Page 47 of Ravaged
But I had to give Iris credit. She was brave. Stupid, but brave. It took courage to fight a crime family as big as ours.
And it took the same qualities to save a woman when it meant going against your own blood. Was I as brave and as stupid?
No. I hadn’t saved Teagen. She was still a prisoner.
We drove in silence. The Dahlia District was in a neighboring mill town, only known for the entertainment club and for the private school academies. Pine trees covered both sides of the highway, covered in darkness. I opened the window and let the breeze come in; the ocean was close enough that you could smell the salt in the wind on the right gale. It was different than I was used to in the desert, the scent of wet dirt sometimes overriding the familiar dust.
Iris stared out the windshield, stunned and defeated. I owed her nothing. If anything, she owedme.
But I still had the compulsion to warn her.
“If they find out about your rescue plan,” I started. Iris kept her eyes forward, watching the asphalt winding past us. “Gerard may remove protection from the Dahlia District.”
“There’s a new owner anyway,” Iris said under her breath. She turned to the side, putting her elbow on the window, looking out at the trees. “And it’s not like the new owner will care about protecting us.”
“He might.”
“Why even bring it up?” she snapped at me. “You’re going to tell them, aren’t you?”
I sighed deeply, then switched lanes. Once we were cruising, some distance put between us and the other cars, I shrugged. “Teagen never left the room.”
“And?”
“And my point is,” I paused, “what is there to tell?”
Iris turned to me, but I kept my eyes on the road. Omitting the truth to my family wasn’t the best choice, but it was the one I was making, and I planned to stick by my decision. Iris was hardly a threat and she was only trying to protect her friend. I would have done the same thing, especially if it came to protecting Teagen.
“Tell me about Teagen,” I said.
“I will slit your throat in your sleep if you so much as rip a hair out of her head.”
I laughed. So feisty, and yet, so empty. Her threats didn’t mean anything.
Iris narrowed her eyes to slits. She wasn’t amused.
“What makes you so convinced that I want to hurt her?” I asked.
“You’re an Adler. That’s what the Adlers do.”
My stomach rolled. It was the first time I wasn’t sure if I liked having that association. Iwaslike the rest of the Adlers—I may not have killed as many people as Axe, but I had killed two men, and that was enough.
“Half Adler,” I said. I shifted my grip on the steering wheel. “At first, we kept her naked in a cage.”
“Why are you telling me that?”
“To show you.”
“To show me what?” After a few moments, she shook her head. “What? So I can be thankful that you’re not treating my best friend like she’s an animal?”
“To remind you that it could be worse.” My face tightened in restraint. I didn’t want her gratitude. What we were doing to Teagen wasn’t fair. She wasn’t the one who owed money or tried to start a war between two crime rings. But until I could figure out a way to make it better for Teagen, this was the way things were. It was part of why it was even more important for me to take over the business now. I wanted to make it better for Teagen. She deserved it. “Tell me about Teagen,” I tried again.
“What do you want to know?” Iris asked, in a softer voice this time.
“Why are you so protective of her?”
Iris sighed. “She’s one of the first real friends I ever had. The only person who actually listened to me. Cheered me up. Always showed me the brighter side of things.” A smile flitted across her face, and her eyes widened. “She was there for me, even when I couldn’t—” she stopped, then looked out the window. She took a deep breath. “She’s the kind of friend you want around you all of the time, but especially when you’re down. She still sees the good in everyone.”
I had only known Teagen for a little while, but I already knew that what Iris was saying was true. Teagen had shown me that it was okay to work for what I wanted, to wait for the right time to take my place as the leader. That I could accept myself for being a protector by nature.
