Page 114 of Love Him Like Water

“You’d hire me? After what I did?”

Again, the words came back to me.

“When you know better, you do better. And I’d much rather have you working for, rather than against, me. So that’s the deal. Give me my answers. And you walk out of here, recover for a few days, then show up to work for me.”

He was going to be a lot of work.

But I had a long history of taking wild street kids and turning them into productive members of this family.

“Okay,” Coal said, nodding.

“Okay,” I agreed. “Who hired you?”

“Michael,” he said, not a hint of deception in his eyes.

Michael?

Michael?

One of my actual fucking blood relatives? A cousin I used to ride bikes with, sneak drinks with, chase girls with? The closest thing to an actual brother I had.

But, it made sense, didn’t it?

Technically, in the order of things, he was the one who should have taken over as the boss.

The thing was, in this world, you didn’t just get fucking gifted the position of boss. You had to work for it. Earn it. Get the support for it. Then reach out and fucking… take it.

I wasn’t surprised that he wanted it, that he was even bitter about not having it.

But to make moves against me?

His own fucking blood?

On a growl, I got up from the chair, making my way to the door.

“Yo,” Coal called, making me pause, hand on the knob.

“What?”

“You didn’t ask me who he’s after.”

Turning, I looked at him, a twisting sort of dread starting in my gut.

“Who’s he after?”

“Who’ll hurt you the most,” Coal said.

“That could be—“ I started to object. The sentence trailed off, though, before Coal even interrupted me.

“Your wife.”

I never ran so fast in my entire motherfucking life.

Dav, picking up on the seriousness, abandoned Coal strapped to his chair, running off after me as I made my way toward the apartment building.

Where Lore would be sitting, unaware.

I should have said something.

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