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CHAPTER 13

ATLAS

G uy's name flashed across my screen. I scrunched up my nose in distaste. How long was Lake going to avoid Snatched?

I had better shit to do than run the club. That was on him and Joaquin, and currently neither seemed to care about what happened inside those four walls that we'd worked so hard for.

So Guy started texting me when they refused to answer him back.

Guy

There's an issue in the Gold room.

Damn it. I stomped from the kitchen where I'd been trying to make dinner for Beasty, to the bedroom I shared with Joaquin. As soon as I opened the door, vodka fumes rolled out into the hallway. I breathed through my mouth as I stepped inside, flipping the light.

It was a wreck. Clothes were strewn everywhere, and Joaquin was face down on the couch with empty bottles all around him like a liquor graveyard.

On the floor was his laptop, open to a dark-web gambling site. I bent over to check it. The game was over, but his chip count was there. This fucking asshole, he racked in the money even when he was smashed.

I nudged him with my foot.

"Wake the fuck up."

He grunted but didn't make any movements to show that he actually heard me. So I dropped my foot on his ass and bounced him. "Get. The. Fuck. Up."

"No." The word was jumbled from how his face was smooshed against the cushion.

"There's a problem in the gold room. You're needed."

"I don't care." Joaquin flopped to his back, his hair sticking up in greasy angles.

"I can see you care about fuck all with how you've let yourself go," I snapped.

He cracked open one eye. "Go the fuck away. You're not sleeping in here anyway, so why do you care?"

Joaquin was right. Every night since we came back, I'd been in Beasty's bed. Not because I didn't want to be with Joaquin, but because he was miserable to be around. I'd also waited fucking years to be in Beasty's bed, and nothing was going to pull me away.

"Because I care about you! Do you want Beasty to see you like this? I'll send her in here to clean you up if you don't do it yourself."

She would. Whatever happened after she went to Snatched with Kim had changed her. She was a force to be reckoned with, moving through the house and club like a tornado, doing whatever the fuck she wanted and glaring at us, just daring me and Kim to stop her.

I grinned at the memory of how sexy she was when she knew what she wanted. I'd never seen that side of her before.

"I don't want Beasty here. I set up a trust for her in a shell name. She can go wherever the fuck she wants." He tossed an arm over his eyes.

I shook my head, not that he could see it. She didn't want to go, and none of us wanted her to go either. "Have it your way." I made it three steps toward the door before he cursed and sat up.

"Fine! I'm getting up! Don't send her in here, goddamn," he griped. "Why do I have to go to the Gold room? Lake can handle any issues."

"Lake is currently passed out after staying up for days at a time. I'd handle it, but you remember what happened the last time I stepped into one of your gambling rooms?"

Absolute chaos and Joaquin had been the one to get kicked out of that club and all the sister clubs they associated with. He didn't talk to me for days before I had to fuck his anger out of him.

One side of my mouth kicked up. I wouldn't hate doing it now, he just needed a shower first.

My cock twitched at the memory of Beasty using a blowjob to fuck with Joaquin. She was ruthless when she wanted to be. I could already tell how much fun we were going to have ganging up on Joaquin.

He grumbled unintelligibly as he rolled off the couch. His clothes were rumpled, and I was pretty sure that was the same outfit he had on three days ago. I sighed.

"You can't let what that asshole did fuck you up. Then he wins."

Joaquin stopped with his hand on the doorframe to the bathroom, turning his head just enough so I could make out the curve of his cheek. "He didn't win. He's dead."

"You know what I mean. This was a lesson. A fucking hard one, but we're not going to let assholes like that win."

"Easy for you to say." He stripped out of his clothes, and I perused his body.

I loved every inch of it, but seeing him naked now only solidified what I'd already known. He wasn't fucking eating, and the alcohol was just a filler.

"Not easy. You think I don't wake up from nightmares of being stuck in that corner? Of being pinned down on the couch?" I yelled, stalking forward. "You think that's easy? It's not! But I want to live my fucking life more than I want to wallow in self-pity and fear. I want Beasty so much, nothing is going to stand in my way!"

He had the shower door open with his head lowered. He was still fucked up. Joaquin blinked too fucking much, and he rolled his lips together in a way he only did when he was wasted. It was pointless to have this conversation with him now.

Throwing my hand up, I waved away whatever good intentions I'd come in here with. He could bring himself back from the brink. I hated dealing with him when he was drunk, and he knew it.

"You're lucky, Atlas."

I didn't open the door, I couldn’t even turn around to face him. "What am I lucky for?"

"You were always the strongest of us. When life knocked us down, Kim either pulled into himself, or put himself out there. He worked hard to make people like him, to manipulate them into what he wanted to happen, and if he couldn't get what he wanted, he used what he knew to at least minimize the trauma. Me? I have to forget." His voice strained as if he couldn't pull in a full breath. "I can't live with those fucking images constantly on rotation in my head. Sometimes I'm good at forgetting." I imagined he nodded. "I'm damn good at it on occasion, but the media, the Pescis, fucking life , just won't let me forget it.

"So I drink to forget. It numbs me. And Lake? He actually embraces the pain, that crazy motherfucker." He laughed. "It's fucked, but it works for him, and he's able to be strong for us because of it. Then there's you." He sucked in a long breath. "I'm so fucking jealous of you!"

I spun. "Why are you jealous of me? We're all equally fucked up. You and Kim don't have that market cornered!"

"Yes, we do! Because we can't operate when life fucks us. You…" he waved a hand encompassing my body. "You get angry and determined. It makes you practically invincible. Well, I'm not like you! " He screamed so hard, columns of muscle stood out in his neck and veins throbbed in his forehead.

"You don't have to be like me!" I marched into the bathroom, trapping him against the wall next to the shower. "I don't want you to be! Just fucking participate with us! Don't let those assholes win. By drinking yourself into a stupor, they're winning." I grabbed a fistful of his hair at the back of his head and yanked back. "Go to the club with us. Help us figure out precautions so that shit never happens again. Spend time with Beasty." I softened my voice. "It's different this time, Joaquin. You haven't seen it since you've barricaded yourself in here, but she's different. Maybe us getting taken was what she needed. A wakeup call."

He knocked my arms down and shoved me away so hard, the sink counter jabbed into my lower back.

"Don't fucking say that shit!" His eyes were bloodshot, and his lips chapped. Joaquin was so fucked up, his body was rebelling against him.

"Say what? Beasty was always meant to be with us, Joaquin. You know it, I know it. She just needed a wake-up call. She needed to know what it would be like if people fucked with us. It worked! Instead of hanging to her holier-than-thou attitude that basically let anything slide if it didn't touch her, she's furious! For us . She wants to protect us as much as we want to protect her. You can hate it, but I'm not sorry we were taken by that fucker." I shook my head as he recoiled from me. "Nothing happened outside of shaking our confidence. It was the best possible scenario. And now she knows exactly what's at stake, the lengths people are willing to go to to get to us. She wants to protect us from that." A smirk curled my lips. "It's sexy and inspiring. You need to see it."

"You're forgetting one very important fact, Atlas." He fisted his hands by his side. "I don't want her here."

The smirk fell, and I glared at him. "Don't fucking say that."

"Why? It's true. I was a cunt to her! Because of my fucked up issues. You think that was nice? You think she enjoyed that or deserved it?" He turned on the water in the shower with angry, jerky motions. "She doesn't. That's just one example of how my issues will rise to the surface. How they always rise to the surface. I can't guarantee I'm not going to take it out on her." His top lip trembled as he glanced at the floor, waiting for the water to heat up.

"You always thought she was perfect. You put her on a pedestal. I never thought that, I know no one is perfect, but I do know she's too good for us. So me not wanting her here isn't about her at all. It's about us. And we don't deserve her."

He stepped under the water, giving me his back.

I wanted to be angry with him. I wanted to get so incensed, I was compelled to fuck with him. That was how our relationship worked. I got angry, I took it out on Joaquin. He got worked up, and we'd fuck it out. I loved it.

But he was torn up because he didn't want that life for Beasty? He just didn't know her like I did.

"Spend the day with us. Get to know her. The real her. I can tell you, who she's been up until last week wasn't her. I don't think she ever had a reason to feel comfortable enough to be herself. But that's different now. You'll see. If you still want to push her away after that..." I trailed off.

I was still keeping her, but he didn't need to know about that fight yet. It would be a fight. She wasn't leaving, and I wasn't giving her up. I was serious when I said if they didn't want to be here, they could find somewhere else to be. This house was Beasty's home, and I'd beat all of their asses if they tried to displace her from it.

She was staying here, and I was staying with her. Fuck them.

Joaquin didn't say anything, he just started scrubbing as if there was tar stuck to his skin.

He could sit in his issues. I was finding Beasty. "If you're not downstairs in ten minutes, I'm sending Beasty in for you."

I left him grumbling a string of curses. At least he was coherent and on his way back to his cranky-ass self.

Downstairs, Beasty leaned on the island in the kitchen, scrolling through something on her phone.

Coming up behind her, I grabbed a fistful of her ass, biting my lip at the plump globe. She was fucking perfect.

Glancing over her shoulder, she raised an eyebrow. Not completely happy with my antics, but not hating it either. I grinned. This comfortableness was what I had always craved with her.

Now, I had it. And I was fucking keeping it.

Leaning down, I pressed a kiss under her ear. "What are you doing?"

"Reviewing the contracts with some of the suppliers. I think there's an opportunity to get better rates and maybe even broaden the products Snatched uses. I was only a bartender at Linda's, but she complained about her suppliers enough and how she fixed it." She resumed reading, content to let me play with her ass.

Lake could figure out the security shit. Joaquin and Kim could take their sweet time coming around.

This was heaven.