Page 2 of When Sinners Rise
“Property.”
“Yeah, but if she’s already not here, then why not just let her be? We’ve let others run.”
He looks up briefly before looking back at his phone. “She’s one of the reasons Elias is under the ground. I’m not letting that go.”
Frowning, I look at her picture again. He might be right with that theory, but Reed’s dead now and this girl has nothing to do with the revenge we needed. We’ve got Naja, and, no doubt, she’ll pay that price. She sure as hell did when Knox let loose on her. “Why is she in London?”
“Logan Cane owed this Landon a favour back then. Reed went to Landon for help. Looks like he and Naja left the sister with Landon and went on the run. Logan took them on to pay off the debt he owed Landon,” he says, methodically. “Any more fucking questions?”
“No need to be a cunt. I’m only asking.” His head rears up, a scowl dropping. “Don’t do that either. I’m on your side. Thought I’d proved that enough in this family.” I look back out the window, blowing the mother of all breaths out. It’s always the same with every one of them. I’m not good enough, or I ask too many questions, or my voicing any fucking thing is just a pain in someone’s ass. Mariana might think I’ve had it easy compared to her, but it’s been far from a cute ride along this road to acceptance. I’m just good at hiding shit. “I’m a Cortez, too, Abel. I earn my way every fucking day.”
“You’re barely a Cortez. You’re a young half-breed who needs to grow the hell up and get with the program. Check your mouth and do your job. And don’t fuck this one.”
“You’re a half-breed, too,” I mutter sullenly. “No one seems to mind that.”
“Careful, Shaw.”
I keep staring out the window. “Why? It’s not like I do anything fucking right. Might as well speak my mind. I'm gonna get my ass handed to me one way or another.”
“Look at me.”
What’s he gonna do? Kill me if I don't? A half-hearted snort drops out of me. They’d have no one to criticise then.
“Out of all of us, it’s me that believes in you most.” I frown and look back at him slowly. “You’ve got everything you need to be as we need you to be, but you’ve got to stop questioning and start delivering to be heard.”
“I deliver all the time.”
He sighs. “Yeah, but you love pussy too much, and you act like those girls need caring about. They don’t. They’re business. A product. You want to fuck, help yourself out there in the wild, but you keep it out of my goddamn profit line, you hear me? Harden up about them. Quickly. None of us have time for problems inside our own family. Definitely not now.”
I sneer and turn back to the window. Be a full-blown asshole, he means. Treat the women like they’re nothing but objects to be bought and sold and categorised. That’s not me, no matter how hard I’ve tried. You get a lot more out of a woman by charming them than you do by forcing them, in my experience. Although, even I have to concede that his profits and supply lines would reduce by a whole fucking heap if we took the time to try asking nicely.
“Where are you up to with Logan?” I ask, attempting to change the subject. Dealing with the streets of New York is far more my style. I’d be more than happy to clean up some asshole pimps and drug runners. Give me a gun and point me at someone treating women like shit, and I’m all over that crap. Being told to go get a runaway who managed to escape us, for no reason at all, is nothing but getting me out of the way for some reason.
“Knox is with him now."
“Yeah, but what’s happening on the streets? And, as you’ve mentioned Knox, where’s he running off to all the time?What’s he got going on? He’s here for a month or so, and then he’s gone, and no one knows where or why.”
“He’s doing something for me.”
“What?” He doesn’t answer. Looks like he’s got no intention to either. “See, you sit there telling me I’m part of this, and then you’re hiding shit and not letting me in on whatever’s going down. I need to know. Bet you’ve told Dante and Kai. Yeah, they’ll be all over the inner workings of a fucking family that likes to keep me on the goddamn periphery and-”
“You really are a whining little dick, aren’t you?”
I stand, pissed at the implication. He doesn’t even move. He laughs and stares me down. Everything about his face hardens to the point where I’m questioning what the hell I thought I was gonna do.
“You wanna sit that ass back down? Or am I putting you back on it?”
I keep staring at his frame, wondering if I’d have any chance at all. I wouldn’t. He’s an animal when he loses it, and he doesn’t give one damn if it’s a family member he’s beating on or not.
“Sit, Shaw. Get out of your head and heed a warning. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but you screw this up and we’re gonna be on a long ride to you getting nowhere fast and being alone.”
Outcast, he means. Exiled.
I sit and stare at the window again, as pissed and frustrated as I’ve ever been. I don’t even know if I am part of this family some days. I don’t think like any of them. Kai’s about as close as I get, and he’s not even one of us. He’s an outsider, not blood. Whatever genes Mother graced me with, they sure didn’t produce the same effect with my father as they did when mixed with true Cortez blood. Dante and Knox bleed animosity and hatred. Elias did, too. Fuck knows where Abel’s pimp of a fathercame from, but he must have been one nasty son of a bitch. Me and Mariana? Harris blood. Weaker in comparison. More thoughtful, at least.
“You calm now?” he asks.
“Yeah, I guess.”
