Page 45 of Toxic Things I Love About You

“Gage, thanks for bringing him by. Did you talk to him?”

My friend used a towel to wipe away the sweat.

“No, not a peep. I think he was waiting for his boss to get here.”

With that, I grabbed a set of brass knuckles and went straight for his stomach.

“That was a warning. Now, tell me why in the hell would you allow a rival gang to set up shop in my club?”

The guy spit out what looked to be mostly throw-up. But whatever.

“I’m getting really tired of these Lords prancing around like they own the city. My brother, is he the reason?”

This guy didn’t have much of a poker face. Not with the way he tried to keep eye contact with me when he said no.

“Yeah. That’s a lie. Great talking to you. You aren’t giving me information, therefore you aren’t useful. Win-win for me. My fiancée really likes to finish them off.”

Gage grunted.

“Sorry, Gage. You wanted to get your hands dirty?”

The guy actually let out a squeak of some kind and I leaned a bit closer.

“Were you trying to talk? Or did you want my fiancée instead of Gage? I can almost guarantee Gage will be quicker than she would be. She gets distracted.”

I gave him a second to answer, but my patience wore thin. I punched him again, aiming for his face, and a rewarding gush of blood ran down from his nose.

He spit out blood this time and tried to hold his head in place.

“Look, they offered a lot of money for a space to hold a meeting. I didn’t give a shit if it was alcoholics anonymous. This time though, it was different. Nothing on the books. No one else can know. Back entrance access so no one sees and all the cameras off. Not an issue with high stakes games, but this?”

My fucking head was starting to hurt.

“My brother? What does he have to do with this?”

One side of his face was swollen, his eye an angry purple and nearly closed shut.

“I don’t know. I didn’t deal with him. He’s not dumb, boss. He knows how to hide what he needs to hide.”

That comment was interesting.

“So how many of my men are working both angles? You give me this? You don’t suffer anymore.”

The guy tried to play me with the silent treatment, so I encouraged him a few more times.

“I don’t fucking know. At Sin it’s just me and the dancer who works the private parties, she goes by Bunny. I don’t know beyond that.”

I nodded to Gage.

“Alright, thank you. Since you can’t be trusted, we can’t let you out, but Gage is very good at quick goodbyes.”

I turned and walked out, trying to get back to Emilee before she could notice I was even gone.She was the only reason I didn’t shoot the guy myself. Gage needed his own chance to work off anger anyway.

I could remember when this was the only way to control our demons. Angry boys turned into angry teens, turned into angry as fuck men with too much money and power.

And now? Now I was running to a woman that drove me crazy. I was certain she’d be upset she’d missed the party, and I’d have to make it up to her by any means possible. I wasn’t even a little sad.

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