Page 93 of Shaken Knot Stirred

I kicked the hastily packed duffle further into the boat. I closed my eyes for a second and let the crisp sound of the waves gently lapping at the dock take me to my happy place. I was always most at ease on the water.

Beg slumped back into my boat and spat. I rolled my eyes.

“So, what now?” Beg asked like the defeated child he was.

Payton crouched next to him and tugged his shirt straight. “I still say we should have left you for dead.”

“Fuck you, Pay.”

Pay roughly patted his cheek and stood. “That’s brotherly love for you. Star beat you fair and square.”

Beg rolled his head toward me with unedited hatred in his eyes. “You always liked him better than me.”

“Yes,” I said simply, not in the mood to rehash decades of this drama. “Against my better judgment, I’m setting you up in a completely different city. I have a house there and a bar. I’m signing those over to you. On the sole condition that you never come back to Port Haven.”

“Why?”

I had no clue what he was asking clarification for and I didn’t care.

“You’re still a Knightbridge. I won’t have you desperate and destitute. Looks bad for the family. You’ll have a place to live and income. Don’t fuck it up. I will not save you again.”

“I don’t know why you’re bothering. Just toss him overboard. His fat head will take him right to Davy Jones.”

Houston was making his way down the dock. On my orders, he had carried Beg out of the ring and met with a private doctor I had on payroll. I was having Houston escort him out of my territory.

I crouched next to Beg.

“I am not fucking around anymore, Beg,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’ll stay out of Port Haven, and if Star’s name even so much as crosses your scrawny little gray matter, I will teach you what real sadism is. Do you understand?”

“Fuck off.”

I pressed a thumb into his broken ribs until he was dripping in sweat from the pain.

“This is why we do these things on the water,” Pay muttered.

“Do you understand?” I asked him again.

He panted out a yes, and I’d take it for now.

Houston hopped into the boat as Pay leaped off and started unwinding the line from the cleat.

“We’re all set,” Houston said. “Your brother’s pack is fine and getting the medical attention they need.”

“Good.” I clapped him on the shoulder and stepped up out of the boat. Pay tossed the line in so it pooled in Beg’s lap.

The engine revved. It would be a miserable trip this late at night. I’d sign a bonus check for Houston tomorrow. Pay and I stood shoulder to shoulder until the boat disappeared into the dark.

“I fucking love Star,” Pay said as we walked down the dock together, “but glad he finally found the balls to put Beg in his place.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope he stays there.”

“What about that omega? What was her deal at Sanctum the other night? An auracle just doesn’t prance around the Paramour.”

That was an excellent question that I was excited to find the answer to.

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