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Her lips quirked up, and she wiggled on my lap. I let out a soft groan, desperate to be inside her, but I knew I’d have to fight with Cole to get that spot.

And he’d probably slap me with his cock.

“So we’re good?” E asked.

I looked around at the guys. Cole nodded. My gaze moved to Fox, who stared me down.

“We’re good,” he answered.

Another crisis averted.

Thank fuck.

FORTY-FIVE

ANSON

It had been weeks since I’d last seen Rosalie. It was killing me slowly. I’d thrown myself into helping my father even more and maintaining a close eye on Everett Church. When I wasn’t doing that shit, I was at home, smoking and drinking the pain away. I couldn’t even handle listening to the radio because every fucking song reminded me of her.

“You’re wasted,” Trent said as I sat on Ryder’s couch. “How much have you had?”

I grunted. “That bottle of Jack. Mostly.”

“And I injected him with his boy’s injectable. He’s high as balls right now,” Ryder said, flopping back onto the couch next to me.

“Not nearly enough.” I reached out and grabbed the sugar stick from Ryder and took a deep, fortifying drag. Ethan really did have a good product. Rumor had it some of the big pushers were trying to reverse engineer his shit to make their own but had been failing miserably. A few people had died because of it. Idiots were lacing it with fentanyl. I knew for a fact Ethan didn’t use anything like that in his drugs.

“Drinking and drugs were never your thing. What’s going on? Is it Rosalie?” Trent frowned at me.

“What can I say?” I muttered. “I’d be lying if I said no.”

“Man, just stop this shit and go talk to her.” Ryder took the sugar back from me. “Seriously. You’re a mopey fuck when your dick isn’t getting sucked.”

I gave him the finger as Trent reached over and grabbed my phone.

“Hey,” I mumbled. “Don’t. Put it back.”

“Nah, don’t think I will. I’m sick of looking at you like this. You got out of the Underground only to run to our old man and get involved in his shit. How many people have you killed for him this week,Alessandro?”

“I’m doing it to learn the ins and outs,” I shot back, my words slurring. “In case of shit.”

“And then what?” Trent countered. “You going to kill our dad?”

I shook my head. “No. You fucking know I wouldn’t.”

Trent raised a brow at me. “What I know is you’re diving deeper into a world you said you didn’t want any part of. You can line this room with excuses, but I know you. I know you’re falling, Anson. Just fucking talk to her.”

He ran his thumbs quickly over my screen, and a moment later, Rosalie’s soft, sweet voice came on the line.

I scrambled from my chair, attempting to get to my phone to hang it up. Hearing her was a knife through my heart. I’d left to save her in so many ways. I didn’t want her to be sad with her guys because of me. I didn’t want Fox to die. I didn’t want any of that shit. This was me trying to fix everything when I had no idea how to.

“Hello? A-Ani? Hello?”

Trent tossed me the phone as I staggered sideways. It bounced off the couch and hit the floor. Quickly, I tracked it down, my heart pounding a mile a minute.

“Hey, Ani?” Rosalie called out, her voice trembling. “Please. Talk to me. I miss you.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.