Page 101 of Three to Fall

I widened my eyes in surprise, but instantly, suspicion followed. Because nothing ever came from Luca without a price. “What’s the catch? The whole business is in my name, but I pay you ninety-percent of the profits off the books?”

Luca’s eyes hardened. “No. There’s no catch. You can’t send me any money. Or try to contact me. I need there to be zero trace if I’m going to get her away safely before her husband and my father find out.”

I stared at him, some deep-rooted part of me understanding what it was to suddenly be the father figure for a child who needed you. Recognizing this was him doing exactly what I’d taunted him with last time I’d seen him. I’d told him he needed to man up. Take responsibility for his actions and be someone he could be proud of.

He’d claimed he didn’t have the luxury.

But apparently now he was doing it anyway. For his sister.

He sniffed with a shrug. “Sinners was always supposed to be yours anyway. I only bought it to mess with your head.”

We both knew that wasn’t exactly true. He’d enjoyed building that business. I’d maybe even enjoyed having his guidance. At least I had when he hadn’t been trying to force me to do illegal shit for him.

“Where will you go?”

He grinned, helping his sister off the bed now her shoes were on her feet. “Who knows? Anywhere Is wants to go, I guess.”

She raised her head and stared up at her older brother. “Seriously? Even Str—”

Luca put a finger to her lips. “If you tell him we’ll have to kill him.” He gave me a solemn nod. “And I’d rather not hurt this one.”

The two of them shuffled to the door, Isabella wincing with each step and clutching her stomach but determined to leave anyway. I stood watching them, trying to wrap my head around owning my dream business. Not just a shitty ten-percent share. But the entire thing.

Luca glanced back over his shoulder. “Chaos?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful of my dad, okay? He’ll come looking for me when he realizes both Is and I are gone. Sinners, along with all my other businesses, will be the first places he tries.”

He disappeared around the corner.

Leaving me wondering if a gift from Luca Guerra was ever something actually good, or if it was just a nightmare waiting to happen.

26

HAWK

I’d been to too many fucking funerals. My parents’. War’s old man. Brothers within the club who hadn’t been as lucky as I had so far. I’d stood amongst their gravestones, throwing dirt on top of caskets, detached from the scene and already mentally planning the drinks I’d consume as soon as the priest was done rambling with their everlasting-life bullshit I’d never believed in.

But this one was different. Alice’s funeral had been so long coming, and the words the priest said actually mattered to Kara. She might have left Josiah’s bullshit behind, but her faith in something bigger than us hadn’t completely disappeared. Burying her sister meant more than just a formality we had to get through so we could go get drunk afterward.

It needed to be perfect. I’d spent days trying to think of every little thing that would make it better, trying to make sure she had everything she wanted, right from flowers to music to food.

Everyone had pitched in and helped where they could, and it was clear to me I wasn’t the only one who’d wanted to do this right for her.

It wasn’t just me and Chaos and Grayson who loved her. That much became evident day by day as everyone came together to make this funeral exactly what Kara needed it to be.

Closure on her old life. And the true beginning of a new one.

Around me, our friends got off their bikes, or climbed out of their vans and cars, leading kids and significant others across the graveyard to where Alice’s casket sat raised above an open grave. Kara had chosen not to have a ceremony in the church up on the hill, but an outdoor memorial, in the warm midafternoon sun.

I pulled my tie from my pocket and put it around my neck, fiddling with the stupid thing and wishing I hadn’t brought it. I’d practiced tying it with the help of a YouTube video the night before and thought I’d had it down, but staring at it hanging loosely around my neck now, I was pretty sure Hayley Jade could have done a better job.

I yanked it off again, frustrated with myself and uncomfortable in the too tight button-down shirt that vaguely itched my arms. “Should have just worn my club leathers and jeans like everyone else,” I muttered. “So fucking stupid.”

“Not stupid.” Gray stopped at my side and held his hand out, palm up.

“What?” I snapped, the back of my neck hot at him hearing me talking to myself. “Odd time for a high five.”

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