“Levi—”
“Has he fucking touched you?” Panic assails me. If he’s this angry about the hint of Daimon touching me, what will he do when he finds out my secret? I can’t allow Levi to do time for killing a brother, which is exactly what he’ll want to do when he hears the truth.
“No.” I grab his arm as he stands, rattling the table as he does. “Levi, sit the hell down.”
“Why’s he interfering in your life?” he snarls out and honestly, I’m a little scared. I’ve never seen my brother like this—other than when he pulled me out of Dad’s house, but that anger wasn’t directed at me then.
I swallow before I speak. “He’s just… being overprotective after that night in the club.”
“Ain’t his fucking business. You ain’t his fucking problem.”
Despite the situation, I arch a brow at him, my own anger flaring now. “Is that what I am to you? A problem?”
He tears his hands through his hair. “Don’t make this about shit it’s not.”
“You’re the one making it about shit it’s not.”
“He been around?”
I can’t lie to my brother. I should, but I can’t, so I open then close my mouth.
“He’s been around,” Levi correctly surmises and I can see the fury racing through his body. “He trying to get into your fucking knickers?”
“Levi—”
“Go back to work.”
He scowls and before I can stop him, he’s taking off for the door.
Shit.
15
Daimon
I’m sitting at the clubhouse’s bar with Ravage and Titch, drinking a pint and smoking a cigarette. We’re talking about my favourite topic—money. The club acquired a new business this week. We took it as a debt from a client who owed us a shit ton in missed payments. He’s down a business and two working kneecaps, but the message was delivered loud and clear to anyone else who feels like crossing us. It won’t be tolerated.
Problem is, we don’t know what the fuck to do with it.
We run bars and strip clubs. We’ve never run a real business before. What the fuck do we know about telemarketing? It’s a lucrative opportunity, though. Turns a good profit from what I can see from the books. It’ll be a good asset for the legal side of the Sons.
“You think we should keep the staff on?” Ravage asks me.
I scrub a hand over the back of my neck as I consider his question. “I think we don’t want the hassle of recruiting.”
He nods. “It looks like it’s going to give us a good income.”
“Yeah, it should,” I say, as I take a sip of my pint.
Titch leans forwards on the stool, so he can look past Rav to me. “You think we might need someone in place to oversee things? Make sure shit runs as we want.”
He’s probably right about that. We need someone we can trust to keep shit ticking over.
“What about Bailey?” I say.
Nox’s sister currently works at the garage as an administrator. We all trust her implicitly. She grew up in this life, a club brat, so she knows how shit works around here. Not sure she wants the job of CEO, but it’s worth asking.
“I’ll ask Nox to talk to her,” Rav agrees.
“Briella works in telemarketing,” Titch says.
“I’d rather have someone in place with a little more experience,” Rav says, “but she wants a job there it’s hers.”
The door suddenly bangs open behind us, drawing all of our attention. I turn quickly on the stool, even as Rav draws a gun from the back of his jeans. He lowers it when he sees who is standing in the doorway. Levi.
My heart rate starts to slow, until I realise he’s shooting fire in my direction. What the fuck? I slip off the stool, all my senses going on alert. Something is wrong. Very wrong.
He stalks towards me, anger pulsing from every part of his body. I brace, prepared for whatever is going to come at me. When he throws his fist out, I duck back easily, but the bar is at my back, meaning I can’t move far enough and he clocks me in the chops. Levi isn’t a small guy. He’s built and his punch connects hard enough to leave a trail of white-hot pain radiating through my jaw. I taste blood in my mouth, the coppery tang coating my tongue.
I stagger against the bar, clutching my face as I glare at him. Rav is standing between us, his hand pressed against Levi’s chest while Titch holds him from behind. He’s smaller than Levi by quite a way, but he’ll give as good as he gets if Levi decides to push things.
“The fuck, man?” I demand.
“Someone start fucking explaining.” Rav’s eyes flare with unbridled rage. Fights between brothers happen from time to time, but we usually dole out our grievances in the ring, not in the middle of the fucking common room. There’re rules
“What are you doing with my fucking sister?” Levi growls out, ignoring Prez completely.
I huff my breath out as I try to regain control of my anger. Cold clutches around my stomach at his words, an uneasy chill racing through me. I haven’t done a thing with Briella, but there’s definitely a connection there that I can’t and won’t deny.
“Fucking answer me, you bastard.” Levi’s mouth pulls into a snarl as his eyes shoot daggers at me.
I swipe my hand over my lip, pissed when I see a smear of crimson on my skin. Fucker made me bleed.
“Ain’t doing shit,” I sneer at him. “But maybe if you weren’t so wrapped up in club snatch you’d realise your sister is fucking drowning.” It’s cruel maybe to bring up his weird relationship with Noelle, but I chuck it right in his face.
Part of me wonders why I’m throwing myself to the wolves with this shit, why I care about sticking my nose into Briella’s business.
Except she’s more than that to me. I feel shit for her I can’t explain, shit I’ve never felt with any other woman.
Levi throws himself against Titch’s hold, fire blazing in his eyes. It might be sick, but I relish the rage in his glare. It’s about time he stopped putting his dick first and took care of Briella. She needs him, and I don’t care if I was the one who had to make him wake up and see that.
“The fuck do you know about my sister?”
“Enough to know she’s having nightmares every fucking night, that she can’t sleep because of it. Enough to know she’s drinking her fucking problems away because she can’t stop and deal with whatever is going on with her.”
My words cut through me, so they must gore Levi. How can we all have been so blind to what she’s going through?
Levi stops struggling and I see the pain bleed into his eyes at my words.
“She’s drinking?”
“Yeah, brother. That night in the bar she was tanked, but I’ve seen her since and smelt alcohol on her breath.”
“Sasha said she saw her in the park the other day getting drunk on a bench,” Rav adds.
I’m not surprised Sasha told him that. I get the impression there are no secrets between them any longer, not after keeping secrets nearly destroyed them both. Sasha kept hidden what Rav’s brother, Sin, did to her. She left town instead of dealing with the shame she felt, which left both her and Rav devastated. It was only when she was forced to come home because Lily-May, their daughter, was sick, that the truth started to come out.