Beyond Control(15)

Anything else meant weakness, and weakness in front of the other sector leaders meant death.





Chapter Six



Rachel was the only woman Dallas knew who could chastise with food. The stack of grilled cheese sandwiches at his elbow was stingy on the cheese and generous with the grilling, resulting in charred edges that tasted like crap. I ain't your woman, and I've got actual shit to do was the message, reinforced by the lack of fries and the absence of any of Rachel's homebrew. She wouldn't turn down a direct order, but she had no trouble letting Dallas feel the bite of her irritation.

As Jasper sat, Dallas shoved the plate across the table. "Good thing I'm leaving. Give me another day and I'll have all the girls pissed at me."

Jasper held up his hand with a shake of his head. "I'll eat later, thanks."

"Good call." Sweeping the whole mess off the side of the desk and into the garbage was worth the hell he'd get for breaking a plate. "I'll just lay this out. You're not coming to Two with us, not this time."

"Guess you're gonna have a full house with Lex along."

"That's not why." Dallas offered Jas a cigarette before pulling out one of his own. "Shit's a mess, man. We've got enemies on all sides. Gareth Woods in the city, the usual scum trying to bite bits of the sector off when we're not looking. Whoever supplied Wilson Trent with those explosives. Hell, even Dom's getting to be more trouble than he's worth. I can't leave for a couple days and trust the place to be standing when I get back. Not without help."

Jasper seemed to consider that. "I can hold it together. Depends, some, on how long you plan to be gone."

A usual meeting between sector leaders dragged through at least two days. One evening for them to indulge in whatever vices Cerys had arranged to put them all in an agreeable frame of mind, and one wasted morning with everyone poking and prodding, feeling out weaknesses and strengths. Only then could they get down to business--and that was under usual circumstances, not with a sector leader dead and his territory dissolving into anarchy.

Dallas lit his cigarette and inhaled deeply before shaking his head. "Figure three nights, at the least. Maybe a week, if nothing goes sideways. They won't want to leave until they've figured out what to do about Three."

"You mean besides burn it to the ground?" Jasper groused.

"Tempting, isn't it?" Not that their own sector had much in the way of elegance. Not like Two or Five or even the nicer parts of Eight. Four took its style from the O'Kanes as much as it took its temper--rough around the edges but solid. Three was straight up broken, just like its leader had been.

But the potential was there.

"There are things we could salvage," Jasper admitted, "but I'm not sure it'd be worth thumbing our noses at everyone else to do it--unless they want you to. It wouldn't be stupid. You clear the place, divide the spoils, and take a finder's fee."

"It'd take a lot of work to enforce some f*cking order over there. And probably a fair bit of blood." Perfectly reasonable words, but work and blood had never stopped him before. And staring at all that unclaimed territory on the map stirred the sort of excitement he hadn't felt in too long. "But if we had the manpower...the money could be nice."

"We'd need more people." Jasper leaned forward and braced his elbows on the desk. "I'm talking serious membership drive."

Just the thought splintered pain behind his eyeballs, a headache begging to split open. "Only if you're willing to break them in and weed them out. I don't have the patience for that shit."

"Just let me know. I can start with the fights, the guys who've been around on the fringes for a while."

"Might as well start while I'm gone." Dallas blew smoke at the ceiling as a scowl twisted his lips. "Doesn't really matter who ends up in charge of Three, does it? We need to be stronger."

Jasper grunted.

Dallas glanced at him and got a speculative, curious look back. Jasper didn't sit around and gossip like the women--or Ace--but that didn't make him any less nosy. "You looking for the stab wounds?"

"Dunno." He shrugged. "Figured Lex might take a chunk out of you after the other night."

"We worked it out." Dallas quirked an eyebrow. "Did you and Noelle?"

"We're all right."

Not exactly the words of a man with a newly marked woman bouncing excitedly on his dick. "Sorry for pissing off your girl on your night."

He just shrugged again and, for a moment, Dallas missed the Jasper who'd been utterly his man. As loyal as Jas still was, Noelle had his heart in her perfectly manicured little hands now. She was the one he protected, even if it was just with silence.

Dallas sighed and stared at the ceiling. "I'll make it up to both of you when I get back. Lex is wearing my collar. We've still got shit to figure out, but I'm not enough of an * to try to keep her away from Noelle."

Jasper finally chuckled. "I don't think you could, man, even if you wanted to. With a thousand collars. Not even with ink."

That was the truth, and it pinched. "Then I guess it's a good thing I don't mind your ugly face."

"Would you rather have a woman who didn't give a shit about anyone?"

He'd had plenty of those. Cold women, hard women, even broken ones. At times, Lex could seem to be all three, but she wasn't really, and he was glad. He'd never want to strip away that caring core.

Not even if he couldn't own all of it.

Straightening, Dallas snuffed out his cigarette. "Since we're stuck together for the time being, I'll make an effort to play nice with your kitten. Unless you like getting scratched up when I piss her off."

Something clouded Jasper's eyes, but he blinked it away. "I'd threaten to kick your ass if you upset her, but I don't think it'd do any good. You always do whatever the hell you want anyway."

"That's pretty much how this works." But it wouldn't hurt to ask Lex to talk Noelle down. The girl would have to learn sooner or later that courtship in the sectors sometimes came with bumps and bruises. For now, the best thing Dallas could do was change the subject. "Go stick your head out--"

A knock interrupted his words, and Mad slipped through the door. Bren followed, rubbing his hands together. "All the deliveries and collection runs are set up. Should flow smoothly in our absence."

"Good." He waited for them to drag up chairs before looking to Mad. "Have you talked to your cousin yet?"

"I sent a message," he answered, dropping into the chair. "Gideon will probably reply by carrier pigeon or some bullshit. Depends on how much he's buying into the grandson-of-the-Prophet mystique this month."

Mad's grandfather had been the first leader of Sector One, a spiritual man elevated to legend by followers who wanted a religion to replace the stifling edicts of Eden. "Either way, you'll see him tomorrow. You'll be Lex's bodyguard while we're in Two. I don't want you leaving her side unless I'm stuck to it."

"Got it," was all Mad said, though the man was smart enough to know Lex wouldn't appreciate having no say in the matter. Too f*cking bad for both of them. Lex wouldn't be allowed to participate in the daily negotiations, and Dallas wouldn't be able to concentrate on them with her flitting around her old sector unprotected.

Jasper grinned at Bren. "Bring Dallas back in one piece, huh? I'm not ready to be king."

Bren rescued the cigarette languishing in Jasper's hand and finished it off in one long draw. "He's too stubborn to die."

It was Dallas's place to grin, to give them their cocky leader, even if he wasn't feeling it. "Yeah, I am. So get comfortable in my chair, Jas, but not too comfortable."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

The fact that he really wouldn't made Jasper the rarest of things--a truly trustworthy second. "Things should be quiet. Cruz seems to be settling in okay."

Bren tipped his head. "He is. Getting some shit in the cage, but that's to be expected. As far as most people are concerned, he's still got to make his bones."

Cruz hadn't taken ink yet, but he'd lost his place in Eden while bringing Dallas the man who'd pulled the trigger on Lex. For that, and with Bren's word, Dallas would have given him cuffs on the spot, tradition be damned.

But it was smart of the man to wait. Normal recruits had plenty of time to find their place in the pecking order and earn respect by tolerating a little friendly hazing, and most of them hadn't started out as elite members of Eden's military police.

Speaking of which... "That was quite a show he put on in the cage the other night. He makes you look clumsy, Bren."

The man's brows slashed down in a frown. "The f*ck he does."