Page 8

Eight

It’s okay to feed your car a curb as a treat sometimes.

— Text from Keely to Chevy

CHEVY

I watched her undress, anger seething in my senses.

I wasn’t quite sure why I was mad.

Maybe it was because she hadn’t been there when I got there, so I’d had to let myself in.

Maybe it was because the lack of anything in her apartment set my teeth on edge.

Or, possibly, it was because I’d learned that she’d gone to the police.

Whatever the reason for my anger, it was very real, and very evident in my body’s stiffness.

Granted, had she paid attention to her surroundings, she could’ve easily noticed that someone was there.

When I’d entered, using a freakin’ credit card to get inside her place with hilarious ease, I’d noticed her pile of shoes beside the door.

After toeing off my boots, I ambled around her apartment, taking everything in.

There wasn’t much to take in, though, which led me to taking a seat in the recliner in her living room.

Right in plain sight for her to spot the moment she entered.

Only, her gaze was solely focused, and she was heading to her bathroom, intent in her every move.

The shower turned on, and I decided that I’d get up and head there to confront her.

But before I’d gotten too far, my phone rang.

I answered it because it was Webber, but I went into the laundry room to take the call.

“Yeah?” I answered as I found her panties and bras hanging up on a wire that zig-zagged across the laundry room.

“Good news,” Webber muttered. “She didn’t go to the cops to tell them shit. She went to the cops to make sure that her mother didn’t tell them. I guess I thought she had better sense than that, seeing as she knew what she signed on for when she started working for us. Anyway, Haze called and let us know that she’s been booked for robbery. He’s going to take over the case.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

At least that was one thing we didn’t have to worry about anymore.

Haze Hopkins was a detective for Fort Worth Police Department.

He’d been on his way out of the job, hating just like we did that people that committed big crimes kept getting allowed out while the ones that did barely anything were hit with the book.

He’d intended to get out at least, until he’d met Shasha Semyonov, the Russian Bratva’s Pakhan and Shasha’s little sister, Nastya. Later on, my brother, Cutter, had married Shasha’s other sister, Milena, tying all of us together forever.

Shasha and the Truth Tellers had a connection.

Shasha hated people that didn’t get what they deserved, and we did, too.

“Good.” I sighed. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’re there, aren’t you?” he asked.

“There” being at Aella’s.

“Yep,” I replied.

“Go soft,” Webber suggested. “She may look like she can handle a lot, but I think she’s barely hanging on.”

I wasn’t a soft kind of person.

My life had ensured that was a reality for me.

However, for Aella…I might be able to pretend to be soft. At least for a little while.

“We’ll see,” I returned.

“One more thing.” Webber hesitated. “I wanted to tell you the reason we hired Trini in the first place.”

I paused, worry going through me.

“Okay,” I waited.

“Cakes asked us to let her come work for us because he had some questions he wanted answered,” he said.

“Cakes” was also Paden Nobleman, one of what we called the geriatrics.

He wasn’t old. He was just with the Truth Tellers the longest. He’d joined when he was in his twenties and now was in his mid-forties. He and his old lady, Cally, had recently gotten a divorce, and a lot of stuff was coming to light for him after Cally hadn’t gotten her way in the divorce proceedings.

One of which was that he possibly had an adult daughter running around out there that he’d had no clue about until now.

Did that mean…

“Does he think that Aella is his daughter?” I asked.

“He suspects,” he answered. “He said that there was an instance when he was younger where he’d slept with Trini. He remembers Trini coming around after that, but he’d just met Cally, who had a big problem with him talking to other women.”

That was true.

Cally had been so over the top jealous that it was hard to be around her for any length of time.

She was very abrasive and condescending, and poor Cakes had to deal with that day in and day out.

Not to mention, if Cakes even so much as took a beer from another woman, Cally was accusing them of cheating.

“Thanks for the info,” I said. “I’ll bring some of her hair.”

Webber hung up without replying, as he always did, and I shoved my phone back into my pocket and padded barefoot to the bathroom.

The only thing I could hear was the shower, at least, until I got closer.

When I rounded the corner of the bathroom I heard a tinny sounding voice say, “What do you mean?”

I listened as Aella explained to whomever was on the phone what had happened over the last two days.

“I’m gonna have to get me some of those AirTags,” the woman on the phone mused when Aella was done. “You said that they stepped on her hair and pinned her to the ground?”

“Yes!” Aella started to laugh. “It was the best thing I’ve ever witnessed. If I hadn’t been so focused on tearing that car to pieces, I might’ve stopped long enough to take a photo.”

I made a mental note to see if the camera footage at the clubhouse captured it.

It would be a nice gift, I guessed.

“That’s just amazing,” the woman replied.

“Silver,” Aella crowed. “I think this might be it. I think this time, she fucked up enough that she’ll never be a problem again.”

Silver.

Aella’s sister.

I’d seen the two of them before.

I hadn’t realized they were sisters, though, because they looked nothing alike.

Did Cakes have two children?

The more I listened to Aella talk, the more I realized what a piece of shit Trini was. If the cops didn’t take care of Trini, I would.

I didn’t like the idea of Aella suffering at all.

If her mother being out of the picture was better for them, I’d make it happen.

I pulled out my phone and sent a text to Apollo to pull everything he had on Trini, Silver, and Aella.

Likely, he was already in the process, but just in case he wasn’t, I wanted him to know.

“I’m sorry she did that again, though,” Silver admitted, sounding forlorn. “She never tries with me anymore because my dad would shoot her if she tried to get in.”

Good.

I hated that Aella did have to worry about it, though.

Obviously, I’d known that Aella and Silver had different fathers based solely on their appearances, but it was good to have that suspicion confirmed.

“In other news,” Aella chirped, sounding much more upbeat now. “I start my last semester of my program next week. And I think I might have gotten that scholarship that I’ve been aiming for.”

“Oh, Aella,” Silver said softly. “That’s amazing. I’m so happy for you.”

I’d known that she was in school, but I hadn’t known what she’d been in school for.

I tried really, really hard not to overwhelm her with questions since she always got a weird look in her eyes when I talked to her.

I was happy to hear that she would be staying where I wanted her.

Surgery tech meant I’d be seeing a lot of her.

Maybe I’d get her onto my rotation so that she wouldn’t be able to avoid me.

Which she would be doing after I got my hands on her.

“Anyway, that’s all I have,” Aella admitted. “What about you?”

The next ten minutes they talked about what was new with Silver, then said they’d join each other for tomorrow’s shower.

I had to laugh at that because it seemed kind of odd to call your sister while you were in the shower every day.

But, then again, I didn’t have multiple sisters, so I didn’t know what was weird and what wasn’t.

I only had one sister, and Keely was pretty out there.

I loved my sister to death, but she definitely had some quirks about her.

Like when she was a young teen, and we all lived together still, she used to use her shedding hair in the shower to make pictures or spell words.

Or, when she was on her period, she’d eat everything in sight and yell at us if we so much as looked at her wrong.

That was still an ongoing thing for her, though, and probably always would be.

Hearing the shower turn off, I headed out of the bathroom to give her privacy, then went to her bedroom.

Not wanting to sit on her bed with my dirty clothes, I took the chair in the corner of the room.

The chair creaked as I took a seat, and I idly wondered if it’d break underneath my weight.

Thinking it might hold, I let my feet trail out in front of me, crossed my arms over my chest, and waited for her to appear.

She did with a towel wrapped around herself, and my breath hitched.

The sound had her whipping her head toward me, and I held up my hands and said, “Don’t scream.”

She screamed.

I got up and placed my hand over her mouth, shushing her hurriedly.

“Shit, Aella. I told you not to scream,” I grumbled.

Being that near to her gave me an up-close smell of her and I nearly groaned.

I loved the way she smelled.

Sometimes I’d sit in her chair just so I could smell her better.

Apples and cinnamon and a hint of lemon.

Goddamn.

She wiggled, and I dropped my hand from over her mouth.

“What are you doing in my apartment?” She narrowed her angry brown eyes. “And how did you get in here?”

This close, I realized that her eyes weren’t just brown.

They were a swirling mix of gold and brown that made me think of sunlight hitting a full whiskey bottle.

Fucking gorgeous.

“I got in here using a credit card,” I said. “And just sayin’, but you need to make sure you always use the dead bolt when you leave. Second, I’m here because I wanted to talk to you about tonight.”

She sighed and pulled away. “Let me get a shirt on at least.”

I watched as she walked to her closet and reached for a shirt.

It was a Titans t-shirt that’d seen better days.

It was also four sizes too big, and I knew immediately that it’d come from an ex.

Why I hated that thing so much, I didn’t know.

It wasn’t like we had anything going…yet.

But still, I wanted to burn it, and everything else in her closet that wasn’t specifically something she’d bought for herself.

Even the thought of her wearing her sister’s clothes made me jealous.

Which was ludicrous, but there I was.

Stability and I weren’t on the same wavelength, apparently.

“Turn around,” she ordered.

I did, but grinned when I saw the mirror on the wall that gave me a complete view of everything she did behind me.

I felt my dick, which had been half hard since the moment I’d seen her tonight, lengthen to full capacity.

Yep, unhinged.

That’s what I was.

I watched anyway, though, and enjoyed the view.