Page 6

“Careful Flower, I always did like crushing petals.”

A hard jolt to my side snaps me back to the present.

“Pay the fuck attention, where's your head at man?”

That’s Beige being a dick. The company we are expecting hasn’t even arrived here yet.

“Hey, what’s up with that Addy guy you hired to run the club?”

I change the subject swiftly to draw attention away from my inner monologue with a certain tiny danger. I haven't been able to get that conversation from last week out of my head.

I mean seriously, what was that last bit about? Was he flirting with me? He couldn’t be right? The motherfucker has one facial expression if you exclude the day he smiled at Ressyn only. Which irks me to think about, so I don’t think about it. At all.

But seriously. Why did he smile at Ressyn? He doesn't even know him. I know I can be less than welcoming, but we had a whole conversation, or rather he had a whole conversation and I stood there trying to figure him out.

The fucking fact is that he didn’t smile at me. Not one twist of his poisonous lips. I know he has an agenda; I just hope I can convince Res before it's too late.

“How about you find yourself some business and stay out of mine. What's up with you and that pretty boy huh? Don’t see me all up in your shit.”

I curse internally when my eye twitches. That little fucking shit pointed out the flaw with the soft caress of a tricky little finger.

“There's nothing up with me and Harlyn. I'm just watching him close is all. He has that look about him. An act of soft innocence with a slow burn until he slithers out of nowhere and fucking bites you.”

Beige grunts in agreement, then hums in consideration like he does. “Addy likes him. Says he's good people.”

“Addy would fuck a fishing pole if you let him.”

Rain butts in and laughter sounds from all of us. Even our stepbrother Kai laughs which hasn’t happened since they have been on the outs.

One minute Rain’s standing to my left and the next he's sprawled out on the ground. Beige beats the shit out of him while we observe the wreckage with no move to intervene. I take a mental note to never fuck with Addy.

“Alright enough, they’re here.”

Ressyn says.

Him being here is pretty unusual. He typically stays back at the club and works on the day to days. But this is a new potential partner to work with, so his presence is necessary.

Three black SUV’s pull up outside of the abandoned warehouse we chose as a meet point. Several men file out and wait for the last car to follow suit. They are all dressed in impressive clothing that screams money. Something we have never particularly cared about. As we speak Kai is wearing something idiotic that is all him.

The back door to the last car opens and a tall brawny male steps out wearing a suit like the rest of them. He leads the way and precisely eleven men follow behind him. As they draw closer, shit gets a little strange. Six of them have a scar starting at their left brow that stops mid cheek including their leader. Almost all of them with the exception of the leader and two other men have metal collars around their necks with a green light in the center. The two men without the collars have jagged scars eerily similar to the ones that Harlyn has around their necks. My gaze flicks to my brothers briefly and I can tell they are recognizing the same thing.

Red hot anger flows through me. Does Harlyn work for this motherfucker? Is he a spy? I fucking knew he couldn’t be trusted. I knew it. I felt it in my gut that he was hiding something. And he will pay for this in blood.

“Hello gentlemen, my name is Marcus. I thank you kindly for finally meeting with me.”

Ressyn doesn't miss a beat before he steps forward, just not in greeting. “What the hell are those collars for?”

Thank fuck he asked because I'm sitting on the edge of my nonexistent seat, dying to know.

The brawny hums. His eyes are dark little things that send unease down my spine. He looks like a fucker who eats kittens for dinner and jacks his dick while doing it. Whatever he was expecting from this meeting I hope Res doesn't give it to him.

“At a very young age, my father told me you can never trust loyalty. You cannot buy it, you cannot will it to be true.”

He waves his arms around with a comfortable air about him. The whole thing is very nonchalant, but it has my heart rate increasing and I can't help but feel like something isn’t right. “However, you can control it.”

He motions for one of his men to step forward, and he takes a position next to Marcus.

He tries to mask his features, but it's clear as day that he’s scared. It's in the tremor of his hands and the rapid shift of his eyes. The guy can't be any older than 20 and my unease grows tenfold.

I see Kai shift on his feet in my peripheral, and Rain puts a discrete hand on the small of his back to stop him from fidgeting.

“And I do control it.”

Marcus pulls a remote from his suit pocket and presses a button that has the guy falling to his knees with a feral scream. He scratches at his neck to pull the offending device off of himself to no avail.

The sound and smell of burning flesh is definite. I can feel more than see Shaide vibrating from behind me.

We run illegal practices that sometimes involve less than ethical techniques, but what Marcus is showcasing like a man who’s mad he has a small dick is beyond words. Plain and fucking simple.

Guaranteed loyalty. Forced by torture.

Something that Harlyn said back in Ressyn’s office comes to the forefront of my mind, highlighting a new meaning.

“I don’t have any official job history. In fact, I have never been paid a penny in my life.”

Holy shit...

The screams cease, the guy now passed out on the gravel. His body is covered in beads of sweat and trickles of blood flow from his neck in a few areas. The light on the collar is red, and the sizzle that sounds in the quiet area indicates that it's still activated. By the way his body convulses I would say the device is also shocking him.

It's sick even for me. Beige looks on in curiosity because he's a psychopath. Poor Ressyn’s skin is ashen, and Kai clings to Rains T-shirt with a tight first. Shaide I can't see, but I have no doubt that his bleeding heart is begging for him to kill Marcus and take all these men in. It's in his DNA.

After what seems like forever of no one speaking, Marcus clicks a button on his disgusting remote to stop the collar and breaks the silence.

“As you can see, my men have no choice but loyalty. This guarantees that the relationship we build with you will go off without a hitch.”

He smiles like he won something. Like his show was impressive and not the act of a mad man.

I may owe Harlyn an apology, but he won't get one. I still don’t like him and his little wondering hands.

God stop thinking about his hands.

“Now that the introductions are out of the way, we can talk business.”

Marcus hardly gets the sentence out before Ressyn is interrupting him.

“That won't be necessary. We won't be conducting anything further.”

The slight tightening around Marcus’s mouth is the only indication that Ressyn struck a nerve. My body is wired and ready should any problems arise. My gun sits on my hip and my hand is itching to grab it and put a bullet between his eyes.

“Let me make myself clear Mr. Hue. My business is moving into Array City, and you will be with me or against me. Nobody wants a war.”

“My decision stands, we’re done here.”

Red lasers appear on Marcus and his men in an instant. Shaides shadows were locked, loaded, and hidden away the moment we arrived. Asia must have gotten sick of the theatrics and decided Marcus overstayed his welcome.

He shows his hands and retreats slowly. Someone scoops the boy from off the ground and stuffs him into an SUV along with the rest of them.

After they pull away and are long gone we all slowly turn to face each other in silence.

“What the actual fuck was that?”

Kai screeches and chews his nails because he’s a mess.

Shaide steps forward in all his seriousness. I take one look at him and instantly know I was correct; he's fucking pissed. “The beginning of a war, that’s what. Drinks anyone?”