Page 23 of Room Seven

“It helped me draw out an enemy,” Harlon admits, like a canary in a cage.

What a bastard. But a smart move.

It’s hard to believe a life can shatter and become so utterly irreparable in an instant twice in one lifetime.

But mine has.

Five

Mirsha

Ihave every intention of walking out of this club tonight as its new owner. Well, one-third owner. Everything I touch, I share with my two best friends. We tried buying this place three years back, but after the fallout with Aster and her father, we left the country for a while.

But now we are back.

Italy was nice. Mexico has some of the best damn tequila a man can lose his senses on. And You haven’t lived unless you’ve consumed Raki in a Turkish bathhouse.

We thought distance would break the ties we have with Aster but it’s only made it worse and I can’t take much more booze before my liver dies, taking me along with it.

We’ve been back stateside for a little over a month. The urge to break down her father’s prison door, steal his daughter and take her captive like fucking animals only plagues my mind half the day. The other half is used for sleeping or convincing the owners of this place they want to sell to us. Something they were open to back then and not so much after we walked once.

I know beyond any doubt, Viper won’t fucking sleep until it’s ours. So here I am, wishing I could be anywhere else. Thousands of miles or a few hundred doesn’t matter. But now there aren’t borders or oceans to keep me in check. It’s been three years since tasting her lips on mine and it’s worse than getting lost in the desert. My chest tightens at the knowledge and I swallow down the dry sand of loneliness with another mouthful of bourbon.

“You can glower in that window all you want. I told you why we have to close this deal. It’s the only part of her we have. I want it. You two fuckers can go drown your pitiful asses at the bottom of a bourbon bottle later. After I get your names on the sale contract.”

I raise my glass and down the rest of my top-self Kentucky Straight. It kicks, burns and then mellows as it hits the back of my throat.

“He’s in a particular mood tonight, isn’t he, Mirsha?”

My gaze glides across the room to Luther lounging on a nearby couch, his arm thrown across the back. He balances his drink on a knee. We’ve holed up for the last week in Club Sin. I’m starting to think of Room Seven as a prison rather than a fantasy land. It’s been a constant back and forth between the owners and their intermediary, Raja.

I see no reason to keep my irritation on lockdown. “It’s better than it was when we were in Mexico. He was a miserable fucker then. Now he’s just being a pain in the ass.”

Viper isn’t listening to us though. He has his phone out and pulls up the number to the broker working the buyout deal.

“Raja. Any word?” From what we hear, he does everything from filling the club’s performance stages with new talent to luring in new members. He helped a few friends of ours up in Chicago land a gig that ended with them getting a Constantine girl knocked up. It all turned out with no dead bodies, but marrying the enemy must have them sleeping with one eye open. It hasn’t escaped my knowledge that she’s a cousin of Aster’s and when a Constantine feels slighted, there is hell to pay. But things have changed since the head of the Constantine family got life in prison and the son stepped into his role. Drake must have loved getting passed over in favor of his older brother’s son. Taking orders from his nephew must burn.

Drake fought for us despite the fact that Constantine’s are not known for sharing. Carving a nook out for the Moretti family took grit, blood, and money. Thirty percent of anything we raked in to be exact.

Drake hated we had to pay anything to his family, but it’s the price of doing business. A couple of decades into our lives, he got married and had a kid. Everything was fine until the forbidden fruit became irresistible. Now her father will put a bullet in our heads the second we cross into his hometown territory. That might scare other people into behaving and walking a tight line, but we stay awayforher. Her father is a petty bastard. None of us cared at first. Not until the three of us reveal our feelings for his daughter. And then a friend turned into an enemy within a night. She doesn’t know how close she came to losing her father the night he confronted us. Luther was the first to confess his love for our friend’s daughter, and that went about as well as expected.

Loaded guns, knives and spilled blood lead to deadly promises I wish I could forget.

We all said a lot of things. Some were lies. But Drake was right about us being way too damn old for his girl. We left to keep him from sending her away. It was anusorherkind of situation none of us told her about.

In the years to come, she will understand why we had to walk. Her age makes the world look rosy, fresh and full of possibilities. And it is when you are barely old enough to drink.

Viper raises his gaze to me like he knows the acid in my gut is churning. His eyes narrow. “You are thinking too loud.”

Viper moves from his chair to stand beside me. His hand on my shoulder is welcome. Right now, I can’t tell if it’s him needing human connection or him offering it. All the senses and emotions are a ball of tangled yarn with no way of unraveling.

Back in the day, Drake hated the connection I share with Luther and Viper. An Australian shaman once described it as ties through time and space that connect me with a twin flame. In this case three flames. She warned if we ever try to sever the connection, death would follow.

I go to the bar and crack open another bottle, feeling way too sober for my current mood.

“Anything?” I ask, pointing at the Viper’s cell phone. There’s been a lot of back and forth getting the elusive owners to meet us on a price. They have a club in every major city and all we are asking is for them to let us buy this one. Eighty-five million seems like a fair price for an old mansion with pretty gardens and fancy chandeliers. After factoring in the value of the members and the commodities offered to them, we all agreed on a number. Truth be told, I would give them my entire bank account if it helps Viper find a level of peace.

I can at least understand how Viper’s heart pulls him back here. It’s where he claimed her and where I let all this go too far.

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