Rattle Some Cages (Battle Crows MC 3)

Even worse, I didn’t have a choice.

Faye hadn’t left me with one.

Damn you, Faye. You should’ve done this, so I didn’t have to. You know how talking to Banger makes me want to run for the hills.

“Banger.” I pressed my fingers against the bridge of my nose. “I swear to you, I swear. I didn’t know that she didn’t tell you. If I’d known, you would’ve been called. But when I got there, and realized what was happening, and realized that shit was bad, I didn’t have time to call you. To be honest, you didn’t even cross my mind.”

Banger looked broken.

She also looked pissed.

Which, I guess, I couldn’t blame her.

She wasn’t called when her stepsister was dying. I’d have been pissed, too.

But I wouldn’t be pissed at the person that’d been there. I’d be pissed at my stepsister.

“I just can’t believe this.” She shook her head. “All this time, and… I can’t believe she’s gone.”

I couldn’t, either.

Since I was the emergency contact for Faye, as well as all her legal things that allowed me to have power over everything, from her estate to her body, I knew what was coming next.

“What are you going to do with her ashes?” she asked.

Okay, apparently, I hadn’t known what she was going to do next.

I’d thought she was going to demand the ashes. Not ask what I was going to do with them.

“I think,” I said softly. “I’m going to spread them in all the places that she wanted to go, but couldn’t.” I paused. “Do you want to do that with me?”

Banger wiped her eyes furiously as she shook her head. “I… I don’t do well with deaths.”

That was why Faye hadn’t contacted her.

“Faye said that,” I admitted. “Did you get her letter?”

Banger swallowed hard. “Yeah, I did.”

“And you know that she sent one to Salem?” I asked.

Banger nodded.

“Have you talked with her?”

I kept glancing over at the table that housed the big man that I knew for a fact had seen me, yet hadn’t come over. His eyes were focused solely ahead as if he was purposefully not looking in my direction.

My stomach clenched.

“I talked to her.” Banger paused. “She’s just as upset as I was… but she understands. Just like I do.”

That filled me with relief.

“I really am sorry, Banger,” I apologized again. “I really didn’t know she didn’t call you. I would’ve said something.”

Banger swallowed, her eyes filling with tears. “I know.”

A disturbance at the table that I was looking at out of the corner of my eye had me twisting slightly in my seat to see what was going on.

And what I saw made my stomach turn slightly.

Because there was a woman at the table that housed Tide and Price.

That woman was standing between the two brothers with her hands on both of their shoulders.

She was looking at Price, though, and practically bending over and putting her breasts in his face.

“You know him?” Banger wondered.

I sighed and looked away, rubbing the ache in my chest as I did.

“Yeah.” I paused. “We met while we were in Florida. Surprisingly, he had the house right next to mine.”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s a coincidence.”

I nodded. It was.

Just as I agreed with her silently, the commotion at the table I was now actively trying not to look at forced me to look once again.

“You like him,” Banger said.

I sighed. “I do.”

“As in, you want to date him, like him?” she wondered.

I licked my lips and tried not to show any emotion as I saw the girl press a kiss to Price’s cheek. And Price laugh.

“I don’t know,” I admitted.

That was a lie, really.

It’d only taken me a couple of days of being at home to realize that I more than liked Price.

I thought about him constantly, and the fact that I couldn’t get him out of my head was a clear indication that I had feelings for him.

And, of course, seeing a woman kiss his cheek sparked a flame of rage inside of me.

Cole had been kissed like that thousands of times by friends and seeing it hadn’t sparked a single ounce of annoyance in me. But having some woman kiss Price like that? That was enough to make me want to get out of my seat and cause a scene.

And I didn’t do scenes.

Because scenes caused disturbances, which equaled attention. And attention was something I tried super duper hard not to attract.

“Because I feel somewhat responsible for your well-being now that my sister’s not here… just so you know…” Banger paused. “Those boys right there? They have pretty smiles, and they might act like they are normal guys, but… they’re not.”

I tilted my head slightly. “What?”

“They’re not normal people,” she answered. “This bar? This place? There’s a reason they’re here.”

I had no clue whatsoever what she was talking about.

“Okay…” I hesitated, waiting for her to add more.