Page 186 of Falling in Reverse

Yeah, I may have bitten off more than I have with Bay Astor in the sense that one episode of fucking her makes me want to create a whole season of it.

“With,” Reeve interjects loudly. “Definitely with.”

I’d look at him to get him to silently shut the hell up, but he won’t see it with his main focus on his cell.

And he’s showing no side in wanting to assist me with calming Cairo down while he’s sprawled out on our couch like a sated cough.

“And if we are civil, Levi Wallace isn’t going to want us anywhere near her.”

I give up on concentrating on my number twelve ball and straighten my spine. He has a point. Levi is going to stand in our way regardless of the decision we make here today. And it still doesn’t help with the reality that if she’s looking to gain The Landings’ Titan seat, that if we’re on the wrong side of that coin, she’ll have us killed, or outcasted.

“I have a feeling she’s hiding more than us.” Cairo quirks a brow at my comment. “How is Levi not having her more leashed if he knows who she is?”

“It doesn’t sound like he does. Would you tell your significant other that you’re the daughter of your enemy? She’s scared. She may not know how he’ll react or maybe that’s she is that substitute to him. Levi lives and breathes South Shore. He’ll fight to his dying day for that town. Her sisters and father live there. I don’t think she could bear being separated from them if he casts her out.”

“We’re not hurting her without a cause,” Reeve says, showing up at Cairo’s side. “She’s not as complicated as you’re making her out to be. She’s a woman who wants peace.”

“But Emilio is choosing her,” Cairo says and the inevitable is laced in his tone. “And that means chaos.”

“Still leaves us with no solution to what happens,” I reply, rounding the pool table to get closer to them.

“We woo her,” Reeve signs.

“Woo her?” Cairo and I both repeat at the same time.

“The absolute fuck, Reeve,” I chide. “This isn’t a game for you to fuck a South Shore girl.”

His brows knit. “You say that as though I never have before.”

“And when the hell have you done that?” I clutch onto my pool stick tighter because now I want to spear him with it.

“I don’t write down dates, jackoff.” He pockets his cell into his jeans. “I’m honestly tired of this motherfuckin’ conversation about this woman. We’ve seen how not into Emilio she is. You told me she barely spoke to your brother at dinner, what’s the problem?”

“The problem is the Titan seat,” I say for the millionth time. Someone has to keep banging it into his head to take this seriously. “We’re one good conversation away from her seeing how beneficial taking The Landings seat is because she is his heir. We got our own DNA test from that hair sample you got.”

The one he received when he was macking on her in the middle of the hallway after that Friday night dinner. How he was able to get away with it, no clue.

“Let’s say she does,” Reeve states. “And let’s, for shits and giggles, say she teams up with her so-called boyfriend in South Shore and they run the shit. Getting on her bad side leaves us nowhere. You don’t think Emilio hasn’t thought of that?”

“He’s right,” Cairo claims, not sounding too happy that he agrees. “He’s got to have something up his sleeve. That seat takes away all his leverage.”

“He’s going to use us,” Reeve conveys. “He’s going to have us be the ones who bring her world down if she turns on him.”

“Or The Void,” I say, my brain running a mile a minute. “He’s creating that gang for his own purpose since the Forsaken Crew is ours.”

“And it’s growing larger by the day.” I meet Cairo’s gaze, reading his thoughts.

To possibly take us down if we betray him.

“You’re going to have to take the Crew to Wharf Bay.” I shake my head. “I don’t see another way to keep them all safe.”

“Emilio is never going to allow that to happen without questioning why. The Crew is made to protect both towns.”

“We could say it’s a practice run for The Void,” Reeve says with a lift of his shoulders. “Maybe we could half-ass train them and show him we’re serious about it. Start slowly giving them jobs”—he quotes with two fingers—“over in Wharf Bay. Since we run a lot of drug distribution there, we need it moved and they need to be there.”

I nod. “It might work if we pull them out slowly.”

“And Bay?” Cairo ping-pongs his focus between the two of us. “All she needs is a good reason. And we can’t be the reason she sides with Emilio.”

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