I glanced at the time and realized it was almost midnight.
Sofia was cuddled into my side, her face in the crook of my neck and her arm at my waist.
I didn’t want to leave my wife, but I knew this was important. I slid out of bed and entered the walk-in closet to put on jeans, a t-shirt, and a jacket. The watch Sofia gave me was clasped around my wrist, and I put on my boots before I crept across the floor to the door.
Sofia realized I wasn’t there as she reached out her hand to feel me beside her. With her eyes still closed, she continued to feel the sheets until my absence stirred her from sleep. She opened her eyes and sat up in bed, searching for me with squinted eyes. When she realized I was in front of the door, she sighed. “Where are you going?” She ran her fingers through her hair to keep it out of her face.
I came back to the bed and sat on the edge. “I need to meet the guys.”
“Right now?”
“Yeah. I gotta go.”
She did the one thing I couldn’t resist. She reached out and grabbed the front of my shirt. She yanked me toward her, bringing our lips together for a kiss.
I loved it when she did that. She’d been doing it since the night we met, and it was a sign of her passion. If killing Maddox weren’t so important, I would sink on top of her and never leave.
I kissed her back and lowered her to the bed. But then my brain took control, and I sat up again. “I’ll be home soon.”
Her eyes filled with disappointment. “I worry when you go out late like this…”
“I’ll be fine, I promise.”
She looked like she wanted to argue with me, but she silenced her disapproval. “Wake me up when you come home.”
“Alright.”
“I mean it. You always say you’ll do it, but you never do.”
That was because I didn’t want to wake her up. “Okay.” I leaned down and gave her a kiss before I got up from the bed and headed to the door.
Leaving my pregnant wife was the hardest thing I ever had to do. She was in bed, begging me not to leave, and she had no idea I would rather be with her than anywhere else in the world. I didn’t want to sneak off in the middle of the night to sit in a bar while women bought me drinks. It reminded me of what my life was like before her…and that wasn’t something I wanted to think about.
I got in my car and drove a few blocks until I parked out front. I walked inside and found the guys in our usual booth. They were both single men, loving every opportunity to get out of the house and land pussy. Not that either of them had to try.
The waitress already knew my drink, so she came by and dropped off a scotch before giving us privacy. It was loud inside, the bass thumping from the speakers, drowning out conversations everyone was having. The noise was obnoxious, and I started to feel like an old man who never wanted to leave my home.
Why would I when my whole world was there?
Damien and I hadn’t spoken since our argument in the bar weeks ago. He’d told me off and very coldly put me in my place. He used to be apologetic, wanting us to repair our relationship, but now it seemed like he hated me as much as I hated him. He turned to me, his dislike obvious in his eyes. “Bad night?”
I took a drink. “The opposite. So this better be important.”
Damien cast me a glare. “Trust me, I wouldn’t call unless it was important. The less I see your fuck face, the better.”
Ash glanced back and forth between us, clearly confused by the bitter exchange. Damien probably hadn’t told him about our last argument. And I certainly hadn’t either. “Let’s focus, boys.”
If this were the olden days, I would tell Damien that the woman I loved, loved me too. But those days were gone. “You found him?”
Damien shook his head. “No. But we know exactly where to find his biggest distributor. The shipping company takes his drugs directly into Scotland and then to England. We know exactly where they’re going to be tomorrow night. Once we take them out, Maddox will be left with nothing.”
Ash nodded. “We could take out all those guys. Easy.”
This was exactly the news I needed. My own wife was disappointed in me for not getting her the vengeance she deserved, the vengeance our family deserved. It killed me to look her in the eye and see her fear. It killed me to know that I didn’t murder the man who raped my wife. I had to get this fucker at any cost. “Good. We hit them hard tomorrow night. We keep one asshole alive to tell Maddox what we did. He’ll be forced to surrender, and when he does, I’ll kill him.” My hand tightened into a fist because I imagined my fingers curling around his neck. I would break every bone in his body and remember the way he screamed.
Damien drank from his glass and didn’t look at me again.
Ash seemed to be the mediator between the two of us. “With my men and yours, this should be straightforward.”
Damien finished the rest of his glass before he stood up. He pulled out cash from his wallet and threw it on the table. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” He walked away from our table and exited the bar.
Ash stared at the door for a while before he turned his gaze back on to me. He then stared at me for a while, giving me that obnoxious look he’d been giving me since we were kids. He was reading me, figuring out if something got under my skin. “If you wait too long, you’ll lose your chance altogether.”
I slowly turned my head his way, my blood starting to boil in anger. I gave him a cold look.
Ash didn’t take back what he said. “Good friends are hard to find, man.”
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. “And I have yet to find one.”
He relaxed against the leather seat, his arm draping over the back. He shook his head slightly, showing his disappointment. “This is one of those situations where you’ll forget what you’re angry about ten years from now. But you won’t forget how shitty you feel not having that person in your life anymore. He said he was sorry. Let it go…before he can’t let it go.”
My temper flared. “Before he can’t let what go? Everything is his fault. My wife was raped because of him.”
“No,” he said calmly. “Your wife was raped because Maddox is an asshole. There was no way Damien could’ve predicted that. I’m not saying the guy is a saint, but we both know he would never intentionally cause you harm.”
“Doesn’t fucking matter. He didn’t listen to me…twice.”
“Yes, he’s a fucking dumbass. But again, he didn’t do it on purpose. You really think you would ever listen to anybody?”
I shook my head because the answer was no. “That’s because no one knows what the fuck they’re doing…including him.”
Ash dropped the conversation, letting the silence simmer for a while. He glanced around the bar and looked at the pretty girls in their short dresses before he turned back to me. “I’m just looking out for you. The two of you have been friends a long time. He made a mistake, and he apologized. Let it go.”
I just got my brother back into my life, and I didn’t want to push him away. “If you’d ever loved a woman, you would understand.”
“You killed our father point-blank, and I forgave you. You need to forgive this.”
I let a cold laugh escape my lips. “Not the same thing. Not even close.”