I found him staring back at me. “I’m sorry.”
His voice had a rough texture, like his apology went against his very makeup. The word “gang” was foreign to me, really. In Midville, it wasn’t something we dealt with. I’d always looked at gangs as private backyard groups. But the tone in Nix’s voice had me thinking about how little I actually knew about what a gang did. What they were for, what they were expected to do.
I put my fist to my mouth. There was a knock on my dorm room door. I was confused. Nix offered, “Animal was in the area.”
I looked out my window, shaking my head. “You can’t do it like this. I have to be able to go on a date. Kiss a boy without you sending in the troops.”
There was another light knock. I put my hand to my hip before hopping out of bed and swinging open the door, shuffling my phone to my left hand so I could still see my brother. “You were in the area?”
Animal’s huge body blocked out the light from the hallway. “I was.”
“That’s a hairy pack of bullshit.” I turned as Animal walked into the room, swinging the door closed behind him.
“I did have a business dealing in Valston. I was on the highway just off the exit when Nix told me guards were giving you an issue. I was here to make sure everything went your way.” He sat in my desk chair and kicked out his feet.
“I met a boy. I get to meet a boy. And get in trouble with him. Like the most innocent trouble in the world. The two of you… I swear.” I flopped back on my bed. My phone bounced flat so I couldn’t see Nix anymore.
I could almost hear my brother giving me a reprimanding stare until I righted him. He had his hands in his hair when I did. Frustrated. He addressed Animal as if I wasn’t in the room.
“She doesn’t want to know about the kid’s past. Or, like, all his shit.”
Animal nodded. “Yeah. I can see why she’d say that.”
Nix sighed so loudly the phone’s mic picked him up. “I’m not good at this. Worrying. Not being able to be there.”
I felt for him. Slightly. Even though I was pissed again. “I know. But you might try listening to me. Campus police weren’t going to hurt me. I was okay. I was getting kissed. And liking it.”
Nix leaned forward and banged his head on his desk.
Animal arched a brow and lifted his mouth in a hint of smile. “Let me talk to her, Sweetness. I’m here. Go find Becca in that giant house and let her love on you.”
Nix picked up his head and nodded. Before signing off, he added, “Love you, Ember.”
I returned it, because no matter what, that was important to me—the fact that we could say those words to each other and mean them.
Animal tilted his head. “That was sweet. I’m happy for him that you aren’t a shithead.”
“Thanks. I think.” I plugged my phone into its charger. “Were you killing people tonight?”
It felt weird that murderers were my parental figures. Sort of.
“I want to talk about you. And this boy you’re kissing.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He had on a business suit, which somehow made him seem even bigger. Broader. I couldn’t spot any bloodstains. Only deep brown skin and a stunningly handsome face.
“He’s cute. I like him.” I tucked my legs under my covers.
“That sounds low-key. Doesn’t explain all the glowing you’re doing.” Animal squinted at me.
“I’m not glowing.” I tugged my hair over my shoulder and started to braid it.
“You’re glowing like a brand new neon sign.” Animal stood and took off his jacket. I had an extra bed in my room and he was eyeing it.
“You think you’re going to fit in there?” I was skeptical. Dorm rooms had extra long beds, but they were still twins.
“I’ll do what I have to. Things have been picking up on our end, and I think T, Nix, and I will all sleep better knowing I’m here.” He took his tie off.
I flopped down in my bed. I would sleep like a rock with Animal here. “Do I want to know what it’s about?”
“Can’t tell you, Baby Girl. It’s been a long day, that’s a fact.” Animal unbuttoned his shirt and I was treated to the sight of him in his sleeveless undershirt.
I lifted an eyebrow. “How much of a show am I getting tonight?” I don’t know if I could ever stop flirting with him. It was so easy to do.
“That’s it.” His smile picked up on one side. “Don’t be a dirty old lady.” He made sure to lock my door and switch off my overhead light. I watched as he tried to get comfortable on the old mattress as the frame groaned.
“How hard is it to have me here?” I touched my lamp and it turned off. I was afraid to hear the answer; I didn’t want to leave college, but I also understood that I was putting them out.
“We’re managing. I’ll tell you if it gets too messy. I promise.”
I was quiet for a few minutes and then I heard Animal’s light snores. I rolled on my side and thought about Lock’s kiss.
Chapter 15
Lock
DICE WAS PISSED AND in pajama pants, but he picked me up anyway.
“You need to find a girl closer to home. Snickers with the great knockers has been asking about you.” He rubbed his eyes with his left hand.
“This girl’s got me so fucked in the head. She’s all I can think about.” Before he could start listing the eligible girls in the neighborhood, I changed the subject. “What’d you get with your cash?”
“Hookers. Two beautiful hookers that could suck like vacuums.” Dice rolled his hips and groaned.
“What’s the latest with the Cokes?” I rolled my window down a touch. I loved the night air as it whipped past me.
“Weird shit’s going down. Booker’s been having meetings. We’re supposed to go in next week.” He pulled a cigarette out from the pack in his cup holder. I grabbed his lighter and held the flame steady.
“Any news from the other guys?” I put the lighter back near his pack. The smoking was new for Dice. He illustrated this fact by coughing like a grandpa. I was kinda sure he was allergic, but apparently he wanted to find out the hard way.
“Are you kidding? They ain’t sharing shit with Ball Sack and Pussy. We’ll find out when Booker hands us our pictures in his office.” Dice seemed like he wanted to say more, but the coughing took over again.
My mind was clouded with Ember. I had to force myself to think about the very real, pressing things in my life. Rhy and Mom were ready to start in the school. The schedule was an all year round number. Which was great for my sister. Rhy flourished when she had activities every day. This new school even had weekend activities where the parents and the kids attended. Ma was wondering out loud last night if she’d get any pointers from the other moms.
The weekend cost extra as well. I grandly stated that she should sign up for everything. Like the lump sum I’d been handed from Booker would be a regular feature in our life. The stress of not knowing how much of that was true—mostly knowing that it wasn’t—was making a mess of my stomach.
Dice stopped at the all night gas station to buy more cigs, which was dumb because he still had over half of his first ever pack left. I sat in the passenger side and waited.
I borrowed Dice’s charger and plugged in my phone. I was busy staring at one of the few pictures Ember had sent, replaying the way she stood up for me in the library over and over when a loud rap on my window made me jump.
I was expecting Dice and immediately tensed at the blue bandana wrapped around the guy’s wrist. A Pepsi. Shit.
I’d seen some in my neighborhood growing up. And my father counseled a few, even bringing Cokes and Pepsis together in our living room once to mediate a misunderstanding. But still, the red was what I was used to.
He gestured for me to roll down the widow, which I did. It was then that I looked past him. There were at least ten guys. My nervous glance turned up four more blue bandanas.
I looked back to the store where Dice was. He was about to pay and caught a
glimpse of the ambush I was dealing with. He dropped his purchases and headed deeper into the store.
The other Cokes were right. He was a Ball Sack.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?” I wasn’t getting out of this, so I might as well face them.
“You lost? This isn’t your territory.” I knew the rules. Stay in your lane. Don’t rock the boat. I needed time to come up with a plan. The keys were still in the ignition. If I could get the vehicle in motion…
The driver’s side door opened and a wrist wearing a blue bandana pulled the keys out. And effectively pissed all over my hastily organized exit plan.
“You guys own gas stations now? And we’re like another ten minutes from home. You expanded lately?” I tapped my fingers on the armrest. Like a conversation with a mob of guys who wanted to wear my balls as a hat was totally normal.
Puzzlement crossed his face. “For like the last seven years. Are you two newborns or something?”
He used his index finger to hook my bright red color. “Did you get bled in like forty-five minutes ago?”
I shrugged. He had my number.
“’Bout that. Listen, I’m not trying to get involved. You give me the keys, and imma roll out. No harm, no foul.”
The Pepsi laughed at me. Loud. He bent over, making sure it was so loud the other guys had to join in. “This prick right here?” More laughter. “He’s letting us know that he won’t hurt us if we give him back his keys.”
I darted my glance at the store. Dice wasn’t bursting out of there with a fire extinguisher and a bazooka. I was on my own.
“Looks like he loses fights for a living,” another piped up from the back.
All the Pepsis laughed then. The one closest poked me on the bruise on my cheek. Ember was never going to get to see how handsome I was if I kept getting my ass kicked.
My door swung open and I was grabbed up out of my seat, my arms restrained behind my back. Just before they could land the first punch, which was going to be a beaut by the way, the guys on the outer part of the pack around me started to fall. With my arms pinned behind me, I could make out that the men were starting to fall. I prepared for the first wallop, but the Jurassic-Park-in-the-dark lighting only allowed me to make out outlines and hints, and my attacker stopped, puzzled.
The noises the Pepsis were making were not the normal ones I’d heard in a fight. The cracks and gulps sounded like dying, not a fisticuffs.
My attacker hit me in the stomach and I bent. The noises only intensified, louder than my own groans. Like extras in a movie, the men began collapsing. When the guys holding me up let go, I rotated with a punch ready. I’d at least try to take someone down. But my punch met only thin air. I turned again, and my attacker was in a pile at my feet. Only then did I see the hooded figure trotting off in the distance. I was too puzzled to even call after them. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. Or a robot. Holy fricks. They had decimated an entire mob of fighters. And left me standing.
Dice came out of the doors of the gas station, his mouth hanging open. “Lock? You do this shit? Holy crap.” He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and started filming. I crossed my arms in front of me and mugged for the camera. Dice then helped me move the people away from the Mustang so we could get the hell outta Dodge. They were all pretty much still alive. Which was probably even harder to do than killing them.
“You took us to Pepsi territory for the fucking cigarettes you can’t even smoke?”
Dice’s eyes were still huge. “What the hell, dude? When did you learn to fight like that?”
I considered him for a minute, then told him the truth. That a mystery person had saved our asses. I didn’t want him choosing to stop in Pepsi territory thinking I was some sort of superhero and wanting to see my work.
“Who the hell was it? That Ember chick’s security?” He slapped his steering wheel.
“I don’t know. All I do know is that I was in trouble and they fixed the hell out of it.” I gave him a disappointed glare.
“Sorry, dude. I saw what was going down and thought I could get vengeance for your death or something like that.” He patted my shoulder.
I couldn’t expect him to get involved in a beatdown willingly. But I hoped I would’ve at least tried something if the situation had been reversed.
By the time he dropped me off, I was exhausted off my ass. I barely thanked him before I closed the door. I needed some reliable transportation that wasn’t Dice. I needed to see Ember more.
I made it only to the couch before I collapsed, clothes and shoes on. I probably should have called Booker right away and told him what had gone down.
I didn’t.
Chapter 16
Animal
I WOKE AS THE sun came up. My lower back wanted to die. The mattresses in that place were shit. God knows how many college kids had screwed on it, never mind slept on it. Ember was almost smiling in her sleep. I checked my phone.
T: I’m outside.
The text had been sent an hour ago. My bride, my babe, T, was waiting for me. She wasn’t even in Valston as far as I knew. There was nothing from Nix, which was either bad or good. We had two families that reported to us: the Feybis and the Kaleotos. We had the Kaleotos in line. They were smart enough to recognize all the beautiful things we did for Midville.
But the Feybis. They were acting up. Hence my meeting in Valston. The family was branching out. Looking to expand to the surrounding cities. It didn’t help that their relationship with Nix was strained at best, but that’s where I came in. I interrupted a power grab last night. Reminded a room full of men with guns that they were my bitches. In my special way. They were all smiling by the time I was done. I reminded them all that I could charm about half of their men to come to my side, work for me. We had benefits that were appealing. Like a way to get out. Clean money if needed. I was known for rewarding respect and common sense. No one would have ever imagined I could have two crime families agreeing that I was in charge. Hell, I didn’t even have a blood family. Just the people I deemed important enough to die for, the people held close in my heart.
I texted T back:
Yeah, on my way.
I pulled Ember’s blanket up around her shoulders, tucking her hair behind her ear. She was vulnerable here, and it was killing Nix. I couldn’t blame him. Her independence was colliding with Nix’s former worst enemies, the Feybis, acting shifty. He’d killed the patriarch in a very violent and disrespectful way. Don’t get me wrong. It was more than old Bat Feybi deserved. It seemed like a million years ago, but to the families involved, change usually moved like glaciers. Slow. It took generations to move things differently. As they slowly rebuilt their organization in the aftermath of Bat Feybi’s death, they agreed to our terms. They worked for us now. But something was simmering with the Feybis. T had discovered that the Feybis might be connected to the Dutch family—the ones who were running the gangs in the Valston area. Including the Cokes. Ember’s new little boyfriend’s gang. It was all bubbling too close to Ember now.
Nix wanted to kidnap Ember and keep her in her new bedroom in his basement. It took Becca, T, and me to force him to understand that wasn’t a great option.
I made sure Ember’s door was locked. I knew that Nix would set his own alarms when he saw me walk out. He had the place wired. I strode out of the dorm building, where I found my beautiful bride sitting on the hood of her SUV.
Her brown hair was pulled over one shoulder and she had shades on. Jeans and a sweatshirt never looked so sinful as they did on her. I leaned in and kissed her cheek. I didn’t come at her unless I had a nice, clean mouth. I hadn’t been planning on crashing overnight, so I wasn’t ready with my toiletries.
T grabbed my belt buckle and smirked. “Miss me?”
I groaned. Being near her started things that would need to be handled. “So much.”
She allowed me to cuddle her into my chest.
“How is she?” T lifted her chin in the direction of Ember’s d
orm.
“Ah, shit. She’s got a crush. She was glowing and everything.” I ran the back of my hand down T’s beautiful face.
“Would he happen to be a Coke?” She tossed her hair and I saw a fresh scratch on her neck.
If she was harmed, she’d been in some shit. Because she never missed a punch. “How many?”
She shook her head. “I followed that kid last night. He damn near got himself killed. Parked in the Pepsi territory. Was about to get jumped. Dumbass.”
“How many did you kill?” I wasn’t accusing her; I just needed to do the accounting on how to fix it. She was the closest thing we had to a hit man.
“I didn’t kill anyone. I just stopped the situation so the kid and his friend could get away.” She put her hand on my shoulder.
“You’re perfection.” I kissed her forehead. “Do we leave now? I’ll text Ember.” I stepped back and pulled T with me. I had another car, but I wanted to ride with her. One of our guys could pick it up later.
“I guess. I kind of hate it, despite what we tell Nix.” She hugged my middle. I agreed. It felt super wrong, letting one of our own dangle out in the middle of nowhere.
Wardon walked up and touched my fist and then T’s. Ember wasn’t alone. And these security guys were earning their money. We were tense, though. Two recent murders of Kaleotos men were weighing on our minds. We suspected the Feybis were involved. Despite the fact that they both worked for me, the Kaleotos and the Feybis had a long, bloody history. When one moved on the other, the delicate balance I maintained threatened to wobble. And wobbling was scary. I didn’t want more people dying.
Chapter 17
Ember
WHEN I WOKE UP, it took a text from Animal to remind me he’d spent the night. He’d even made the bed he’d slept in. I missed him, but was also glad to be alone. Because it was time to put on the falling in love songs. Not that I was in love. I wasn’t. But Lock’s lips were on my mind. I loved this part. When everything was new. When we hadn’t annoyed each other yet. Before we knew each other’s favorite color. All the newness. I set up a playlist on my computer and danced around for a bit, singing into my hairbrush.
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