of us.”
“And is that with or without her pussy wrapped tightly around—” Cairo quickly plucks something up from the countertop and chucks it at me.
It’s not until it falls aimlessly in my lap, after it hits my chest, I realize it’s a pepper shaker.
I should be happy it’s not something sharper, but I’m curious as to how he got Bay to chill.
It sends up a million red flags in my mind.
Maybe she has those two bulldogs of hers looking for him. I mean, it’d save us the trouble. The more pricks looking for him, the better.
But why now?
Why all of a sudden?
“Well, at least there’s that,” I convey evenly, not acknowledging the breach in Cairo’s award-winning patience. “Keep me updated.”
I turn to leave the kitchen, not as quickly as I would like. The wound in my thigh and the two in my gut scream at me to stop moving, but I keep doing it anyway.
“When do you want to talk to her?”
“Whenever,” I call back. “But just know, she’s not going to be able to go anywhere within a hundred-mile radius to get rid of that baby.”
“ Torin .” I stop on a dime at the tone of his voice and slowly turn to face him again, gathering him back in my sight and permitting him one last bullshit response of how I’m overreacting and what I want isn’t right. “Don’t push her.”
“I’m not. But you’re babying her. And she’d never be able to live with herself if she killed that baby.”
Cairo blows out a breath through his lips. “C’mon, dude.”
“Fuck you , dude. I’ve had a hard-on since I was a teenager for that girl. I know her. I’ve done nothing but observe and want her. You haven’t.”
“You pushed her, and she’s shoving you back two steps.”
I shrug my shoulders, hearing what he’s saying, but…yeah, she might not be fucking me any time soon, forgiving me in the near future, yet I’m still going to be here. “I know how to get through to Bay Astor, brother.”
Cairo rolls his eyes and turns his back on me, going back to assembling his expensive coffee. “She’s gonna kill you, man. I’m telling you.”
“Hopefully, with her tight pussy,” I mutter under my breath, and Cairo looks over at me from his shoulder for a quick second. “What?” Cairo lifts his middle finger, using his other hand to continue making his shit. “Thought you were keepin’ her off-limits?”
“Obviously, changed my mind.”
Mhm.
Honestly, I knew it would come to it. There’s no way Cairo’s mental game is that strong. And it’s been a long time since he’s had a girlfriend of some capacity.
Since Vivian.
Another issue, nonetheless, not Bay.
Nothing like Bay.
Cairo might have been in denial, but it would come to this anyway. I don’t mind him being within the circle.
It’s just his overbearing, bossy ass isn’t going to tell me what to do with my girl. We definitely have two different definitions of what that includes.
However, we can agree to keep her safe.
And while I’m not on board with allowing Bay to do whatever she wants with her pregnancy, it’s because there’s a possibility the baby may be mine.
“We have a lot of work to do, then,” I say. “I’ll talk to you when I’m out of the shower.”
“Fine with me,” he deadpans, too into his espresso bullshit to pay me any more mind.
“Oh, and Cairo…” He pulls his concentration and directs it to me. “I don’t want to hear any shit about how loud she screams when?—”
He peels his shirt up his ribs, revealing a black Glock residing in the waistband of his jeans. “Shut the fuck up, Torin.”
I smile.
He doesn’t.
I have no problem being quiet.
But she will.