Page 18 of Tainted Saints

“Didn’t think so,” Lan sneers, giving Gio a scathing look. “Be sure to pass my message on to your master like a good little dog.”

A growl leaves my clenched teeth at the sheer stupidity of baiting a man with a loaded gun pointed to your head. Even if he’s too weak to use it.

With a final curl of his lip, Lan turns on his booted heel and heads back towards us, giving no fucks that Gio still has the gun aimed at the back of his head.

“One day you’re gonna poke the wrong hornet’s nest, Daddy,” Forest scolds as we leave the clearing, following the path back to school. Glancing at my watch, we have just enough time to check that Aspen ate something before we have to head to class.

Lan scoffs. “Doubtful.”

His arrogance is one of his most frustrating features. It’s also one of his most attractive qualities, but I won’t tellese pendejothat.

I catch Forest rolling his eyes, but see the smile playing on his lips and know that he’s about to poke his own hornet’s nest.

“You sure defended our Little Lady’s honor quickly back there, Daddy,” he teases, and I chuckle when Lan’s jaw goes tight, his breath huffing from his nostrils like a bull.

“Looks like you two have the go-ahead to get inside that undoubtedly pretty cunt of hers,” Lan retorts, and both Forest and I growl at him.

“Watch it,bastardo,” I mumble, his lips lifting in a half-smirk. “And don’t pretend that you don’t want her too. You may be able to hide it from her, but we’re your brothers and we know you, Lan.”

His smile drops, and he pauses, rubbing the back of his neck with a large palm. We stop too, waiting just on the edge of the treeline.

“We can’t get too close, she’s not for us,” he states, and a shot of pain hits my chest at his words. He’s right. There is no world where Aspen Buckingham can belong to us. It doesn’t change the fact that my soul is screaming at me that she does. That she’s our very own angel, coming to join her saints and be tainted just like we are.

“So what do we do?” Forest asks softly.Coño, I think to myself when I look at him and see that wounded puppy look on his face. I want to say fuck the world and steal her away like a dragon would it’s treasure.

Lan sighs and then shakes his head, his hand dropping at his side. “We get close to her, try to discover what shit her father is involved in, but we don’t allow feelings to come into it. We have to remember the end goal; we do this and Alfonso will cancel our debt.”

I’m not sure even he believes that, knowing that there will always be something that Alfonso will want from us. We’re too much of a threat for him not to try and keep us under his thumb, our gang growing each year, despite the fact that none of us wanted a life of crime. But when life gives you lemons, you best learn how to make damn fine lemonade. That, or swap them for a kilo of coke and start selling it to rich kids.

“Sure, close but not too close. Clear as mud, Daddy,” Forest states wryly as we continue to make our way through the campus and back to our girl.

I don’t give a shit what Landon says, she belongs to us, even if the world tries to deny it. But fuck the world. I will burn it down if it means we get to keep her.

ChapterNine

“Friends” by Chase Atlantic

ASPEN

Aoife talks nonstopas we make our way to the dining room, and although I thought it would feel overwhelming, it’s actually refreshing after spending so much time in silence the past week or so.

“Tell me about the Saints,” I ask as we make our way to the lunch hall. Curiosity has made me forget my manners, but she did offer so I’m going to make sure I get all the information she has.

“Keen, ain’t you?” She giggles, and I flush. “Well, they’ve been here for their whole high school time, though there were rumours that it was Landon’s mafia connections that got them the scholarships in the first place.” Her voice is a low whisper, like they could hear, which makes me laugh as they just walked in the opposite direction.

“What about the gang? What do they do?” I question, my mind coming up with all sorts of unsavoury things that I’ve heard about gangs in the past.

“No one is one hundred percent sure, but I think it’s mostly protection for east side businesses,” she tells me, and my brows quirk up.

“Protection? What kind?” I must admit, I only know what I’ve seen in films and sometimes the news about gangs and the mafia, never having known anyone involved directly.

“You know, people pay them money and they make sure no one targets that business, at least, I think that’s what it is. My da knows a bit from back home and the Irish gangs,” she answers as we approach the dining hall building.

“That doesn’t sound too bad,” I muse as we push open the doors and enter. The noise staggers me for a moment, and I have to take a deep inhale to ground myself before following Aoifie.

“Well, there’s also talk of them stealing from the west side, then giving all the spoils to people in need on the east side,” she tells me, her tone wistful with a dreamy look on her face.

“What, like Robin Hood?” I laugh, but she just nods.

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