Page 25 of Bastard

If I disappeared tomorrow, would Steel do it? Take down Todd and leave my brothers alone? And who would make the Feyereisens accountable? If they wrangled control of Roark from Georgia—or even worse, Stroman too—they’d be pretty unstoppable. They would command satellite networks, technology, airlines, global supply chains, and fiber optic cables. While Sam and I were blissfully sailing the Caribbean Sea, the global market could crash and send everyone into poverty.

Or something like that. Someone would probably stop them at some point.

“Well, it’s nice to dream of leaving it all behind, even if we can’t.” Plus, I was dreaming again. So that’s a bonus.

“Come down here and stare at the sky with me.” She waved at me until I complied, putting my head against hers.

“What are you thinking about?”

“That this is it. Back to the crazy tomorrow.”

Our plane was scheduled to take off at nine in the morning. Sam had meetings all week, then we got to return for a long weekend.

“You know what?” she said. “I try to never think about Devil’s Wrath or what Todd would do to you if he found out. But every once in a while it hits me like Thor’s hammer out of the blue.”

The drunken confessions were flying now. “That’s okay. I think about it enough for the both of us. All the time. What the Feyereisens have planned. What they’re willing to do. Who kidnapped you? Who killed your extended family? Was Bernard killed?” I thought about murder a lot.

“David told Hazel he has a lead.”

I rolled to face her. “On which thing?”

“Not sure. Just that it has to do with my dad.”

“Fuck, it would be nice to get some answers. Any answers.”

“It’s like playing chess knowing someone took the bishops and rooks and that they’ll suddenly appear on the board, but you don’t know when or where.”

“Now that’s a chess game I’d actually enjoy playing.” I knew it was supposed to be an awesome, intellectually stimulating game, but my real life was all about strategy. I didn’t find chess fun, interesting, or relaxing. It sucked actually.

“Or…like there’s a second queen. But you don’t know there’s a second queen until she suddenly appears.”

I let Sam babble. It was cathartic. In a way she was confessing all her fears through a rambling chess analogy without having to actually say what scared her. “What you’re actually saying is you feel like you’re a queen, alone on the chessboard with the king, and only a row of pawns to defend you. Meanwhile your opponent somehow has all their chess pieces in duplicate.”

“And they can appear or disappear at random. No rules. Just right.” She giggled.

“I can’t believe you just made an Outback restaurant commercial joke in the middle of a chess analogy about your life.”

Sam kept giggling, which was pretty fun since she barely had anything on her body. I got to enjoy the view, which in my drunken haze, was like tunnel vision.

“And I can’t believe you just pronounced all those words without a single mistake.”

“Yeah well, chess is a sobering subject.”

She flipped over onto her stomach, her delicious ass now on display. “I’m terrible at pillow talk.”

“Is this pillow talk? There are no pillows.”

“Oh there are pillows.” She wiggled her breasts and laughed.

I gave her ass a light smack. “Now that’s pillow talk.” It was nice to hear her let go and laugh. It made it easier for me to relax knowing she was relaxed. “We’ve got two hours. What do you want to do with the time?”

“I get my choice?”

“Of course.”

She rolled back over and bit her lip, looking at me. “Make me feel good.”

“Oh I can do that.” It was easy to reach down and pluck the cups of her bikini top down, plumping her breasts up while also putting my favorite nipples on display.

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