Page 59 of The Revenge You Seek

The pain helps, it always has but it's not enough.

The only thing that calms it is her. This is why I already know that I'm not going to be able to turn my back on her.

* * *

The house is a fucking disaster when I emerge the next morning. There are bodies in all states of undress as I make my way to the kitchen for a coffee.

The only sounds that can be heard are that of the passed out drunks snoring and someone heaving somewhere. I really fucking hope that's into a toilet, or at least in one of the guy's bedrooms.

"Thought you'd stay the night, eh?" I ask Reid as I join him in the kitchen.

"Shit in the Creek can wait for a bit."

I kick some guy in the stomach who's passed out in the middle of the kitchen.

"Out," I bark the second his eyes flicker open and he slowly climbs to his hands and knees and crawls from the room.

Slamming the door loudly behind him, I turn back to Reid.

"Why are you really here? You don't need college to get pussy," I mutter, knowing that he's got girls lined up in the Creek to get a piece of Victor Harris's firstborn son, the prodigy that's going to take over the empire one day.

"Maybe I wanted one who didn't know who the fuck I was."

"Really?" I ask suspiciously. It's no secret that Reid likes to flaunt his power to get whatever the fuck he wants, women included.

"What can I say? Change is good for the soul."

"You're full of shit."

Reaching for a mug, I start the coffee machine, feeling his eyes burning into my back.

"You got a question, just fucking ask it, bro."

He hesitates, giving me a chance for my mug to fill and I spin around, mimicking his stance leaning against the counter with a mug in my hands and wait for him to spill.

There’s no fucking way he came here to party like a college kid. It's not his style.

"Do…" he starts before looking at his feet.

"Reid, say it. Ask it. Whatever the fuck it is. I've got your back, you know that."

He's a year older than Devin and me but we've grown up close as fuck. We've worked side by side for years for their cunt of a father. I know them better than my own family—not that I've got much of that left these days.

"Are things going okay around here, you know… with business?"

"It's only been a week," I say, my brows drawing together.

"I know but that's long enough to know if you've seen anything suspicious."

Devin and Ezra might think they own this place, that they’re in charge of business, but the truth is that there's someone pulling their puppet strings, and that person is Reid. He might not have enrolled here, but there's no doubt about who's in charge of this little takeover mission. The younger Harrises are just the ones on the inside making the connections.

"What exactly are you suggesting? That they're not pulling their weight," I say, tilting my chin toward the ceiling to indicate where his younger brothers are sleeping above our heads.

"I'm sure it's nothing. Vic's worried that they're not getting through shipments quick enough."

"Well, then he needs to slow down the fucking shipments. Three guys can only shift so much while studying and making it look legit."

"I know, I know. He just sent me to check things out."