Page 6 of Pretty Dark Vows

Levi scowls. “Oh, I’m fucking sure,” he says as he starts to pace back and forth next to Jay, every word getting more agitated as he starts to gesture with his hands. “Even if they hadn’t all been wearing those pussy-ass rings, they started this shit by talking about all the ‘renovations’ Austin had in mind for the neighborhood.”

He comes to a sudden stop, throwing his arm out to take in the whole street as he indicates this section of our territory.

My lip curls at his mention of the gaudy gold rings with the initialsWPGthat the West Point gang members have to earn or die trying to; a three-fingered spread more like brass knuckles than jewelry. And if the fuckers who initiated this attack were acting on Austin McKenna’s orders, then yeah, it was definitely West Point.

Dante snorts, folding his arms over his chest. “Renovations? By fuckingWest Point? Never gonna happen.”

He’s right. It will never happen on my watch. But for a moment, the burning rage rising up in my gut makes it hard to keep my own temper in check.

I carved this territory out ofnothing, and the three of us have fought, killed, and bled for every fucking inch of it. Even if I didn’t already have a personal reason to hate McKenna, there’s no way I’ll ever let any of it go.

Austin may think he’s taunting us by fucking around like this. That he’s just feeling things out and trying to get under our skin. But what he’s actually done is bought himself a war with a down payment of blood.Reaperblood.

“Stabilize him,” I tell Dante, tempering my rage as I nod down at Jay. The gut shot is bad, but he’s a fucking Reaper. One ofmine. He’s not bleeding out today.

Dante squats down to do it, and I jerk my head toward the back door of the little bodega.

Logan disappears inside it like smoke. If there’s anything useful in there, whether it’s a witness statement or a bullet casing, he’ll find it. He’ll also clean the place up, leaving nothing for the cops to discover.

Not that Halston’s finest bother responding to many 9-1-1 calls in this neighborhood. They know better.

But another lesson I learned from my late father is that the fastest way to fuck yourself over is to assume shit will go down in your favor. It never does, not when it matters, and if anyone shows up to investigate this bullshit other than me and mine, Logan is the one I trust to make sure that investigation ends up dead in the water.

“Walk me through it, Levi,” I bite out, focusing all my attention on him now that I know Dante and Logan are handling the other priorities here. “Everything that happened.”

Dante starts humming something under his breath, improvising a quick field dressing with the trained hands of someone who knows everything there is to know about human anatomy. But I know he’s still absorbing every word as Levi rattles off what he saw. Which boils down to a handful of West Point members strolling right into our territory—myterritory,Reaperterritory—and going on a rampage of property damage, harassment, and vandalism until they finally got the attention they’d been looking for.

Until they finally found someone to hurt who would getmyattention.

My shoulders are so tense they feel like steel, but the more details Levi gives us, the calmer I get.

Jonas Gray, my father, was heavily involved in the criminal underworld of Halston, but he still failed to make a real mark for himself… and that was because his vision wasn’t big enough.

It was because he made mistakes, and because every fucking one of us reaps what we sow.

Including, sooner or later, Austin fucking McKenna.

Austin is opportunistic, arrogant, and bold. And he may be swinging his dick around right now, but he’s also too fucking stupid to realize mine will always be bigger.

He doesn’t understand the three truths that keep this city’s heart beating.

The three truths that are in my blood.

The three truths I used to carve something for myself out of nothing.

The three truths that will turn the Reapers into the legacy my father deserves.

One, territory is power. Two,loyaltyis power. And three… information? That’s not power. Information is what you use to weaponize power, and every word out of Levi’s mouth is arming me to the teeth.

“There’s still a bullet inside,” Dante says, straightening up from where he’s been crouching over Jay and wiping his bloody hands on his black jeans. “He needs to see Payton.”

He cocks his head, waiting on me to decide if we’re done with Levi yet or if I want him to take Jay in to get that taken care of.

But Levi’s told us everything he knows, so I grunt, jerking my chin at the kid to dismiss him, my attention moving behind him to where the brick of the building was torn up by the bullets that didn’t hit Jay.

I scowl, because that means I’ll have to leave Logan here to take care of it.

“Come on now,” Dante says to Jay, grinning as he hauls him upright. “Time for you to go play doctor.”

---