The Woman from the Past (Grassi Framily)

“I have to agree with Nino here. Which you know I hate doing,” August said, shooting a smirk at our brother. “Our business here was never to annihilate the whole crew. It was to right a wrong we caused, right? From where I’m standing, the wrong is only Colin and his couple of fucks who are just too evil to live.”

That was fair.

I think there was some part of me that was worried that if anyone deemed “bad” was left, they might come for Cammie or her brothers. But that made no sense. Especially since my plan was to get Cammie the hell out of the area as quickly as possible.

A little voice said that as far away as possible was going to be my bed in my home in Navesink Bank, but since I had no fucking idea if Cammie was even considering shit like that, I had to remind myself that all of this could be over on Sunday evening.

I might never see her again.

A part of me understood that the smartest bet for her was likely taking her brothers and running toward the other side of the country, disappearing into a medium-sized city, and never looking back.

It was fucked, but I was sort of hoping she was going to choose not to be that smart.

Christ.

I had to get a grip.

It was one fuck.

I shouldn’t have been so goddamned distracted by it, consumed by the memory of it.

I wanted to tell myself that it was just her enthusiastic responses, the way she was ultra-sensitive to every touch, and the explosive orgasms that had coursed through her.

But I’d had good sex before.

So it had to be something more than that.

“Yo, are you paying attention?” August asked, snapping me back to the present moment.

“No, you’re right. I think I was being overly cautious when I worked this plan up. The most important target is obviously Colin. And then the three fucks who have terrorized this neighborhood, because they are the most likely to step into his place and figure out that there was a potential to merge with the Calgary Family.”

“Agreed,” Nino said.

“Yeah, I’m good with this,” August said, nodding.

“What?” I asked, catching August giving me a strange look.

“Never saw you asking us our opinions on a job,” he admitted. If I thought he was going to leave it at that, I wouldn’t know my brother at all. This was August. A shit-starter. Someone who never had a filter, even when it was smart to shut his damn mouth. “Could it be that you’re too distracted by pussy to think straight.”

“Fuck,” Nino sighed even as I started to step toward August.

Growing up, fighting—actually fist-to-face fighting—hadn’t exactly been a rare occurrence. There were a lot of headstrong, opinionated boys all in a row. It was inevitable. But it had been a long-ass time since I put my hands on my brother in anger.

I figured I was over it.

Apparently, I was just looking for the right provocation.

In this case, saying shit about Cammie.

“You can hit me all you want, man,” August said, angling his chin up as I got closer. “But it won’t change the fact that you’re into this chick and it is clouding your judgment. If you don’t want to hear the truth, tough fucking shit. I’m not going to bite my tongue because it pisses you off what I have to say.”

Those words stopped me right when I was going to take the final step toward him.

My fingers were itching to curl into a fist, but I had to admit that he had a point. Not only that, but I had to respect someone being willing to call me out when I was wrong.

“Listen,” Nino said, moving in at our sides. “August, you’re not wrong,” he said, nodding. “But you also have to know it isn’t your fucking place to question whichever man is above you.”

“I’m not questioning a man above me. I’m questioning my brother,” August clarified. “Because he doesn’t have his head on straight, and someone needs to say it.”