Buttons and Pain (Buttons 3)

“Not a thing?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “I suspect he’s not in Italy. He’s probably gathering reinforcements to take us down. After what we did to him, I’m sure he wants our heads on silver platters. I mean, we’ve taken Pearl from him twice now.”

“Maybe if he had a bigger dick he could keep her around.” I wanted to set this man on fire and watch him burn. I had serious blood rage when it came to the people who hurt Button, but there was a special place in my ferocity for that man. I would revenge for my sister, my family, and for her. “We need to take him our once and for all. If we don’t, Button will never be able to go home and move on with her life.”

Cane was just about to open the folder when he flinched and turned his gaze on me. His look was frozen like the artic and just as unforgiving. He opened his mouth to say something insulting but then quickly changed his mind. “You know what…forget it.” He turned back to the paperwork and flipped through it.

“Forget what?”

He shook his head and didn’t answer.

“Cane, if you have something to say just say it.”

He slammed the folder down. “After all the shit we went through to get that woman you seriously are prepared to send her back?” Cane said vicious things to me before but he never meant them. While his words weren’t hurtful, his tone implied paramount hatred. He despised me in that moment—completely and utterly. “You took out a whole brigade of soldiers almost completely on your own then executed the survivors like a general in the Austrian army, and you’re still gonna look me in the eye and say you don’t love this woman?” That artic look never disappeared as he stared me down. His brown eyes identical to mine contained only hatred, not affection. My younger brother was actually disappointed in me. “I’m done talking about this. It’s pussy shit anyway.” He found the map of one of Bones’s factories then handed it to me. “I think we should strike here. It produces most of his commodities and if we trash the place it’ll lure him out. The guy is always on the move so we should draw him out to us.”

I stared at the map without really seeing it. My brother’s words echoed in my mind long after he said them. “Cane—”

“I’m done talking about it. Do whatever the hell you want. But next time you need help saving her or kidnapping her...or whatever the hell you plan on doing with her, don’t call me. Because if you do, I won’t help you.”

Cane wasn’t the emotional kind of guy and he didn’t give a damn about romance. This situation with Button bothered him but I couldn’t figure out why. “Tell me why this is so important to you. And don’t say it’s because you want me to be happy. There has to be more to the story.”

“You don’t give a damn so don’t act like you do.”

I threw the map onto the table and gave him my full focus. “I do.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not having this conversation with you. It’s girly and stupid.”

“Whether it’s stupid or not, we need to have it. Now spit it out so we can move on with our lives.” Cane and I didn’t have meaningful conversations about our feelings and what not. We just worked together and planned our movements of action. Most of the time he annoyed me, and I annoyed him. But the bond of blood between us kept us closer together than either one of us would admit. We didn’t even talk much about Vanessa after she died, but we were going to talk about this.

He rubbed the back of his neck with the same look of irritation still in his eyes. “You can’t give me shit for it, alright?”

That was the only thing I knew how to do. “Fine. Just tell me.”

“Alright…” He rubbed his palms together as he tried to gather his thoughts. “When you brought Pearl here I hated her. You knew what I wanted to do with her. You saw what I actually did to her.”

I clenched my jaw at the memory. I shot him in the arm after he hurt Button but that wasn’t enough punishment. The only reason why we were still talking was because we were family. Somehow, that bond outweighed my hatred.

“But I’ve learned a lot about her from having her around all the time. She’s strong, powerful, and she’s got a mouth that would make a soldier feel like shit. She’s got that drive, you know? She’s completes our trio.”

I didn’t have a clue where this was going but I didn’t ask. I waited for him to spit out his incoherent thoughts until he finally made his point.