Page 72 of Toxic

“This the first time you haven’t been laid in more than a couple days straight?” Lock teased.

I shook my head. “I don’t sleep aroundthatmuch.”

They both stared at me, Lock in the mirror while Butcher turned around again.

“I’ve gone more than days without fucking,” I explained. “Hell, I’ve even gone months.”

“Bullshit,” Lock said with a laugh.

It was true. I liked the company of women, but there were times when a guy needed a fucking break. It wasn’t that I didn’t have self-control. I just didn’t see the point of denying myself when I couldn’t find my old lady anyway. Now that I had, I wasn’t even thinking about other women.

But flirting with that secretary the other day at EcoAlign had cost me. Billie had kept her distance since. She didn’t trust me. She hardly knew me. I just had to figure out how to show her she could trust me when she refused to be around me.

First, I needed to take care of the assholes threatening her. Then I could figure out how to make her fall for me. Easy enough.

CHAPTER 25

Toxic

“Quit breathing on my neck, asshole,” I muttered and shoved my elbow into Butcher’s gut.

He grunted and took a step back. “Your big ass head is in the way. I’m trying to see.”

Lockout’s sigh was barely audible, but I knew he was scowling in the darkness without needing to see his face. “You’re going to get us caught,” he muttered.

Butcher chuckled. “We’ve done this kind of thing too many times to get caught, Prez.”

“Two guards near the front door,” I said in a low voice.

“Four more upstairs,” Lock replied.

Butcher shoved me out of the way so he could get a better look. “Six guards? That’s it?”

We all met each other’s gazes in the darkness.

“That’s not a good sign,” Lock said, voicing what we were all thinking. “Brently has to know we’d show up at some point.Since you sent him a couple of fingers from those assholes who came to the ranch.”

“Wasn’t easy wrestling those away from the pigs,” I muttered.

“There’s no way he feels comfortable enough to take us on,” Butcher added.

We’d all seen the photo of him that Rip had added to the file he’d made on Brently. Typical boardroom type. Skinny fat, noodle arms, five-six maybe. The guy was smaller than most. Sure, guns were a great equalizer, but he didn’t hold himself like a man who was confident in his ability to inflict violence on others.

“So why only six?” I muttered.

“He’s not here,” Lock answered.

I scowled at him. “You serious?”

“Yeah. We’re still going in there, but guaranteed he’s not going to be home.”

Neither Butcher nor I asked what the point of going in was. There were three reasons to still storm Brently’s Chicago residence. One, it got rid of six men in his employ. That was six less bodies to fight later on. Two, we could get some information out of them before we killed them all. And most importantly, number three, it would allow all three of us to release some of this tension we were all under.

I was finally starting to understand what it was like to be Butcher. To have this anger and savagery building inside of me. The need to let it go before it destroyed me. I didn’t like this shit. I didn’t need to live with this to appreciate the bullshit that Butcher had to deal with on a daily basis. I knew he was a crazy fucker. Now I fully understood why.

Lock was in the same position. I could read the brutality in his eyes. We were both in this space temporarily. Butcher had to live with it every day. We were here because of women. Well, Iwas here because of a stubborn woman. Lock was here because he was the one being a stubborn asshole.

“What’s the plan?” I asked. My only answer was getting jostled out of the way as both my president and best friend stormed the front door of the Chicago residence. “Seriously?” I asked, mouth hanging open.

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