“I’ll be impressed by how quickly we break them.”
Paro whimpers at this comment and tries to speak. I know he’s full of shit. Everyone who’s ever met Paro knows he’s full of shit. Tonight, he’ll need to dig deep and find the truth.
I pull the van into the delivery garage next to the club’s rarely used dance hall. Pax jumps out and shuts the door. Minutes later, we have Sandy and Paro hanging upside down in a freezer.
“Who wants to tell us about Tiny’s death?” I say, my bat swinging at my side. “Who wants to make a deal and who wants to help me with my swing?”
“I don’t know anything,” Paro lies. “I’m just a pimp. I keep my girls safe and Tiny never did nothing to me.”
“You talked about ditching the club’s protection and starting a group of your own. Big Dick pushed back and you killed his kid. We know all that, but we want to know who helped you.”
“Fuck you,” Paro says, changing gears. “I don’t owe you shit. I ain’t telling you shit either.”
“Oh, you’ll talk,” Pax says, swinging his bat and barely missing Paro’s nose. “The question is how long before you beg to get chatty.”
“I wouldn’t hurt anyone. I’m not that kind of guy. That’s why I have Sandy. I don’t have the stomach to hurt people.”
“Are you saying Sandy killed Tiny?” I ask.
Sandy glares at Paro, but says nothing. Paro sees an out and keeps babbling.
“Sandy wanted to make a move. He was always pushing me, but I wanted to stay loyal to the club. Trigger is a good guy. I don’t care about his heart attack. He’s a badass and I wanted to stay loyal, but Sandy said we should make a move.”
“Sandy didn’t do it on his own. He’s just muscle.”
“Ask him who helped. Don’t ask me. I’m loyal.”
I gesture for Pax to follow me out of the freezer. Once we shut the door, the two men begin arguing. I grin at my brother.
“Sandy’s going to talk.”
“Paro doesn’t have the balls to kill anyone. He’s not lying about that. Besides smacking around women, he’s useless.”
“They’re working with someone. That’s what we need to know, so don’t break anything important on them until they talk.”
“I know,” Pax says, frowning.
“Well, you get excited and forget sometimes.”
“Name one tim…” Pax pauses. “Name ten times that happened.”
Grinning, I peer through a small window into the freezer. “They’ll bitch at each other then start feeling the cold. We’ll let them suffer then see what they have to say.”
Pax digs around in his supply bag for a snack. He rips open the candy bar wrapper and takes a bite.
“How long do we wait?”
“More than one minute,” I say and he rolls his eyes.
“So this thing with you and Shay, what happens if her pussy’s magic doesn’t wear off?”
“What?” I sigh, irritated for no reason.
“If you and Shay stay together, will she move into the house? Start pushing out baby Fords? What happens?”
“We’ve been together for less than two weeks.”
“She’s different. We both know that. If nothing blows up between you two, I figure you’ll want Shay as your old lady. What does that mean for me?”
“I’m not getting an old lady.”
Pax chews his candy then tosses the wrapper. “You want her at the house every night. You want her with us all the time. How long before you just move her shit in?”
“And if I do?”
“I just want to know where that leaves me.”
“On the street unless you find a new place.”
When Pax frowns, I glare for as long as I can before laughing. “Where does that leave me?” I whine. “Oh, Ford, will I be discarded? How will I love without you?”
Pax glares, faking nothing. “I want to know. You never had a chick stick around. You banged them then they left. Hell, when we went to Taco’s wedding, you brought a chick you picked up the night before. You couldn’t even remember her name.”
“In my defense, she had a tricky name. Nichelle or something.”
Pax finally grins. “Shay is different. I’m pretending to be cool with that.”
“Not well.”
“Turd.”
I run my hand through my hair then glance into the freezer to find the men shivering.
“I admit I like having Shay around. She feels good in my bed and I like her out of it too. Yeah, I guess that makes her special, but we’re not breeding any time soon. She’s not even twenty one and I’m not in the mood for a kid. I’m still figuring out how to have a woman.”
“So she lives with us?”
“Sure. Why not? She doesn’t mind your bad habits. She likes Folgers. The dog doesn’t notice she exists and he hated that one broad you brought home.”