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The guys were already gathered in the room when I entered and shut the door behind me. The room was like an explosion of all things Texas and rodeo cowboy, calling back to Ian's younger days as a rodeo rider. It was like an assault on the senses, with the cowhides, cowboy hats, spurs, and taxidermy bull head on the far wall. It hurt my eyes, but I'd never say that out loud.

Az was standing by an end table, looking at a glass decanter with a crestfallen expression as he examined the clear liquid inside it.

“You don’t know what I’d give for this to be vodka…” He said with a huff before pouring himself a glass.

“I hope it doesn’t end up being vodka after all this; there’s only been water in that thing for as long as any of us have even been alive,” I said sadly, knowing that if there were ever anything that could make a recovered alcoholic fall off the wagon, it would be something like this. Ian was a strong man, so I hoped for the best.

“Dad will be fine,” Joey said, his voice still clipped, causing us to look at him. “Let’s get to it. What happened, Craig?”

“We'll get to that. First, I want to know how you three got away from the Jackals. Ya'll were literally in the frying pan, so why aren't you cooked?” I asked, sinking painfully into a chair, my gaze flicking between them.

“Well, after I ripped out a few throats with my teeth,” he paused, baring his teeth and pointing at them. “My fucking teeth! They just up and took off. No rhyme, no reason. Musta scared ‘em off.”

“That’s decidedlynotwhy they left.” Az snorted, rolling his eyes as he sipped his water. “But, the fact remains that once they were clear with you and Victoria, we don’t know why they left. Weshouldn’tbe having this conversation, but here we are.”

“Shit… called them off. Things are still a little fuzzy, but now I’m sure I didn’t dream her calling them off and then calling in for someone to wreck our transport.”

“Your ex is a fucking psycho. I should know.” Leighton interjected.

“Beside the point.” Az barked at Leighton before motioning toward me. “Continue.”

“Tiffany fucking happened,” I replied bitterly.

“I knew it! I fucking knew it! I told you, I told all of you that bitch barbie was a gangster.” Leighton hooted, hopping up from his seat and doing some strange celebration dance.

“Well, before you celebrate your premonition too hard, she’s the whole reason Candy was there and why we just left a funeral. Apparently, Victoria’s lack of contact sent the socialite-turned-mobster on a spiral of thinking we were getting ready to traffic her because of partial information that she was gathering from the forum posts we used to try and draw out the mastermind behind the free-for-all.” I sneered with a shake of my head. It would have pissed me off no matterwhohad been behind the attack on us, but the fact that we missed so manykey details. We closed ranks and reacted to the whole situation without thinking beyond protecting Victoria.

“Woah,” Leighton breathed, flopping down into an empty armchair. “She pulled ame. I'm pissed and want to kill her, but also, props to Barbie.”

“What the fuck did you just say, L?” Joey snarled, his expression darkening as he snapped his gaze to Leighton. “Are… Are you really congratulating the woman who got not only my brother but your friend, and our boss fuckingkilled?! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” He stood sharply, moving as if he was going to approach Leighton. Az intercepted him, casually stepping between the two.

“You know he didn’t mean it like that, Joey.” Az said. “If he did, he wouldn’t still want to kill the woman.”

Joey let out a derisive snort and moved to retake his seat. After a moment of sitting in silence, waiting for him to get himself somewhat together, Az motioned for me to continue.

“The long and short of it after that is that Mel let her little protege play amateur night on me in their basement while Bunny must have been clearing up the misunderstanding.” Joey snorted again, and I turned my head toward him just in time to catch the eye roll that went with it. “Helen offered us reparations, and I accepted Candy and her second on our behalf. They will deliver in two weeks.”

“I don’t care who does the second, but Candy is mine.” Joey clipped. No one argued; we understood. “But you mean to tell me that you had a chance to get Tiffany, and you just…didn’t? What, did the viper talk you out of it?” He sneered.

Leighton stood and got in Joey's face before I could open my mouth to respond. "You may be my chosen family," he hissed, gripping Joey's collar, "but you're not going to keep talking about Victoria like that. I'll let it slide this time, alongwith that shit earlier, because you're a fucking mess, but keep going and you're not going to like where it leads."

“You don’t get to decide what I choose to call her. I—” Joey started.

“Actually,” I said hastily, interrupting what would turn into another pointless argument. “Victoria wanted Tiffany, and I had to tell her no. From the look of her when she came to tell Mel to bring me to Helen, someone, who I can only assume was Victoria, had beat the shit out of her too.” I didn’t miss the prideful look Az and Leighton exchanged. “All of us need to accept that Victoria gave Tiffany her licks and leave it there. If one of us had gone missing, with no other information besides concerning forum posts to go on, the rest of us would have done the same thing. We would mobilize every asset and ally we could. We’vekilledfor less. And I believe Helen when she told me Candy was acting outside of orders when she pulled that trigger.”

“Helen has always owned her orders. If she’d told Candy to kill one or all of us, she would have said so.” Az added. “If she told you she didn’t give that order, she didn’t.”

“Of course she would say she wanted Tiffany,” Joey scoffed. “The vip–she, would know damned well you wouldn’t agree to that. You got played. Fuck sakes, it took my brother being murdered for me to realize it, who else do we have to lose before the rest of you wake the fuck up?”

“Joey!” I snapped, turning to face him. “I understand you’re, like Leighton said, a fucking mess right now. Shit, on some level, we all are. You’re not the only one who buried someone today! This wasn’t any of our fault, were you not fucking listening? This was a rogue operative, working outside the scope of her orders to indulge her own brand of sadism. That’s who Candy is. She didn’tneedany help to create that carnage.” I could completely understand Joey’s mental state;Rich was important to all of us. We were family, and we’d been through hell together. But we had to get his head back on straight if we were going to make it out the other side intact.

Joey chuckled darkly, “You know, we had shit right the first go round. The one thing that should have given it away, even with all the misdirects she managed, was how easily she fell into all of our beds. Nobody, and I meannobody, wants all five of us unless they're a conniving slut.”

The air in the room stilled, and I could see Az moving toward Leighton to stop a fight before it started. That was all I needed. I stood, my body screaming from the sudden movement. There wasn't any thought; all I could see was red. I was in pain, physically and emotionally, and I didn't have the patience or energy to sort Joey's shit out for him.

I didn't even realize it had happened until the sound of my fist connecting with Joey's jaw reached my ears. His head snapped back, and he snarled at me as he jumped to his feet. I was vaguely aware of Az and Leighton freezing in my periphery.

“This. Is.Not.Her. Fault. You. Fucking. Idiot.” I clipped between gritted teeth.