“Nope. That’s perfect.” I ruffled her hair and went to my SUV where Xavier was waiting. Dom was in the backseat, ready to get this night over with.
“Hey,” Dani called. “Don’t get shot.”
“We won’t,” I said before shutting the door.
“Thank god you talked her out of going. I was worried I was gonna have to hogtie her,” Dom said.
“Oh no, she was not fucking coming with us,” I muttered as we left the house and headed for Gilchrist Point. “Not a fucking chance.”
Istoppedtopickup my cousin West from his house in Gilchrist Point. I hadn’t been to his house in…a really long time. Dad and his brother Oliver had a falling out a while back, but they seemed to have patched things up lately.
Nothing like a mutual enemy to bring family back together.
I also knew Uncle Oliver was in some shit with his business partner and liked to keep his extracurriculars hidden from his sons. Dad included Bobby and me on everything since we were in diapers. We learned at an early age that he bent and broke the law—a lot.
A few weeks back, we took care of some shit for West and his girl, Ashtyn. And by that, I mean we killed and disposed of two guys–one not important, the other quite prominent. Dad told West that he would need him eventually, and well, here I am, picking him up from his house to participate in this sketchy gun deal.
He was on the porch with his girl. She hugged and kissed him while he squeezed her ass.
“Damn, that chick’s hot,” Xavier said as we waited for West to wrap things up.
“Off fucking limits, bro,” I said. “And you better not say a fucking word about her when he gets in the car or he’ll kill you.”
West was a little possessive. Or a lot possessive. And Ashtyn had his balls locked up in her purse, freely given to her, I might add. They were long-term goal shit, probably already planning their wedding and what their kids’ names would be.
I shuddered at the thought.
West pulled away from Ashtyn and said something before she nodded and went inside the house. He hopped in the back next to Dominic with a stupid grin on his face.
“Fuck, I thought you’d never be able to leave,” I smirked.
“Yeah, man. You know how it is.”
No, I didn’t. Never had anyone care about me or where I went. Never had anyone miss me when I was gone, or even think about me for longer than a dicking.
“Does she know what you’re doing?” I suspected the answer was no, at least I hoped it was.
“I told her you needed my help with your fight ring. Since I used toparticipatein our little gig here, I thought it’d be a good cover.”
And it was. Every guy in this car had a vast experience of fighting for cash. X and Dom did it on the regular, every week at The Court, which was just a term for a warehouse outside of town. West had a thing going here in Gilchrist Point, raking in mad cash until his dad found out and shut it down.
I was surprised to hear Uncle Oliver didn’t want to keep it going. They made great money, and it was a prime recruitment spot for other aspects of the business, but Oliver would rather teach his son alesson.
Lucky for us, Dad encouraged and funded the startup of our club. I went to the fights sometimes but…there was one night I was on the ticket and some shit happened that made my guts clench at the thought of getting in the ring again.
Not to be a pussy, but I thought I killed a kid. A sixteen-year-old from Fremont, just trying to make a few bucks. Inexperienced. Eager.
I laid him out with a hit to the temple. I’ve killed a lot of people in my life, but never a kid, and never a fighter. He ended up waking up and making a full recovery, but still…it was a reminder how easy it is to lose control in the ring. How easy it is to hit with too much force in just the wrong spot.
Dom was a vicious motherfucker. People came from all over the state to challenge him and hecollected.
Well, X collected since he ran the show.
“So, level with me here. What the fuck are we walking into?” West asked.
“Just a nice, easy exchange,” I said. “We haven’t always been on the best terms with Dominguez, but for a business transaction, the guy is a professional.”
“Except for that small issue with Marco,” Dominic added.