Page 122 of Outcast

Lafe curled his lip, his eyes glued to the monitor. He was such a good daddy. All of them were to the point that it was sickening.

"Hmm." I checked on Esteban again. "You okay?"

"Of course, he's okay. Why are you checking on him like he's your kid?" Parker always ran his mouth.

"It's not like we're scary." Grey gave him a closed lip smile.

"Right," Esteban laughed, but it was good-natured and not filled with fear.

"He's fine." Parker waved his hand. “I remember how he handled himself and Rita."

I ground my teeth. That must have been after I was gone. For the thousandth time, I kicked myself for leaving. At the time, it had seemed like the right idea. Now? I wished I'd never left.

Checking the time, Grey tapped Andre on the shoulder. "Pull up the footage of the girls. They've been down there too long."

Andre did, setting his phone on the counter.

The sound wasn't on, but the camera was high definition. Amorette and Rita both circled Tad. His head hung low like he was exhausted. Knife marks lined his arms and the ends of his fingers were bloody stubs.

He must have said something because Rita reached over and wrote something down on a notepad.

Amorette must not have liked what he said because she reached over and stabbed him in the thigh. His head shot back and cords of muscle stood out in his neck.

"I love when she goes psycho like that." Grey had a manic grin on his face.

Esteban and I shared a look and laughed. Rita had always been a little bloodthirsty. What were the chances that she'd rubbed off on Amorette?

"What's this now?" Parker pointed between Esteban and me, his eyes narrowed.

"What's what?" I played dumb just to fuck with him.

"The last we spoke, you wanted to fuck his shit up for touching Rita and he hated you just as much. Because you also touched Rita," he added on as if we needed the explanation.

"Always a shit-stirrer," Lafe mumbled, clearly listening in on the conversation even while watching over his baby girl.

"I don't fucking believe it," Andre said. He glanced between us with his mouth open. "You followed in our footsteps." A grin broke out over his face.

Esteban popped a dimple with his closed lip smile. He thought this was funny as fuck.

I just sighed. "Yeah, maybe I did."

31

RITA

Iheld the folded piece of paper tight in my hands as we drove back to the compound.

I'd received calls from Jonny, Rio, and Ricco on the status of where everything stood.

Joel was still locked up. One of the two men had been cleared, the other was sharing the shed with Joel.

Rio and Jonny's call had been the hardest. They’d had to put down twenty-three men after we left the club. They hadn’t shared names, and I could only hope they were the names that we’d extracted from Tad.

My heart physically hurt as if someone had decided to take a knife to it over and over again, just for giggles. There wasn't a spot on it that didn't feel touched in some way by all this shit. So much death. So much heartache. And for what? Because we were trying to belessvillainous people?

I wasn't like Amorette. I didn't mind getting my hands dirty. On the right occasion, I enjoyed a petty side dish simply because I liked the rush it gave me afterward.

But there was nothing wrong with protecting innocentwomen and children, damn it. On that, I agreed with Amorette wholeheartedly.

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