Page 74 of When Sinners Fall
DRAGON
Bright sun blinds me as I walk through downtown. Not surprising. She’s stolen my sunglasses. All I’m doing is thinking of the shit she threw at me last night about cheating, and the fact that some dick obviously cheated on her. I'd kill him for that if I had a name. I'd find him and make his life hell for a while before sending him straight on down there. I don't have a fucking name, though. Doubt I'll ever get one from her either because regardless of her little black fantasy world, she's too good for what I'd do to him.
I couldn't be more infuriated with my thoughts if I tried. One thing I’m not is a cheater. I’m loyal to anything I invest time in. Always have been. Family. Work. Anything that’s on my side gets treated with the respect it deserves unless it proves otherwise. If she knew the amount of pussy that’s been pushed at my face through the years, she might understand why it’s nothing but skin to me on most days.
My hand runs over my chest at the thought, putting pressure on the new tattoo scored in until it bites pain at me. It’s only her I’m interested in, and even that’s not based on fucking her. I wish I could explain what it is based on, but I can’t. Don’t know how to express that. The only way I’ve ever shown commitment to something is by protecting it with everything I’ve got. It’s just what I’m designed like, or have been built to be like. There’s this feeling she creates, though. This swarm of intent inside me. It eats at me, making me feel untouched before her. Clean maybe. Not something I’ve been for a long ass time
I look at all our cars lined up as I walk through the parking lot towards The Bourbon Lounge. Mariana’s, Knox’s, Abel’s, Shaw’s. One missing. Elias’s. Guess that’s still parked underground at his place. I doubt any of us have been there to deal with his stuff. Wouldn’t even know what to do with it. He wasn’t one for trinkets or things that meant something to him. He was a live fucking wire. Someone who lived right on the edge and took every second of what he wanted without regret or remorse.
Might as well burn it all, I guess.
Fingers running over my eyes, I pinch into my brow. Dead. Gone. Hurts like a motherfucker no matter how much I’m trying to push that down or ignore it. I doubt Wren even knows about it. I haven’t told her, anyway, and I doubt she ever met or saw him before she left San Antonio. He was living with our father at that time, and other than Knox, she never knew a thing about the family. That’s the sort of shit you talk about with someone you love, though, isn’t it? That’s the kind of thing I should be discussing with her so she knows more about what I am, who I need to be, and what she can give me.
The door gets pushed in, and the dark confines of this place ease the ache in my eyes. Knox is talking to one of the girls when I get through the first run of corridors. He smiles at me and flicks his head at the route forward, walking his calm ass that way soon after. We both move, both twist and turn the hallways whilst he’s texting something out. No looking where we’re going. No need to. We’ve been here so long now the ground seems embedded in us.
This is where it started for Mother. Well, not started, but this is the first place she owned on her own. It was a cesspit back then. Needed to be. Whores left and right. Pussy on display for the world to see, so I’m told. Little in the way of clothes to cover their assets. Different now. Classier. Yeah, everyone who’s anyone knows what it is, but it’s damn expensive nowadays, and the women aren’t what they used to be. If there’s one thing Mother's learnt through the years, it’s refinement and how to show wealth. Doesn’t make her any less the whore she’s always been, but, I guess, it does make her more threatening. Or we do.
Trailing through one of the training rooms, I light a smoke, watch Carmen shouting instructions at some of the new girls, and pull Knox up before he carries on towards the main lounge. “What was that shit with Levi about?”
“He wasn’t paying up.”
“No. You don’t flip out like that for money owed. What’s going on?”
He frowns. “What is this, twenty goddamned questions?”
“You can get that temper in check with me before I knock you on your ass. Explain.” He looks away, pretending he gives a damn about the girls pulling their moves. He doesn’t. Women need a brain in their head for him to be even mildly interested in them.
“You said you’d leave this with me.”
“What?”
“The Canes.”
“That shit was about Elias?”
“In a roundabout way. Yes.”
Right. I nod. Makes sense that he didn’t give a damn about the money then.
“Are we finished?” he asks.
“Yeah.”
He turns and starts moving again, so I follow. Abel’s sitting in the main lounge room with Mother when we get there, and Mariana and Shaw are up by the bar. She looks up at me and smiles, waving her hand. Shaw doesn’t even react to me. Not surprising after the last time I saw him in Tijuana. Not a night he’s going to forget in a hurry, and not one I’m convinced isn’t going to need to happen again. Yeah, he did as he was told. He got inside the witch. And yeah, he made her hurt in ways she didn’t understand before him until she gave in, but he still didn’t like doing it.
Cortez’ blood runs weak as hell in that one.
Mother gets up to talk with Knox, and I’m left standing here next to Abel and wondering what’s about to get discussed. He stares across at Mariana, frowning, and then looks sideways at me as I sit my ass down.
“Did you mean it when you said you wouldn’t marry into the Ortegas?” he asks.
I signal the woman at the bar, asking for coffee. “I’ve just brought Wren in. You think I’m gonna change my mind now that I've committed?” He looks back at Mariana, sighing. Clarity suddenly comes rushing into my thoughts. “And you can get that shit out of your head, too. She’s not going anywhere near it.”
“She’s capable.”
“No. Don’t make me argue with you about it.”
He chuckles, low and rowdy, and nods his head. “Alright, Brother. Calm down.” Fucker keeps laughing, though. I don’t care. We’re not doing that to her. Doesn’t matter whatever this conversation might be, and if it comes to it, maybe I’ll have to think about it some more, but no goddamn way is she walking down the aisle with Nicolas Ortega to form some union Mother’s after.
