Page 96 of The Loves We Lost

“I’m going to get up and punch your lights out in five seconds.”

Vex laughs. “I heard the scoring system. Given what’s on the list, I can see why he’s not smoking right now. Shit, I’d quit for some of that.”

“With my fucking old lady?” King asks.

Vex raises his hands in the universal sign of surrender. “No. Some of the kinky shit.”

“Wait,” Clutch says. “Did Gwen say she wants me to stop smoking?”

“Depends on if you want a kid or not. She says you’re not getting one until you stop, but wanted a fun way to encourage you,” Vex says.

Clutch leans back. “Oh, the fun we could have creating that chart. Like, for seven days, a butt plug. Four days for cuffs and a blindfold.”

“Shut the fuck up about my sister before I have to bleach my ears,” King says.

“Ten for using the handle of your knife,” I say, thinking of what my own chart could be like. I love the idea of fucking her with every one of my favorite blades.

The conversation screeches to a halt as all heads turn to me.

“You think about that shit?” King asks.

“I plead the fifth.”

Clutch studies me for a minute. “He already did it. You’re a sick fuck. Your bestie, I could see doing that shit. But you?”

Vex shakes his head. “It’s only ’cause you guys don’t see him clean those knives of his. I see him from my tech room, washing the damn things, bleaching ’em, cooing over them like they’re a fucking newborn or some shit. It’s his version of a threesome. Vi, him, and a hunting blade handle.” At that, he bursts out laughing.

When King and Clutch join in, I flick ’em the bird. “At least I’m not getting gold fucking stars from teacher.”

I whip out my phone and type a text to Vi to let her know I won’t be home as early as I thought. Once I’ve hit send, I think about what I just did.

Fuck.

I told her I picked her. I’d be there for her. That I’d take Avery so Vi could finish her book. “You think we’re going to get out of here in a couple of hours?” I ask King.

“No idea. Depends how long it takes everyone to get here. Why? You got somewhere you need to be that’s more important than here for a vote on an eight-figure heist?”

I shake my head but feel like I’m somehow letting Vi down. “Just trying to make sure Vi settles in smoothly. Happy wife, happy life, right?”

“Too fucking right,” Clutch says.

King tips his chin. “Looks like brothers are arriving. Let’s put all the toys down.”

We take our phones, weapons, and other tech and put them in the trays outside the door.

“What’s going on?” Niro asks as we walk back into the room.

“It’s big,” I say. “Let Vex explain.”

Once all the brothers are seated, he does. You can tell the moment he hits the punchline as people become animated.

“Why can’t we do this more often?” Wrinkle asks.

“Because there are certain conditions for it to work,” Vex explains. “We need it to be someone who can’t go to the police about it, because they’ll ask where the money came from in the first place. And our target needs to be small enough that they don’t have the resources to pursue us. Big corporations have big budgets for legal teams, and they are harder to hack into. Better firewalls and shit.”

People start chattering among themselves, and King bangs his gavel. “We aren’t doing more of it because we have our own code. I’m not going to fuck over a large corporation, because you know those elitist fuckers at the top will pass the loss onto the workers at the bottom. And I’m not going to fuck over individuals like us who work hard for what they’ve got. But the Brotherhood, damn right I’ll cut them off at the knees.”

Questions follow thick and fast. Switch asks about the risks. Halo has questions about how we confirm it really is their account. Vex answers every question in turn.