Page 51 of Vengeance (Ruthless MC 4)
“It wasn’t really a childhood,” I admit.
I have to break through all kinds of unspoken memory rust to get the words out. “My mom got pregnant—probably not for the first time. But she decided to have me because my father had money. And I guess she figured it would be a good way to keep him on the hook. That didn’t work out for her, though.”
I frown around the taste of this story, so bitter in my mouth. “He died when I was three. But she kept making the same man-shaped mistake over and over again until her love of career criminals finally caught up to her.”
“So every criminal you’ve ever gotten close to has died on you?” Des-E says with a sympathetic look.
“But you know that’s not always the case, right?” Vampire’s also looking at me a little more softer now. And his cold, flat voice has taken on a thoughtful note. “We don’t all die terrible deaths, like in the movies, or rot in jail.”
His observation flusters me. Mostly because I didn’t realize that was an assumption I was operating on until he pointed it out. But now that he mentions it, I easily recall how many regulars we had at the roadhouse who were in their fifties and sixties, including Nestor himself—even though he grew up in a Greek mafia family.
Des-E points out, “I come from a crime dynasty. And you’d be surprised how many of my uncles are still knocking around in their sixties, telling wild stories. I got a great-grandma about to turn eighty in a few months, and my eighty-two-year-old grandpa’s arranging the whole party.”
He sits all the way up in bed to tell me, “That’s the difference between street crime and organized crime. Organized crime is a business with rules, the same as legit ones—that’s why it’s so easy for some guys like Phantom Zhang to go semi to fully legit. And if you know how to conduct your business and play by the rules, there’s very little overturn. We don’t go shooting each other up over nothing, and the Reapers have never had to go to war. So, if there’s any doubt about that in your mind, know it’s safe for you and B2 here with us. Our MC goes out of its way to keep our families safe.”
“Okay, if you say so,” I mumble as my trusty voice of reason calls them all sorts of liars. You can’t trust anyone, Allie. No one but yourself. You have to remember that, no matter what they tell you.
Vampire arches an eyebrow at me. “You don’t sound like you believe us.”
“Is believing you a requirement for my punishment?” It takes every bit of my restraint not to raise my hands to make air quotes around the word punishment.
Vampire regards me for a cold second. “No. You don’t have to believe us. We never asked you to believe everything we said without question or doubts. But if you don’t believe us, we’re asking you not to act like you do anymore. If you think we’re being unreasonable or that we’re full of shit, you need to tell us that. You not telling us what you were really thinking is what got us here.”
Guilt stirs in my stomach again. But before I can defend myself, he says, “Now, go on with your story.”
So, I push on. “Anyway, after my mom died, I decided to become a doctor. But I had to pay back these huge student loans for undergrad and medical school. And that’s why I asked Nestor to let me work at the roadhouse.”
“Why did he say yes to giving you a job?” Hyena asks before I can go on to the next part. “I, for one, love your titties. But you were the only girl under a C-cup allowed to work there.”
“I don’t know why,” I answer quickly. “Nestor and me didn’t really talk about it. He just put me to work behind the bar when I asked him for a job.”
Hyena regards me with a disappointed look, then heaves a huge sigh before saying, “Okay, I left one part out of my story. The part where I went to Nestor, after hearing he’s some kind of uncle to you, with a bottle of that Greek ouzo stuff he likes so much. I asked him what it would take to make you our woman. And he told me not to bother—that you wouldn’t even just let him pay for your schooling. He said you refused to let any man help or take care of you because you were too messed up to trust anyone after what happened to your mother.”
Everything inside of me freezes.
It never occurred to me…it never occurred to me, somehow, that Hyena already knew my story. The one I never talk about. Ever.
