Page 190 of Fury

“Of course.”

“What are you up to, Tania?” Butler asked, his voice sharp.

“In this huge mess, I see an opportunity arising for everyone, something I don’t think you see—a first step. I want to make it happen in an unequivocal way.”

Butler’s eyes narrowed. “Unequivocal?”

“That’s right. Do you need me to define that word for you?” she asked.

Her sass was on track. A good sign.

Butler’s lips pressed together. “No, I don’t.”

Her gaze darted back to me. “Finger?”

“I’ll make it happen,” I replied. “In a very unequivocal way.” I shot Butler a pointed look, which he flung right back at me.

“Is Catch far away?” Tania asked.

“No,” I said.

“Good. Get him up here fast. And you,” she said to Butler, “let him come here to see me. Please. And I need to see Nina.”

“Nina? What for?” asked Butler.

Tania was looking at the bigger picture to fix what could be fixed right here, right now. She was going to derail this circus train.

And if Butler would get his head out of his ass, he’d claim Tania for himself.

I lifted my chin at Tania. “You might not be my old lady, baby, but you sure are thinking like one, and I like it. A fuck of a lot.”

Butler shot me an icy blue glare.Ha.

“There’s something else I need to discuss with you. Alone. Sorry, Butler,” Tania murmured.

“You two do what you want. I’m out of here.” Butler pulled something small from his back pocket and threw it on the bed. A lipstick. “This is yours.” He stalked from the room leaving Tania looking as dejected as a girl who didn’t get asked to the prom.

“What did you want to tell me?” I asked, my voice lower, softer.

She picked up the lipstick, wrapping her fingers around it. “That Smoking Gun with Reich—”

“Yeah?”

“I recognized his club logo, just like her tattoo.” Her voice shook.

The small tattoo of a gun wielding skeleton “Rena” had on her lower abs. The one she’d trashed by slicing an F over it in that motel bathroom a million years ago.

My eyelids jammed closed. “Tania,” I cut off her trip down nightmare lane.

“Reich has set up the Smoking Guns with the Broken Blades,” she said in a rush. “From what they were saying, it’s been in the works for a while, but now, the Blades finally said yes to it.”

So it was official. Reich had backstabbed his own club by engineering an alliance between two of our territorial enemies. Specifically, my primary enemies. This was the new deal Notch had been on a high about.

My eyes darted to the F carved into Tania’s skin. “Who cut you, Tania? Who did it?”

“The Smoking Gun.”

“What was his name?”

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