Page 48 of Taming Raptor

“Yeah, because her well-being means more to me than my own fucking life. Back when we first got here? If it had been just me, I could’ve cared less what happened to me. I was on a fast track to hell, and she was the one bright and somewhat innocent spot in my dark and ugly world. What makes me an unredeemable piece of shit is that I didn’t leave Luis’s organization because I regretted the things I had done—it was to save her. So, if you know something, tell me. Because I promise you, nothing is more important to me than her—not you, not the club.” I shot him a narrowed gaze.

He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. Ice blue eyes locked on mine. “Are you in love with her?”

“What? What are you talking about? Of course, I love her.”

“No, I asked if you were in love with her.”

“Not like that, why?”

“She’s been with you exclusively since Raptor left.”

Fuck. I huffed a sigh and closed my eyes. Finally, I opened them to stare him down. “We don’t fuck.”

He reared back slightly as if I’d struck him. “Wait. You’re telling me you’ve never slept with her?”

Palming my face, I groaned. “Not exactly.”

“What does ‘not exactly’ mean?”

“It’s a long story. When we’re together, she listens to me. She….” I couldn’t reveal my weakness. “Look, why does that matter?”

“Because I think you need to get her out of here and I know she won’t like it, but for her safety….” He trailed off and it wasn’t helping my suspicions and worry.

“Spit it out. What the fuck do you know?” Voodoo had been my brother for years. If he or his grandmother said someone needed to do something, there was a reason.

“I had a vision of her being shot. That was all I saw. I might’ve thought it was the incident last night, but my granmè called me this morning. She said we needed to ‘protect the girl’ but when I explained what happened, she cut me off. She said there was someone who wanted her dead and they wouldn’t rest until they saw her bleeding out into the dirt. She said it’s tied to George Horacio, but it goes deeper than our friend George.” His brow furrowed as he watched me.

“I will fucking cut off their balls and shove them down their throat until they choke on them. Then I’ll gut them.” I was dead serious, and I meant every word.

“Granmè recommended you take her to Texas. The thing is, I didn’t want to send you down there if the two of you are together. That wouldn’t be fair to Raptor.”

A humorous laugh burst free and echoed off the walls of the sterile-looking room. “Oh, that’s rich. He fucking left her without a backward glance. No calls, no messages, letters, or fucking carrier pigeons. Not a word to her. Not. One. And you’re worried about what’s fair to him? What if she was my girl? He left her. That makes her fair game, right? That’s what the fucking by-laws say. Right?” I taunted, pissed to the core.

“I get it, bro. But Raptor is a brother. My loyalties will always lie with a brother, so despite what my grandmother suggested, I would’ve found a safe alternative location for her.”

“And I’m not?”

“That’s not what I meant,” he argued. “And if you want to throw out by-laws, they say the former brother has to be okay with the new relationship.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Well, since I’m not in a relationship with her, that’s a moot point. What I am worried about is have you told her she needs to leave? And have you told him she’s coming?”

“I can’t tell him. When I consulted Facet, he said he didn’t advise sending the information out via phone or any other electronic means because we have no idea who is after Cookie or what they have at their disposal. You know Facet—anything electronic is fallible,” he explained with a shrug. “As far as her, we figured it was better off coming from you.”

“Great.”

“There’s one more thing.” He covered his mouth as if he could physically hold the words back. What he told me next had me in a near panic state.

“Fucking hell.”

“Night Crawling”—Miley Cyrus (feat. Billy Idol)

Initially, I was supposed to go to the boys. Sam had messaged me to say he was pretty sure he could bring Seth to me. Their mom was supposed to be out of town for another week, and Sam told the nanny he and Seth were going to hang out with some friends for the night and would be back the next day.

I had no idea what kind of snacks two teenaged boys liked, but I was stopping by H-E-B to grab some shit. Tonight would be the first time Sam would bring his brother to see me. I hadn’t seen Seth since he was a small child.

“Adrien?”

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