Page 29 of Pretty Dark Vows

Dante raises his eyebrows. “Setting Riley up to infiltrate our ranks? Nah. He’s not that smart.”

Dante would know more about the subject than most, but his argument clearly doesn’t satisfy Logan. The blond man leans across the table, narrowing his eyes.

“If McKenna really took her sister, it was for a reason,” Logan insists, keeping his voice low even though every last person in this place knows it’s a good idea to give us our privacy when we show up.

Well, every one of them except Riley.

I smirk, throwing another glance her way as Dante and Logan argue quietly. I know for sure that she can’t hear us from where she’s sitting, but when she notices me staring at her, she holds my gaze and lifts her chin as if in challenge.

Something about the wild, almost feral glint in her dark brown eyes makes me want to keep looking, but I drag my focus away from her and turn back to my seconds.

“If West Point sent her, what’s their end game here?” I ask them both, interrupting their argument for the moment.

“We’ll… find out,” Logan finally says, his face pained with the effort of admitting he doesn’t see it either.

“But does it matter right now?” Dante asks with a grin, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his broad chest. “We know they’ve got her sister. We use Riley, we’ve got the perfect chance to hit them back.”

I snort. Not because he’s necessarily wrong, but because he’s too fucking sold on the idea already.

Definitely letting his dick do at least part of the reasoning for him.

“The downside is that Logan might still be right,” I remind him, looking for the holes in Riley’s story so that I can poke at them. “This whole thing really could be a trap. Even if it wasn’t set up by West Point, any other gang who wants to take us down could be calling the shots.”

“Nah,” Dante insists, shaking his head. “I would have caught on last night.”

“Unless they targeted her after you fucked her,” Logan says. “Orbecauseyou fucked her.”

Dante cocks his head, narrowing his eyes as he thinks it through. I know the club he went to last night, and it’s a fucking dive that lies in the kind of unclaimed territory where the smaller gangs fight for scraps and keep each other busy and out of our hair. In other words, it’s as close to neutral territory as you can find in Halston, which is why he chose it.

But neutral territory also means anyone could have been there… seen Dante with Riley… and decided to use it.

“You gotta admit, it’s pretty fucking convenient that she shows up here with her sob story plusthisbullshit”—I shove the fat envelope of cash she left on the table in Dante’s direction—“right after she hooked up with you last night.”

He leans forward, his grin turning a little savage as he picks up the envelope and taps its edge on the table, then holds it out to me. “All the more reason to accept her offer, Madd. If another gang is trying to use her to fuck with us, we need to keep her close.”

I take the envelope, trying to get out of my own way and think about what he said.

Logan makes a noise in his throat. “You just want her close enough to keep your cock warm.”

“Hey, I’m not above multi-tasking.” Dante lifts an eyebrow. “You should try it sometime.”

“Pass,” Logan says with one of his patented icy glares.

The big tattooed man shrugs, not affected in the least by our friend’s reaction. “Your loss.”

Logan’s glare turns into something even glaciers would retreat from. “Not all of us are ruled by our dicks.”

Dante smirks. “And not all of us have mastered the art ofbeingsuch a dick,” he says… then waits for it.

No one can get under Logan’s skin quite like Dante can.

And there’s no one, other than me, who Logan would defend faster if there was a threat.

It takes a couple seconds, but then Logan’s lips finally twitch. It’s only the barest hint of a smile, but for a man like him, it’s practically a shit-eating grin. “No need to shower me with compliments. You can save that garbage for her.”

He jerks his chin in Riley’s direction, and Dante laughs.

“Ah, come on now, have a little more faith in me. I’m pretty sure I can find a way to sweet talk her a little better thanthat.”

---