Honor

“He’s too old for her. He’s too hard for her. He’s too deep into this life for her. He’s too fucked up for her. He’s too . . . everything for her. She can go to college and meet a nice kid that plays lacrosse or digs comic books or something. She deserves better than what she can get here. She’s young enough to have a shot at something better than what’s waiting for her here.”

I pulled out a cast-iron skillet and some bacon and eggs and set them next to the stove. Key’s words about making choices for her floated around in my head.

“You can force her to go, but you can’t ever change her mind about who or what she wants. If you push her too hard you’ll lose her altogether, and I bet you can figure out right where she’ll run.”

He swore under his breath. “She has a little while until she turns eighteen. Maybe I can change her mind before then.”

“What does Booker have to say about it?” The big man wasn’t exactly talkative, and since I let Reeve take over the reins at the strip club, I hardly saw either of them anymore except for brief moments when I stuck my head in to check on business.

“Booker wants to keep his job and wants to keep breathing, so he keeps his distance from her. But he knows she has a thing for him, and he went out of his way to risk his own neck to try to keep that creep Roark from hurting her. It’s a nightmare is what it is.”

He sounded so much like a disgruntled parent that it made me chuckle. “She’s a sharp girl, and she got thrown into the deep end really young. Maybe she knows more about what’s best for her than you give her credit for. I’m sure any responsible person out there would advise Brysen that you aren’t exactly a knight in shining armor and yet you take care of her like she’s some kind of precious jewel. No one is going to love her better than you, and you’re a criminal, Race. We are no better or worse than Booker.” That wasn’t really true—I knew for a fact I was way worse than the scarred ex-con—but I didn’t need to share that with the man I needed to run my enterprise with. He already didn’t trust me. I didn’t want him to be too scared of me and my past, just cautiously leery like he already was.

I thought maybe he needed a reminder that just because we were bad men and did business with bad men, it didn’t mean we weren’t capable of taking care of the good in our lives when we got our hands on it.

“Whatever. There is nothing wrong with wanting something more for those we care about. Isn’t that why you let Keelyn run from you? You’ve always been twisted up about her, but you gave her a shot at something more.”

I looked over his shoulder because I heard movement from the other side of the house. It was like he had summoned her from her slumber by saying her name. I tossed the bacon into the pan so I could feed her and take her back to bed when she finally decided to make an appearance.

“I knew there was nothing out there that was better for her than me. She just had to figure it out on her own.”

He snorted. “You are such an arrogant bastard, Gates. I’m outta here. Keep me posted on what’s happening with the club. I’ll call Stark and have him swing by and grab all the files you have on the club members and the employees from Chuck. I’m just a little bit glad you aren’t dead.” He turned to leave the kitchen and called over his shoulder when I could no longer see him, “And I’m locking your goddamn door for you on my way out.”

His spot across the island was taken up by a much prettier sight. She was wearing one of my shirts and nothing else, and even though her bright red hair was standing up all over her head like artificial flames, she was still the most beautiful thing in the world.

“You want to eat?”

She nodded sleepily and yawned. When she stretched her arms up above her head, I wanted to pull the island out of the ground with my bare hands to get a glimpse of how high the shirt rode up on her legs.

“How’s your head?” Her voice was still thick with sleep and it made my dick twitch and my skin get tight.

“It was doing okay until Race started complaining about the trials and tribulations of raising a teenager.”

She laughed a little and I felt it all the way in my gut. I decided maybe man could live on mind-blowing sex alone because I was far hungrier for her than I was for food. I moved the pan off the heat and prowled toward her.

“I thought we were gonna eat.”

I grinned at her and made sure it showed all of my teeth. “Oh, we are.” After all, I had been starving for her for years. Now it was time to have my fill.

Chapter 11

Keelyn

Every dirty thing we’d long denied each other was alive in his smile as he started toward me. Stripped of his armor of typically fancy duds and broken down to his most basic parts, Nassir was so much more dangerous. This was real. The man underneath the artifice—he was beautiful and ferocious. Raw, open, and completely unpolished.

Maybe it was the scars that liberally dotted every inch of his exposed chest. Maybe it was the sprawling canvas of black ink that covered his back from the base of his neck to the top of his perfectly sculpted ass. Maybe it was the ripple of muscle as he prowled toward me like a big, uncaged predator. Maybe it was the way his odd-colored eyes sparked and popped at me like hot embers. Maybe it was his too long hair and the way it contrasted with the stark white bandage still taped on the side of his neck. Really I knew it was all those things that made Nassir who he was, and they had my skin pebbling up and anxiety mixing with leftover and lazy desire in my blood. I sucked in a breath and did what I always did when I wasn’t sure how to handle everything he was throwing my way.