Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 217(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Hearing him say it, knowing how he’ll fight for her, the pain curdles into something almost like acceptance. Blade and Olivia—my brother and the woman who owns the now empty and numb space in my chest. They come before anything. They always have and they always will. Blade and I hug, the kind of hug brothers give each other that says everything and nothing all at the same time.
When he leaves, I don’t move for a long time. I open the whiskey and take a slug that burns away the edges. The door opens and Ranger slips in, face creased with worry.
“You alright, Bear?” he asks.
“Just saying goodbye to the past,” I say and take another drink.
“You see Blade leave?”
I nod. “He’s claimed Olivia as his old lady.”
Ranger’s face darkens. “Does he know she’s Eyeball’s sister? That’s going to cause a war, Bear. Besides, I heard she’s been promised to Demon. Demon’s talking like he’s going to make her his old lady and turn her into the club’s chew toy.”
Something cold slides across me. “Where’d you hear that?”
Ranger shifts. “I was at Ricky’s Roadhouse with a buddy on leave. Demon came in and was bragging to some other idiot he was with. He said Eyeball promised him his sister. Said he was going to take Olivia and show her what it means to be an old lady in the Feral Kings.”
My hand tightens on the bottle until glass kisses skin. “Eyeball and Demon need to be put down like the rabid dogs they are,” I growl. There’s no question in it—only a promise. “We’ve got too much shit going on, but they need to go.”
“How we goin’ to do that?” Ranger asks. “Eyeball’s got heavy hitters backing him. They’ve got numbers.”
“We do it small,” I say. “Keep tabs. Find when Eyeball and Demon are out. Me and you, working together like we did in the early days. We swoop in and take them out. Quiet. No war. If they’re gone, Lucky steps up—he doesn’t have interest in us. Word is he’s got his sights on taking out the Savage Brothers in Kentucky. That means he’d push elsewhere and give us room to breathe. Lucky has always been the brains of that club anyway. Eyeball and Demon are nothing more than figureheads Lucky easily controls.”
Ranger’s face goes from disgust to slow comprehension. “What makes you say Lucky’s the brains?”
“It’s just apparent. Hell, most of the clubs we deal with are always laughing at Eyeball and Demon for being dumbasses. If we take out those idiots, the rest fall in different directions. It’s about leverage and numbers.”
Ranger nods. “Alright. I’ll keep my ear to the ground.”
“Does that mean you’re in?” I ask.
He smiles grimly. “I’d be pissed if you tried without me.”
“Good.” I set the bottle down and we shake hands. Solid, old-man club handshake—no bullshit. Ranger asks, quietly, “You ever look back and regret choices you’ve made?”
I close my eyes. The past is a feral animal that scrapes at the edges of the present. “Yeah,” I admit. “But you can’t go back. You play the cards in your hand. That’s all you can do.”
“That’s the damn truth,” he says, before leaving.
I sit, eyes shut, whiskey numbing the sharpest parts. I wish like hell I could go back and do it all differently. The only thing I can do now is protect what I have left. Keep Olivia safe—give her a life where she doesn’t have to look over her shoulder. Even if that life means she lives it with my brother. Even if it kills me slow.
I pour another swallow and for a second the world tilts and all I can hear is Olivia’s laughter and her smile after we kissed. I want to crawl back into that day and stay forever. But men like me don’t get do-overs. We get whiskey, plans, and the weight of the path we’ve chosen. I lift the bottle to my lips and drink for the past, the future, and for the woman who once laid her head on my chest and made me believe I could be anything but the man I am.
The woman I let down. The woman who loves my brother.
18 OLIVIA
One Month Later
It’s strange how much can change in just a month.
A month ago, the casino was nothing but an idea—steel beams on blueprints and whispers in boardrooms. Now the shell rises over Cherokee like a monument. Even from a distance, it feels alive, humming with promise. My boss and his buddies nearly lost their minds when they took in just how massive it was all going to be. I wasn’t there when they started panicking, but I can imagine their smug faces melting into terror when they discover that they approved a business that will probably take from the corporation that is currently padding their pockets.