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“You know, if you had told me any of this when it happened, I might have actually felt sorry for you, but after everything you did, I don’t think I can.” I interjected.

“You don’t fucking know what it means to owe someone like Helen.” Tiffany snapped. “Yeah, she treats me like another daughter, I get a little more leeway than the average soldier because of it, but she’s a fucking mobster Tory. If I told her no when she said I owed her for her help that night, she would have put a bullet in my head and tossed me over the side of the yacht. Part of staying alive meant keeping my silence. Theonlygood I thought came out of the whole mess was being able to save you whenevery goddamned thing I foundsaid you needed saving.”

My head reared back like she’d slapped me. Her words seemed to almost echo what Craig had said when he refused to take her as payment for Rich’s death. I could feel my grip on the hatred I’d nursed for her starting to slip away as I started to understand, for probably the first time, everything that had led to the choices she made.

“I don’t know if I can forgive you.” I spoke finally. “I’m so angry at you for all of it. I just… Give me some time and space. I’m not going to promise we will ever be friends again, but I will think about what you just told me and maybe, when things aren’t so raw,maybeI can consider forgiving you.”

“That’s the best I can hope for, I suppose.” She replied with a half-hearted smile. “For what it’s worth, I never stopped being your friend, even if you’ve stopped being mine. Helen doesn’t know this, but I heard your boys are looking into Theo. Word on the street is he’s secretly meeting with the Russians.I had Georgialynn do a little digging, quietly, and, well… here.” She stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a small flash drive, holding it out to me. “There’s not much to find on the Russian he’s meeting with, but what is there, you and your boys will want to see.”

I took the device from her hand and stuck it in my pocket without a word. There was nothing else for either of us to say. Tiffany could apologize all she wanted, but I needed time if I was ever going to get over her causing Rich’s death. She may have thought she was extending an olive branch with whatever information she’d just handed me, but the branch wasn’t hers to extend.

“Fucking hell, we still gotta carry the other one in there.” Leighton’s voice rang out, giving me an excuse to walk away from Tiffany without a word. “This one better still be knocked out, Mel or I swear to God!”

Turning toward the warehouse, I spotted Craig following behind Leighton and Mel as they made their way back to the trailer. He must have noticed the discomfort left over from my conversation with Tiffany on my face because he motioned me toward him and tucked me into his side as soon as I reached him.

“You alright, Bunny?” He murmured in my ear, not wanting to draw attention to us.

“Are any of us alright?” I snorted, shaking my head as I gently patted his chest. “I’ll fill you all in later, I don’t want to have to rehash it four times. Suffice it to say, Tiffany thinks she’s given me a peace offering. I haven’t decided if I want it tobea peace offering.”

“We don’t have to stay if you’re not up for it.” Craig offered. “Things are going to get pretty intense in there once the Golden Devils leave.”

“ThatI want to deal with.” I replied. “I need to see the woman who took him from us suffer with my own eyes. Maybe even inflict some of the pain she’s caused us onto her with my own fucking hands.”

Leighton and Mel neared with the second Devil just in time for Leighton to hear the last part of what I’d said.

“That’s my vicious girlfriend. I’ll help you get your hands as dirty as you wantma petit.Like the only boyfriend in this harem should!” I couldn’t help but laugh at his antics. “I’ll even share if the others want in.”

I couldn’t help but laugh at his antics, though I had the brief thought that something had fundamentally changed in me for me to find them as funny as I did these days. “It’s adorable that you’re willing to share, but you arenotthe only boyfriend, Leighton.” I shot back, causing him to poke his lower lip out in a pout.

“You couldn’t have told me thatprivately? Now what am I supposed to hold over the other guys?” He winked before shifting the weight of the sedated woman he was helping carry inside with a grunt.

It was that wink that did me in. I doubled over in laughter at how ridiculous the whole… just everything was. I was standing outside of a warehouse with one of myfourboyfriends after a conversation with my ex-best friend about her role in getting my fifth boyfriend killed, and about to watch the woman who pulled the trigger and her second in command be tortured for it. If someone had told me I’d end up here back before the Gala, I’d have thought they lost their mind. Now, all I wanted was to help gut Candy and then go home and curl up with my men.

Chapter Twenty Three

Joey

I grabbed one of the folding chairs, turning it so that I could sit in it backward. Leighton and Mel had tied Candy to a chair after she’d been re-sedated and carried into the warehouse. After the show she put on outside, I wished there was an anchor point on the floor to secure her to, but we hadn’t had time to find a better location for our interrogation.

Time seemed to crawl by while I waited for her second to be secured to a chair and for one of them to wake up from the sedation. There wasn’t a clock in the building, but I could almost swear I heard the slow tick… tick… tick of the seconds dragging by. The others had pulled out their own chairs and sat around me, waiting. I stole a glance at Victoria, who was seated between Az and Craig. Her presence made my stomach sour, and bile rise in my throat over the show I’d put on in the van apologizing. I hadn’t meant a damned word I said to her. There was just something about lulling her into a false sense of security only to crush her later that soothed the beast inside me in ways the little jabs and hateful words alone hadn’t been able to.

A groan sounded from Candy’s second-in-command. My eyes flicked to the woman, taking in her every moment as she rolled her head and fought to open her eyes.

“Water,” she croaked.

Az reached into the cooler on the floor beside him and pulled out a bottle of water, cracking it open as he strolled toward the woman. He carefully put it to her lips and helped her take a few sips.

“Shiiit.” She slurred, her head jerking up as she tried to take in the space with unfocused eyes. “Sssomebody get me soome coffee.”

“Why would we do anything for you?” I snapped, causing Az to glare at me over his shoulder.

Her hands jerked in an attempt to raise, and she grunted again, letting her head loll back on her shoulders. “Tell you everything… Jusss… need coffee. Clear…” she grunted. “Clear the fog.”

The sound of a chair scraping on the concrete floor behind me had me looking over my shoulder. Leighton had left his seat and moved to grab some kind of coffee drink from the cooler. I gritted my teeth and rolled my eyes. We weren’t supposed to be kind to either of the women we held. They were payment for Rich’s life. They both deserved to suffer.

Leighton handed the drink to Az, who helped the woman drink it. After a few deep gulps, she blinked as if her vision were clearing a little.

“I’m not gonna run.” She sighed. “You can untie one of my hands and I can hold the drink myself.”