There’s no way she doesn’t know. “Where do you think?”
She stands a foot away from me, in that oversized hoodie, bare underneath, with that innocent, sexy look on her face that drives me fucking wild. “I didn’t take it if that’s what you think. I know I’m desperate and broke but—”
“Of course you didn’t.” I cut her off, scoffing. “But that doesn’t mean he didn’t spend it on you.”
She cocks her head, forehead wrinkling. “What do you mean?”
Guess I’m going to have to spell it out for her. “Why do you think Daniel let you fuck Rath down in the pit instead of Pretty Nick? My dad speaks two languages, little sister: English and money.”
“I—” Her eyes, filling with dread, dart back to the box. “You don’t mean…”
I jerk my chin in a nod. “Rath bought you.”
“No.” Her shoulders deflate, and I’m surprised at the way her expression crumbles.
The memory of yesterday callously makes me want to rub it in. “Daddy didn’t throw you a familiar bone because he cares for you. Rath saved you. Not just by showing up, but by sacrificing everything. Do you have any idea how long he’d been saving that for? Honestly, since before I even knew him.”
She looks up at me, eyes wide and wet. “I didn’t know.”
I manage a dry little laugh. “I’m sure you didn’t. Else you would’ve been in here bouncing on his dick a lot sooner than tonight.”
Her expression does this clean wipe from dismal horror to hard outrage. She scowls at me, the spark of kinetic energy that flows between us jolting back to life. “Why are you acting like such a jerk?”
“Oh, I’m not acting.”
“What, you’re like… mad at me?” When I do nothing but stare blankly in response, her head jolts back in disbelief. “What can you possibly be mad about? I haven’t even seen you all weekend!” I realize too late she’s looking me over. Even sensing how angry I am, she doesn’t hesitate to grab my wrist and pull my hand away from my body, her cool fingers running over my scraped, bruised knuckles. Her face loses some of those harsh lines when she asks, “What happened here?”
I shrug, twisting my hand loose. “I punched a wall.”
“Seriously?” She shakes her head, peering up at me with big, puzzled eyes. “Why the hell would you do that? It’s almost like you don’t want to get back on the field.”
I step into the closet, closing the gap between us. I know she finally understands about this red-hot thing boiling under my skin, because she flinches as I bear down on her. She has no choice but to go backwards, tripping on a pair of boots and then stumbling over the box on the floor. Just before she crashes into the wall, I grab her and hold her upright, yanking our faces together.
“I punched the wall, little sister, because the other option was breaking my goddamn laptop.” She blinks in confusion and it rubs me raw, this evidence that she’d done it so unthinkingly. My teeth clench around the explanation. “You shut me out of that conversation the other day—just closed the computer like my voice didn’t even fucking matter.”
“I-uh-what?”
“About the wrestling match,” I bark, holding her like a rag doll in my hands. Narrowing my eyes, I lean in so close our noses nearly touch. “Do you know how many times, how many fucking discussions, I’ve put a stop to because you weren’t there for them? Do you have any fucking idea what it’s taken to sit here on my hands like a coward because I know you couldn’t stand the thought of being cut out? Do you?!” She gapes at me, body slack beneath my hands. “The three of us could have had this guy—whoever the fuck he is—down on his knees, execution style, weeks ago.” There’s a flash of something in her eyes, and it’s too mild to be called fear, but too strong to be mere wariness. “You’re the only reason we’re playing this slow. Because you asked us to. Because anything less would put you at risk. You’re the only thing keeping Tristian from burning this whole fucking place to the ground. You’re the only thing stopping Rath from tearing a warpath through South Side. You’re the one thing,” I hold up a finger, thrusting it right in her face, “standing between me and my dad. But you want to go off, making decisions that affect all of us? I don’t think so.”
She gives me a series of rapid blinks. “I didn’t think it was that important.”