Page 61 of Nash

“What’s the plan?” I sit in my king’s chair, the second one, envisioning how this could go down.

“He plays. He loses.” Axel sits beside me in the first chair, tenting his fingers. “We wait for the after-party, he gets drunk, goes to take a piss, and then?—”

“No one goes to an after-party if they lose,” I argue. “He needs to win some.”

“True,” Jace adds. “Let him win a few holes.”

“So, who’s playing him?”

They look at me. “Fuck. No.”

“You’re the only one exposed,” Sire points out. “It has to be you. He doesn’t know that’s our club and course. We’ll secure it. You can play him, fuck with his mind a bit and maybe get some intel before we scoop him up.”

“Admit it,” Axel says. “After what he tried to do to you and Vale? You’re dying to watch him squirm.”

“It should be you,” I tell Axel. “You’re our best player. You live on the course.”

“Yeah,” he says, “I make the best deals out there, get the best intel, and trust me, I want to watch that fucker suffer after what he did to those girls, but it’s too risky. He found you, followed you, and almost found us.

“So, I admit,” Axel continues, “your idea of meeting here is genius. We look like random customers, Jace and Grant look like staff, and you look like the man he knows you to be: Nash Allen, the accountant who moves dirty money like a shell game. He has no idea we’re connected.”

“He hasn’t found Delta’s yet,” Jace adds. “Grant has the block surveilled. No one’s been around. So far, we’re covered.”

“That’s why we strike now,” Axel continues. “We take him down before he can find another second in command and rebuild his network.”

“Fine.” I demand, “I’ll play with one of our pros, and we’ll let him win five holes, but you better cover my six. Don’t let one of his men snipe me from the river and ruin my game.”

“Grant’s got it covered,” Jace promises. “We’ll establish a perimeter, and I’ll cover Vale that day. I won’t let her out of my sight until Turner’s deep-six in the Atlantic.”

“Sounds like Jace is already her second king.”

Sire’s joking, but red rage suddenly veils my vision. On instinct, I jump, pressing my forearm to his throat and shoving him against the wall.

“Fucking say it again!” I thunder. “Say someone’s going to touch her when she’s mine! Do it! Do it, goddammit, and I’ll kill someone!”

“Brother,” Sire soothes, holding his palms up. “Calm down. You love her, and I understand.”

He could match me, punch for punch, bullet for bullet. We all can. If a brother goes after a brother, it would be a tragic mutual kill. We’re that skilled and stubborn.

“Hey, man.” Jace’s hand lands on my shoulder, tugging me away. “We love you, and we’ll love her. It’ll be okay.”

“It’s not happening.” I step away from Sire, pulling back from Jace, too. “You don’t touch my daughter, and you don’t touch my woman.”

“Okay.” Axel puts his hands up. “One deal at a time. We take down Turner. Everything else will be here when we’re done.”

Here?

He means our room, our bond, our history.

I’ve never questioned it before. Why would I? It’s not like I can walk away. When a man and his family that’s not yours save your baby girl and her mother from ruin, you don’t walk away. You owe them your life.

“Just.” I clench my teeth. I’ve never wavered like this. “Just… Fuck you, Axel! Give me time.”

“Hey.” He stands. “We don’t do this to make the other suffer. We do this to survive. We do this because we believe in a bond, and we’re brothers.You’reour brother.”

Silently, I turn. I need air. I need to calm down. I haven’t raised my fist to a brother in years.

With a quick flip of the lock, I swing the door open … and Vale falls into my arms.

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