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She sobered her voice. “You want me to stop feeding you lines and have a real discussion? Great, let’s do it. Stop working against me. I want my name clear. The false warrants aren’t fair. You slapped me with those before I even ran the first time.”
“Fair isn’t in my vocabulary. If you’d agreed to marry me the first time I asked, I never would have gone there. I’ve been very straightforward with you. When we’re married, I’ll clear them.” He tapped her nose. “When will you catch on? Every discussion I’ve ever had with you has been real. Unlike you, I mean what I say. I’m no fool, Gen, so don’t try to play me for one.”
She nodded. “All right, fine. I’ll keep it real then—let’s talk about why I ran. The drugs scare me. I don’t like the danger being your wife will bring, and I want our future kids safe.”
“The drug trade keeps me the law in town, and I’ll never give up power.”
“Maybe it would be easier for me to accept if I understood it. Why do you deal? Isn’t the casino business good enough?”
His stony eyes crinkled to slits. “I don’t like you questioning me, dove.”
“Jed, you’re the one who wanted me to stop playing games.” She crooked her index finger, pointing at her chest. “This is me not playing. How can I give my heart to you fully if I can’t back what you do? Even with the support of the Reno police, it seems unethical to keep dealing. Drugs ruin people’s lives, and I don’t want to be part of that. Surely you can understand that.”
“People ruin their own lives. If they didn’t get the drugs from us, they’d get them from someone else. Why shouldn’t it be us? It’s their choice to use them. The world is a rough place. I’ll keep you and our kids on the innocent side of it and take the dark side on myself. I’ll always protect you. Never fear that. Even when you’re running from me and won’t protect yourself. Let me.” Jed slid off the armrest onto the sofa. Relaxing against the firm gray cushions, he tucked her under his arm. “Don’t fight me, dove.”
“Is the dark side the reason you have this scar?” Twisting her neck up, Genevieve pecked kisses along the puckered skin. “I’ve always thought it looks badass, babe.”
He grunted out a throaty laugh. “Glad you think so.”
She lifted her legs onto his lap. “Be vulnerable. Tell me about it. Please.”
A sly grin lit up his face, and he wrapped a lock of her hair between his fingers, toying with the strands. “Then you’ll answer a question for me in return. Understood?”
She nodded. “Understood.”
“We were receiving a shipment of heroin, and the smuggler delivering it to us got greedy. He requested more money than we’d agreed on at the last minute. I pulled my knife, and he pulled his. I took him out, but he left me this scar—a visible daily reminder to keep myself the law in this town.”
Genevieve feigned a sympathetic look. “How old were you?”
“It was early on in my late teens when I first started. It would never happen today, but back then, I wasn’t the law yet. Now, we’d have our men slit the bastard’s throat just for making eye contact with us.”
“We? You mean you and Roman?”
He nodded. “Roman, Luke, Ace, and I. I started dealing on my own when I was eighteen, and by the time I was twenty, I’d recruited all three of them. We were just greenhorns in those days. Now, we assign the dirty work to others.”
“It’s hard for me to imagine your network being that big. It’s been invisible to me all these years. How many others?”
He casually splayed his fingers through her hair, silking them deeper into the strands. “I don’t know. Hundreds nowadays. Luke keeps track of our numbers, and I make the big decisions if there are issues with any of them. I never off people myself anymore unless I want to watch them die.”
Genevieve gnawed on her lip, trying to hold back a smug smile. That ought to put him under.
Knotting her hair in his fist, Jed tugged her ear to his mouth, biting her lobe. She gasped, sinking her teeth into her cheek to keep from crying out.
“Very rarely, but every now and again, there’s someone I want to watch die.” After a menacing pause, Jed continued, “Like lover boy. I think I’ve warned you before… Anyone who dares to touch what’s mine, I’ll take full pleasure in killing myself.”
Her throat seized up, and she tried to slow her breathing. A predatory expression crossed Jed’s hardened features, tangling her stomach in convulsing knots.
Jed doesn’t want to play games, my ass, Genevieve thought. He clearly gets off on his quests for control. But not for long… I’m done playing. She took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. Don’t worry, Momma. I’m going to cut off the head of the snake and drain every ounce of venom.
Twenty
GENEVIEVE
“Your turn, dove.”
“My turn?”
“Yes, you promised me a question. What happened with Brendan King? I want details so I know just how much pain I need to inflict on him while he dies.”
