62. Bay
SIXTY-TWO
bay
Hot Rod hauls ass as he stops the SUV in front of us, blocking Matteo’s boys from lining up shots.
It’s a cover I’ll take, but I won’t deny seeing my ex with the Pistol Posse shoots an adrenaline rush of anxiety through me.
The doors pop open, revealing Rod first, then Juice, and I wait on bated breath for Pretty Boy to show his annoying-ass face.
“Incoming,” one of The Nameless chimes, creating a succession of guns racking and locking in bullets.
Thank fuck, Wallace picks low-traffic roads, or we’d have another problem on this road.
“He doesn’t move an inch forward,” I command to no one in particular. “No one makes a move until I say?—”
“Wildfire.”
My focus immediately snaps to the deep sound of Pretty Boy’s voice. He’s already striding toward me with an easy demeanor that screams how used to shit like this he is.
I’m beginning to.
“I need you to stop listening to him all the damn time,” he lightly chides me, stopping when he’s within reaching distance. I don’t miss the fact he didn’t say Levi’s name on purpose. That he’s keeping my secret. “This little South Shore suicide mission you’re always on is on my last fuckin’ nerve.” He’s silent for a moment before he spits out, “Go fuck yourself.”
I quirk an eyebrow, knowing he’s speaking with Levi. “You wanna hand me that?”
Torin sends me an exasperated look but doesn’t hand the earpiece over. “So you two can plan your next bullshit? Hard pass.”
Suit yourself.
Rounding Torin’s body, The Nameless mixed in with some Forsaken Crew guys Cairo dialed up, immediately follow me around Rod’s parked SUV, but Torin’s fingers catch me before I can meet the dick who wanted to chase my guys.
“You move an inch in his direction,” he warns with each word wrapped in steel. “I will fuck you so hard, you won’t see for a week.”
I’d love to go back and forth with him, clapping back with a shitty comment that will send him spiraling and sending one right back. However, this isn’t the time nor the place for such activities.
“C’mon, Pretty Boy,” I emit smoothly. “You’re the King of South Shore. Show him you mean business and nothing more.”
“He wants him dead.”
“Tell him he knows better.”
He glowers, and that flares out his nostrils. “He can hear you.”
“And tell him we had a plan.”
“He’s changed his mind.”
I hold out my palm. “Give me the damn?—”
“March your sweet ass over to the line,” Torin orders gruffly. “I’m not your messenger boy to your new fuck toy.”
Sheesh.
Torin doesn’t let go of my arm but gets behind me, wrapping his around my back to keep me close.
As much as I appreciate the comfort, it’s a sign of weakness. Matteo can’t know how much Pretty Boy means to me in the grand scheme of things.
“Let go of me, or he’s going to kill us both,” I say, shimmying out of his grasp, but Torin doesn’t go easily.
“No deals,” Torin replies evenly. “He goes, and I get you home.”
“Fine.”
He lets me go, giving me a bit of space until I’m up front again with the guys and find Matteo about fifty yards away with a football field full of guys.
Fuck balls.
“Mi reina,” he calls out, and I can see him smiling from way back here. “Why did you take my fun away? You know me and Wildes have some unfinished business.”
I scoff, even though he can’t hear it. “Feel free to come over here and get him, puta.”
Matteo doesn’t react like he used to. It could be because of the several dozen AKs pointed at his person.
The fact that the last time one of my boys got a hold of him, he lost a limb.
Or he knows when to shut the hell up.
Either way, I’m happy about it.
“We’re doing this one of two ways,” Matteo claims confidently. “You either give me him or that fucked up husband of yours who took a machete to my fucking arm. Either way, they’re both dead eventually.”
My gaze mindlessly goes to Matteo’s right side where his right arm no longer hangs.
Matteo is right-handed.
He’s so fucked right now.
“And if I don’t?” I push back with a lift of my chin.
“Then we Wild West this shit out.”
“I got it,” Torin blurts out through a mutter. “We’re not about to paint these streets red.”
“Miss Astor,” a voice behind me summons meekly. “We’re outnumbered.”
“He doesn’t know that,” I retort. “He can’t see behind the car.”
“You’re not my fuckin’ bro, bro, ” Torin spits out, making it known he’s still arguing with Levi. “I don’t trust this bitch.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I hear Rod say to my left. “We might have to see this thing through.”
My head snaps over to him with an immediate glower. “You want me to give him away?—”
“We both know that’s not going to happen,” he slides in, still watching Matteo’s men on the other side of the road. “You’re going to get into the SUV built of bulletproof doors and glass.”
“I’m not leaving these men to this piece of shit,” I clip back, feeling my pulse quicken in equal parts fear and unease. “I’m staying with my people through this.”
“Miss Astor,” the same male voice chimes in. “We promised we’d protect you.”
“And you promised him,” Hot Rod mutters close to my ear, “no stupid shit.”
“Bay,” Matteo calls out, a bit impatiently. “Let’s go with your decision.”
“How about you go fuck yourself?” I spit out recklessly, curling my fingers into tight fists. “This is the last time—” Torin slides into my view, cutting off my next words as I connect with those tawny brown eyes and boy-next-door features.
“Gotta go,” he declares matter-of-factly. “Be a good girl while I’m gone.”
I gape at him, because…did this dumbass just tell me he was about to go with Matteo De Leon?
My ex.
The dude who has had it out for Torin from the first day he caught him sniffing around me?
The same asshole who is hella pissed off because he’s down an arm, which means he’s going to do much worse to someone else.
That someone else being Torin.
“Are you stupid?” I finally coax from my throat. This is, by far, the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard him say, and I’ve heard some dumb-ass shit. “You won’t be walking out of there.”
“Not without having my ass handed to me,” he says, looking over my head at something or someone. “However, I trust my boys to come get me.”
I don’t.
They couldn’t find Matteo before, no matter where he was. My ex will keep Torin underground if he has to so no one can rescue him. He’ll be lost permanently.
There won’t be a trade deal.
It’ll be a trap to get Cairo, Oz, Reeve, and even Levi out so Matteo can finish this once and for all.
“Fall back in line, Pretty Boy,” I grind out through my already clenched jaw as I stare into his chest. “I don’t have time for your bullshit right now.”
“I’m the King of South Shore.” That comment has my heated attention laser-focused on Torin’s fucking head. “And I said I’m leaving.”
“For what ? This isn’t a vacation, Pretty Boy. He will kill you.”
“I can buy myself some time?—”
“ No .”
He fucking smiles at me. “Don’t get all sentimental on me, Wildfire. You’ll put the effort in, right? You’ll come save me?”
Yes.
Of course, I fucking will, dumbass.
Nonetheless, the words don’t leave my lips, and I don’t force them.
He can’t be serious.
I might find him, eventually. But he won’t be alive and breathing.
“You’ve got two minutes,” Matteo announces, like a prick, and we forget about him. “Or we’re just going to start firing.”
Torin takes a step back, and my fingers immediately clutch onto the front of his black t-shirt.
“ Stop ,” I order with a sneer. “I’m not playing around.”
“I’m not either,” he returns, cool as a cucumber. “I promised him you wouldn’t get hurt. Plus, he doesn’t know how it is between us, does he? There isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to come get me. You might sneak out. You might run someone over.” He lifts his shoulders. “I’d rather you clobber someone with a baseball bat or something, make it more personal, but I’ll take whatever.”
“Torin, you can’t go.”
“Have to,” he deadpans, then rolls his eyes seconds later. “Listen, if it’s you who finds me, I’ll suck your dick. Shut the fuck up so I can say goodbye to my girl.”
“Tell him you don’t move.”
“Trust me,” Torin says too easily for comfort. “He’s been bitching at me for the last two minutes that I’m a dumbass. You’re both in agreement.”
“Then don’t do it.”
“One minute,” Matteo divulges, and that’s when Torin’s fingers wrap around my hand fisting his shirt.
“Let me go, Wildfire,” he says softly. “We’re outnumbered. Every single one of these men will die. Then you, eventually. I won’t let that happen. I promised myself he’d never put his hands on you again, and I meant that.”
Hot tears form at the back of my eyes, but I refuse to blink and allow them to fall. I can’t lose anyone else. I can’t deal with another round of gunfire and more bullet holes. More rushes to get to secret locations and everything in between.
I just can’t.
“Please stop.”
“I love you,” he mutters softly. “Find me.”
He begins to pry my fingers out of his shirt, but I only tighten them. “ Stop .”
“It’ll be alright?—”
“You are going to die ,” I leer as the first traitorous tear hits my cheek. “Please don’t do this to me.”
Torin continues with my fingers as he says, “This isn’t the end of me and you. I guarantee it.”
It’s different with Torin.
He says things, I believe them, but they don’t hold the same weight as Levi.
With Levi, I know him.
With Torin, he does stupid shit that can change fate.
He’s me.
I’m him.
And that’s why I can’t let him go.
“I’ll do anything if you stay,” I plead, still trying to hold on to his shirt. “Torin, I can’t?—”
His mouth captures mine in a swift kiss I didn’t see coming, but I yank him closer and against me in the next second.
His greedy tongue instantly coaxes my lips open, receiving my submission and attention. So much so he has my fingers uncurled around his shirt, and he quickly steps away from me before I realize it.
I’m pissed.
“If he doesn’t kill you,” I call out as he begins backing away and getting closer to death. “I will .”
“He likes that.” He plucks the earpiece from his ear and aimlessly tosses it to me. I purposely don’t catch it because I’m so livid with Levi right now I can’t bear to hear his voice. Torin glances to my left. “Hot Shit, you’re in charge. Get her home.”
“Whatever, stupid ass,” Rod returns under his breath, but all I manage to focus on is Torin walking further and further away from me.
He winks.
I scowl.
And then he turns on his heel and strides straight for Matteo and his men.
He’s going to die.
He’s going to die, Bay.
Stop him.
“He wants to talk to you.”
Fuck this.
Instead of acknowledging whomever just spoke to me, I retrieve my phone out of my jeans and hold it.
It doesn’t matter. I can’t pry my eyes off Torin as he reaches my ex’s men and the sheer terror that rips through every nerve ending in my body.
I was going to call Ozzy to see where the hell he is, but I’m afraid to look away from Pretty Boy for one second because…it might be the last time I see him.
The moment he’s safely on their side, Torin is instantly jumped.
My gut drops to my ass as six to seven dudes begin pummeling him with their fists and delivering kicks to his shins and legs.
I move, fully intent on stopping the bullshit. I’m not about to watch Torin get fucking stomped when I’m jerked backward by my bicep.
“Look, Astor.”
I recognize Levi’s deliciously deep voice for a split second, but I don’t bother asking how or why.
I yank on my arm because I will get to Torin, but my eyes still search for what the fuck Levi is talking about.
When I find it.
The distinct red dot aimed right at the middle of Matteo’s forehead.
Ozzy.
“Puta!” I practically scream at the top of my lungs, ripping around the edges of my throat.
Matteo’s beady eyes immediately slice over to me, a smile wider than anything I’ve ever seen him wear illuminates his face. The fact Torin is finally getting his ass kicked, sending my blood pressure over the fucking edge as my ex continues to stand there like a fucking prick.
“Give him back,” I bite out. “You’ve had your fun.”
I don’t hear him laugh, but I see his body move like he is. “Why the hell would I?—”
One of his men shoves him backward, staring wide-eyed at the new ornament that clings to my ex’s forehead, but Ozzy’s laser sight remains exactly where it should.
They exchange words before Matteo sends his famous withering look over to me. “Bitch, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
“I’m not. Five seconds.”
He points at me. “You have a matching one, you little shit.”
The digits wrapped around my bicep don’t budge, and I don’t either. “We can just kill each other and end this thing, then. If I’m shot, you’re dead. Guaranteed.”
“Well, at least I’d leave South Shore in shambles,” he sneers. “Wildes will be dead and so will my little whore. Your stupid little town will fall to shit. Your father’s legacy will finally crumble by my fucking hand.”
“Go get him,” Levi summons out before I’m gently pulled back a bit. “I’ve got this shit, Astor.”
“I swear to God, if you show yourself, I will scream.”
“I’d rather you do that somewhere else,” he mutters as some of his masked men begin forward. “If they move, you shoot De Leon first.”
“ Stop !” Matteo bellows out. “I didn’t fuckin’ agree, bitch.”
“Levi,” I grind out. “I’m a split second from losing my shit. Get him.”
Levi sighs, releasing his hold of me, then steps in front of me. “Let this motherfucker see me,” he tells his men.
Some glimpse back, obviously confused, but they part like the Red Sea anyway.
And that’s when Levi rips his white ski mask over his head and shows the whole world what he’s about to announce.
“Hey, prick,” he says evenly, his muscles tense and ready to throw down. “You fuckin’ missed the killshot.”