Page 83 of Together We Burn
My hands clenched tightly at my sides, and I could tell Jake and Alex were edging closer to my back. But I was solely focused on the monster in front of me.
“My guys are good, Stevie. One request from me and your fingerprints could be removed, leaving those belonging to the owner of the gun and a child who was raped and impregnated by the person it was used to shoot. Ronan’s murder might not be a cold case or even a case Carlin Valley police know about. I have friends in high places, Stevie. You know this. One call to the chief of police, and your sister is brought in for questioning over the murder of her rapist baby daddy.”
“You bastard,” I spat, my body shaking with a fury I’d only felt once before–the night I shot Ronan.
“Perhaps.” Will shrugged nonchalantly. “I like Chris; she’s a nice girl, made herself a happy little life, all things considered. But unless you start toeing the line, you’ll force my hand, and I wouldn’t want to ruin what she’s worked so hard to get, Stevie.”
Slowly, my hand crept up to my gun. Alex gripped my elbow, halting my hand from sliding inside my jacket and pulling my gun on Will. Alex’s subtle shake of his head had me lowering my arm.
“Who the fuck are you?” Alex fumed at the person standing before us, reminiscent of his brother, but the person looking back at us was not the Will Jones we grew up with. “Who the fuck gave you the authority to dictate our lives like this?”
“I am your boss, Alex. I am doing what I must do to keep this town safe.”
“By blackmailing your family?”
“Stevie is the best asset this family has, and I will do anything it takes to keep her by my side. You, of all people, should know this. Even our father knew of the potential she had to bring her mother and grandfather down. Why else would he have insisted on you being her friend?”
So Will knew.
“I wasn’t part of that twisted game,” Alex spat and quickly averted his eyes to me, pleading silently for me to still believe him that he had nothing to do with their dad’s request to spy. But I couldn’t look at him, reassure him that we were alright because I was apoplectic with hatred and rage, unable to move, unable to blink away from the monster dressed in Armani.
Will raised his hand in dismissal of his brother and focused his black eyes on me.
“You will attend your mother’s little soirée appropriately dressed and on your best behaviour while we figure out what she’s up to. Understood?”
Red hot fury swelled in every fibre of my body, making my limbs heavy like they were filled with lead.
“Understood?” Will repeated, his teeth gritted together.
“Yes,sir,” I said.
Chapter thirty-two
Jake
“Haveyouspokentohimyet?” I asked Alex a couple of hours before Emilia’s party. He was lounging on my sofa, a bottle of beer dangling between his spread legs as he watched some show about sloths. Nate sat cuddled up next to Alex while Chris was on the single-seater reading a book.
It had been over a week since Will railroaded Stefany in a way neither Alex nor I thought he was capable of. At some point, he knew she'd want to cut the puppet strings, that he would push her too far, or maybe, she would want something better than a life of crime. But Will had been prepared for that day, ensuring the tethers that bound her to him could never be broken.
The fucking bastard.
Alex and Stefany had barely said a word when we left Will’s office, both in a silent fury that raged like a thundercloud over them for the rest of the day. Alex hadn’t come back to the apartment until later that night. And Stefany, well, she did what Stefany did best–used her knuckles and knives on my bedroom wall, covering the white paint with her blood and so many little pin pricks her blade had bent once she’d finished.
Alex took a swig of beer from his bottle and shook his head. Nate tapped on his knee just as a baby sloth clinging to its momma flickered onto the screen.
“Uncle Alex, did you know it takes thirty days for a sloth to digestoneleaf?” he asked, eyes wide, pointing to the TV and then looking up to his uncle. Alex smiled at the boy and ruffled his hair.
“I did,” he said, “and did you know sloths can swim? And hold their breath for up to forty minutes?”
“Really?” Nate replied, mouth slack in sheer awe. Jesus, this kid was a mini-Alex.
Stefany’s soft footsteps echoed down the hallway as she entered the living room in shorts and one of my t-shirts. Her hair was pinned up, with loose curls hanging around her face. Her makeup was heavier than usual, with a smoky look giving her a seductive butdon’t fuck with mevibe.
Standing, I stopped in front of her and skimmed my thumb across her bottom lip stained in red.
“You look…” I said, inhaling a breath and releasing it slowly as I stared down at my girl, looking dangerous as fuck. “The things I would do to this mouth if we didn’t have company.”
She smiled, but unlike all the other ones she’d given in the last week, it didn’t reach her eyes. Nothing reached them anymore except for hatred and anger and the need for revenge.
