“My father sent one of his boys to start prospecting for your club in an attempt to give them intel. When his plan wasn’t working, he tricked me into believing if I gave him the information he wanted, he’d hand the gavel over when the time came. I realized this was nothing but a charade in order to get me to fall into line,” I feel stares on me from around the room, and a quick glance confirms everyone is listening to my words.
“I just came from the Aces of Night’s clubhouse, where I told my father to go choke on a cock because I’m not going to be his little bitch anymore. Nor will I be anyone’s bitch,” I look right at Leo, hoping he believes the truth.
“Who’s the rat?” He speaks with a gravelly tone.
“My mother taught me to never give information away, Leo. I want something.”
“You fuckin’ want something?” He snarls, taking a few steps toward me until he’s right in my face. With bloodshot eyes and a curled lip, he spits as he speaks. “You lied to me, deceived me in front of all my brothers, and you think you’re in the position to demand shit?”
I nod, “I do, because I have something you want.”
“God dammit!” He snaps.
“Give me fifteen minutes with you, where we can talk in private after I give you his name.”
“Five,” he counters back.
“Seven,” I reply.
“Six.”
“Seven it is, take it or leave it.” Back in high school, I found out a lot could be accomplished in seven minutes. I can only hope the same is true for a woman in her twenties.
“Give me the name.” He grumbles while his nostrils flare.
I glance behind me and look directly at my ex. “Jimmy, this is the part when you run.”
Chapter Eighteen
Leo
I can’t believe she’s here, telling me this. I can’t believe that she actually came back. I wanted to stay pissed at her, but there’s a sincerity in her eyes that I can’t ignore.
“Don’t let that motherfucker out of here!” I roar pointing at Jimmy as the guys all move. In seconds they have him ripped from his chair and hauling him toward the basement. I turn my gaze to Toni and glare at her. “You got seven minutes. Get in the office.” She turns on her heel keeping her head held high as she walks. I force myself to take a deep breath before following her.
“Leo, I’m sorry,” she begins but I cut her off.
“I don’t want to hear sorry, Toni. Do you know how many times I’ve heard that word in my life? Hundreds, if not thousands.”
“I don’t know what to say. It was a mistake. I should have known that before but I wanted that club so badly,” she says.
“My mother was a drug addict. She used to forget to pick me up from school. Every day would be the same. She would always say, ‘I’m sorry, Leo. I should have been there’ but she wasn’t. Then it would happen the next day and the next. I got so used to hearin’ I’m sorry that it didn’t mean anything to me anymore.” Toni shakes her head, not knowing what to say and I can’t blame her.
“I messed up, Leo. I didn’t mean to hurt you in the process.” I nod my head and run my hand through my hair.
“So, it’s Jimmy?” I ask.
“I didn’t know about him at first. I thought it was only going to be me.”
“You realize what you did by telling me about him, yeah?”
“Jimmy deserves what he gets. I’m not concerned about him,” she adds.
“What are you concerned about?” I need her to say us. I want her to say us. I don’t know why I feel so strongly about her but I do and I’m not ready to let that go yet.
“I’m worried about how we left things,” she admits and my chest tightens. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but it’s close enough.
“We left things? Don’t you mean you left things?” I’m being an asshole. I know I am but there’s a part of me that needs her to understand the hell that I’ve lived through and why her lies hurt so damn much.
“You’re right. I should have told you but how would that conversation have gone? Should I have just blurted it out? Told the truth?”
“For starters!”
“I didn’t come here to find a man, Leo! I came here to carry out a job that I was given. I didn’t know I’d like you. I didn’t know that I would have feelings for you. I don’t know what else you want me to say here,” she yells angrily. I walk around the desk and grab the first bottle I can find. Popping the top off, I drink straight from the bottle. This is too much. I didn’t sign up for this shit, to have feelings and all that shit. My head is a mess. I want to be mad at her, I want to scream at her, shake her but I can’t do that. She’s here, admitting to what she did wrong.
“I’m going to handle Jimmy but what about your dad?”
“What about him? He isn’t an issue.”
“Isn’t he?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. “He sent you here for intel, yeah? That means something, Toni. He’s looking at my club for a reason.”
“I don’t know, Leo. I didn’t have specifics. I can’t go back now to find out either. I meant what I said. I’m not going to be his little puppet any longer.” I set the bottle on the desk and walk back around to stand in front of her. We stare at each other, eye to eye. Something inside of me wants to hurt her but I can’t do that. I feel too much. I like having her around too much. So instead of hurting her, I reach up and run my finger along her cheek.
“I’m going to kill Jimmy slowly. I’m going to make him pay for coming here.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
“The question is, what am I going to do with you? You did the exact same thing as Jimmy,” I tell her as I slowly slip my hand lower until it wraps around her throat. She keeps her eyes on me, never wavering.
“You do what you have to do,” she says.
“Hmm. I’m just not sure what I want to do just yet. There are so many options, isn’t there, Ant?” I see her flinch at her street name. That was the point. I want her on edge. I want her wondering what’s coming next for her.
“You don’t scare me, Leo.” I cock my head to the side and grin at her.
“Is that right? You should be scared, Toni. You think your father is a ruthless asshole but you’ve never seen me angry.” With that I release my grip on her and walk past her heading for the door. She follows behind me as we walk back out into the main room. A few heads pop up to see what we’re doing but it’s the guys’ stares that burn through me. They want to know what we’re doing to our little rat.
“He in the basement?” Reg, one of the other guys nods.
“Grinder has him down there,” he says, making me grin. I turn my head to look at Toni and slowly extend my hand to her. She eyes it wearily before slowly lifting her own and sliding her hand into mine.
“You’re about to see why I like playing with blades. You’re about to find out what we do with rats in our club.” I tug her hand, and she follows as I lead her to the basement. Once we’re down the stairs, I lock eyes with Grinder. His gaze slowly moves from mine to Toni and back. He won’t say anything because he knows I’m in charge. He’ll let me handle things just like he would Phoenix if he was here.