Page 131 of Depraved

I crossed my arms. “You have a choice, Onyx. Either you fall in line, or you fuck off.” I turned to face the rest of the guys. “And this is the last fucking time anyone lifts a hand to another crew member. The only person allowed to kick ass around here is me.”

Onyx straightened his cut with a jerk, those blue orbs of rage glowering at me like I was the fucking son of Satan.

He clenched his jaw, leaning forward. “You’re making a mistake.”

“Then it’s my mistake to make.”

Like a savage, Onyx spat on the ground, making a huge goddamn show of how much he disliked my decision—disliked me. But this was not a fucking popularity contest. This war was real life. And this was real fucking war.

Onyx stormed out, and I relaxed my shoulders, reaching for my pack of cigarettes.

“He’ll calm down.” Dutch rubbed his hand over his bald head. “If it’s worth fucking anything, I think you made the right decision.”

“Yeah, tell him that.”

“Onyx is young. An adrenaline junky. He still needs to learn control.”

I snorted. “I don’t think my brother will ever learn control.”

“We can only hope, man. Yo, Ink,” Dutch looked his way, “you okay over there?”

Ink leaned against the wall, chest rapidly rising and falling as he wiped his bloody nose with his shirt. “Yeah. I’m good. So, do we have any kind of plan on what the fuck we do next?”

Dutch crossed his arms. “Well, the police are all over it since they’re treating it like a hijacking gone wrong. Nothing we can do now.”

I took a long, slow drag from my cigarette before letting the smoke ease out of my mouth. “Okay. Let’s get some rest. Dutch and I will pay a visit to Junkyard’s wife tomorrow morning.”

Manic darted up the stairs to the main house. “I need a fucking beer first.”

Ink followed suit, and Dutch gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder before going the other way.

With everyone gone, it finally felt like I had space to breathe. My thoughts were a jumbled mess, and the pit of my stomach felt hollow. Tomorrow morning, I needed to look a widow and her kids in the eye while trying to explain to them why they’d be burying a husband. A father. A man who only did what he was told, simply escorting two girls in need of protection. Junkyard wasn’t even directly involved in this war, yet he was the one who took his last breath tonight.

“You okay?”

I turned and saw Tanit standing in the doorway to her room. Not even a bruised face could stop her from batting those thick eyelashes and pouting her thick fuck-me lips.

“I’m good.” It was a simple answer that really didn’t require any kind of response.

“You seem tense.”

“I’m fine. Get some rest.”

She crossed her arms and sashayed toward me. “You need a little comfort tonight, baby?”

“Jesus, Tanit. Stop.”

Her hands reached out, fingers slowly dragging down my chest. “I can help you get rid of some of that tension, you know.” Her chocolate brown eyes glanced down to my crotch then back up. “All you have to do is stand there and let me work my magic.”

“Tanit,” I pulled her hand away from my chest, “stop it. I told you, it’s over.”

“It doesn’t have to be.”

I stepped back. “Yeah. It does.”

She tilted her head to the side, eyes raking all over me. “You can fuck us both, you know.”

“Jesus Christ.” I let my head fall back, almost laughing at how fucking crazy everything was right now.