Buttons and Shame (Buttons 4)

I felt bad for her—again.

I walked to the front door on the other side of the house and checked the peephole.

It was Crow. And Pearl.

“Shit.” I knew I couldn’t run from him forever. He was bound to track me down one way or another. Now that I was certain I was keeping Adelina, I had to come clean to my brother. I just wish Pearl weren’t there to witness the conversation. Her goodness always made me feel like shit.

I opened the door and walked out, making sure the door shut behind me so Adelina couldn’t overhear the conversation. “Beautiful day, huh?” I placed my hands in my pockets and smiled at Crow, trying to ignore the furious look on his face.

Damn, he looked mad.

“What the fuck, Cane? Why are we shipping weapons to someone who’s only paid half?” He was in a black t-shirt and dark jeans with a gun on his hip. He obviously expected to shoot me again.

Pearl hung in the background, trying to be quiet since this really didn’t concern her.

I was surprised she was there.

“Fuckface, I asked you a question.” He stepped closer to me to get my attention again.

“Don’t worry about it, alright?”

“Don’t worry about it? I’m out ten million dollars just because?”

“Tristan keeps his word. We both know that.”

Both of his hands formed fists. “That doesn’t matter. We don’t make exceptions for anyone—period. Now that we’ve done it for Tristan, we’ll have to do it for others.”

“No, we won’t. Chill.” I wasn’t going to bring up Adelina unless I absolutely had to. Pearl would rip my eyes out of my head. Not to mention, her disappointment would kill me.

“I’m not gonna chill, asshole. I’m flying out there, and I’m getting the other half of our payment. End of story.”

No, that wasn’t gonna work. “Crow, let me handle it. I’ve got this deal taken care of. The money will be here in less than a month.”

“Less than a month?” he asked incredulously. “We have employees to pay, Cane. When did we stop being a business and turn into a charity? None of this is making sense. You’re always such a hard-ass, and now you’re soft?”

“I’m not soft,” I said with a growl.

“Then why did you let Tristan get away with this?”

There was no answer I could invent that would make any sense. But I didn’t want to come clean about the trade I made. Maybe if Pearl weren’t standing right there, it would be different. Crow would understand. After all, he fell in love with his own slave, and now she was his wife. “Pearl, give us a moment.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I’m a Barsetti too. I’m not going anywhere.”

I turned to Crow, silently asking him to get rid of her.

He only shook his head. “Tell us what’s going on, Cane. There’s something you aren’t telling me. You can either fess up like a man, or I can rip it out of you. What’s it going to be?”

I ran my hand through my hair as I stared across the Tuscan fields. My neighbors in the distance had a large vineyard, so I had a nice view from the front porch. The olive trees in front were in full bloom. “Look, here’s the deal…”

Crow narrowed his eyes. “Better be good, Cane. You better justify why I’m out ten million dollars.”

He definitely wasn’t going to be happy with my explanation. “I was at the airport when I saw this woman. I couldn’t stop staring at her, and when I finally went over to make my move, she wouldn’t speak to me.”

Pearl looked just as confused as Crow did.

“I gave up on her and moved on. I got to France and met with Tristan. I saw that same woman there…who’d been trafficked. He told me to have a go with her before we sealed the deal.”

Pearl’s face slowly contorted into a look of rage. She was about to explode like a volcano, lava shooting out everywhere and directly into my veins.

“She said no, so I didn’t go through with it, alright?” I said before Pearl could jump to conclusions. “But I did other stuff with her instead.”

Crow wasn’t surprised by this conversation at all. His face looked like a wall of stone.

“Tristan said he couldn’t pay the second half up front, so he offered her as a loan for thirty-one days. When he gives me the money, I hand her back. That’s the deal.”

Crow dragged his hand down his face then squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “So, let me get this straight. You traded ten million dollars to fuck some woman for a month?”

When he put it like that, I didn’t sound so great. “Yeah…”

He rubbed the back of his neck as he stared at the ground. There was so much rage in his frame that he didn’t know what to do with it. Normally, he just insulted me because that came naturally. But this was a new kind of rage. “Cane…this is ridiculous. We’re taking her back to Tristan, and we’re getting our weapons or the money.”