Page 90 of Pretty Little Lies

“Fuckyou,” I sneer through my teeth. “You terrorized me. You put bullets into a vehicle I was inweeksago. The slightest mention of you freaks me the hell out.”

“You’re dramatic as fuck,” he clips out. “And I don’t remember you being a bitch.”

“And I don’t recall you being one by breaking into someone’s home just to talk?” I tsk my indifference of how insignificant he is in my life. “Why don’t you get over me and find some otherputato harass. I’m over you andthis.”

“You don’t make it easy, Bay,” he retorts. “You have one of those Forsaken fuckers around you all the time now. You’re playing a game and I bet Wallace is pulling all the strings.”

“Why don’t you come over again and find out?” I taunt easily. “Maybe I’ll fuck him to kill you and that’ll solve all my—” Matteo lunches forward, and before I can grab my gun, he stops himself in his tracks.

His chest pulls in a deep inhale as if calming himself down before he cranes his neck to the side to release some of the tension I put there.

“You better watch your fuckin’ mouth with me,” he warns through my racing heartbeat. “I’m runnin’ out of patience and you outta time. I want the Wharf Bay Titan spot. I want the Pistol Posse to be part of the group and for us to start bringing in money. I need?—”

“I’m not the one handing out Titan seats, Matteo. The fuck does that have to do with you scaring the shit out of my dad?”

“Interrupt me one more time and I’m going to fuck your mouth to keep you quiet.” His dark brown eyes bore into me in a promise that he will but, even with Reeve and Levi at the ready, I don’t want him to touch me. “Now…as I was saying.WhenI acquire the Titan seat, Wallace and I will need to team up?”

God, can we say delusional?

“Why would you go for that seat when Lorenzo Black is tied up with Emilio Wildes?” I ask. “Herunsthe Forsaken Crew. You don’t think by trying to take it you’re not gonna be on their shit list.”

“I alreadyamon their shit list. They don’t want any other gang around here except themselves and I’d be pullin’ mine in. You ever wonder why you’ve never heard of anyone else around here? Because they don’t exist. The Forsaken Crew annihilates any competition and who do you think is next? Me and you. South Shore and Shoreline Peaks.”

“I don’t care what happens to you.”

He moves forward, making me flinch back in old fear that still resides in my brain and everywhere else. “All of this…it has everything to do with me—us—when we don’t want to become existent. You were with me when I built my posse. And I know how much you love South Shore.”

This isn’t my jurisdiction of power of making anything happen, it’s Levi’s, but I bite anyway. “Even with us two, we can’t take?—”

“We could if we take Titan spots. Emilio Wildes is a punk-ass fucking rat. He doesn’t deserve to be on shit.”

“Then why are you at his parties?”

“Because I need my face shown. I need to show them that I’m not a bitch.”

Yeah, whatever.

I know the boys see through Matteo like he’s made of glass, but I’m not going to tell him.

“I know you got pull on Levi,” he repeats again. “And I need you to talk to him. I need a meeting.”

“Then you leave me alone?”

“Bay…” He cocks his head again, hinting that it’d be a no and I’m naive as shit to think so. “Babe, me and you. I did some shit, Iknow, but I’m grown now. I would put you so high on a pedestal that not even God could touch you.”

“But not high enough to where you can’t pepper bullets at me.”

“C’mon,” he imparts with a tsk, trying to shove that important fact away. “Why would I want to kill my girl?”

“Because she won’t comply.”

A mirthless laugh emits off his chest, and I hate the sound of it. I’ve heard it way too many times, and it always produced a never-ending feeling of hopelessness. “If I got his support to fuck off me while I do this, I got South Shore’s back in the future. Everything remains the same. I’m just the muscle. You wanna run dope through The Landings, whatever.”

“But at what cost?”

“None.” I pry my eyes off him because bullshit. “I’m serious, Bay. Things are shifting. Emilio is trying to gain every single Titan spot and what has every gang tried to obtain from South Shore since you’ve been alive?”

The port.

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