Page 164 of Only Fools Rush

“So wrong, Obi,” Ciel said, voice low and deadly. “You’re so wrong and you can’t even see it.”

“I don’t see how thinking with ourheadsis wrong,” Obi snapped. “Keep our eyes on the ultimate goal. We must take New York for ourselves.”

“Why do you fucking care?” I asked. “In all the years we’ve been together, all the shit we’ve done, you’ve never actually said it out loud.” I shrugged. “I don’t even know, and you’re supposed to be my best friend.”

His jaw worked, but his eyes were hard. He said nothing.

“Cool,” I sneered. “Message received, loud and clear.”

The room went silent with tension.

“Your withholding will break us, Obi,” Ciel said. “Hopefully you see that before it’s too late.”

“My personal reasons have nothing to do with how capable we are of success,” he replied. “It does not matter.”

“If we can’t trust each other, we cannot succeed,” Wynn added. “And right now, she doesn’t trust any of us.”

“That’s not my fault,” Obi said. “I told Caspian to tell her before the meeting. I even encouraged her to make the right choice.”

“Tell,” Ciel hissed. “‘Tell’her, Obi. You’re still not thinking about it like she deserved to make a decision. You used her.” Obi opened his mouth, but Ciel held up his hand. “You did. Admit that to yourself.”

“You know what else he told me?” the bodyguard added. “‘If not you, then someone else.’He would have married her to someone else, anyone else, who could have given us an advantage.”

“The fuck?” I snarled, standing straight. If not us, then no one. I’d kill anyone else who laid a hand on her.

Ciel groaned. “You would have sold her to anoutsider?”

Wynn shook his head and sunk farther into the couch.

Obi kept silent.

“Goddamnit, Obi,” Ciel said. “You’re bartering her. You’re making choices without even warning her. It doesn’t matter that she probably would have said yes, anyway. How the fuck can you not see that acting like that would hurt someone?”

Making decisions without even warning her. The thought swirled around in my brain; the same as the scotch swirled in my glass.

Had I done the same?

My choice to expand to LA, to make sure my clubs could support me if I left the Shadows—lefther—had only been thinking about my future.

But I had excluded her wishes and her desires from those decisions.

I closed my eyes as I exhaled eyes out of my nose, trying to catch the thoughts flitting through my buzzed head.

What if she did the same to us? To me? How would I feel?

My eyes flew open. I knew exactly what I’d do if someone treated me that way: I would walk away.

“Why is Fallon here?” I demanded, looking at Wynn. “And your sister? What’s wrong with Leona?”

Willow had come too, carrying a bag at her side. Fallon had glared at all of us, but Willow hadn’t lifted her head when the three women walked into our penthouse like they owned the place.

“I don’t know why?—”

“Is Leona hurt?” I asked. “Is that why Willow’s here?”

He shook his head slowly. “All I know is that Leona called Fallon herself.”

I stiffened, placing the glass on the desk. “Is Fallon taking her?” The words tasted like fucking ash. “Is she leaving?”