Wild Like the Wind (Page 82)

His arms got tight again.

“Me either, baby,” he whispered. “Me either.”

I smiled against his skin.

And lying on top of my old man, happy, sated, in love and with so much to look forward to in life it wasn’t funny, I fell asleep.

I Will Not Ever Forget

Hound

“You got yourself a pet?” Camilla Turnbull asked nastily, her focus on Hound.

Hound didn’t move. He just stood in her living room that he’d walked into, following Knight Sebring and his man Rhashan Banks.

She’d been eyeing him up from the minute he moved in. Her four goons had been doing the same.

What she didn’t do was get off her ass, which was planted in her fancy couch in the room with a view. Not even to offer Knight a seat.

Knight took one anyway, across from her in a chair.

“Why don’t we at least try for civil?” Knight suggested.

She didn’t take her eyes off Hound. “We vacated Chaos.”

Hound said nothing, just held her gaze.

Knight spoke.

“Chaos requested a rep at this meet, I agreed. They’re concerned you’re not committed to your retreat from their turf, and I’m concerned you’re not committed to your promise to me that you’ll deal with your girls in ways I find less provoking.”

Her attention finally turned to Knight.

“Now, why would I break a promise I made to the all-powerful Knight Sebring?” she asked bitchily.

“Your current attitude, you honestly expect me to answer that?” Knight asked back, and Hound could sense him losing patience, but he didn’t have to sense shit. Knight wasn’t hiding it.

“They’re whores, Sebring,” she returned.

“They’re humans, Camilla. If they’re at a place in their lives they gotta turn tricks, you run them, why would you make that worse for them?” Knight fired back.

Her upper lip curled in a humorless grin. “They’re not all your mother.”

“None of them are my mother,” Knight bit. “And that doesn’t mean dick. You knowin’ my history doesn’t mean dick. You sharin’ you know it when it’s no secret doesn’t get you dick. But you takin’ from this meet that you got attention you don’t want means more than dick. I’m here. I’m givin’ you my time. I’m showin’ you respect. You throw that in my face, that’ll be a statement you’re makin’ and I’m not sure you’ll wanna know where I take it from there. What I will let you know is this will be the last meet you get so maybe you wanna curb the attitude and make this time useful for both of us.”

“How can it be useful for me when the only purpose you have in being here is telling me how to run my girls and threatening me not only with you,” she jerked her chin at Knight, then at Rhash and finally moved her eyes to Hound, “but also Chaos, when Chaos doesn’t have shit to do with it anymore? You wanted Chaos clean,” she said to Hound. “It’s clean. Now run along, little doggie.”

Hound didn’t make a move or a sound.

He just kept staring at her.

She was young. Okay looking. She made the little she had better with expensive clothes and makeup and a good dye job for her hair. He could tell she worked at that body. It was lean to the point it was feral. She probably kickboxed or some shit.

She could kickbox herself unconscious.

He still could snap her neck before she could blink.

“We’ve wasted our time,” Knight murmured, getting up from his chair, doing it getting her attention.

“I told you I’d lay off my girls, I’m laying off my girls,” she snapped.

“Not from news I got last night, which prompted me reaching out to make this meet,” Knight replied.

Her eyes skidded to one of her goons before they went back to Knight.

The eye skid meant that was news to her.

This little girl didn’t have a grip on her boys.

This whole act was show.

But she better get a grip or get the man pulling her strings to sort their shit, because when Knight said she didn’t want to know what he’d do if she didn’t get things in hand, he wasn’t talking shit.

“Perhaps the message hasn’t yet filtered through the ranks,” she mumbled. “I’ll make that happen right away.”

“Your boys don’t take freebies either, Camilla,” Knight added. “Not at all, but definitely not rough ones.”

Hound watched her mouth get tight as she listened to Knight give it all to her, but Hound didn’t know her so he couldn’t read that. Either she was pissed her boys weren’t listening to her or she was pissed Knight was telling her how to do her business.

Chew ran Chaos’s girls when they had them.

Chew took freebies whenever the fuck he wanted.

And Chew could get rough.

“You with me on that too?” Knight prompted.

“That message as well will be repeated,” she said tightly.

“Where’s Valenzuela?” Knight asked suddenly.

Hound watched her closely and she didn’t miss a beat when she answered, “He’s expanding operations elsewhere.”

“He comin’ back anytime soon?” Knight went on.

Again with the unamused lip curl. “I’m thinking he’d frown on me sharing his travel plans widely, Sebring. He’d especially frown on me sharing it with Chaos’s dog in the room.”

“He’s been gone a long time,” Knight remarked.

“He’s exploring some exciting opportunities,” she returned. “That takes a lot of time.”

Hound kept watching her, and for the life of him he couldn’t catch anything. Not a flinch. Not a tick. Nothing.

Knight kept at her. “He know you ordered the retreat from Chaos?”

“Of course he does, since he’s the one who ordered it,” she replied.

No flinch.

No tick.

Nothing.

All Hound could see coming from her was that she was landing truth on them when he knew it was nothing but lies.

“Years of pushin’, he gave up easy,” Knight noted.

She shrugged. “I’ve never understood why Benito does half the shit he does. Though I don’t question it. He’s not a fan of that.”

“He’s also not a fan of giving women positions of authority in his business,” Knight pointed out.

There was more hard than normal behind her, “I proved myself.”

Knight gave it a beat. Rhash stood at his man’s back while he did. Hound stood four feet away and kept his attention locked on her.

“Do we have more to discuss or can we all get on with our days?” she asked in a prompt for them to get the fuck out, the words sugar sweet and all fake.

Since Hound kept watching her, he only felt Knight and Rhash turn their eyes to him.

“Not discuss,” Hound said, and she looked to him.

“It speaks,” she said on one of her catty smiles.

He ignored that. She was young. She had no idea with men like him, bites like that had lost their power to sting a long time ago.

“Just say,” he went on.

“So say it,” she spat when he didn’t continue, and Hound thought it was interesting she thought she could play with Knight but she had zero patience with him.

“You tell Chew, he’s got a beef with his former brothers, he shows his fuckin’ face and communicates his shit. He doesn’t hide like a pussy behind a little girl who’s playin’ a dangerous game that might get her neck snapped.”