Chapter 6
Hook
As much as I’d enjoy spending the next few days playing bedroom games with Tink, the reality is that I married her to ensure I have everything I need to bring down the largest threat to my territory and people.
She is the key to Peter, and all of this song and dance is carefully orchestrated to draw him out of whatever shithole he’s hiding in.
Yes, I want her in my bed more than I’ve wanted anything in living memory. But that’s a selfish desire, rather than one designed to ensure the safety of my people. I’m bastard enough to want to have my cake and eat it, too.
I stalk into Nigel’s office and drop into the unoccupied chair next to Colin. “What do you have for me?”
Nigel takes a long look at my face. “Trouble in paradise already?”
“Fuck off.”
He snorts and gets down to business. “We don’t have eyes on Hades’s blocks.”
“I’m aware of that.” I wave it away. We might have surveillance on our neighboring territories to the north and south—Jasmine and Malone’s, respectively—but Hades is a different animal.
Crossing him means losing a priceless resource.
No one does it for fear of being caught.
That includes me. I rub my hands over my face.
Tink didn’t come here because she was so delighted by the idea of marrying me that she couldn’t resist saying yes.
Peter said something to her to make her think she wouldn’t be safe living outside of the Underworld.
I want to know what. She had resources to live on her own.
I’ve tried not to follow her life too closely, but even I can’t escape what a success she’s become with her clothing shit.
I’m honestly surprised Hades is letting her fly the coop.
Between his club and the fact that most major players in Carver City actively invite Tink into their homes to style them, he had unsurpassed access to people and information.
Now half of that belongs to me, at least in theory. It could be an incredible resource for the territory if we live through the coming conflict with Peter. If I can convince her to stay once the threat of him has passed.
Despite myself, I think back to the scene waiting for me when I walked out of the bathroom.
The little tease was fingering herself on my bed, and all it’d taken to get her to that point was a little peep show in the shower.
I grin. Under other circumstances, convincing Tink I’m one hell of a catch, convincing her to stay, would be a fun little journey.
Unfortunately, we don’t have time for that shit right now. I need her on my side, and I need her there now.
“I want everyone talking about this marriage. Everyone, Colin. We make sure Peter knows, and I want him to know as soon as possible.” Rumors aren’t enough, though.
That’s why it’s doubly important to go public in the most spectacular way possible.
It’ll draw him out of whatever hole he’s been hiding in.
He knows this area better than I do, even after all this time, and he’s got people hiding him from me.
If I can’t come to him, I have to make him furious enough to come to me.
I stole his power. I stole his territory. Now I’ve stolen his woman.
I turn my attention to Nigel to find a muscle ticking in his jaw. “You have something to say.”
Anyone else would pussyfoot around. Nigel is family. He sits back and narrows his eyes. “It’s shitty to bring her back into this.”
Ah. Here we are. “She was always in it. She never got out.”
“That’s bullshit and you know it. She had a chance to go straight, and you pulled her right back into the muck with us.”
I should have known Nigel would fall on this side of the line.
He’s always had a soft spot for Tink, so much so that he took more than a few beatings as the result of trying to step between her and Peter.
He never learned that trying to intervene just made shit worse for her. He still hasn’t learned it.
I hold his gaze. “You either stand with me or you don’t. It’s as simple as that.”
“You know I have your back.”
Yeah, I do. Which is why I have to take care of this now.
Nigel isn’t one for divided loyalties. Doubting me will eat him up inside until he does something noble but ill advised.
I lean forward. “I didn’t haul her here over my shoulder and hold a gun to her head while she said her vows.
She showed up. She took the bargain. She married me.
That’s the only truth that matters. We have bigger problems right now than Tink’s pride. ”
For a second, it looks like he might argue, but he finally jerks his chin down in a movement that’s almost a nod.
It’s enough. I push to my feet. “I’m taking her to the Underworld tonight to go public with the marriage.
Tomorrow, she integrates with the rest of the household.
While everyone is focused on her, you keep sniffing for the traitors who are hiding Peter.
If we find them first, Tink won’t have to play a role. ”
This time, Nigel’s nod was stronger. “We still don’t know there are people hiding Peter.”
“Yes, we do.” Our last three gun shipments into Carver City had been stolen, and every person of mine onboard killed.
I knew Peter was behind it, but that slippery bastard is never where I expect him to be.
Every time I go on the attack, he disappears into thin air.
He’s making a fool of me, and I’ll be damned before I let it continue.
So I’ll make him come to me.
With Tink in my house, in my bed, he won’t be able to stop himself for long. And when he does, I’ll do exactly what I promised and give Tink his head on a platter. In the meantime, I’ll put on a show destined to get his attention.
“Double the escort to Hades’s territory, but do it subtly. I don’t want to deal with an attack, but we can’t look like we’re scared.”
We get down to planning out the details and then go over accounts for the last month.
Business is good, but not good enough to take the hit of another lost shipment.
Only my paranoia ensured we had enough weaponry stocked to fulfill our orders.
All gone now. If Peter gets to the next shipment, we’ll be royally fucked.
A week. I have a week to figure it out. A fucking blip of existence and a small eternity, all rolled into one.
An hour later, we sit back. I’m not satisfied, not by a long shot, but I won’t be satisfied until I send that bastard to hell.
I push to my feet and stretch. A quick glance at my watch confirms that I barely have enough time to change and get ready before we need to leave. “I better check on the missus.”
Nigel makes a choked sound. “Be sure to call her that sometime when I’m around to witness the resulting bloodbath.”
“I might just do it.” Tink is especially beautiful—and dangerous—when she gets riled. Since she lost that haunted look in her eyes at the Underworld, I’ve enjoyed poking her every chance I was afforded. Now I can do it whenever I want.
I take the elevator up to my suite, but the second I step out of the doors, I freeze. “What the hell?”
“Honey, you’re home.” Her smug voice comes from the bathroom, but I only have eyes for my closet.
It’s unrecognizable. All my shit is gone. I walk to the nearest wardrobe and touch an empty hanger. “Where are my clothes?”
“Hmmm?”
Her innocent act is ruined by how delighted she sounds.
I stalk into the bathroom and stop short.
Tink has her hair done up in big pink curlers, and she’s expertly applying red lipstick to her full lips.
She’s done something to her face to amplify her beauty and, holy fuck, she’s pulled out all the stops for her clothing.
Her dress is short and white, hugging her big ass lovingly and giving me a whole lot of thigh to check out. Then she turns around, and my gaze snags on her tits. “Fuck.”
“What’s that, husband?” She starts to take out her curlers, leaving her long blond hair to fall around her face in waves I want to dig my hands into.
It takes more effort than it should to circle around to the problem. “My clothes.”
“Oh, that.” She neatly places the pink curlers back into their container, one by one. “I sent them out for dry cleaning.”
“Dry cleaning,” I repeat.
“That’s what I said.” She blinks big green eyes at me, all feigned innocence. “I assumed they must be dirty, being as how they were all on the floor.” She presses a hand to her chest. “After all, I’m just your little wife, right? That’s what you wanted when you left me up here to cool my heels.”
Oh, she is downright fucking wicked.
“I ought to put you over my knee for that bullshit.”
She smiles sweetly. “We both know I’d enjoy that too much for it to serve as a deterrent. Give it up, Hook. I win this round.”
I might laugh if I didn’t want to kiss her so desperately. “What, pray tell, am I supposed to wear tonight since apparently every item I own is at the dry cleaner?”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll find something.” She waves that away and turns back to the mirror. I notice that the counter is covered with her shit now. Tubes and canisters and eyeshadow in every color imaginable. I kind of like it.
I leave her to it and return to the main room to search for something that might have escaped her purge.
She was remarkably thorough, and she also seems to have claimed the nearest wardrobe as her own.
Her clothing hangs in neat color-coded rows.
I’m mildly impressed at the sheer amount of shit she had packed in that pink suitcase.
I pull open a drawer and find a rainbow of lingerie.
Some of it I recognize. Others are new to me, and I shut the drawer again before I can examine my reaction to that too closely.
Jealousy for those who have seen her in them. Anticipation for my own experience with her. Something infinitely more complicated.
I find a pair of leather pants shoved in the back of a drawer in the farthest wardrobe. I shake them out and sigh. Not my favorite, but they’ll do.
I’ve barely finished getting ready when Tink walks into the room. Even having seen her a short time ago, the sight of her rocks me back on my heels. The woman is a fucking stunner. She knows it, too. She gives me a snarky little smile. “I see you found something after all.”
I don’t bother with a shirt. Technically there is a dress code in the lounge part of the Underworld, but I’ve found that a lot of things can be overridden if a person has enough confidence to brazen it out.
The missing piece of clothing is more than worth it as Tink stares at my chest. It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, but it feels different.
She’s actually looking at me for the first time.
More, she’s mine now. I guess that means I’m hers, too.
I spread my arms and give her a wide grin that I know will spike her blood pressure. “You can touch if you like, Tatiana.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“It’s your name.”
She props a hand on her hip. “Not anymore.”
It’s tempting to argue, but ultimately it’s not my call what she chooses to call herself. If she sees Tatiana as representation of the person she was before, who the fuck am I to argue? “Okay,” I finally say. “Not anymore.”
I slowly let my arms drop. I didn’t really expect her to take me up on my invitation.
Our game has barely begun, and I won’t lie and say I’m not looking forward to her making me work for it.
She wants me. She wouldn’t be fingering herself to the image of me in the shower if she didn’t.
She’s also a prideful little asshole, so she’s going to hold out as long as possible before giving us what we both desire.
I’m going to enjoy every second of it.