“It’s just a symbol, Drex. This is me taking the first step to put our bad blood to rest. If we’re constantly at war, then someone else will eventually take advantage of us once we’ve weakened each other. Herrin agrees. Which is why you’re supposed to turn over some information to me as a show of your peace offering.”
That’s the real reason he’s giving us this girl. He wants to know which one of his men is a rat. Benny’s so dumb that he didn’t know he had a fed in his crew. But I don’t know if a girl is worth it. Benny could go down for a long, long time.
Then again, the fed seems more loyal to a Vegas crime family than the actual FBI. I half wonder if he’s running them info on Benny and his goons as well.
“She’s the daughter of Aaron Marks,” he adds, grabbing my attention, even though I don’t let him see it. “Does that sweeten the pot?”
Aaron fucking Marks. That slimy son of a bitch. He has a daughter? How the fucking hell did we miss that?
More importantly, how the hell does Benny know we have… well, had beef with Aaron? It was kept in-house.
He smirks, seeming to enjoy my jaw ticking and my back stiffening. He hands me a file, and I skim it quickly, not saying anything to Benny.
Birth certificate, STI tests… There are pictures, but I bypass them when I study the part about Marks, the rat bastard son of a bitch accountant. This is actually his daughter. How the fuck did I not know he had a family?
“She doesn’t know,” Benny says casually. “Now she’s all yours to toy with. Do we have a deal?”
It’s not like I’m going to ask Benny how he knows about our grudge against the dead man. But I will be asking Pop about this shit. That’s why he agreed to this. Why didn’t he tell me?
Getting even with Aaron from beyond the grave will be nice, since the dick killed himself before I could kill him personally. It’s also too tempting to pass up.
Without letting my eyes fall on Benny’s rat and giving it away, I pull a manila envelope out of the back of my jeans and hand it to Benny. Then I sit back and watch as he reads the indisputable proof, along with pictures for a visual.
“Here she is, boss,” his minion says while stepping into sight, but the girl is hidden behind Benny. All I catch a glimpse of is a delicate arm attached to soft-looking fingers.
I hope Pop breaks her. Her father sure as hell tried to fuck us nice and hard.
He turns to let me see her, and my blood pumps faster the second my eyes find the innocent looking thing in front of me. Christ, she looks too damn sweet.
Jeans that are just a little too big hide her curves. Her shirt hugs her, showing me her flat stomach and fucking perfect chest. And those eyes—a shade of green that I’ve never seen.
She bites her lower lip as she studies me, taking me in like she’s curious. Granted, I don’t look like the riffraff she had bring her over here. She looks young—too young to be doing this. I might should have studied that birth certificate a little better.
“How old are you?” I ask, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my bike.
She looks around as though she’s scared to speak, and that puts me on alert. I shift my gaze to Benny as my eyes narrow in suspicion.
“You sure this is of her own free will? If you’re trying to pin us with a kidnapping—”
“It’s of her own free will,” Benny interrupts dismissively, still reading the paper in front of him as though he’s soaking in all the information.
I look back to the girl who hasn’t said a word, and I stare expectantly, waiting for my answer.
“Tw—twenty,” she stutters, looking too nervous for this to be legit.
I glare at Benny, wondering now if this is his game.
“You realize Death Dealers are for life, right, sweetheart?” I ask, turning back to meet her scared green eyes.
We’re not really lifers usually—unless you’re as high up as the inner circle. As long as you keep your mouth shut, you can leave whenever if you’re not in that circle. This isn’t a damn street gang. But she doesn’t know that.
She nods, swallowing hard, and I take a harsh breath. You can’t fake that kind of fear. Living the life I have, I’ve seen plenty of fear in other’s eyes. This is real. And I’d almost feel sorry for her if she wasn’t Aaron Marks’s daughter. But she is.
“Your father has the details, and she’s fully aware of what she’s signed on to do. She has her own reasons for this.”