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Trey was playing “the good son” tonight. It was his father’s birthday. There was only a handful of people on the planet Trey gave any shit for. His father topped that list.

And that meant he tolerated the rest of this little crowd. His family.

Timothy’s daughters. Two of them, anyway. Brianna was six or seven years younger than Trey. He’d known her his entire life. He just hadn’t known she was his half sister until after her brother Banks had been killed.

He tolerated Brianna okay now. She was stupid, vapid, and incredibly self-centered and self-absorbed. The other sister was just a stupid kid who looked like the other three sisters Trey had known growing up. She was bratty and a little bitch. He couldn’t stand her.

She made a lot of demands, and Trey’s father coddled her to a ridiculous degree.

She was the most precious one, after all.

She’d been named after Trey’s late stepmother. His father had idolized that woman. Trey had never understood that kind of obsession for a woman. But he missed his stepmother sometimes. She’d always treated Trey right. When she’d died, it had fucking hurt. Far more than when his own mother had died, that was for sure.

He had to admit, Brianna wasn’t too much of a pain in the ass. She was really trying to be a sister to him. Acting like she cared about him a little. He wasn’t stupid. She was vain and totally clueless about the real world. Hateful and spoiled and just useless, but harmless.

He’d been using her for years. Since her older half brother, his closest friend for decades, had been killed. She’d wanted to replace Banks with him as her precious big brother. Needed it or something.

Trey was letting her. What would it hurt? His dad was going to knock off one day. Trey wanted some sort of family after that.

Banks would have wanted him to look after Brianna too.

The way it was going, he’d just get stuck with Leena someday. That was the last thing he wanted. He really despised that kid.

The kid was sitting there at the dining room table, acting bored and whining and glaring at him like her shitty life was his fault.

Shit, Trey hated little girls like her.

Still, he made an effort at least to pretend he didn’t want to toss her into the streets blindfolded or something. Preferably right at rush hour or something.

He didn’t want to piss off his father. His father had been the only one to ever truly care about Trey. And his father wanted this whole “family” thing to work with Brianna—and the damned kid.

Brianna had control of and access to resources Trey needed to move the product where he needed it. Banks had been far smarter than Brianna ever would be. Banks had set things up so that someone could step right in and take over for him at any time without Brianna or Bethany even knowing. Trey had happily obliged.

He had used Banks before. He knew that. But it had mutually benefited them both. Until Banks had gotten stupid over a woman and gotten himself killed. Banks had gotten too impatient. Banks had decided he wanted the sister of a billionaire. The connections she could bring.

Well, Trey understood that. Half the reasons he’d looked at Powell to begin with a year or so ago was the connections she had. Then he’d noticed how hot she actually was. Maybe he’d gotten a bit stupid over Powell lately, too. Nothing serious, just that woman would get him one step up, no denying that. If not her, there were plenty more in Brianna’s social circle that could do what he needed.

But Powell was the most expedient. She had access to the properties he wanted now anyway. He just hadn’t wanted to do something stupid like Banks.

The governor had wanted the same woman as Banks. It hadn’t ended well for Banks. Hell, Trey could have told the fool that.

Losing one of his friends back then had really hurt. Trey still missed Banks. Now, he’d lost Steve too. Even if Steve lived, he was going to prison. Or he’d be a damned vegetable forever.

Joey and Jody and Kyle—all gone now. Even that little pissant Luke was gone now too.

It felt like everything was falling apart. It was all the TSP’s fault.

They had to do something. They’d been running a major distribution center out of Wyoming. But the damned cops in Wyoming had discovered them when one of their longtime drivers had gone right off the rails. Guy had had a wife and then a girlfriend both OD and have heart attacks after giving birth to kids. From the OPJ.

That guy was a dude bent on revenge. That guy was still out there somewhere now. Hunting them all.

They’d have to deal with him eventually. If they could find that cagey redheaded bastard. One shot between the eyes, and it would be taken care of. Trey was looking forward to it.

Just like they had taken care of Warner after that murdering bastard had killed Banks and taken the governor’s whore that day.

Just like they’d take care of that hot-ass bitch Steve had been so obsessed with and everything. Eventually.

Trey wanted to kill her personally. He’d hated her for decades.

And the boys he ran things with—they had their eyes on her now. It was just a matter of time before they took her out completely.

Everything got what they deserved eventually. It was just the way the world worked. But he wanted to kill her more than he had ever wanted to kill anyone. Bitch had it coming.

“Bri took me to the park, Daddy! I made new friends. Nyra and Nyma and Maisy.”

“I told you they weren’t your friends. You’ve just met them,” Brianna told her. But there was no bite in Brianna’s tone.

She was mellowing to the kid. No surprise.

Didn’t all women come with some sort of “mommy” gene in there somewhere? Even Brianna. He looked at his sister—yeah, he supposed Brianna was a woman beneath the lizard scales and everything. To his shock, she wasn’t even ugly or anything. She and Trey even looked a little bit alike. She should probably get married, make Timothy some grandkids to occupy his time. Get him out of Trey’s hair a bit.

Hell, maybe Trey would end up being that crazy old uncle someday. Giving weird presents and farting everywhere. Far as he knew, one of his other sisters had a kid now already too. Maybe. He didn’t really keep up with them or anything. He did wonder about them sometimes, though. He hadn’t really hated them or nothing.

He was already Uncle Trey. Made a guy feel old or something.

“Just because you don’t like their family. Well, they can be my best friends in Texas if I want.” Leena wrinkled her nose and made an ugly look at Brianna.

“Who are these children?” Trey’s father asked, running a hand over Leena’s dark brown hair.

It was curling everywhere. Kid had really wild hair. Just like one of Trey’s other sisters’ had had. Like Timothy’s curled. Hell, he wondered if that little sister’s hair still curled like that. She had to be like thirty now or something. Leena did look just like that girl had. He had four more sisters out there—Trey still wondered about them sometimes. What they were like now. His little sisters hadn’t been too bad, really.

“Did you have fun?” his father asked. Like he really cared about the kid or something. Hell. Trey hadn’t spent much time with her. He didn’t feel like she was his kid sister or anything, but that was what she was. And his father loved her.

Damn.

Guess he couldn’t throw her out into rush hour traffic after all.

“Until Brianna made me leave. But they had to go eat dinner, too, so it was okay. We’ll play again next time.”

“I told her I don’t want her near those Colesons at all, Timothy. They aren’t the right kind of family,” Brianna said with a sniff.

Well, Trey agreed with her. Heather Coleson was a first-class bitch. He didn’t want her near his kid sister either.

“The Colesons?” Timothy stiffened. Yeah, Coleson was a trigger word with Timothy. No denying that. “I see. Leena, you listen to your sister. Stay away from that family.”

“But their mommy was really, really nice. Her name is Joy. And she was very happy and very pretty too. She was singing to Nalla. Nalla is only three. But Joy has icky scars on her neck where a bad guy got her and hurt her really bad. Nyma told me. Isn’t Joy a pretty name?” Leena asked. She missed the way Trey’s father tensed. But Trey didn’t. “You should marry her, and then she could be my new mommy. She is a doctor too. And really, really pretty. She has brown eyes like mine too. Like my mommy did, I think. Did my mommy have brown eyes, too, Daddy?”

Trey’s eyes met his father’s. He saw the fury there. Trey snickered.

“She did. Just like yours.”

“Yes, Daddy, you should marry Joy Coleson, and she could be Leena’s new mommy. I can’t think of anything more perfect than that.” Trey smirked at his father. He was still laughing at his father’s response when his phone rang. And he learned that bastard Gunnar Erickson had struck again.

In a very big way. Fuck it all, Trey hated that man.

Trey honestly didn’t know what to do now.