Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100791 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 504(@200wpm)___ 403(@250wpm)___ 336(@300wpm)
Liam laundered big money through dozens of high-end Leighbridge businesses. Bane manufactured weapons. I dealt mainly in protection. Harlow was a dangerous borough with innocent people being preyed on every minute of every day.
The Cardinals were basically a lethal, and very attractive, private security company—except we didn’t charge the people we protected. I took my fee from the stupid bastards who messed with them.
As for Sunny, he had a piece of every criminal racket in his borough. As long as they paid up, they lived.
All that said, I didn’t know much about the people my brothers trusted with their lives, but I knew even less about the Scourges. Bane didn’t talk much about his business because except for my bomb-making dad, Killian, none of us knew a thing about manufacturing weapons. And even if we did want to talk to him about it, the hermit freak was always off hiding in some hole in the woods.
Honestly, there were times when I saw more of Melanie—the Scourge who delivered our monthly shipment of guns and ammo—than I did my big brother, and she wasn’t one for chat.
Melanie would oversee the delivery, reject an offer for a beer or drink, resist all attempts at small talk, and then take off without a goodbye or see you next time.
I’ve always said the people we recruit for our gangs are a reflection of ourselves, and going by Melanie—Bane’s reflection was closed off, enigmatic, serious, and an expert at saying only what he needs to—no more, no less, and never anything that revealed the real him. That reflection...
...was spot-on.
Strange, but familiar, thoughts swirled in my head as I followed Liam’s car down the dirt road—finally on the path back to my city.
I’ve known Bane my whole life, but the guy was no less a mystery to me than when he used to lean over my crib, trying to hide all the vegetables he didn’t want to eat in my stomach. Sure, he was a good man and a good brother.
Growing up, he helped me with my homework, never picked on me, beat the ever-loving shit out of my first boyfriend when he bragged about every detail of our sex life to the whole school, and he always let me know when and where to find him when he moved—even if he didn’t tell Liam or Sunny.
He was the Cadillac of big brothers, but fake, plastic books with lines painted on the sides were more open than him.
He never talked to me about his hopes, dreams, nightmares, worries, pain, trauma—nothing. The only people in my family who could ever get a window into that was our mom, and his dad, Baris Alexander. And even though I’d never say anything this shit-embarrassing out loud, that used to hurt my feelings like a knife to the heart.
It was like Bane thought they were a family of three, and the rest of us were just a bunch of cool people who lived in his parents’ house and refused to leave. I always figured that was why he moved out of the compound a week after our folks did. What was the point in staying in the family home... when his family didn’t live there anymore?
Of course, Bane never said anything of the kind, and he’d likely deny it up, down, and sideways, but in this life, there were just some people who only had so much room in their heart, and so little unconditional trust to dole out. And Bane’s was all used up... until Kenzie.
I don’t know how that little curly-haired, hot piece of ass did it, but she blew into our lives and made us a family again. She made Liam believe in love again. So much so that Liam trusts her with the being he’s most protective of in the whole world—Elizabeth.
She got my playboy, never-takes-anything-serious, hopping-from-a-different-bed-every-night little brother talking about marriage, commitment, and getting all of his sports cars fitted with car seats. And most amazing of all, she brought Bane home.
Let’s face it, the guy could’ve moved back to the woods a long time ago, but he stuck around for one reason and one reason only—Mackenzie Blaine.
The woman reduced the three most dangerous men in Cinco to a bunch of drooling chimps slobbering on her heels, and it was my privilege to witness it.
“—GH?” Bee poked my shoulder. “Hey, you okay?”
“I’m good,” I replied, coming to.
Bee was in the car with me along with Shug, Pixie, and other forced inhabitant of their cell—Debra. She still didn’t have much to say other than the thank-you she gave me after rescuing her, but I could see something in her eyes that likely hadn’t been there for a long time.
Hope.
“I was thinking... we need to make some changes.” Once it was out of my mouth, I knew it was right. “The Cardinals need to change. I created us to protect Harlow, but when you guys needed me, where the fuck was I? We’re family,” I stated. “You’re just as much my family as those dickheads. Next time... I won’t get there too late.”