“You done with your little reunion?” Smoke asks, brows raised. Smoke is also the enforcer of the club, and almost no one wants to cross him. Also a founding family.
Sissy stares between both of us. “Look, I don’t know anything, okay? I did a deal, the deal I was told to do, and I didn’t ask any questions. If something has gone wrong or missing, you need to check with your other people, not me.”
I take the two steps needed to reach Sissy, grabbing him by the throat and squeezing hard enough to feel his esophagus crunching beneath my hand. “Sissy, there has been word on the street that you’ve been working with the cartel. Now, if this deems true?” I smirk, cocking my head while keeping my eyes firmly on his. My brothers behind me noticeably dissolve farther into the background. “Then I’m going to come back here and pay you a little visit. Hell, I might even get one of my brothers from the mother chapter to come work his expertise. You heard of Viking, right?”
Sissy’s eyes stray, his skin paling. I grin, winking at him.
“Of course you have.” I shove him away from me and reach for the cigarette tucked behind my ear. “You’ve got forty-eight hours to find our money, Sis, or I come back, and bodies drop.”
I turn to leave, grabbing a bottle of vodka off the bar on my way out. Fucking hate doing this shit, and if Old Man Don wasn’t already dead, I’d drag his body out of the ground and eighty-six him all over again. Old fuck will be laughing in his grave. Just as I reach the entry, a skinny hand comes to my chest, stopping me on my way out.
“You going home alone, baby?” I turn to look down at her. Blonde hair, brown eyes, soft, pale skin, and legs that go on for fucking days.
I wrap my arm around the back of her neck and light the cigarette that’s between my lips.
“Nope.”
After getting the girls home, I unlock my front door and toss my keys onto the coffee table. My apartment—or our apartment is a loft-style with one-bedroom upstairs, overlooking the kitchen and living area, because that way I can see when Luca is home. The appliances are all stainless steel, with industrial-style cabinetry and a fridge large enough to occupy half the kitchen. The living room is my favorite place, where a nude fabric L-shaped sofa curves around a gas fireplace where a large TV hangs above it demanding to be seen. Timber-framed doors are to the left of the sofa, which opens out onto a small private patio that overlooks the town below. It works because right opposite is Mira’s restaurant. It’s good place to get drunk since I only have to walk across the road to my house.
This is the main street of our town, and every space is occupied with businesses. Beside Mira’s restaurant is a small bookstore, and then a coffee shop and so on, but behind Mira’s block, is exactly where I know Niko is right now. The headquarters for the TVK Halsin Charter. I know this because we used to play there as kids, but I was only allowed in when Niko or Ari was around. Ma, Niko’s mom, had always said I was safe there, but Niko never wanted to take any chances. As a kid, I’d get mad. As an adult, I appreciated his overprotectiveness. Both him and Ari. But now, seeing who he has grown into, it just makes me angry.
I open the fridge and take out a bottle of water, crawling upstairs to my bedroom and belly flopping onto my mattress.
Why is my phone ringing this early in the morning, and more importantly, who is it so I know who to kill? I reach for my nightstand, grabbing it off the charger and bringing it to my ear.
“What?”
“Someone partied way too hard last night,” Luca says on the other end.
I sigh, rubbing my palms into my eyes. “I have poor taste in friends. Did you know that?”
He chuckles. “Yes, I do. I must say, it got worse as you got older.”
I shuffle up my bed, pulling my sheets with me. This is probably the part where I should tell him about running into Niko last night since he and Niko were best friends too. I open my mouth, but the words don’t come.
“I’m about thirty minutes away, so go wash up.”
“You’re coming home today? I thought it was on Sunday?”
“Nope,” Luca murmurs, and I can hear him shuffling around in the background. “I’m coming home early because I miss my girl.”
I hide my smile by chewing on my bottom lip. I almost always like it when he calls me that. I like when he is like this. Wait. No, you don’t. Fuck.