Page 27 of Sully
“She’s not swallowing the whiskey, Gunnar.”I chuckled.“She’s spittin’ in the bottle.”
Gunnar snorted and nearly choked on his own beer.“Mother fuck.”
Knuckles laughed and clapped Tonio on the back with a solid whack.Tonio gave him the side-eye but said nothing.It was a game they played.Kind of like measuring their dicks.
Kat was swaying now, her words slurring as she poured another round.The woman had her arm thrown around Darby’s shoulder in the false camaraderie of the truly drunk.Darby continued to talk to Kat like they were old friends.Kat and the other club whores continued to match Darby drink for drink.
Long after Kat had stopped urging Darby to drink, Darby had taken over pouring shots.The poor prospect at the bar had given up trying to make them all slow down.Knuckles signaled him to let it go and texted Knight to lock down the compound.No sense in anyone leaving who wasn’t in any shape to.We protected our own.
“Knight says you’re a son of a bitch, Tonio,” Knuckles said with a grin.
“Of course, he does.”Tonio didn’t look upset.
“I miss something?”I raised an eyebrow at Knuckles.
“Knight said Tonio had his tech guy erase Darby’s identity.They made her a brand-new one, but she refused to use it.”Knuckles sat back in his chair, crossing one ankle over the opposite knee.“Well, until she decided she needed a couple things from the mall.”
Tonio barked out a laugh.“I’ve never been so fucking happy to get a six-figure credit card bill in my life.She might be pushing her boundaries or seeing if she can make me cut myself out of her life, but I can take anything she throws at me.”He met and pinned my gaze with his.“I expect your help with this, Sully.I want to be in her life.”
“Considering you basically furnished my whole apartment, I suppose I can manage.As long as you understand she’s my old lady.”
He nodded.“I think you’ve earned the right, unless she changes her mind.Then all bets are off.”
“She won’t.”I flashed him a grin.I glanced back in Darby’s direction.What had started as an ambush was transforming into one big-ass party with Darby right in the center of it.All while remaining stone-cold sober.It was a hustle worthy of respect, the kind of psychological game that required intelligence, patience, and nerves of steel -- traits Darby had in abundance.
“She reminds me of her mother,” Tonio said quietly, his eyes never leaving his daughter.“Not in looks, but in how she moves through the world.Like she’s always three steps ahead of everyone else.”Tonio glanced away.“Until she left me, anyway.I’m not sure what happened to her between then and when she died, but Darby was the one to suffer for it.And I should have paid more attention to Jen.”
“Your daughter,” I said carefully, “is the most capable person I’ve ever met.”
Tonio’s mouth quirked in what might have been a smile.“Capable of what, though?That’s the question that keeps me up at night.”
As if on cue, one of the club girls stumbled backward, knocking into a nearby table before sliding to the floor in a giggling heap.Another soon followed, unable to maintain her balance as she reached for the bar to steady herself.Kat, the ringleader, was now slumped in a chair, her head lolling as she struggled to keep her eyes open.Darby smiled widely, the architect of a destruction so subtle it looked like nothing more than a typical night of overindulgence.
“Capable of anything,” I answered, unable to keep the admiration from my voice.“Absolutely anything she sets her mind to.”
Chapter Eight
Darby
I picked my way through the clutter of empty bottles and sprawled bodies of club girls who’d tried to drink me under the table.How the fuck did chicks who hang out in a biker compound not know how to party all night?I’d used the oldest trick in the book to manipulate them.They’d not only fallen for it, they’d crashed and burned.
At the far corner of the room, Tonio and Sully sat hunched in conversation, two predators who’d apparently decided not to tear each other’s throats out.For now, anyway.They also were watching me far too closely.
Kat lay slumped in a chair, her head lolling to one side, mascara smeared beneath her eyes like war paint gone wrong.She’d been the ringleader of this little ambush, thinking she could put me in my place with a few shots of Jack since apparently violence hadn’t been an option.Now poor Kat was snoring softly, defeated by her weapon of choice.I couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at my lips.There was something deeply satisfying about winning a game your opponent thought they’d invented.
As I approached the corner table, both men watched me intently.Tonio’s expression remained carefully neutral, though his eyes tracked my movement with the same intensity he’d been watching me all night.Sully’s face, however, broke into that slow smile that did stupid things to my insides.He immediately shifted in his seat, making room for me beside him.
“Since neither of you are dead, I’m assuming you’re at least trying to get along.”I sat in the chair next to Sully.The warmth of his thigh pressed against mine was a solid reminder that this man was sexy as fuck.And I thought I would always want to fuck him.
Tonio’s mouth twitched.“We’ve reached an… understanding.”
“Oh?And what understanding is that?”I smiled at Sully as I gave Tonio the side-eye.
Sully’s arm settled around my shoulders, his touch light but unmistakably possessive.“That we both want what’s best for you,” he said simply.
I snorted.“And you two get to decide what that is?”
“No,” Tonio answered, surprising me with his directness.“You decide.We just make sure you stay alive long enough to enjoy it.”
