Page 66 of Start A War (Saint View Psychos)

“You’ll be at my company dinner on Saturday night. You will smile.”

“When you marry Caleb, things will turn around.”

I couldn’t let another man tell me what to do. Not even one who had my best interests at heart. “That’s not your decision to make, Nash.”

Quick as lightning, he was in front of me, towering over me, his glare hot. “Do you even know what you’re saying? You saw one percent of what a Psychos party is.”

One percent? I’d watched a woman get railed by three men while a crowd of people watched. I’d seen someone snort coke off a woman’s inner thigh before licking her pussy like it was a chaser. What the hell else was there?

I wasn’t going to ask and prove his point that I was in over my head. Instead, I straightened my shoulders and stood to my full height. “I want to learn this place from the ground up. From the cleaner and the cooks to whatever else there is. You keep telling me I know nothing about the business—”

“You don’t,” he growled.

“All the more reason for me to find out. Like it or not, Nash, I own this place. I’m your boss now, and you can either get on board or you can leave.” My fingers trembled as the words fell out of my mouth. I tucked them into fists, praying he wouldn’t notice.

“Dis,” Rebel said quietly.

But Nash and I were too busy glaring at each other.

I wanted to back down, but I couldn’t. Not if I wanted these people to respect me. I had to take my place, even if that meant coming down on Nash the way I was now.

I hated it.

But things had to change. Bethany-Melissa would get eaten alive here. I needed to be Bliss to survive. I needed Nash to stop looking at me like I was a child. And I needed to stop giving him reasons to do that.

Maybe if I were nude, with other men desiring me, Nash could no longer see me as anything but a grown woman.

He took another step in so my chest brushed his. “You grew up in private schools where your dress had to cover your knees. You probably had a fucking debutante ball, didn’t you? Axel would roll over in his grave if I let you do this.”

I stood my ground. “There is no letting me. You don’t own me. And I’m not Axel’s little sister anymore.”

“So what? You’re gonna start nude waitressing with Rebel? You gonna put on a show in a cage?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “If that’s what I decide I want to do, then maybe I will. But the point is, it’s my decision.”

“It’s a bad one.” His gaze flickered over my face. For a second, it rested on my lips, but then he turned away, his expression tortured.

I wasn’t letting him get out of it that easily. I was too annoyed with him. He was acting like my father. “What’s it to be, Nash? You asked me if I was in, and I said yes. What about you though? You gonna stick around and help me turn this place into something even bigger and better than it is now? Or you gonna keep treating me like I don’t have a brain of my own?”

Some of the fire went out of him. “I never meant it like that. I know how smart you are. You always were. I just feel like someone needs to watch out for you.”

“We all watch out for each other,” Rebel said quietly. “That’s what family does.”

I nodded.

Rebel and I both turned to Nash.

He breathed out heavily. “Yeah, fine. I’m in.”

---