Page 44 of I Stop Somewhere Waiting For You

He blows out a deep breath. “I know you didn’t hit the shipment.”

“I know you didn’t kill Bent,” I reciprocate.

He nods. “I’m sorry about your boy, Mav. I know we don’t care for each other, though truth be told I can’t really remember why anymore.” He pulls his beanie down lower before shaking his head. “But Bent was a good dude. He didn’t deserve to go out like that. I wanted to come pay respects at the funeral, but not sure how it would have been received. And considering someone is obviously trying to start a war between us, not to mention kill you, I thought it best to let them think they were successful in driving that wedge.”

I look over to find him staring at me. “You’ve got a theory.”

“I’ve got a theory.” He confirms my assumption.

“Well, let’s have it.”

“I think we’ve got a vermin problem in our crews. Big, fat, fucking rats.” His hands ball into fists as he speaks, the veins protruding from his forearms. “I think someone’s trying to dismantle us from the inside.”

It’s a sound theory. One I’ve been toying with myself, though simultaneously wishing wasn’t true. The Rebels are family first above all else, which means if I’ve got a rat, someone in my family is a traitor.

“I want an alliance,” he proposes. “I want us operating as one until we nail this motherfucker, Mav. We did it once before. We could do it again.”

“I know what happened to your sister after we did that, Nick.” I don’t know why I say it. It just rushes out. Maybe because this time around she means the world to me too, and I’m not trying to put her in harm’s way again.

His head snaps to the side, eyes wide with fury as he glares at me. He’s trying to mask it, the sharp sting of pain simmering below the surface at my mention of the incident, but I see it. All this time, and still, it guts him.

“I handled that.” His voice comes out cold. Detached.

“I could have helped you.” I fight to keep my own voice level, worried he’ll see how emotionally vested I am in this particular topic when I shouldn’t give the slightest fuck.

“I didn’t need your help,” he snaps. “Me and the boys had it.”

A frustrated sigh escapes me into the tight space between us. “How’d you find them so fast? It took Bent weeks to piece together what happened.”

“I have a 143 IQ, Mav. Fucking with my baby sister earns you the attention of each and every point.”

It’s in this moment where I see it firsthand in full force—the love he has for her. Nicky would burn down the world for her. For once, we have something in common.

“I don’t got sisters, Nick, so I can’t sympathize with you in that respect. But I have honor, and I believe any man who touches a woman without her permission is one of the lowest forms of filth. So,” my fingers flex, tightening around the steering wheel as images of Jones in that hospital bed flood my mind, “I hope you made them fucking feel it.”

“I tortured them for hours, well into the next day. Do you know the amount of objects the human anal cavity is capable of concealing?” His voice remains eerily calm and a rush of satisfaction surges through me as he shares the details of their demise I so desperately crave. “Because I didn’t. Not before that day. Not before I personally got to witness the number of things you could shove up there, one after the other and there still be space for more.”

He turns his attention out the window as a light rain begins dancing across the glass. “Eventually, though, it reaches its maximum capacity. At that point you’re tearing internally as everything is forced further inside you. So, when I was confident the internal damage alone was sprinting them toward inevitable death, I cut their fucking dicks off and shoved them down their throats.” His gaze swings back to me, his light eyes empty in this moment, void of any distinguishable human emotion. “Then, I had a drink. Sat and sipped on some whiskey watching them suffocate on their own cocks while bleeding out before me.”

There aren’t words to describe the level of comfort that description affords me.

I pull off onto a side street, navigating the various blocks as I work our way back from where we came. “If we do this,” I speak, breaking the silence that has settled between us, “if we form another alliance, we do it right this time. I don’t want this shit blowing back on anyone. My girl,” I swallow, “your sister, your girl—” I pin him with a look that says Yeah bitch, I caught that slip up; plus, unbeknownst to him, Daph is practically family to me by this point “—they all go into full lockdown. None of this bodyguard escort shit. Full on house arrest status under lock and key until this is over. I’m serious, Nicky. Not even school. Pull strings, get them virtual status for the time being.” He drops his head in his hands as he considers my terms, while I silently pray he doesn’t hear the desperation in my voice surrounding his sister’s safety.

“Okay, you’re right,” he agrees, and I exhale slowly with relief. “But I have conditions, too.”

“Wouldn’t expect otherwise.”

“We don’t bring the boys in on this. Not even leadership. If there’s a rat embedded somewhere, whether it be in one or both of our crews, we can’t risk them having inside info. For the sake of appearances, you and I are on the brink of war. Understood?”

I nod, agreeing to the terms. Bent was the only one I would have told. I trust T and Finn, but not like Bentley. We were perfectly dialed into one another. I couldn’t keep a secret from him if I tried. That’s a bond I will never find again, and my chest slightly caves in at that realization before I shove that shit deep.

“You trust your crew enough to keep the girls at your place? You’re welcome to stash them in Hydetown for the time being.”

He shakes his head. “Nah, man. Thank you, but they’re better off with me at home. My place is Fort Knox.”

I knew he was going to say that, but it was worth a shot. I need J to tell him about the blind spot on the southwest corner of the property. As much as I don’t want to give up the only way I’m able to sneak in, I need her to be safe.

We make our final approach back to the street corner where I scooped him from. Nicky reaches into his pocket, withdrawing a cell and tossing it into my lap.

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