52. Bay
FIFTY-TWO
bay
“So, how did you two dipshits think this was gonna work, huh? What were you gonna do, Wallace, fuckin’ swoop in like Batman and save us from the fuckin’ Joker?”
I sink deeper into the passenger seat of the blacked-out SUV Levi is driving, knowing damn well his resurrection is going to fall on rage-filled eyeballs and a few shots thrown out by the Forsaken boys.
Cairo has not stopped talking since Levi shoved him in the backseat and slammed the door in his face.
He’s been asking a million and one questions, hovering over the center console like he’s one of us and peppering off comments left and right as if he’s privy to all the information we hold.
Not that it’s much.
Levi kept his so-called death a secret to get the upper hand—end of story.
“Put your seatbelt on,” Levi grumbles out, clutching onto the steering wheel a bit hard. “For the second time.”
“I just don’t wanna miss anything,” Cairo hedges haughtily, steering his heavy concentration to me. I’m not looking at him, but out the window, yet I can feel his glare. “Were those all fake tears, Little T? I must commend you on your outstanding performance that had me thinking you were absolutely heartbroken over this motherfucker.”
“I said put your fuckin’ seatbelt on,” Levi repeats with more steel to his tone, stealing a look at Cairo for a second over his shoulder. “Or I’m going to put you out on the floor and whatever happens, happens.”
“Do it,” Cairo taunts with a lift of his shoulders. “Maybe when I come to, she can convince me that I was dreaming up this whole thing.”
He’s high as fuck and it shows.
Cairo would never in a million years have kept on like this if he wasn’t hurt. He’d sit silently in the backseat and not utter a single word. He’d keep the shit to himself.
He’ll get over it.
That’s what I keep telling myself when he sees why and that I promised Levi. There would never be a day in hell I would put Levi’s life at risk.
Ozzy seemed to understand.
I think.
And Cairo is King of Wharf Bay… Status is everything around here. He should understand when he comes to.
“ Astor ,” Levi grinds out, alluding that he’s beginning to reach his breaking point. “If you don’t get his ass to sit, I’m putting him through the windshield.”
Lovely.
Quickly mustering my resolve and whatever ounce of courage I have left, I glimpse over at Cairo, and he’s right in my fucking face.
Dark orbs of brown eyes stare back at me with so much conviction in them I might as well just punish myself.
“Sinatra,” I say as gently as I can. “I’ll answer all your questions when I get you back at the house. Just sit back…and relax.”
He doesn’t move, just continues to hold my focus, and it makes my skin crawl.
This is just another fight, another problem, I really didn’t want to start tonight. However, I promised Levi no more crazy, stupid, solo shit.
And that meant bringing him with me.
Cairo finally pushes himself back and disappears within the confines of the dark space of the backseat, giving Levi what he wanted but setting me up for a long-ass conversation with a drugged-up Cairo Black. And I haven’t seen one of those yet.
Don’t believe I ever wanted to, either.
Within another five to ten minutes, we’re arriving at my place, and Cairo pops out without so much as a fuck you or thanks. He disappears in my garage, and that’s it.
“I’m coming in,” Levi says flatly. “This isn’t going to end well.”
“I got it,” I reply even though I make no move to get out of the car. “You need to get back. You’ve been out too long.”
“The mask, Astor. It does wonders.” He pops his door open, prompting me to do the same because I can’t sit in the car by myself.
Or can I?
I am fine.
It’s this situation that isn’t fine.
I know Levi and I spoke in the car about what was going to possibly happen to Vivian. Levi’s first response was the first action he took.
He killed her.
Which poses Sheriff Muncy and his problems. More problems.
Fuck me.
Levi steps inside the house first, holding the door open for me to take and follow. He scans the area, and then promptly freezes. “Where’s Mae?”
“Sleeping,” I mutter. “Juice is currently sleeping in my bed.”
He’s been updating me all night, and Mae crashed off from a sugar high and too much Taylor Swift music. Ellie hasn’t left her damn room still. Then he told me he needed his beauty sleep, and the couch wasn’t going to play out for him.
“Where is he—” I’m slammed mercilessly into the wall before long fingers wrap tightly around my throat.
The gasp that wants to be released into the air is cut off by the oxygen that won’t make it there. Cairo’s dark eyes are pinned viciously on me when I blink, but no movement from Levi ever comes, so my attention is directed at him.
But not before it makes it to the Glock clutched in Cairo’s palm that just so happens to be directed in my best friend’s direction.
Levi’s whole body literally Hulks out, and I’ve never seen him so goddamn tense in my life. Levi would already be choking Cairo out slowly and deliberately if looks could kill.
The kind where Levi would be able to see the life seeping from Cairo’s eyes.
“Give me,” Cairo says ever-so-slowly, “one good fucking reason why I shouldn’t think you two are planning shit against me and mine?”
I don’t have a solid answer besides the obvious. “What’s the point in that? It’ll just cause more shit.”
“That seems to be all you like to do, Little Terror. Give me something else.”
“No one is going to kill you?—”
“I know,” he says matter-of-factly, giving me a harder squeeze and prompting me for something better. “You wouldn’t win. I would fuckin’ guarantee it.”
“You better look at me,” Levi cuts in through a growl. “Because I’m gonna fuck you up in the next five seconds, Black.”
Cairo doesn’t heed Levi’s warning with any apprehension. So caught up in his anger and high that Sinatra keeps his sole focus on me and the role I play. The not-so-grief-stricken damsel that doesn’t fit me anymore.
“I meant what I said,” I get out, trying to suck in some damn air to talk. “I’m in this. With you… We’re allies, remember?”
“I remember,” he replies evenly. “I just didn’t know if you did.”
I bob my head against his grasp, trying to swallow, but his grip is so damn tight, I can’t. “I remember…just fine. His life was obviously at stake. Just…like Torin’s.”
Cairo still doesn’t look pleased, but when is he?
It seems like the man is under constant stress, and I’m the huge factor behind it each and every time.
“Astor…” Levi warns in this tone that screams only ten seconds, and he’s making a jump for Sinatra.
“Put the gun down,” I order Cairo, holding his glower with one of calm. “You can’t shoot anyone with my sisters in the house.”
“That’s another thing,” Cairo leers, the pad of his thumb running tensely down my throat. “You allowed your sisters to go through this shit?” He scoffs, as if I’m the biggest piece of shit in the world to allow them to go through that. “You really shouldn’t leave guns in your car, Wallace. It wasn’t hard to find this one.”
“Fuck this,” Levi growls, moving to strike when my hand shoots out.
“ Don’t ,” I practically plead through my racing heart. “Everyone, please, just chill the fuck out.”
“I’m fine,” Cairo says simply. “I’m just holding your muscle at bay.”
“He’s not going to hurt you…unless you don’t put…the damn gun down.”
“See, I don’t believe him or you now.”
For the love of everything holy…
“You’re high,” I remind him. “Let’s get you to bed and sleep it off.”
“I’m wide the hell awake.”
“Great,” I deadpan, inhaling a needed wave of patience. “What’s it going to take to have you drop the gun?”
“Tell Wallace to leave.”
“That’s not going to happen when you have a loaded gun in the house.”
Cairo doesn’t move for a few seconds before something heavy falls to the ground in its place. “Happy?” With the way I’m being held, I can’t look down at the floor to see what it was, and Levi doesn’t make a move. “I dropped the clip. Now drop your boy .”
I don’t need to.
Because Levi rams into him so damn hard Cairo almost drops to the kitchen tiled floor.
I’m between them in the next millisecond, keeping Levi from doing some damage and Cairo from retaliating.
My fingers lightly seize my best friend’s biceps, but Levi’s too busy looking over my head at the Forsaken Boy who had his hands on me and the gun on him.
“You ever touch her like that again, Black, and I’ll have you buried in the shallow grave next to your bitch.”
“Start digging,” Cairo provokes. “Because she likes it when my hands are on that pretty throat while my cock is?—”
“ Stop it ,” I ground out, feeling Levi grow more rigid by the second. “I’m okay. He didn’t hurt me.”
“I’m going to kill him and have one less Forsaken fuck on my last nerve.”
I sigh a bit and run my hands up and down his arms. “That’s not going to do anything.”
“It’d make me feel better.”
“Okay,” I mutter, because arguing isn’t going to get me anywhere. Levi isn’t used to Cairo’s threats against me, and they’re practically second nature. “Help me get him to bed. And I’ll get you a beer.”
“I got a blunt in the car,” Levi says, still holding whatever stare-off contest he and Cairo are having. “You’ll smoke with me.”
I nod and step back to start with Cairo. He’s still stiff and unyielding when I turn to face him.
And I don’t even know where to start.
“C’mon,” I urge gently. “I’ll get you set up on the couch.”
His dark eyes finally fall onto me, and he quirks an eyebrow. “You gonna sleep with me, Little T?—”
“ No ,” Levi cuts in sharply. “Take the fuckin’ couch, or you’re sleeping outside.”
A mirthless chuckle leaves Cairo’s lips as he rounds my body toward the living room. “You’re not reading the room right. I’m already fucking your girl.”
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Cairo Black—the King of Wharf Bay—gets knocked on his ass and down for the count.