Page 10 of With This Ring

We shake hands again—Juan taking my hand quicker this time—and we head out.

When we get back to Dad’s house and step inside, I grab Declan by the arm and push him against the wall, putting my hand around his throat. I pull him from the wall and slam his head back again, making him hiss.

He glares at me, but I don’t give a fuck. My anger at him was barely contained the entire time we were talking, and it was only my upbringing from Dad not to embarrass the family in public that I waited so long to check him.

Getting in his space and putting enough pressure on his throat that his eyes bulge, I say, “Next time you feel like being a fucking cowboy, leave me and Dad out of it. You could have fucking got us killed because you can’t control your fucking temper.”

Declan tries to speak, but I have too tight a grip on his throat. After a few more seconds, I let him go. He coughs and drags in a deep breath. “The fuck? All I did?—”

“Was speak out of fucking turn,” Dad says, his face a mask of rage as he looks at his youngest son. “Carter is right. You almost got us killed. No one asked you to fucking speak. You don’t think before you do. You might be able to get the drop on someone, but you weren’t the only one involved in the fucking meeting. I raised you to use your fucking brain, D, but I might as well have saved my fucking breath if you’re gonna do dumb shit.”

Declan looks down with an irritable look on his face. But he knows we’re right. He’s a hothead, tending to shoot first and ask questions later. With us so close to a war, we can’t afford that. We can’t afford any mistakes or everything we’ve built will be destroyed.

“I got it,” he grumbles, then pushes past me out the door.

I stare after him, shaking my head. I’ll call him tomorrow and we can talk about it, but right now, we both need to cool down. If I see him again for the rest of the day, I might knock him the fuck out.

Dad gets my attention. “Come. Let’s talk in my office.”

When we’re in his office, I walk over to the bar and pour us both a glass of whiskey. I shoot my first one, then pour a second glass to nurse while we talk.

I hand Dad his glass and he takes a sip, grimacing as the swallows the burning liquid down.

We sip our drinks in silence for a moment, then Dad sighs. “We’re almost in the same boat as Juan Reyes. We have more men than him, but not enough to ensure that whichever family might be opposing us will be beat back mercilessly. If we win, it’ll be barely.” Dad pauses and meets my eyes. For some reason, my heart rate quickens, and my palms get sweaty.

I drink the rest of the whiskey from my glass and place it on the edge of his desk. “What do we do?”

“The only thing we can do. We form an alliance. I’ve brokered a marriage with a family that, coupled with ours, will swell our ranks and we will easily win a war if it comes to that. But we have to move quickly.”

My stomach in knots, I ask, “What family did you form an alliance with? I take it I’ll be the one that will be marrying her? I’ll do it. Anything to ensure this family and our territory survives.”

Dad sighs again, leaning back in his chair. He looks ten years older, his cheeks sunken and his eyes dull. I’ve never known him to look so aged, so weathered. He’s always been a force to me, someone strong and sure. But now, he looks as if the weight of the world is on his shoulders, and he can hardly handle it.

“I formed an alliance with the St. Clair family.”

It takes me a moment to realize what he said. The St. Clair family. The fucking St. Clair family?

Then it hits me like a ton of bricks. Kai is an only child.

CHAPTER 5

KAI

“Ifucking won’t,” I tell Pop, pacing his office. “You fucking negotiated a fucking marriage for me? What the fuck?”

Pop watches me pace, his face blank and uncaring. “You will do your fucking duty to this family. Be useful. For once, your…perversion can be more beneficial to this family than a detriment.”

“Be useful?” I shout, rounding on him. “I’malwaysfucking useful! Anything you ask me to do, I fucking do it. This family runs because of me.”

“No!” Pop bellows standing and slamming both hands on his desk. “This family runs because ofmeand all thatI’vedone. You just take fucking orders. Like you will now. You will marry Carter, and you won’t say another fucking word about it.”

My anger won’t be contained, despite what Pop says or how he threatens me. “Why? Because of those threats you’ve been getting? We can take care of our family and eliminate whoever is after us. We don’t need them.”

Over the past few weeks, someone has been trying hard to put a dent in how our family runs. They’ve intercepted the alcohol deliveries for our club, stolen a shipment of drugs andalmost got away with some of the pills we move. They didn’t succeed because the driver that had that shipment was able to get away by blowing through a red light.

Pop likes to pretend he’s not worried around me, but I’ve heard him discussing with his guard that we have to find some way to stop the mystery people before we end up in a war we can’t possibly win.

“Yeah?” Pop rounds his desk and gets in my face. “You think someone that is on a smaller scale than this family will take on two families at once? We don’t have the fucking manpower to repel anyone. We need the Whitlocks like they need us. If not, we’ll be killed and the family thatdoesthe killing will take over fucking South Jersey.” I cross my arms over my chest, irritation radiating off me. “It’s fucking done. You’ll be married in two weeks, and you’ll move in with him.”

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