“You let me worry about that.”
“He’ll punish us both.”
“He won’t get near you, I promise. Now, let’s take a look at that cut, yeah? One step at a time.”
She bites her lip, her brows tugging down, her eyes welling.
“One step at a time.” She sniffles.
Eight
Gabe
“Do I want to know what’s in the bag?” Jameson sighs, rubbing his hand down his beard as he pulls open the front door to let me inside.
“It’s money—the amount Milo owes the Royal Bastards.”
I can see the wheels churning through his eyes as he settles on a stool at the kitchen bar. “You want to bury him and are willing to pay off his debt to get the green light.” He scoffs, shaking his head.
“It’s the only way this girl will have a chance.”
“Extreme for a girl you just fucking met a day ago.” He looks at the watch on his wrist. “Oh, hours ago. You sweet on her?”
“It’s not like that,” I growl.
Holding up his hands, amusement shows in his eyes. “It’s your money.”
“You wanna put some clothes on?” I gesture to his body, rolling my eyes. He’s wearing a pair of tight-fitting boxers showing his junk and leather shitkickers. He looks like a male stripper.
“Asshole, you woke me up. I want to kick your ass out and go back to bed.”
“What’s with the boots?”
“I didn’t know who was going to be at the door. I wanted to be prepared.” He toes them off and folds his arms over his chest, his eyes narrowing.
“Prepared for what, dirt kicking?” I mock, dodging the piece of fruit he launches at me from a fruit bowl. “You finished, asshole?”
“Fruit throwing, really?”
“I could swing a fist if you prefer. You want to hurry this shit up so I can go back to dreaming I left your dumbass in the desert?”
“You think their prez will go for it?”
“I think they’re expecting to have to put this asshole in the ground themselves, you could just wait out the couple days.”
Footfalls sound on the stairs, and a mass of blonde curls attached to a small body comes barreling into the room. “Fucking perfect, you woke the princess.”
Swooping his little sister up into his arms, he pats her back and coos in her ear. It’s weird as fuck seeing him stepping up as a father figure so effortlessly. Jameson always wanted the life of a drifter, the open road, no responsibilities, and then his kid sisters needed him and here he fucking is. He holds a finger to his lips and disappears out of the room before returning a few minutes later in sweats and a tee.
“She’s back down. You’re fucking lucky. You wake ’em, you take ’em,” he says, pointing to upstairs. I can’t hold in the grin.
“Where were we? Oh yeah, you have no fucking chill. Three days.”
“I want it done now. This girl…she’s been trapped by him long enough.”
“And she’s okay with your plan to kill him?” He raises a questioning brow, fiddling with some sippy cup shit on the counter.
I don’t bother with the answer. He already fucking knows I haven’t mentioned any of this to her. After I cleaned her palm and stuck a Band-aid on it, I showed her to one of the spare rooms, waited until she fell asleep, got the money together, and drove straight over to here.
“If you’re sweet on this girl…”
“I’m not,” I grind out for the millionth time.
“If you are,” he points at me, “and you go down this route, it will come back to bite you in the ass.”
“So I should just leave it to chance and put her at risk?”
He sighs, exasperated. Placing his hand on the counter, he dips his head.
“You should let the Royal Bastards deal with him and go fucking home to keep an eye on your girl so nothing happens between now and then.”
I know he’s right and I’m acting out of heightened emotion. This is why I came here and not the Royal Bastards’ clubhouse. Jameson keeps me straight when my head steers me into crazy.
“She’s not my girl,” I grumble, kicking the bag and running a hand through my hair.
“Yeah, because you’re here with a bag full of green out of the goodness of your heart.”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“Listen.” He comes around the counter and places a hand on my shoulder, looking me dead in the eyes. “I think you have good intentions, but I also think that girl is all kinds of beautiful and it’s natural to feel a pull to that kind of beauty, but she’s been through a shitload if anything she said about her brother selling her is true.” It fucking is. I know it. And there’s more, like killing in front of her.
“Which is why she needs someone looking out for her,” I defend.
“She needs someone who isn’t looking at her like a snack.” He pokes me in the chest. “Think with this…” Then jerks his head to my junk. “Not where Gabe Junior wants to bury himself.”