Page 111 of I am Dressed in Sin (Death by Daybreak MC 2)
He can tell his family the opposite, that I love him, even though he doesn’t love me back.
The lie still works because it’s at least partially true. We do love each other; we’re just not in love.
“Make it look real,” he whispers, and even though it makes my skin crawl, I take my Magnum, and I pistol-whip him. Hard.
Grey crumples to the floor, but he’s still moving so that’s a good sign.
This whole thing is insane.
It’s absolutely insane.
“Get the girl and let’s go,” a voice calls out from the parking lot. It sounds vaguely familiar, and when I hazard a look over the railing, I notice another man in a DBD cut looking up at us. He’s new, last I remember he was a prospect, but he must’ve patched in since. What was his name? Something food-related. Caper, I think. The guy who dumped my bloody dog in my lap.
I think … Gaz was his sponsor.
“Gidget?” the guy asks, seemingly surprised to see me here. I barely know him, but he’ll know me. They all do. As best they should. I’m about to ruin their lives. “Why is your fucking sister here?”
“There’s more than one of you, eh?” Grainger asks Gaz. He’s just a few steps away from us, staring at me, flicking his eyes to Reba. I wish I could describe the triumphant rage in his face, but then I’d probably vomit. My brother is just that repulsive. “That makes sense.” The two men stare at each other, and then it clicks in Gaz’s thick skull. There’s more than one of you. There’s also more than one of us.
Two different sets of traitors; two completely different motives.
Gaz’s eyes move past me, and I can see in them both a certain sense of desperation and also a sprinkling of fear. He knows he’s been caught, but also, he’s caught us. What a clusterfuck.
Beast steps forward, encouraging Gaz to move back against the railing.
“You’re in big trouble, little sister,” he sneers as Grainger, Reba, and I slip past, and Beast watches our back. There’s nothing more to be said, and we’re running out of time.
We aren’t halfway down the alley, Beast trailing behind us, before the sound of gunfire echoes in the warm night air.
“Here it goes,” Beast murmurs, shaking his head.
“For every day that you delay, we destroy something. Every day, we add another person to the tally.”
At least now, we have Reba back.
In the nick of time. Seconds to spare.
Wow, Grey. Just … wow.
“He let me find him here, by the way,” Beast adds as he pulls out his phone and dials up Cat. Just like I did the day my sisters died, when I had to choose between 911 and my father. It’s always daddy, every fucking time. “That Grey kid. He’s dangerous as hell.”
Hearing Beast say that is scary. Interesting. The entire world would be different if I’d just killed Grey like I’d been told. For better or worse, we’ll have to see.
I glance over at Reba to find her watching me. We aren’t in her element anymore—that is, school, church, normal life. Maybe we never were. Anyhow, we are most definitely, thoroughly, and irrevocably entrenched in mine.
“I’m at the Palm,” Beast says, and then he’s walking, and I can’t hear anything else he’s saying.
“He’s leaving, but you stay?” Reba asks, giving Grainger a harsh look. It’s a bit of bravado, I can tell. She’s scared shitless so she’s putting on a good show. Makes me like her more because I’m the same damn way. “How on earth did we come to that sort of arrangement?”
Grainger studies her for a minute and then gives me a look, one that’s very clearly a warning.
You can’t keep her, he says, with just a single expression.
I should send Reba on a plane to … Paris? Does she have a passport? How about the Catskills in New York? I hear that’s nice. Anywhere but here. Anywhere but with me.
“Don’t you dare,” she murmurs, grabbing onto my arm. “We are in this together.” Her eyes well with tears, and I realize it then. She knows about her parents. She might have even …
I throw my arms around her and hold her close. Grainger doesn’t like it, but he lets me do it.
“What the fuck are we going to tell Cat?” he asks, and not for the first—or nearly the last—time.
“You brought this girl here?” Cat growls out, giving Crown such a dark look that it’s hard to remember he’s supposed to be his righthand man. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“This is Gidget’s friend,” Crown tells him in a very, shall I say, Crown-like way. That is, I realize he’s telling Cat exactly what he would’ve said whether I was involved in this or not. Whether he cared about me or not. This is what he actually believes. “She has nowhere to go. Her parents are dead, and as long as the mafia is after Gidget, they’re after her friend.”
