Page 28 of What Lies Within

“Don’t know what else you’d call your history with her.”

He nods, glancing at my brother as though seeking his input in all of this.

Digger leans a shoulder against the wall, sconce behind him casting his face in shadow. He says nothing, letting his body language do the hard yards for him.

He’s as fed up with this arrogant fuck as I am.

“Where’s my daughter, Connor?”

Terry's son steels his jaw, tongue pressing against the inside of his lower lip. "Why don't you ask your brother?"

Rage has me flexing my shoulders back, my spine popping under the tension.

"Cut the shit," Digger growls, stepping forward. "You know that if we had a line with Fox, we wouldn’t have asked you here.”

“Don’t know how you expect me to sort your family issues.” Connor shrugs. “Got nothing to do with me.”

“Get him out,” I bark. “He’s no fuckin’ use here. He can leave.”

Digger advances on the kid, Connor’s eyes going wide. “Hey.” He lifts his hands, head tipping. “Easy now. A little banter isn’t all that bad, is it?”

“Talk.” I move behind my desk, fingering the letter opener that’d look good protruding from his neck.

He tracks the glide of my fingertips and swallows. "Fine." His jaw tic relays his frustration at being here without weaponry. It was the sole stipulation we had for him to get his hour—no knives.

Fuck knows what else he has concealed, though.

"From what I can understand, my father knows Fox is working you for leverage on that Plymouth Street lot, but he doesn't know how. It's more a project to keep your brother occupied than anything Dad believes will pay off.” He lifts a hand to keep me quiet and continues. “But given Ronan has been his tail, providing the illusion of safety from you lot for the past few years, I’d say it won’t be long before my dad knows Fox has Maddie.”

"That's why she needed to be home yesterday." There's no telling what Terry will do once he knows he has that power over me. "What's it going to take, Connor?"

He runs his teeth across his bottom lip, his fingers chasing the stitching on the Chesterfield's rolled arm. "I wanther.”

Digger laughs. Fucking throws his head back and belts a laugh I haven’t heard in a good God damn while. “Uh, no. Not happening.”

The fire in Connor's eyes flares. "Not your choice, old man. Give me my hour with Rae alone, and let her decide."

My gut says we've got nothing to worry about. She said it herself: she doesn't love him anymore. Maybe never truly did. But the thought of her contained in a goddamn room, unprotected, with the sum of her nightmares has me itching to shove this cocky asshole out the fucking gate with a goddamn bullet on his tail for good measure.

Connor shifts his attention from Digger to me, reading the hesitation. "What's her future here, Tyke?" He drops his ass onto my fucking sofa, perched on the arm of the seat. “HowdoesRae fit into this old boys’ club of yours?”

I lift the letter opener and stab it into the surface of my desk. “She has a place at our side as long as she fuckin' wants it, Connor. Unlike you, we don't put caveats on our love for her." I move around the front of my desk and rest against it,arms folded, while I study the son of a fucking sociopath.Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

He jerks his head toward the door, where Rae probably waits with bated breath for the result of this meeting. "You made her an ol' lady, right?" He sneers at the title our women wear with pride. "Does Rae strike you as the kind of woman content to sit pretty on the back of your bike, keeping her mouth shut?"

"Who said she'll do either of those things?" Rae wants a bike; she'll get a bike. She wants to have a voice; I'll damn well give her the platform.

Women are to be revered here, not feared, unlike Terry's stance on the fairer sex. The fucker performed a miracle the day he found a woman willing to open her cunt long enough to let the sick fuck father a child.

"We were good together, her and I.” Connor’s eyes narrow. “Crazy bitch loved how hard I gave it to her."

“Easy.” I lift a finger in warning.

He smirks. “She not screaming for you like she was for me?”

The crack of my backhand ricochets off the paneled walls surrounding us.Blood pounds through my veins.

"What's the matter?" Connor spits on the carpet, shrugging against Digger's hold on him. "Can't stomach the truth?" My brother has his arms looped over Connor's biceps, pinning them behind his back. Digger's sheer size keeps the kid from standing, let alone using his arms. "You do understand she's had plenty of dicks plow that pussy before your dirty fucking sausage sniffed her out."

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