The Lies Between Us (The Devil's Dust #4)(25)

“Excuse me?” Bart quips, his tone coming off as if I’ve insulted him.

“It’s not top-notch. I can grow better weed out of a pot in my kitchen window.” I raise a brow at Bart, waiting for him to f*cking lie to my face.

Bull inspects the green and hands it to Locks as I walk over to the table behind this one and find more bags. I open one and the smell of earthy tones nearly knocks me off my feet. It’s good. Really f*cking good. This is no ditch weed.

“Yeah, it’s shit,” Locks agrees.

“So, that’s your best shit, huh?” I toss the bag of good weed to Bull. He scrunches his face in question as he catches it. “Open that one,” I encourage.

Bull opens it and instantly pins Bart with a death glare. “You trying to hustle me bad weed?”

“I mean, you gotta work up, you know?” Bart chuckles and I grit my teeth. I’ve had enough of his f*cking lies and hustling, as I know Bull has, too. If I want to prove myself, now is the time to do it.

I pull my gun from my waistband and put it to the back of Bart’s head.

“Do you know who you’re f*cking with? We don’t work up to nothing,” I seethe. Our club is the biggest in LA, we have a reputation, and we’ve worked hard for over the years. “Your disrespect for my club is going to put you in the ground,” I promise.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Bart holds his hands up in surrender.

“My boy is right, Bart. Do you know who you’re f*cking with? Lying to my face is not something I take lightly,” Bull explains.

“Okay, okay, how about we give you a couple blocks of Betsy, and for a third of the cost?”

I look at Bull, waiting for his direction.

“This Betsy?” Bull points at the good bag of weed.

“Ye-yeah, yeah,” Bart stammers.

“Okay, deal. But you try and give me anything less, I’ll have Lip here shoot you in the f*cking foot,” Bull threatens.

Bart nods, rolling his lips on top of each other out of fear. For a drug dealer, he sure is a *.

“Grow some balls, man,” I insult, taking the barrel of my gun away from his head.

Bull laughs and pats me on the back. I smirk; it feels good to be in his good graces. As a kid, some local thugs cornered my father once. I grabbed his gun from his motorcycle and took aim, threatening the punks. They ran away in seconds. My dad was not impressed, said I should have pulled the trigger. I never made his f*cking ass happy.

“Get my shit together, Bart.” Bull points at Bart as we head out of the warehouse.

“You did good, son. You’re on that run for sure.”

I smile and climb on my bike. This right here, this is the life I long for. Guns, drugs, and violence, but most of all respect. I do what I love and I get respect in the end. This is the only life I know. I’m a sinner. A Devil at heart. I’d make my father smile and my mother pray if they saw me today.

***

“So, this is the newest model?” Bull points at the black SUV. He doesn’t seem impressed, though. After the deal, the boys went back to the club while Bull and I headed over to the local dealership to find the club an SUV.

I glance inside the vehicle and shrug. I’m not fond of the model, either.

“Too much money for standard shit,” I add.

“Think I agree,” Bull growls.

I stand up straight, done with looking at the SUV, and spot a cherry red VW beetle across the way. The color of it makes me think of Cherry. I stride over toward it and peer in. It’s plain, nothing special, but it’s girly. I don’t know why the f*ck I’m looking at this, why I’m thinking about Cherry, but even with all the events of the day, I can’t shake her from the back of my head.

I bet she’s never had anything this nice before. A piece of me wants to be the one to give her something nice. It wouldn’t be much, though—it looks used.

“Um… Lip.” Bull’s ugly mug looks at me from the driver’s side window. I stand up and he rests his arms on the roof of the car.

“I’m not sure it’s your color, brother.” He smirks. I roll my eyes and walk away.

“You getting that SUV or not?”

“Not,” Bull clips, walking toward his bike.

I went back and bought that f*cking car for Cherry. I cursed myself the whole time, walked away at least twice, and tore the contract up in pure panic once. But in the end, Bobby drove it back to my place. Then I gave him shit for the car looking good on him.


CHERRY

“Cherry, come here!” Lip yells from the front door, his voice anxious and alarming. My brows furrow and I hurry out the front door, finding Lip standing next to a bright red beetle. Holy shit!

“What the f*ck is that?” I point at the car. I don’t know what the hell that is, or better yet, why the hell it’s sitting in the driveway, but it better not be for me.

“It’s yours.” He smiles, and my stomach falls.

“Mine?” I point at myself.

“Yeah. Come check it out.” He beams like a little boy. I bite my bottom lip and tiptoe down the hot cement steps. He opens the passenger door and gestures for me to check it out, so I cross my arms and lower my head to look in. It’s beautiful, and it even has a hint of that new car smell. The windows are automatic, and I bet the air conditioner even works. It must have cost a lot.