Motown Takedown (Motown Down Book 3) (33 page)

No amount of scotch was going to help me sort my head out. If anything, it was working against me. Like Cinn did. The conniving bitch was loyal to a man that spent years abusing her only to work against the one she claimed to love? What did I expect? The female was a master strategist and I was too busy fucking that pussy and keeping it safe to see her for what she was. A fucking pro.

A pro that used my weaknesses against me. A pro that had me acting like the fucking mutt at my feet, starved for her attention. Taking whatever she dished out, while she was setting herself up in a power position. But dammit, that didn’t make sense either. She was strong in her own right, so what did she have to gain by fucking me? Unless she didn’t fuck me but I refused to buy into that because that meant I had done the unforgivable. 

Sitting in her library with the book she’d been reading to me in my lap, I watch Ares stand guard. He wanted to be the first one there when his momma came home. Only she wasn’t coming home because she was a back stabbing bitch. Fuck, I wanted to believe that she was because it made my behavior acceptable.

But when her boys barged in to confront me, I had to wonder what possessed me to lash out at her like that. Honestly, staring at the book in my hand, I had no fucking clue. I could tell her I wasn’t like Savage all day long. But I was just like him. I put my hands around her throat… I was close to killing her.

Silent Sam did the talking, which I found interesting considering they guy usually preferred to listen. He wanted to know where she was and when I said gone, he said they’d be out by morning and they all turned and left. If I had to guess, they’d track her down and I’d have four new enemies to consider.

Pouring myself a glass of scotch, Pookie comes in taking a seat giving me a look that said a talk was coming. This guy, man he’s been in the game a long fucking time. He’s an old timer by game standards. Probably mid-fifties but still as lethal as he was twenty years ago. Closest thing I ever had to a father figure and I hardly knew anything about him. I knew he preferred it that way, but I was a dick for not at least asking. What I did know was he had a few females on the side but there was one he paid more attention to than the others. He was a lone wolf when I found him and was in some shit he couldn’t get out of. I handled that shit in return for his loyalty. Not once has he ever given me reason to question it. Unlike Cinn.

“Explain to me why you cast her out,” he says pouring himself a glass.

“Saw her phone tonight,
”
I shrug. “Demo was texting her to let her know Casper’s coming for me. She was working angles with Pope and Gunner behind my back. Having them follow up on shit that does not concern them. Hell, she made several calls to Shade and funny, he’s never thought to mention that shit to me. Fucking figured out how to disable the spyware I put on her phone too. Bitch was working against me. ”

“And?”

“You miss the part where I said she was setting me up?
”
I grunt. “She’s a strategist, it’s what she’s good at. Fuck, probably looking to do to me what she did to Savage. Only, I am not cockblind. No bitch takes from me.”

“You don’t believe that,
”
he laughs.

“Maybe I do.”

“Did she see the message before you did?”

“Left it out on the table. Saw it flashing and picked it up.”

“Monarch,
”
he groans in clear frustration. “How can you be so one-sided? If you read the message it meant she didn’t see the message. Had she seen it you don’t think she’d tell you he was coming for you? Does that sound like something your queen would do?”

“She was playing me.”

“To what end?
”
He asks and when I don’t have an answer he leans forward. “Son, I’ve followed you because if a man’s going to live a dark life he wants to put his trust in someone with a level head. I believed that was you. But when it comes to her, your head isn’t level, it’s in the clouds. I say this because you can’t see beyond her to what needs to be done. Despite that, she did that for you and asked nothing in return. Cinn knows survival, nothing more. She’s loved one man, you. That man didn’t think and cast her out because he was pissed. The man I follow would not cast his woman out and straight into danger because he was pissed. Especially when word spreads and every man living this dark life will fight relentlessly to own her. Your queen who has no money or means to protect herself. Tell me the man I follow did not do that.”

“Fuck.”

“And you kept the dog,
”
he mumbles. “You cast her out for doing what a good woman would do, what you failed to do. My queen took measures to keep her man safe, her men safe and she was thanked by being tossed to the wolves without her guard dog and in a bath robe. Congratulations, Monarch, you fucked up huge.”

Calling Ares to me, I grabbed my keys and hauled ass to the Tahoe. There was only one safe place for her to go. Where the people would kill for her without mercy; one pint-sized assassin in particular.

He’d come for her.

I knew this because Monarch and Gage are more alike than I’m comfortable admitting. At least old Gage was. New Gage learned his lesson the hard way by watching me take one to the chest. Monarch, however, has held Cinn’s heart for many years. He’s a stubborn asshole who acted irrationally and when it clicks, he’ll make a play for her. If my world was dark, theirs was black. And I didn’t want my girl taking one to the chest to make a point. She’s been hurt enough.

So I was up high, dialed in, caffeinated and ready to shoot the motherfucker when he showed up.

Gage’s voice is low in my ear bud. Coming in hot from the East was Monarch in his Tahoe. The only way he’d be getting near Cinn was by convincing me to let it happen. Otherwise, I’d kill him and I’d make it happen slowly. Parking in the street, he opens the passenger side where Ares jumps down. “He brought the dog,
”
I say into the mic. “Dick move.
”

“Effective too,
”
Gage mumbles. “She just fell asleep, keep this shit quiet.”

“Copy that.”

Firing a warning shot that was close but not close enough to hurt the dog (because fuck Monarch) he looks up, flips me off, pressing forward. Hitting the fire escape, I scale down and step in front of the door. With my .45 aimed up at his forehead, I kept it simple. “Leave the dog, turn around and go back to hell.”

“For a small woman, you got a mouth.”

“My husband would agree with you but since we hate you…
”
I shrug non-affected.

“Not leaving without her.”

“Wanna bet?”

“This is none of your business, Camo,
”
he says pressing his forehead into the barrel. “While I appreciate you taking care of her, I can take it from here.”

“See, this is the part where I’m supposed to smile and go aww
…
But my girl is up there shattered. All because you can’t handle a woman doing your job. I’ve been where she is, I know how she’s feeling except I had the means to take care of myself. Cinn does not. You, just like Savage, made it so she depended on you for everything. You get off on being the guy that stifles her? Because I’m loaded, Monarch, in less than a minute, I can make her so fucking wealthy she’d never need anyone to take care of her,
ever
.”

“I don’t stifle her,
”
he grunts crossing his arms over his massive chest. His chest is an ink tribute to Cinn and he even has her name on his knuckles. For a guy that exists in the underworld, he really wasn’t all that bright. If I had to shoot him, I’d be setting her up with a kick ass dating profile in the morning.

“Yes,
”
I snap. “You fucking
do
. You can bullshit your people but do not come on to my property and bullshit
me
. And you brought the dog. You are seriously a bitch.”

“Beauty,
”
Gage says joining the party. “I’ll have a word now.”

“If it begins with
fuck
and ends with
off
, then by all means.”

“You trust me?
”
he asks quietly and dammit it gets me every time.

“Dirty pool,
”
I groan lowering my gun. But I do bend down to pet Ares because he’s adorable, none of this was his fault. Before heading in, I said, “Hey, Monarch?
”
and when he looked at me I flipped his thug ass off.

Here we had a man who knew he fucked up and wanted a chance to fix it. But we also had a female, my female, who wanted him bleeding on the pavement. Camo was likely recalling that time not too long ago where I was Monarch and she was Cinn. I had hurt my woman deeply and he had done the same. This wasn’t the type of shit I wanted to bond over but I liked Cinn, respected Monarch, and clearly the guy needed someone in his corner.

Once she was inside, I looked over at him and kept shit easy. “I’ve been where you are,
”
I start. “I felt betrayed. I was convinced I had been played and did some nasty shit to my woman because of it.”

“Were you played?”

“Like a fucking fiddle,
”
I laugh at the memory. “But you gotta know these women don’t see it like that.”

“Being played is being played,
”
he says. “It’s that simple.”

“No, brother, it isn’t and you know that or you wouldn’t be here. Cinn loves you, Camo loves me. Now here you’ve got two women that have never loved before, right? You’ve also got two men who’ve never loved before either. None of us know what the fuck to do because it’s new. Now they have it and expecting them to sit back and allow a threat to get in the way of it is stupid. I know because it’s what I did, Monarch. Our women are unique. While they can be gentle, they aren’t
gentle
. They’re fighters. It’s all they know. Especially yours. She went through a lot of trouble to get to you. I saw it for myself and that is a memory I wish I could erase but can’t. If you truly believe she did all that just to fuck you over, I’m gonna need you to turn around and leave
now
.”

“I told your woman I appreciate you caring for mine, but I’m taking her home with me and that doesn’t mean you need to be breathing when I do it.”

“I cut Camo loose,
”
I explain choosing to ignore his threat because in my world, he didn’t even register. “Pissed she played me. Thinking if I let her go she’d be safe since she was hell bent on dying for me. Then I watched her take a bullet to the chest and I realized I was wrong. I was wrong because I knew she didn’t play me. She looked into the shit I didn’t want to see. She made decisions I didn’t want to make. She got dirty for me. Lying there on the floor, it hit me I never told her I loved her
…
that she never knew. Don’t be me, brother, just don’t.”

And with that, I let him inside.