Page 17 of Wounded Wing

“?do you agree, Mr. Lennon? I’ll be at the club in fifteen minutes. Don’t keep me waiting,” he snaps.

The call drops as I click my tongue on the back of my teeth.

Ruthless, indeed.

I scroll through my texts and send one off to Mae, informing her that I won’t be joining her.

Not that she’ll care.

Her reply comes immediately, in the form of a yellow thumbs up emoji. If it were any other day, I would address her use of it. Lucky for her, I’ve been given a ridiculously short timeframe to meet Ren at the club.

I turn the keys dangling from the ignition in record time pulling back out into traffic, curious as to what tricks Ren Kudo has up his sleeve for me.

Chapter eleven

Playing up a friendshipwith Atticus Lennon sucked more than I had anticipated. Anyone with a pair of eyes could see how much pleasure he found in Mae shutting down. I hated seeing her become some basic, demure housewife so much that it created an ache in my chest. The woman I saw today was not the fiery woman Lex had talked about for the last few years.

Sure, she was pretty as he described. Actually,prettyis a cruel understatement. When I saw that woman with her dark, brown curls puffed from the southern humidity, her bright, nearly teal eyeswith small explosions of yellow-gold, a color I liken to a feline, and her slightly crooked, bruised nose decorated with a gold septum ring, I knew she was more than that.

Mae Lennon was a fighter, whether she believed it or not.

She has been alone with the Devil for years, letting him feed off of her beautiful body and slowly killing herself in the process. She deserves more than being tied down to a dickbag like Lennon. He clearly enjoyed fucking her up if she was still sporting bruises on her face. God only knows how worse off things were in the places that she hid from the world.

I consider what Lex has told us about Mae over the years. Disappointment claws at my heart when I come up short of anything but surface-level shit. Lex got it in his head that he couldn’t or wouldn’t become invested in this woman. I know that his time in the Bratva did a number on him and the poor fucker feels like he’s incapable of giving love. I can’t help but feel some sort of resentment towards him for having so many opportunities to be around Mae and not doing dick about it.

Fuck!

This isn’t me. I’m not a jealous bastard who resents a fucking medic, my brother no less, for taking care of people. Even if those people were as beautiful as Mae Lennon. No, I am Ángelmother-fuckingLadrón. I excel in getting what I want, when I want it. I’mthethief, after all.

And I want her.

I fold my arms over my chest and stare at Atticus’ vehicle, thinking of all of the creative ways I could remove him from existence. Abullet would be far too quick for what he deserves, but I’m sure a fucking psychopath like him would enjoy being tortured.

Kinky bastard.

No, someone like him would need to be forced off from his pedestal. He craves power in any way he can get his slimy little hands on it. Losing that power, to someone he once manipulated, no less, sounds like a perfect starting point.

The sound of screeching tires pulls me from my homicidal thoughts. Atticus’ black-pearl XJL rounds the street corner at breakneck speed, barely flying into a drift before disappearing, leaving behind a trail of exhaust fumes.

Shuffling feet sound from behind me, a tell that my nephew has something bothering him.

“Come now, Ricky. Don’t get shy on me,” I jest, hoping that this kid doesn’t give me a proverbial ass-whooping for perving on his buddy’s mom earlier.

“You’re n-not going to hurt Liam’s mom, right?” He asks.

I spin on my heel, turning to face my sister’s son. While he has a fear burrowing its way into his soul, I can see that he has made up his mind about Mae already. He likes her enough to want to help her.

“No,pequeño ladrón. I don’t want to hurt her,” I confirm.

His face flushes as he stammers, “I-I think she needs help,tío. Liam said he’s seen th-things. Heard them.”

Bile swims in my throat at the implication. Lex refused to tell us how bad this last altercation was. If Mae’s face was anything to go by, it was getting worse with their son’s absence.

“I lost Liam’s father before he even had a chance to know I was pregnant.”

Mae’s voice fades from my mind as Ricky looks around us. Atticus’ XJL barrels down the street again, like a bat outta hell. Frowning, I feel a vibration in my sweatpants. A tingling in my gut telling me that this call is somehow connected to Atticus. I answer the call blindly, knowing only my brothers and Lai have access to my number.

“Hello?”

---