“Says wh- who?”
“Says the guy who would love to watch you drink yourself to death. Unfortunately, my girl, would take issue with such a thing.”
He flinched like I had kicked him. “She's too good for you, Cartel scum.”
I barked a mocking laugh. “You get that line from a movie?”
“Fucking sue me. I don't come up with my best material when the room is spinning. My point stands.”
“And you're wrong.”
He blinked, comically slow. “Huh?”
I didn't so much smile as display my teeth. “You said she's too good for me. But the truth of it is that I'm exactly what she needs. Something you'll never be.”
His eye twitched, anger flaring once my words fully penetrated his drunken stupor. “And what makes you so sure of that, Mr. Know It All?”
I leaned towards him, holding his glare. “Let me ask you something instead, Sinner.”
“I have a name.”
“I don't give a damn. What's your purpose in life? Your mission? Your calling?”
“You tryin’ to recruit me or something, man?” He tapped the bar and looked around aimlessly for a moment. I snapped my fingers and Luke sent a bottle of water sliding towards me that I caught without looking and pushed into Tanner's hands. He unscrewed the top and drank greedily, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “I tried religion. Shit didn’t take.”
“This isn’t about religion, but it is about faith.” My conviction centered me, it always did. “The only thing I believe in is making her happy. It has been the main focus on my mind every single day for twelve years. I'm determined to make that happen, no matter how long it takes and no matter who stands in my way. Can you say the same?”
His expression soured and he looked away, not answering. The lack of response was deafening on its own.
I stood, adjusting my tie. “Go home, Sinner.” Then I tossed my line into open water, waiting to see what bit. “You’ve done enough already.”
Tanner paled, taking the bait hook, line, and sinker. He wouldn’t meet my eyes. “You know.”
“Not until just now,” I growled, visualizing my hands wrapping around his neck. “What did you say to her?”
He shook his head sadly, staring at the floor. “Something I shouldn’t have. Is she- is she okay? I couldn’t find her when I went back.”
There was no reason to hide my disgusted sneer. He deserved it. He deserved worse. Off limits, I reminded myself, feeling my eye twitch.
“That you even have to ask me that proves how you failed her.” His whole body flinched, but there was no room in my heart for mercy. Only a need to sink the blade deeper and violently twist it. “She had a place to sleep last night, no thanks to you.”
Tanner rose from his seat unsteadily, squaring off with me. “Keep your hands off of her.”
Too late for that. But it was beneath me to brag. Sylvia was mine. And she was a prize, not a conquest. I had no interest in sharing what happened between us. It didn't appeal.
Nor did the idea of wasting more time here.
I glanced towards the end of the bar, catching Luke's attention and raising my voice. “Tell Raze to pay you overtime for the night, and cleanup.”
I lunged for Tanner without another word. We were of similar size, and any other time he might have given me a run for my money. But he was drunk off his ass and I was channeling the bone deep rage I felt when I saw the hurt on my woman’s face.
His jab was clumsy, glancing off my shoulder as I stepped in and delivered a hard blow to his kidney. Tanner doubled over, spittle flying from his mouth. My palms wrapped around the back of his neck, holding his head in place for the knee I brought up and into his nose.
There was an audible pop of cartilage snapping, mixing with his loud groan and the sudden smell of copper tinting the air. His fist came around, hitting me in the side and I grunted before bringing my knee up again. His legs buckled, leaving me holding most of his weight as he sagged against me, and his next blow landed weakly.
I grabbed a fistful of his hair and twisted him around, snarling as I brought his head down onto the countertop of the bar. The impact echoed with a dull thud, and I was vaguely aware of Luke shaking his head off to the side. Tanner groaned again and I held him there, flattening his cheek to the cold wood.
“I’ll kill you,” he managed, words muffled.
“You’re welcome to try.”
I lifted him up and slammed him face first twice more for good measure. When I let go, he slumped off the countertop and fell to the ground, glaring at me from the one eye that wasn’t already swelling shut. Red streaked down his face, soaking his shirt. I held his glare while I adjusted my sleeves, pinning my cufflinks back in place.
“Go home. I won’t tell you again.”
CHAPTER 16 - Sylvia
I wasn’t sure how I felt about waking up alone.
On one hand, it allowed me to keep at least a bit of my dignity intact. Without a smug, gorgeous face staring back at me when my eyes opened, I could almost pretend I hadn’t spent the night snuggled up to a man I had no business being involved with.
On the other, well, I would be lying if I pretended it hadn’t been the best night of my life since my world turned upside down.
A low buzz from beside me had me rolling over on the soft mattress to scoop my phone from the bedside table. There were a dozen texts from Tanner. I deleted every single one without reading them.
I was calm. Relaxed. At peace. I wasn’t going to let him fuck it up.
Most of the other messages were from Lizzy, and I immediately felt bad scrolling through them. I was a notorious texter. It came with the not speaking territory. I should’ve realized before now she would worry when I didn’t respond immediately to the picture she’d sent.
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and shot off a quick text letting her know everything was fine. The last thing I needed was her sending Texas to hunt for me. I imagined it was only a matter of time before either Tanner or Tone tattled about what I was doing. Which was kinda funny because I didn’t know what I was doing. But I knew what it would look like: getting involved with the enemy
Unless I did something about it first.
I scrolled through the contacts in my phone, finding the one I needed. My finger hovered over it and my heart began racing uncontrollably, the rush of pounding blood filling my ears. There wasn’t going to be any going back after this. Strangely enough, knowing that truth made my decision easier.
For better or for worse, I didn’t want to go back. I felt firmly on the verge of my life changing for the better. The last time I felt this way was when the person I was about to call stepped into my life, guns literally blazing.
My thumb descended on the screen and I hit the speaker button as the dial tone started. It rang once, then twice, before a deep voice answered.
“Sly?” Creed sounded fully awake despite the early hour.
I swallowed thickly, trying to force down the lump lodged in my throat.
The sound of leather creaking floated through the speakers. I pictured him suddenly standing in his office, making the room crackle with wild energy and impending violence.
“Damn it, woman,” he growled. “Are you hurt? Pinned down? The fuck is going on?”
I took a deep, shuddering breath and let it out slowly. “I need you to do me a favor.”
There was silence on the other end, so complete it rattled my nerves further. “You’re hurt,” he said with a sort of terrible finality that left me frowning. A particular sound rang out I knew like the back of my hand - the slide of a round being chambered in a pistol. “How bad is it and where are you?”
Oh. My eyes widened. He thinks this is a very specific kind of call.
He loudly gnashed his teeth. “Just keep the line open, you hear me? I swear before all of creation I’ll burn-”
“I’m fine, okay?” I interrupted before I accidentally unleashed a storm which would wipe this city away. �
��I just...need to talk to you.”
“You’re already doing a lot of talking. And you expect me to believe everything is fine?” He was growing more pissed off by the nanosecond. It would’ve been impressive if it weren’t so frustrating. Most people had fuses. He was a bomb constantly in various stages of detonation. “Fuck this. I’m on my way.”
“Creed!” I shouted, jumping up from the bed to pace beside it. “Will you calm down and shut the fuck up for two fucking seconds? I need a favor!”
He was quiet for several lingering moments. Long enough for me to worry at my lip with my teeth and wonder how bright that particular outburst had been. Being neck deep in sharks didn’t make diving down to poke the leviathan lurking in the depths any less stupid.
Just when I was starting to fear he wasn't going to listen, a low chuckle floated through the line. “I'm not sure what's gotten into you, Sly. But I'm glad it has.”
I wasn't sure how well his easy acceptance would hold up if I told him the whole truth.
Funny you should mention it. The Cartel boss I'm supposed to be watching like a hawk? Turns out I'm on the verge of sleeping with him and he makes me feel things I thought were dead and gone, never to be seen again.
In the wise, lazy words of Tex, admitting to that would go about as well as throwing a fox into a hen house.
Good thing I wasn't calling to spill all the beans. Not yet anyway. Baby steps were going to be the name of this game.
“You've got my attention,” Creed continued. “Tell me about this favor.”
I walked to the dresser, idly running my trembling fingers along the smooth surface to have something to do with my hands. “I need you to pull Tanner and Tone, and also keep everyone else out of Charlotte for the foreseeable future.”
“Tanner’s there? He’s supposed to be working on something for me.” His confusion sounded genuine and I breathed a sigh of relief. There had been a lurking kernel of doubt in my mind, wondering if he’d been the one to order the surveillance. I was glad to see it wither and die.
“He showed up yesterday.” I tried to hide the disgust in my voice. It didn't work.
“What’d he do?”
His question sounded simple enough but it wasn't. Not at all. This was the moment of truth. I could tell Creed everything, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt, inner circle or not, I would never have to worry about facing Tanner ever again.
The Sinners were my brothers. My family. But Creed… he was like my own flesh and blood.
It was easy, so incredibly easy, to look at him and see nothing other than violence painted across a visage in the image of the most powerful man in the state. It was the mantle he wore around his neck for the entire world to see. A necessity to being able to cow those who had never known a moment of fear. But that wasn't what I saw.
When I looked at Creed, I saw the same man who had busted down the door to my windowless room and seen me. He hadn't seen an amusing toy like the scum with the Cartel. He hadn't seen a huddled, broken teenager like Texas and Rebel - not that I would ever hold it against them. He had looked me up and down without a single wince or flash of pity and seen the fighter deep within.
Then he had done what no one else had for five, long, grueling months.
He'd given me a choice.
Be the hunter or the prey.
No one would ever have big enough balls to accuse Creed of playing favorites, not even his own brother, but if you knew what to look for, it was clear he had taken me under his wing.
He’d never tried to take the place of my parents, and yet we both knew he treated me like a sister in his own gruff way.
“It’s not important,” I said finally. It was. But nothing good ever came from throwing fuel on top of hellfire. Tanner was my problem and mine alone. Creed had already fought enough of my battles. “I need them both out of here before they ruin everything.”
“I’ll pull Tanner, but not Tone,” he argued. “You could use the backup.”
Of course, he wasn’t going to make this easy. “I don't think you understand how favors work. I said both of them-”
“Don’t care,” he grunted, cutting me off. “Pick a better hill to die on, Sly. I’m already giving you a lot of fucking leeway because I know you have history with Carlos. Tone stays, along with whoever he's tapped to be there and I don’t want to hear anything else about it. Unless you want me to come down there myself.”
A pile of curses stacked up on top of my tongue but I let them fall from my lips soundlessly. Trying to change Creed's mind once he was set on something was impossible. Besides, if he showed his face in the city again so soon this place would turn into a powder keg of powerful men jockeying for position faster than I could slit an artery. Which I could do pretty damn fast.
“Fine. But no one else, I mean it. I want your word.”
“You're very insistent on this. Why?”
“Your word, Creed.”
“Fine,” he barked. “You have it.”
I looked up at the ceiling, carefully choosing what was about to come out of my mouth. Then again, it was always better to rip the band-aid off fast instead of slow. “Carlos is an ally. He's working against the Cartel from the inside, and he's got a plan. A good one. It'll be a blow more devastating than they've ever seen and I’m going to help him.”
All hands brace for impact.
I closed my eyes and waited for the collision. Or maybe for the nuke to go off. I could practically hear the digital beeps signaling the imminent doom about to make landfall prior to the radioactive fallout.
“Does this have something to do with why you’re talking all of a sudden?”
I blinked at his calm, thoughtful tone, glancing at the phone. Had I accidentally connected to someone who sounded like Creed instead? Where was the great ball of fire? The mushroom cloud? The irradiated wasteland?
“It has something to do with it, yes.” A vast understatement if there ever was one, but it was the best I had. I was slowly coming to accept it myself, understanding it was still somewhere over the horizon. There was no way I could explain it to Creed if I tried.
“In that case, happy hunting.”
Yeah. I definitely had the wrong number. “That’s it?” I waved my arms frantically, grateful to be on the top floor so no one could simply look through the windows and see me acting like a lunatic. “You’re not going to question my motives or general sanity?”
“Why? You planning on joining up with the Cartel and betraying us?”
I scoffed loudly, rolling my eyes. “Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Then stop being a dramatic fool,” he snapped harshly. I took several steps back and sat on the edge of the bed. Was sheer anger enough to make astral projection possible? Because I swear I saw him looming above me with war bleeding from his pores, the thunderstorm in his glare barely contained. “Question your motives? What kind of bullshit is that? Forget the rest of the fucking club for a minute. Have you forgotten what it means to be a Sinner?”
“No, I-”
“You sure about that?” The dangerous growl to his words raised the hairs on the back of my neck and lit a fire in my chest. “Because it sure as shit sounds like you have.”
“Fuck you,” I hissed, stabbing a finger through the air. “I haven’t forgotten a goddamn thing.”
“Act like it then!” He roared, voice booming so loudly I heard static through the line. “I'm glad as hell to hear you talking, but since when do any of us ask permission? We’re monsters, Sly. Any way you break it down it remains true. Doesn’t matter what shiny coat of paint you put on it. The seven of us have filled graveyards for our own means. I don’t care if you wade in blood until you paint yourself red as long as you come back alive, the same way you always do. But you've got to get rid of whatever is making you doubt yourself.”
There was nothing I wanted more than to rage back at him. To meet fire with fire and see what was left behind in the aftermath. It wouldn't be the first time we
had gone at each other's throats and it likely wouldn't be the last. Instead, I slid my tongue piercing against my teeth fast enough to make it sound like there was an out of tune keyboard inside my mouth.
The longer I held onto my inflated, raging response, the more time it allowed for what he was saying to sink in.
Doubt.
The word alone rang with a truth I had been blind to, and it popped the balloon holding up my fury.
Creed was right. I was making a mistake I hadn’t allowed myself to make in over a decade. A mistake I had done away with the first time I had a blade in my hand and one of the men who had hurt me in front of me.
I was overthinking things.
It had always been so easy to let the hate and anger sit in the driver’s seat. Those emotions were unbending, capable of turning me into a weapon that wouldn’t flinch or blink in the face of hard decisions.
Until now.
And I knew exactly what had changed.
I knew why it was starting to feel more and more like there was another pair of hands on the steering wheel.
With his sweet words and caring actions, Carlos had breathed life into my soul. He’d cracked the door open, showing the woman I’d left buried that there was light at the end of the tunnel. That the darkness could be banished completely if I was willing to take a chance to see it happen.
Knowing what to look for made the issue painfully simple.
The woman and the weapon weren’t used to coexisting.
“I need to go,” I said to Creed, distracted by my own thoughts.
His tone was subdued, and no less impactful because of it. “Remember what I said. Awareness is one of the few things that keeps us alive. Also, however involved you are with Carlos, do him a favor and let him know what the consequences will be if anything happens to you.” He hung up, leaving the implication of his threat lingering in the air.
I put the phone down beside me, staring at it absently as my options moving forward solidified in my mind. Odd as it would probably sound, I’d really enjoyed that call. It was so incredibly normal. Something I hadn’t had a lot of. Something I might lose if I took the first of the two new choices I was entertaining.
Saved by a Sinner Page 17
