into making a wrong move here, I have no doubt she has something up her sleeve from her tryst with Senior.
That’s her game plan.
Like it or not, we’re women playing in a man’s world and one of the reasons I chose not to date a lot in high school is because perceptions of women in our society are deeply rooted in our gender and sex. I hate it, I hate the double standard, but there’s only so much that I can do about it.
Does it make me a monster to use those stupid, patriarchal standards to tear this woman down? Probably.
Is that going to stop me?
Absolutely not.
My family relies on me. I’m the fixer, I sort out anything that shows up on our doorstep that might risk our safety. I play the political games in the upper society and Lips handles the criminal underworld.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep us all safe.
“I thought you were planning on building your empire out of Crawford’s ashes? Every day I see him alive the more that I know you’re a weak-willed little girl, too caught up in her feelings to do what is required to dominate in our world. You’ll end up in chains at his feet like the others.”
I scoff at her. “You expect me to believe that Crawford is just like the rest of his family? We’ve known each other since we were children, you’ve missed the mark on that one.”
She giggles down the line at me again and I start to think that maybe she was dropped on her head as a child or maybe that Columbian father of hers slipped too much coke in her baby bottles to shut her up and it’s ruined her brain because there’s definitely something unhinged in her.
“You’ve strayed too far from home, little bird. You might need to call your brother home to rescue you.”
She hangs up on me and I slide my phone back into my pocket. The car stays silent for half a breath and then Illi drawls, “What did the slimy cunt want this time? Did she finally muster the courage to ask you out? She’s fucking gagging for it.”
I shudder and throw him a dirty look. “Don’t even joke about it. She’s trying to bait me into turning on Atticus, the entire Crawford family ignored him for so long and now they’ve opened their eyes up to the empire he’s built.”
Illi shrugs at me. “So they’re doing the usual bullshit and hitting him where it hurts him most… typical that you’re the one who’s gotta hurt for him.”
Aodhan leans forward from the backseat and snaps, “Except she isn’t gonna get hurt because it’s not up to Atticus to protect Queenie. It’s on all of us and I’m not going to sit back and play games with these silver-spoon assholes. I’m fucking finding them and taking them out, we’re not waiting around like last time.”
Illi grunts in agreement, clearly impressed at his initiative, and says, “Lemme deal with Crawford, Queenie. I have you covered.”
When we arrive back at the manor, Atticus and Luca are already there waiting for us. Aodhan gets out first and helps me out of the car, snarling at the first of Atticus’ men to approach him to get the fuck away from me. I ignore the looks I get from the entire staff as Aodhan pulls me into his arms.
“Gimme two days to find this guy, Queenie. Two days and I’ll have the fucker buried and we can go back to sleeping in that big old princess bed of yours.”
I snort at him and pull him down to kiss me, completely unrepentant of our audience… right up until Illi interrupts us.
He opens the car door and climbs out to lean against the roof of the car, looking all sorts of dangerous and at ease. “The Wolf called, she just wanted me to remind you that she’s more than happy to use every resource at her disposal to get Avery out of this building if you try your bullshit again. Her brother is in town, y’know. He stopped in to keep an eye on shit for her.”
Aodhan’s arms tighten around me. With his back to Atticus he mouths to me, “Brother?”
I can’t tell him.
We all made the agreement not to speak about him outside of those of us who already know about Nate unless it’s absolutely necessary and I don’t think this casual threat is worth freaking Aodhan completely out… not without speaking to Lips about