Page 96 of Theirs to Rule

I fled to Dante’s bedroom, my mind spinning. Could it be true? I called Kage, desperate for answers.

“What’s up, Rebel?”

“Did you know that Dante is a drug dealer?” I demanded, not even bothering with a lead-in.

Kage didn’t answer, but his silence told me everything I needed to know. I let out a bitter laugh. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Drugs had taken my mother’s life, and Dante was spilling them out onto the streets. It was fucked, utterly and completely fucked. If I’d known...

“Rebel, you don’t know the full story. Things aren’t always as they seem. There are gray areas?—”

“Not when it comes to drugs,” I hissed. Hot tears spilled from my eyes. This was the worst kind of betrayal. Not only was Dante dealing drugs, it seemed everyone but me knew about it. “There are no gray areas when it comes to this, Kage. Not for me. The fact that you don’t understand that tells me as much about you as it does Dante.”

With that, I hung up on him. My phone buzzed as he tried to call me back, but I ignored it. Rage continued to bubble inside me as I paced the room. I felt so betrayed and hurt. Had Ty known too? My mind drifted back to our conversation a few weeks back. He’d told me I had no idea the kind of man Dante really was. Was this what he had meant by that?

I called him. When I heard Ty’s voice on the other end of the line, I asked, “Did you know too?” I demanded.

“Did I know what?”

“That Dante was selling drugs.”

Ty paused. “Yeah, I knew,” he admitted, his voice softer.

I ended the call and threw my phone across the room. It hit the wall with a thud. I wished it had been my head instead. I needed to blank out these revelations as best I could, but I knew, no matter what I did, I couldn’t escape them.

I was right all along. I couldn’t trust anyone, not even Dante.

Even worse, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to forgive him—or myself for letting him in.

Chapter 43

Dante

“Here.” Razor slammed another glass of beer in front of me and sat back down. I started to protest, but Razor waved me off. “Nobody’s gonna sit in my clubhouse and talk business and not drink.”

I didn’t bother pointing out that this was my third beer or that I’d been here for over an hour—an hour I could have been spending with Camille. When I got there, Razor had insisted on feeding me first, then plying me with alcohol. We’d discussed some delivery dates and a few other points of business, but I sensed he was holding something back. I'd have to get it out of him later. I chugged down my drink and then stood up.

“Sorry to cut this short, but I really need to go,” I told him.

“Before you do, there’s one more thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Razor announced.

Shit. I fucking knew it.

I crossed my arms and waited for Razor to speak.

“We’ve been approached by some other sellers,” he finally admitted. “They’re offering us a better deal. You either need toup the amount or lower your price, or we’ll have to go with someone else.”

I stared at him in shock. “We had an agreement.”

“Things change,” Razor replied with a shrug, looking unapologetic. “Don’t take it personally. It’s business. We’ve got word of some competition on our end. Just far enough out of our territory that we can’t say someone is encroaching, but they're selling cheap enough that people are willing to travel the distance to get their fix.”

“The Serpents? Even after we fucked them up?”

“This is a different crew. They came out of nowhere, but they have the supply and the connections to make us look like a bunch of chumps.”

“Connections?”

“Someone big is backing them. We get wind of their location. We investigate. They’re in the wind, only to pop up again someplace else. We’ve barely gotten visuals of them. Just a couple of fuckers wearing a logo, some fucked up looking buck with weird antlers. Anyway, since we can’t track them down, we need to stay competitive. I know your story, why you do this, which is why I’m giving you a chance to match what they’re offering. If not, we’ll have to find a supplier who can.”

Fuck.

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