West (The Henchmen MC 19)

But, you know, only a little.

Whatever he might have said after that was interrupted by the ringing of his phone, making him reach for it, immediately sliding his finger across the screen, and moving away from me.

"Yeah? How'd it go? Yeah. I know. No. Alright. Good. Is everyone good? Yeah, she's good," he added, glancing over at me. "Yeah. Can do. Got it. You calling Daddy Reign or am I? Okay good. See you then."

"Are you leaving?" I asked, feeling the frown, and therefore wiping it off my face.

"I actually have a very important assignment."

"Oh," I said, hearing the defeated tone in my voice.

"Yeah. I am supposed to keep my eye on this really hot girl for the night."

"Oh, yeah?" I asked, smirking. "How hot?"

"Smoking. Five alarm shit."

"Interesting. And this woman, are you supposed to feed her?"

"I am supposed to make sure she is cared for. I imagine that includes feeding. Maybe even bathing. A nice, long, relaxing massage..."

"Gee, lucky girl," I said smiling.

And so I was.

So lucky, in fact, that I completely forgot to keep trying to pry for more information about what had happened earlier that night.

I wouldn't find out for several more days.

When absolutely everything went to hell.ELEVENWestEveryone was holding their breath.

Huck had landed three bullets.

But Malor stubbornly held onto life in a bed for three days before he died, sending his brother on a quest for vengeance that would have impressed the guys back in Navesink Bank.

It was brutal, bloody, and completely thoughtless, taking out everyone associated with the local street gangs, even if they hadn't been interested in the arms trade.

If the guys felt any guilt, they didn't show it.

I figured they didn't. Death, usually an early and brutal one, was something anyone going into illegal endeavors accept. I honestly didn't figure I would make it past twenty-five.

Adrian caught a bullet to the heart trying to take out another local gang, one that dealt in prostitution and nothing else.

He didn't die as far as any of us could tell, but he went underground, laid low, tried to recover fully. Thinking he had accomplished what he had set out to do.

Took out the cocky competition.

Got control over the trade.

We started celebrating too.

Because a huge chunk of the job was over.

Huck had all the guys and Gus and her squad hit the town, doing a crawl. And since I had very little to do with their actual victory, I went ahead and offered to be the designated sober person. We all walked or Uber'd, but there always had to be one somewhat sober person in every group to make sure shit didn't get too out of control.

That had never been me in the past.

But, it seemed like a lot of things had changed recently. And maybe even for the better.

I didn't even mind drinking a damn soda while the other guys pounded back rounds and shots, as the girls got drunk enough to start thinking of the bar itself as a possible dance floor.

I was happy to see Auggie out with her girls, even separating from the group of guys to spend some alone time with them. She'd made them all back-burner priorities. Which was not good for several reasons. One, because everyone hated the friend in a group who started seeing someone and then fell off the face of the earth for a while. And two, they were who had always been there, who would always be there.

While it didn't seem all that soon, I knew a day was going to come in the future when Reign would command I come home, tell me that my work was done here, that I belonged back in Navesink Bank.

I wouldn't exactly have any say in the matter.

Which meant I would have to do it.

Something that was getting harder and harder to accept.

I would have to leave.

Leave her.

That tightening sensation across my chest stretched damn near to the breaking point at the very idea.

Auggie had become important. We'd managed to spend pretty much every night together. Hanging out. Getting to know each other. It didn't matter how much I got, I found myself wanting more. Every night when I had to sneak out of the apartment, all I really wanted to do was scoop her up, carry her down the hall, and curl into bed with her.

I knew all the signs well enough by now. I'd seen all the guys fall one by one by one. It always started in small ways. Then kept building on. Until this new woman became the epicenter of their world.

Sure, I liked the men. I was sitting with them, even. But my gaze was on a wild blonde-haired girl whose arms were up over her head, making her skirt slip upward, revealing two-thirds of that tattoo on her thigh.

Taz.

The Tasmanian Devil from The Looney Tunes.