Conquer (Shades of Trouble Book 4) by Kitty Cox

Author:Kitty Cox [Cox, Kitty]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956415063
Publisher: Spotted Horse Productions
Published: 2021-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-One

I woke up before the alarm went off the next morning. Clearly, I was getting used to these "mom" hours, but it gave me the chance to get dressed for church before Luke even stirred. Today, we had to pick up Faith, so skipping Sunday service wasn't an option. Deciding I would be the nice one this time, I snuck out of the room with the intention to head downstairs and brew coffee.

But in the hall, I found Billy wandering back from the other bathroom wearing nothing but his underwear. The man clearly hadn't slept yet, never mind the tattoos that covered his entire torso. A few even traveled down to his thigh, and the style made me think gangster or some Japanese mafia. Something dark and intimidating.

Billy noticed my inspection and spread his arms to offer me a better look. "Don't make your boyfriends jealous," he teased.

"Why are you up?" I asked, changing the subject to something I wouldn't lose.

"Berto's fixated on the corruption in town, but I think there's a different angle. While Cobalt is busy chasing the law, I'm chasing the law-breaking." Billy walked right up to me, standing just a little too close. "Simmons is using corruption to force you off this land. He has people in his pocket. The question is how. What do they owe him, and how do I remove that power? That asshole is so sure he can't be touched that he won't see me coming. If he bought these people, then I can buy them away from him."

"Big fishes in little ponds don't do so well against sharks," I mumbled, starting to like the analogy more and more.

"Fuck sharks," Billy said. "I'm the goddamned Leviathan. So we start stripping his childish little toys away. We make it known that fucking with Southwind is a very bad idea, and we make sure that simmers in these redneck rich boy circles a bit."

I just reached up to pat his arm. "Just don't forget to sleep sometime, ok?"

"Just trying to keep the same hours as Joey," he explained, turning for his door.

"Who's Joey?" I asked his back. "He one of the guys on your team or something?"

For the first time in my entire life, I saw a real, honest smile touch Billy's lips. One that wasn't the cruel kind. "She, Vi. Josephine. The only person I let tell me what to do..." He opened the door. "Well, besides you."

So Billy was in love, I realized as I continued downstairs to make that coffee. The only question was whether or not he could honestly feel that emotion. His brain didn't work like other people's. He might be damned good at faking it, but Blaze was far from stable. He was also one of the most trustworthy people I knew. If he said something, you could trust it. The problem was that most of what fell from his mouth tended to be threats, not promises.

Needless to say, I wasn't shocked that Billy declined to go to church with us.

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