Valentine kept his promise. It’s been three days and Wren has not been safely deposited back in his hands. He burned down two more of my locations. Luckily, I had everything moved into new warehouses and buildings that only a few on my payroll know about meaning his arson was pointless.
He thinks he can hurt me but he clearly doesn’t know me. I’m three steps ahead of him.
I sit on the plush sofa on the balcony overlooking the dance floor of the club. Revelers grind and pulse to the fast beat of the music. The scent of sex and sweat permeates the air. A girl, dressed scantily in a red dress slides onto my lap. My hand goes to her hip and I roll my head to the side to look at her.
“Hi,” she smiles. Plump red painted lips pull back to show pearly white teeth and her eyes flash with desire. Blonde hair spills over one shoulder, the ends tickling her breasts that threaten to spill from the satin of her dress.
I cock my head and narrow my eyes. If only her hair was darker, redder, her eyes green, mouth pink…
Shit.
I push the girl from my lap and lean forward on a growl. With a scathing look the girl prances away to find another man willing to play her games. I’ve avoided going into Wren’s room since I fucked her, unsure if I’d be able to control myself now that I’d had a taste.
“Why haven’t you done it yet?” Ryker asks next to me as if sensing where my thoughts have taken me, tipping his whiskey back. His voice is low so the other guys around us don’t hear but I still shoot him a look. If he were anyone else, I’d have rammed a blade straight into his throat for questioning me.
“It isn’t time.”
It’s a lie. I should have killed her days ago and dumped her body for daddy to find and yet she’s still sitting pretty in my compound.
I needed to send him the message that I wasn’t to be fucked with but then how am I to do that if I’m avoiding the girl like a fucking pussy.
I could send someone else to do it, I almost did on a couple of occasions but then I changed my mind, telling myself I had to be the one. I had to be the one to level that gun to her head and pull the trigger, I had to be the one to witness the life draining from her. She was a Valentine, and they were fucking parasites. They had come into my city and tried to take over, but this host wasn’t willing. No, it would be me to take out the Valentine’s. Only me.
He took away the only woman that ever mattered to me, my mother and for that I would take away the only woman that matters to him, his daughter.
It made sense.
So why the fuck wasn’t she rotting in a grave by now?
My fingers tighten on the glass in my hand, so hard that the cuts over my knuckles split back open. I feel the warm blood trickle over my fingers, snaking around the digits like a crimson snake.
Ryker chuckles next to me and I swing my glare on him. I’ve always had a short temper but this short? No. I feel like I might explode.
“What’s funny, asshole?”
He shakes his head, “Someone has a soft spot.”
“Fuck you.”
“Is that what she said?”
I roll my eyes, “Grow up.”
He quirks a brow, “Fuck her and get it out of your system. The quicker you end this the quicker we can all move forward. There are deals on the table that you’re ignoring.”
“What deals?”
“Sanchez has been with the Mexicans, they want to move Coke into the city, real good shit according to him but the Mexicans know they need to come to you.”
“Dawson won’t like it,” I comment.
“Dawson can grow a pair.”
I shake my head. The Dawson family has been working with the Silver’s almost as long as we’ve had this city. It would be wrong of me to consider a new drug route without going to the man himself. He’s always managed that side of the business so it begs the question as to why Sanchez didn’t go to him directly.
My brow tugs down at that train of thought. There’s been a lot of shady shit going on recently that I haven’t had the brain capacity to think of but now, with this on the table it’s all coming to light.
“Shit,” Ryker hisses, jumping to his feet as he peers down at the dance floor below.