The Sinners - Ruby Vincent Page 0,10
you.”
Royal dropped the keys swinging around. “Want to tell me what your problem is? You’ve been hissing and spitting at me like I set your cherry ass on fire.”
“I want the truth, Royal. All of it. Right now.”
His eyes burned in the dim light. “Or what?”
“Or this car will be jacked out from under you. You shouldn’t have taught me how.”
Royal barked a laugh. “You’re going to steal my car?”
“I’m going to drive your car off a cliff and dance as it explodes into flames. Test me,” I said. “I’ve had the worst day of my life. I was almost killed and he forced me to talk about Rory. I’m done playing around.”
He had the decency to stop laughing at me. “I didn’t want any of this,” he said, looking me in the eyes. “You know that, right?”
My anger lessened a fraction. “I know.” Sighing, my strength leeched out with my expelled breath. “Just tell me the truth, Royal. Not even for a second did I believe my aunt and uncle would pay the ransom. I’d have sooner believed that duffle bag was filled with condoms and candy wrappers because money was impossible.”
“Answer me first.” There was an odd note in his voice I couldn’t identify. “Did your sister have the same birthmark?”
Every muscle in my body tensed. My story was pulled out of me. It didn’t mean this topic was open for discussion. “Royal...” I warned.
“She did, didn’t she? Identical down to the same birthmark and probably in the same place.”
My chest heaved with my rapid breaths. “No,” I whispered. “She was my mirror. Mine on the left. Hers on the right.”
“Then I’m sorry,” he replied. “I won’t call you Cherry again.”
Tears spilled over, clinging desperately to my lashes. “Thank you.”
“And no, your uncle and aunt did not cough up the money. I didn’t even speak to them. They have no idea you were ever in danger.”
I jerked my head up. “What? But then how—”
Royal faced straight ahead. He was cloaked in darkness, but I didn’t imagine I’d be able to read him in the light. “I called in a favor from a person who now owes me nothing. We’re on our own from here.”
“Me and you?” My hand shook as I reached for him. Still, he didn’t look at me. Royal inched closer, turning his palm up and accepting mine.
We held hands in the dark, and the tendrils unfurled, spreading from my soul and seeking his. Wanting that connection we formed the night we met.
“Me, you, Cassius, Clay, and Hiro,” he said. “Our crew. Rio’s forgiveness means he won’t kill them, but he doesn’t take betrayal or disrespect lightly. It’s going to cost them literally. Their minimum payments to the pot will go up. Knowing Rio, he’ll come up with tests to prove their loyalty.”
“What kind of tests?”
He let his lack of reply be the answer.
“All of this because the triplets wanted to free me from a debt that wasn’t mine,” I said. “You should have told me my parents stole from your grandmother.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand.”
“Then help me understand. You said she would’ve refused to take money from me. If you knew that, why’d you go against her wishes and threaten me anyway?”
Royal’s head snapped around. “You think I had control over this? They might not have known it, but your parents stole from the mother of the Horsemen’s leader. They took her for every last cent and forced her out of retirement. She cried for weeks watching the life and future she built crumble into nothing.
“It wasn’t about what Gran wanted at that point. Rio wasn’t going to let that stand. He’s a bastard,” Royal spat, “but no one fucks with his family. He was getting Gran’s money out of you and if I refused to handle it, he would’ve gotten someone else. And you saw today how Rio and his men take care of problems.”
My grip on him tightened. Jay and Damien so easily beat two of their own guys. I didn’t want to know what they would have done to me when I told them to fuck off.
“Rio was coming after you, Ember, and Gran wasn’t going to find out about it.”
“She’s receiving a random insurance check,” I said. “I’m supposed to believe she won’t question where that money came from? Are you telling me she doesn’t know Rio is in the gang? Or you?”
Clenching his teeth, his jaw ticced.
“Royal, please. I shared more about my family than I ever wanted