I knew he meant that because I would have done the same for him, but it didn’t explain his utter silence in the heat of the moment.
Still, now was not the time, so I nodded, hoisted myself up into the truck, and then slammed my door shut behind me.
He and the twins piled back into the Jeep, dragging Makayla with them. Nyx and Annie got back into the XL, and then we were off.
Chapter Four
Quattuor
Where the fuck did she come from?
I took a deep breath, holding it a few seconds so more cannabinoids would hit my bloodstream. Turning my head to the side, I parted my lips and let the smoke expel out the passenger window, and watched it slip away with the wind.
Where the fuck did she come from? I thought to myself for the fifth time, wordlessly passing the joint to Maliki.
She shouldn’t have been wandering around in the middle of the fucking night.
I gathered she’d left to find whoever the chick was that ran from us, but that didn’t explain the why, which raised my suspicions.
Romero didn’t simply allow his precious baby-girl to roam around the Badlands; I knew that all too well. I had been keeping tabs on her for the past few years, even more so these last couple months.
“She’s a cutie, and she told you to bite her while you held a gun to her head, so obviously she’s a crazy bitch after my own heart,” Trix said from the back seat.
I grunted in response.
“Honestly? I thought that would have gone differently between you two,” Tobias replied.
“I wasn’t aware there was a fucking thesis to follow,” I said, rolling my window back up.
The truck grew for a silent for a minute before they changed the subject.
Now aware I wasn’t going to be discussing my ‘feelings’, they began to converse with one another about trivial shit, Ace soon being dragged into one of their long-standing debates.
Maliki picked up on my irritation and grinned, turning on the stereo to drown them out.
Thank fuck for him.
I leaned back in my seat, watching the dark scenery flash by. My mind wandered right back to my lithe little blonde. I’d been wondering when we would officially meet. It was only natural we someday would. She was heir to the strongest faction the Badlands had.
No, it wasn’t a faction—it was a fucking satanic cult masquerading as a gang.
Whatever territory they wanted, they took it. They were partnered up with all the big time suppliers, providing whatever trade someone desired to ensure they could obtain the same.
Nearly everyone wanted to climb in bed with the devil. For a good while, I was one of the rare ones who didn’t, and for a laundry list of reasons. From what I knew, there had never been any faction that could come close to matching their level of power. I was well on the way of changing that.
I’d busted my ass to make sure I never needed the Savages for shit. I strengthened my family by creating a new breed of Venom and placing us higher and higher on the list those wanted to partner with.
Until recently I didn’t have a desire to change my standing, but shit happens, and I’d been offered an exclusive deal.
“Home sweet home,” Maliki intoned, slightly braking near the entrance to the hidden pathway we’d created.
He made a slow, sharp turn, making sure the heavy-duty truck didn’t go into the ravine that was damn near impossible to see in the dark.
We bumped along for a good six minutes until the wooden gate began to take shape. Our idea of security was a state of the art alarm system designed by one of our very own, and two Venom watching the gate at all time.
If anyone decided to risk it all and come beyond that, they wouldn’t be going anywhere else ever again. We rarely worried about shit like that, though.
Home was no longer a rat-infested subway station. Home was now an actual dwelling with water distillation and tank-less propane.