I smirk down at her, pressing the gun to Lana’s forehead, right between her eyes. Meraki instantly stops.
“Okay, okay, I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
Dragging my finger down the curve of her lip, I press it into her mouth and watch as her face scrunches from the taste of blood from Lana’s birth. The baby was already on its way, but Meraki would already assume that.
“It’s not about you, Mer—” I cock my head to the side and smile down at her. “This time, it’s about me.” I find the umbilical cord that’s still attached to the placenta and carefully wrap it around Meraki’s throat. “…and Lana.”
Meraki launches off the bed. “Nooo!”
Click.
Empty.
“Tsk, tsk.” I wriggle my finger in front of Lana. “Looks like you’re not dead yet, so now.” I tug the buckle of my jeans off. “Now I’m going to make you really wish you were.”
“Luca, I’ll do anything. Please.”
I use the belt to wrap it around Meraki’s wrists before removing her jeans and shoving them down around her ankles. Running the tip of the gun down Meraki’s belly, I continue to rub it down the slit of her pussy before shoving the head into her opening. Pulling back the lock, she continues to wriggle beneath me, so I bring my hand down and slap her across the face.
“Sit the fuck still or you know where I’ll start first…”
Instantly she stops moving, and I shove the gun farther inside her gap.
“Good girl.” I trail my other hand up the inside of Lana’s thigh as I lean down to Meraki’s ear and whisper, “Don’t worry, lover. A bullet for a bullet.”
And I pull the trigger.
I look down at the little piece of paper with my name scribbled across, glaring up at Lydia every two seconds when she goes silent.
“Why’d you fuckin’ lie?”
She has the decency to squirm, her cheeks turning red and tight. Lydia doesn’t know shit about me, because if she did, she’d know that I wouldn’t be played into the baby mama world without checking facts.
“Nik, I’m sorry. I panicked! You… I saw you with that girl you grew up with and—”
I wave my hand up to silence her. “Lydia, you fuckin’ lied to me.”
“You do all the time!” she yells, her hands flying around the room as she shoves herself up from the chair she’s sitting on.
The clubhouse is empty for once, and of course, Lydia chooses this time to come in and cause a fucking scene.
I stare at her, brows raised. “The fuck I do…”
She spins to face me, her hair wild and eyes damp. A better man would give a fuck that I’ve just hurt this chick, but I’ve never claimed to be a better man. In fact, I’m not sure I’d call me a man.
“You cheated on me all the fucking time!”
I lean back in my chair, unfazed. Lydia starts pacing back and forth in front, her fingers going through her hair, then coming back down to rest at her sides.
“One,” I say calmly, not to antagonize her, but because I genuinely could not give a fuck. “You knew exactly what you were getting when we started seeing each other, Lydia. I told you I wasn’t on the market to settle or be monogamous, but you thought you could change me anyway, and two, get the fuck out of my clubhouse. I tried to do things right by you out of common decency—which, by the way, I don’t have—but the second you tried to trap me with a fuckin’ fake baby, you lost my respect.” I flick my finger over her shoulder as her bottom lip trembles. “Get out.”
I wait until I hear the door slam in her departure before I pull my phone out of my pocket and hit dial on a number I truly…
Truly did not want to call.
I grin around the trunk of my cigarette. “’Sup, Pap.”
“So we know who is whacking off the leaders of the underworld, but we can’t do anything about it yet?” Fanta asks, stubbing out his joint in the ashtray in front of him.
The young prospect points to it. “You know you can vape that shit now. You don’t need it rolled, nor do you need to put all that effort in, man.” Prospect—I forgot his fucking name—is a twentysomething TikTok famous influencer.
Shithouse.
I ignore their bantering and turn my attention to Lester who is seated to my right.
Lester flicks his cigarette butt into the ashtray, slowly taking his eyes off mine and resting them on the rest of the brothers that are seated around the table. “We’ll figure shit out. For now, we need three of you to run guns down to another chapter. You’ll meet with a man Viking. I’m sure you’ve heard of him.” Everyone has heard of him. Beside the point, he needs a heavier distraction. Lester wasn’t a fan of finding out just who I was, but when he read the letter that Old Don left for me, it made sense to him.