Page 37 of Wreck Me

“What’s that?”

“A strip club that opened up six months ago in the bad part of downtown, one that’s turned into a hell of a hotspot real quickly.”

“And? What of it?”

“I’ve heard rumors from my contacts that it’s doubling as a brothel. The backrooms aren’t just used for personal lap dances.”

I stilled. Oh no.

He’d found another fixation.

“The girls are being coerced—or forced—into doing a whole lot more than that.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

He finally looked up at me. “Hence, me trying to crack this to get proof.”

“Hand it over to Cas. With his next-level tech, his people will be able to—”

“I want to do it,” he cut in, harshly. Definitively. “Once I have proof, then I can bring it to Cas and we can take that shithole out.”

“You think this will give him the impetus to re-launch things?”

“Of course. We can’t let something like this stand. It’s why our outfit exists in the first place, to stop shit like this, to instill fear in these types of fuckers, to exact punishment and justice. The fact we haven’t been out there doing it for weeks because of Cas pulling things back after what Damien did, is gonna have them thinking we’re gone, taking away the deterrent we functioned as.”

It was clearly more than that for him. He needed it.

He had to deliver that punishment.

He was Wrath after all.

But Cas hadn’t just pulled back because of my misguided brother. It had been in part about Cal as well, how consumed he’d become by the dark.

It was a fine line to walk because Caleb needed it, but too much was also detrimental.

I really didn’t envy the difficult position and complicated decision Cas had to make.

Once he laid down the terms, I was the one who ensured we all kept to it, that we walked that line, but determining where that fell was a whole other deal.

“Things won’t deteriorate that quickly.” I shut his laptop lid. “Now, take a beat. Focus on Luxe.”

He glared up at me. “You don’t need to rein me in, Bastian.”

“This is friendly concern.” I tugged the gummy worm from his mouth and tossed it beside the bowl full of far too many others. “No more. We’re about to eat. You can’t subsist on these gelatine nightmares and coffee alone.”

“I’m sublimating with the gummy worms.”

“What?”

He snatched up a fresh one and licked the length of it, his tongue then swirling erotically.

I shifted my weight and he smirked. “Hmm, is that a reaction?”

“I’ll leave that to you and Cas.”

He popped the gummy into his mouth and chewed it. His gaze fixed on me, he swallowed, then said, “You just squirmed. Could it be that my little show was eliciting some delectable fantasies of a certain ballsy babe tonguing your cock just like that?”

Off my withering look, he persisted in his usual way, reminding me, “I was the one who rendered that camera non-operational and kept anyone from venturing into that stairwell. You were meant to talk with her away from prying eyes, namely, Damien’s, to push her further, draw her into our web. Seeing as though you emerged smelling like freshly eaten cunt, and I caught her disappearing in a disheveled mess, it’s clear something else happened entirely.”

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