I don’t bother denying what he says. I just give a casual shrug.
“So, where’s the problem? You found someone worth the time, so commit,” he tells me with more curiosity brimming in his eyes.
“He’s not the one with the commitment issues,” Jax tells them.
“Well, damn. Zane Valen found a girl he can’t charm into his bed?”
My lips pull down into a scowl as a rumble moves around in my chest. “Holy shit, Sebastian Delrie got a girl that he can’t walk away from?” I counter.
His face falls into a matching scowl as we stare each other down.
“Cut the shit, you two,” Rory bellows.
“For the record,” I say still staring at Bastian, “I could’ve fucked her months ago if that’s what I wanted.”
“Then why haven’t you?” Bastian growls as if he’s challenging me to something. To prove what I’m saying.
“Because that’s all she wants,” Jax answers.
Christian, Tristan and a few others walk into the room, and the conversation comes to a halt. A few minutes later, an older man with thinning dark hair and even darker eyes comes on the screen behind us. Sitting next to him is a man probably around Rory’s age with an arrogance to him that makes me want to punch him in the face. It’s not the same kind of arrogance that each of us in this room have. It’s an entitlement and superiority that pisses me the fuck off much like that fucking host guy in the restaurant in New York. Something about the guy just really rubs me the wrong way, and I am only seeing video. I don’t even want to know how this unease – this urge to wipe that smug look off his creeper looking face would be in person.
The meeting commences discussing the acquisition of the older man’s distribution company that Rory and Bastian have been working on for months now. Acquiring GioDistributing would make Diamond Industries much richer than it already is. It would make us the largest distribution company in the country and give us quite a monopoly. It would also give River City Mafia a monopoly on many arms channels.
A while back, Rory and Bastian needed some liquid capital for a project and Jax and I needed someplace to invest our money. Someplace we knew we wouldn't get fucked. Diamond Industries is mostly above board as far as business goes, so Rory had no issues with he and Bastian selling Jax and I part of their shares in the company.
Where River City mafia is concerned, Rory has tried to keep Jax and I far away from the illegal activities he’s involved with. For the most part, we do stay out of it, if only because we’re fucking busy all the time. But when they need us, they call us. Bastian makes sure of that. And I don’t mind getting my hands dirty – or bloody.
The older we've gotten, and the more things change within the syndicate, the harder it has been to keep us out. The part that got Jax and I on board was the ability to shut down some of the human trafficking going on in our territory and a few others. There would be no way to ever shut that shit down completely, but any kind of effort to stop women and kids from being taken and abused is all the incentive we needed to get on board.
A few hours later, we’ve all agreed to give Giovani market value for his company. More than Rory and Bastian have ever offered anyone else, but they really want that company. Bastian really wants that company. He’s already figured out how it will benefit every aspect of the business, and how much more inventory they can move without the hassle they have to go through right now.
As I’m walking out, Bastian grabs my arm to get me to turn around. “If you’ve been trying to get this chick to do – whatever with you for weeks now, what the fuck was all that with Verity the first night you met her?”
I raise an eyebrow at him with a smirk. When I got Jax and Zoey together, I more or less told my best friend to pull his head out of his ass and get the girl. With Rory and Layla, I used a bit of flirtation to make Rory acknowledge what he wanted because he already knew what his feelings were.
With Bastian, I did the same thing, but with a lot more effort to convince him I was really interested in the girl. In another time and place, I definitely would’ve been. Verity is fucking amazing and beautiful as an angel. Fortunately, she only had eyes for the asshole in front of me, and his jealously poured out of him like hot lava. If he weren’t so goddamned stubborn, he would’ve have grabbed her and taken her away that night.
He didn’t. I continued to spend time with Verity and got a really good friend out of the deal. A friend I will probably kick Sebastian’s ass over if he breaks her heart. Verity is special and deserves to be shown that she is.
“You little motherfucker,” Bastian hisses when he realizes I got to him like I did the others.
I pat him on the back with a laugh, then turn and walk out the door.
I walk into Bastian’s loftwith full intentions of giving him absolute hell over Verity. The guy has been losing his mind over her for days, and she has been running from him out of fear of their hearts getting broken. That may have been my doing. I’m the one who warned her not to break his. I meant it too. Bastian has been a brick wall where his emotions are concerned for years. If his heart gets broken, those walls may become steel reinforced.
But I still want to give him hell.
Until I see Verity sitting on the sofa curled into Bastian. I keep my well-practiced smile in place, but fuck seeing her like that is very reminiscent of Zoey. I’m shocked Jax isn’t picking up on the vibe, but he is basically sleeping with his head leaning back.
“How can you be so fucking happy at this hour?” he groans as he clutches a pillow off the sofa.
I see some of the tension in Verity’s shoulders relax as I approach. “You good, darlin’?” I ask as I give her a peck on the cheek.
“Yeah, Zee.” She leans into me a bit. Even though he’s trying to hide it, Bastian doesn’t like one bit that she relaxed and smiled when I walked in the door. I hold back a chuckle as I realize the fucker has finally got his shit together where she's concerned.
“Yeah, she’s great,” Rory sneers.
Bastian shoots him a look that would probably kill him if he weren’t made of ice.
