Buttons & Hate (Buttons 2)

“I didn’t fall in love with her.”

“Well, something happened. You chose her over me. I won’t forget that easily.”

“What are you talking about?”

“First, you deny me my revenge. I told you on several occasions how much that meant to be. And then you fucking shot me. What the fuck, Crow?”

“You broke into my goddamn house and tortured her. What did you think I was gong to do?”

“Pick your brother instead of some whore.”

“Don’t call her that.” She was anything but a whore. She was mine, and mine alone.

He rolled his eyes. “Here we go again. What’s with this woman? Bones offers to pay forty million bucks for her, and you shoot your own brother to protect her? Is her pussy heaven or what?”

“Don’t talk about her pussy.” My neck tensed in offense and I stopped myself from grabbing my gun.

He gave me an incredulous look. “I don’t even know you anymore, man.”

“She’s off limits to everyone. She doesn’t belong to Bones, and she won’t be used to get revenge on Bones. We’ll figure something else out. So back the fuck off.” If he pulled another stunt I really would kill him.

He crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head slightly. “Do you understand how insane you are?”

“Do you understand how much of a dick you are?”

“I risked my neck to get that bitch out of there, in case you forgot.”

“And I offered to compensate you for that, if you don’t remember.”

“But I don’t want money,” he snapped. “All I want is revenge. And I got some of that when I beat the shit out of her. If you want me to apologize, you’re wasting your time. I don’t feel remorse and I never will. If I could do it all over again, I would.”

Now he crossed a line. “Cane, I’ll shoot you again—in the goddamn head.”

“You may as well. I’m not your brother anymore and you aren’t mine either. So what does it matter?”

In the back of my mind I understood Cane’s thoughts. We snatched Button for one reason but everything changed when I saw that fiery ferocity. I took her under my wing with the intention of using her for my own satisfaction, but she brought out the soft version of me—a version I didn’t know existed. Protecting her was an act of betrayal to Cane. I understood it. “We’re always brothers. We’re all we have left of family. But don’t cross me again. I should kill you for what you did to her.”

He stared at me with the same cold expression I’d received my entire life. “I’m not stopping until I avenge Vanessa. I’ll kill whoever is in my way—even your plaything.”

“You really think Vanessa would want this?” I demanded. “Pearl is just an innocent woman that was snatched while on vacation. She was sold like livestock and then sold to a psychopath like Bones. She’s just as innocent. Why does she have to pay the price of another man’s actions?”

“I don’t care if she’s innocent. I don’t care if she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is where she ended up and she just has to deal with it. Someone fucked with my family and I have to strike with full force. She’s essential to that.”

“She’s no longer part of this game. You and I will get our vengeance in some other way. When we put our minds together, great things happen.”

“I don’t want to get vengeance in some other way.”

“Wouldn’t you want to kill him?” I asked. “With your bare hands?”

“No. I want him to suffer the way I’ve suffered.” He was stubborn and set in his ways. When he made a decision he stuck to it unless it crumbled underneath him. “I want to hurt someone he loves the way he hurt Vanessa.”

“Well, we’ve accomplished that. His slave has been our prisoner for six months.”

“Your prisoner,” he kissed. “And we didn’t get under his skin until I sent him those pictures. That will haunt his dreams the way he’s haunted ours.”

“Or we just started the war of the century.” When I met Bones the night before the intensity rang in the atmosphere. Very few words were shed, but the hostility was evident. “I met him last night.”

Cane dropped his anger. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me like I was criminally insane. “Why?”

“I tried to pay him off.”

“You’re kidding, right?” he asked. “You paid him to keep his slave?” He clutched his head like he was about to explode. “So, we steal here and then you offer to pay him? You sound like his bitch.”

“I just wanted him to back off.”

“Did he take the cash?”

“No.” Unfortunately. “The war rages on.”

“That means she means even more to him than we realized.” A slight smile upturned his lips. “Good thing I beat her. He’s probably going insane right now.”