Her expression turns horrified.
“Who would do that? Is she gonna be okay?”
“She will be in a week or so. The person who is responsible won’t be.”
I carefully grab her arm to escort her out of the stable, then close the door behind me, turning the deadbolt to prevent Posey from running off on her own. Just as I place my hand on Kenny’s back to encourage her to start walking, we’re approached by a little girl in pigtails who is beaming up at Kendall.
“Hey, little girl,” Kendall greets her as she crouches down to eye level. The girl doesn’t say a thing, just hands her a piece of paper that’s folded into the shape of a butterfly.
“Is this for me?” Kendall opens her hands to accept the paper, gifting the little girl with a smile that sparks a warm feeling inside of me.
The girl nods and places it in the palms of Kendall’s hands.
“Thank you so much,” Kendall tells the girl who is now studying me with an intimidated look on her cute little face. “Did you make this?” I hear Kendall ask while I look around to see who she belongs to. Without replying, the little girl turns around and runs off.
“What was that? Do you know her?”
“No clue, Kenny.” I offer my hand, helping her to straighten her body. I then offer her my arm, and she hooks her hand in there.
I walk us back to the main building while she holds up the butterfly in her hand.
“It’s Origami. A Chinese folding technique. My grandma used to make these with me when I was younger,” she explains, pulling a grin from me. For no reason at all, I press a kiss on her hair while I breathe in the sweet smell of her vanilla shampoo. The act surprises me since I’ve never been touchy feely with any other women. I’ve always been distant with people, and I rarely grant any kind of affection outside of the bedroom, but this woman fucks with my head, and frankly, I don’t give a damn.
We enter the box five minutes later, and she takes a seat next to Reign. I stand beside them, my back pressed against the railing.
“Satisfied?” He softly bumps his shoulder, giving her another friendly wink.
Her cheeks redden as she glances at me before turning back to Reign.
“That was embarrassing. But yes.”
“Hey, what’s that?” He frowns as he looks down at the Origami butterfly in her hands.
“It’s a butterfly. This little girl gave it to me down at the stables.”
The blood leaves his troubled face, growing paler by the second.
“Can I see that?”
She hands him the piece of paper, and he twirls it in his hand, his lips pressed in a thin line before he gives it back and continues perusing the track.
“What is it, Reign?” I fix him with a stern look, demanding an explanation for his pained expression.
His eyes find mine before he softly shakes his head, forcing a smile onto his face.
“Nothing. Just reminded me of someone.”
“You sure?” I know my brother. He’s fun and easygoing most of the time, but he has a heavy heart and more empathy in his pinky than I have in my entire soul. It’s what broke our relationship all those years ago, and I know he doesn’t turn quiet unless something is eating him up inside.
“Really, Franklin. It’s cool.” He gives me a harsh look, telling me to let it go as his eyes darken. “Just a memory. Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you.” His sneer telling me that’s the end of this conversation, even though it has barely begun.
Like every conversation we’ve had the last decade.
Eighteen
Franklin
She jumps with excitement, a huge grin on her face while the crowd around us cheers for number eight, the winning horse.
“Did you bet on number eight?” Her hands are pressed against my chest as I wrap my arms around her waist.
“No, pretty girl. I don’t gamble.” I dip my chin, dropping a kiss against her lips.
“You don’t?” She frowns in surprise then crinkles her nose a little, making her look cute as hell. “So it’s just a rumor that you run the biggest illegal gambling circuit in Boston?”
I smile at her boldness as I adjust my cufflinks.
“What do you know about illegal gambling, Ms. Ryan?”
“Nothing. Other than you are, apparently, the one leading it all. But maybe I need to check my sources.”
“Oh, you should definitely check your sources,” I taunt, gripping her hips a little tighter. “But I didn’t confirm or deny anything, so who knows?”
She tilts her head.
“So you can’t teach me the ropes of the underworld?”
“I can teach you a lot. Making you part of the gutter of Boston ain’t something I’m willing to teach you, though.”
“What? The king doesn’t want a queen?”
The thought alone makes my heart stop for a second, and actually it likes what she’s saying. Yet I keep my reaction off my face, and instead examine hers for any motive.
“Do you want to be queen, pretty girl?”
“No,” she says resolutely, the look on her face growing sterner as the moments pass. “I’d rather just live my life in peace.”
“Peace is not always an option.”
“I know, but if it is an option, I’ll take it.” Her focus moves to the floor, her thoughts clearly forcing her happy mood to disappear.
My hand reaches up to grab her chin, forcing her to look me in the eye.
“Hey, where did you go?”
“Nowhere,” her perfect mouth lifts into a small smile, “still here.”
I’m about to lower my head to drop another kiss onto her soft, plump lips when a voice behind me calls out my name.
“Franklin! You need to come!” There’s urgency in his voice, so I turn my head while keeping Kendall in my arms. With a scowl fixed to his face, Nigel is hurrying down the steps of the box entrance, followed by one of the stable boys. The stable boy’s face is flushed red, and he’s panting as if he ran up here.
“It’s Inka. She’s dead,” Nigel proclaims.
I gnash my teeth together as I feel a ball of fury rush through my body.
“What did you just say?” I growl before bringing my focus to the stable boy who shrinks a little under my gaze.
“What are you talking about, Nigel?” Connor chimes in as he takes a step forward, wearing an angry look on his face that I’m sure mirrors mine.
“Tell them,” Nigel barks as he gives the boy a nudge forward. The boy looks older than twenty-one-year-old Nigel, but being aware of the kind of men he’s surrounded by, he looks like he’s about to break out in tears any second now.
“W-we found her. Just now. I was going to get the ointment for Posey’s leg, but I had to go to the Killimore shop because we were all out. I couldn’t have gone longer than fifteen minutes, but when I got back, she was laying down. She wasn’t breathing.”
“How?!” I roar with more force than the boy deserves. “We were just there twenty minutes ago.” I feel Reign set his hand on my shoulder to try and calm me down, but I shrug it off and let go of Kendall.
“I-I d-don’t know, sir.” The stable boy is noticeably flustered, looking like he may pass out any minute now.
“Bring Kendall home,” I yell to Connor, then squeeze Kendall’s hand. Without giving her another glance, I storm up the stairs on my way to the stables.
I hear Reign trailing behind me while I ball my fists, ready to punch anything. This isn’t the first time he messed with my horses. Ever since I found out David told Emerson the names of my horses, something I’ve tried to keep quiet for years now, weird shit has been going on in the stables. Custom equipment switched with standard shit that doesn’t suit my horses, special cereals getting mixed up, supplements gone missing. Last week, Posey got the wrong food, giving her a form of colic. Luckily, it was a mild case, but it can be deadly for horses. It made me realize Emerson wouldn’t hesitate to hurt innocent animals to hurt me. I’ve been testing my patience,
waiting for the right moment to retaliate. I can be a very patient man, but touch my family or my horses, and my patience becomes non-existent.
My feet rapidly move over the concrete, and I reach the stables within a minute. I peek my head over the wooden door, looking at the black horse laying in the straw like she’s peacefully sleeping. I don’t have to check her pulse; I know the stable boy wouldn’t have delivered me bad news if he wasn’t sure he needed to.
“Did you call the vet?” Reign asks the stable boy, looking over my shoulder into the stable. I know that the vet will tell me it was a heart attack, that these things happen to the healthiest of horses. But I know Emerson killed her. Twenty minutes ago, I left a perfectly healthy horse. She wasn’t as fast as her sister, but she was a good horse, winning me enough to make her valuable.
“I did.” The stable boy confirms as I rub a hand over my face. With a heavy sigh, I open the door, walk in, and crouch down next to her. My fingers softly stroke the fur on her head, her skin still warm even though she doesn’t respond to anything.
I breathe out angrily through my nose before I scowl up at Reign.
“What was with that Origami thing?”
He gives me a bored look.
“What does that have to do with this?”
“I saw the look on your face, Reign.” I get back up and walk out of the stable. “What are you not telling me?”
He takes a deep breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring in anger.
“I’ve been asking you the same question for years. How about I answer when you do?”
This again.
It always comes back to this.
“We are not talking about the past, Reign.” I rarely lose my cool, controlling my emotions and expressions, but Reign is one of the few people who gets on my nerves within a second. Not because he rubs me the wrong way, but because we can’t fucking communicate as adults.
“You’re right, we’re not. So let’s not bring up things that don’t matter right now. Your horse is dead. You’re pissed, I get it. But whatever Kendall got had nothing to do with that. It was just something that reminded me of my days in foster care. You remember those days, don’t you?”
I huff in response, annoyed he even brought that up.
“Yeah, Reign,” I emphasize, “I remember.”
They’re the bane of my existence.
He has fucked up memories of his time in foster care; I get that. And I hope one day he’ll tell me about them. But to be honest, whether he tells me or not, I don’t think I could possibly feel worse than I already do. Living with the guilt of not being able to protect him from whatever happened in foster care fucks with my head every single day. I couldn’t forget that time even if I wanted to because I’m confronted with it every fucking time I look at my brothers. Reminding me how I failed them and how I have to do better to secure their future in every way possible. Reign particularly, since he was the one who was in the longest.
“Good.” He glares before his face softens a fraction. “You know Emerson is behind this, right?” He points back at the stable, his jaw tight.
“Yeah, I know,” I groan, running a hand through my hair in frustration when I notice Nigel standing next to the stable boy. Narrowing my eyes, I glance from Nigel to the boy, telling Nigel with a single look that he needs to keep an eye on him. “I want all the footage of the security cameras around the stables within the hour. If anyone gives you a hard time, tell Connor to help you.”
Nigel nods his head, grabbing the boy by his neck before yanking him forward and storming off.
“What are we going to do about it, Franklin?” Reign asks, looking pissed off. “You keep saying he’s a small fish, but he’s becoming a real threat, fucking with us like that.”
He’s right. When Emerson Jones started provoking us a few months ago, I was hardly concerned. Just another cokehead with a big mouth, or that’s what I thought. All the smaller gangs try overthrowing us at some point, and I can’t even be angry about it because I would do the same. But while they’ve all been straightened out by us threatening to fuck with their businesses or by having the authorities mess with their shell companies, Emerson Jones showed that he’s not planning on backing down anytime soon. My main priority is keeping the peace in town, making sure everyone benefits from their side of the law, but it appears that Emerson Jones needs a bit more persuasion.
“Find out why he’s so cocky. There is no way in hell he’d have the guts to go against us if all he does is push around drugs. There must be more.”
Reign nods in agreement. The glower on his face softening minutely, but there’s still judgment in his eyes.
“What, Reign?” I sigh loudly.
He jams his hands into the pockets of his pants while he just stares at me, and I wait for him to say whatever is on the tip of his tongue.
“You like this girl, don’t you?” he finally asks.
“Oh, no. Not you too.” I huff, throwing my hands up in the air. “Save it, Reign. Kill already beat you to it.”
I appreciate my brother’s concerns, but I’m the one taking care of them. Not the other way around. After always having to provide for myself and my brothers, I’ve met and worked with a lot of people. In that time, I’ve learned to read people, to easily figure out who is friend and who is foe. Not to mention my gut; it’s always been the main tool I rely on to help me decide on whatever choice there is to make. It’s rarely been wrong or let me down.
And my gut tells me I can trust her.
She barely dares to stick up for herself. I can’t even imagine her going against a Wolfe.
“Beat me to what?” He raises an eyebrow in questioning.
“Warning me to be careful with Kendall.”
“Kill warned you to be careful with her?”
I nod in agreement, waiting for him to finish the speech Killian started earlier today.
“Why?”
I’m surprised by his question, expecting Reign to be aware of our brother’s suspicion.
“He doesn’t trust her. Says he has a bad feeling about her. Don’t you?”
He shakes his head.
“No. I was going to say that if you want to keep her around, you should apologize for being a dick to her just now. I like the girl. I think she’s good for you.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself. When was I a dick to her?”
“When you ordered Connor to take her home without so much as a second glance,” he deadpans like the smartass that he is.
Fuck, he’s right.
Again.
Regret fills my stomach as I pinch the bridge of my nose, groaning when I think back on how I stormed off like a maniac, hoping I didn’t fuck everything up.
“You really like her, don’t you?” he chuckles, clearly enjoying the irritation I feel at my behavior.
“Shut up, Reign.”
“Fuck me, you really do like her.” He lets out a deep laugh that pisses me off even more. I’m about to lay into him when I see the vet heading towards the stables.
“Unless you want my foot in your ass in the next minute, I suggest you shut up.”
He laughs even harder before he raises his hands in surrender, covering his mouth to muffle the rest of his chuckles. I roll my eyes before I nod to the vet in greeting.
“Evening, Mr. Wolfe.”
“Evening,” I respond, watching him walk inside the stable as I give my little brother another reprimanding look.
Nineteen
Kendall
I get home, a disappointed feeling running through my gut while I pull off my boots by the front door. I stumble to the living room as I pull off the other.
“Josie, where are you?”
I know I’m not Franklin’s family or his friend or anything, for that matter, but after the sweet words he said this afternoon, I’d kinda hoped I was at least something. That he would share his frustrations with me or show me how much his horses meant to him.
Instead, he sent me home l
ike I was a nuisance.
“Hi, sweetheart.” My heart stops when I notice Emerson sitting on the couch, as if he never left. Josie is sitting in the window, looking apologetic as she sinks her teeth into a donut. I’m surprised she doesn’t look annoyed by his presence like she normally is.
“Emerson!” I exclaim. “What are you doing here?”
Before he came to advise me of his latest plan, I hadn’t seen him in weeks. Now here he is, visiting me twice in the same day.
I have a severely deficient amount of luck.
“I came to check on my girl. See if we’re still on the same page. Still on the same team, you know?” His arms are draped over the back of the couch, a glass of whiskey in one hand. He shoots a glance at Josie, who is now glaring at him from across the room. We all came to Boston together, all looking for some adventure after we graduated high school in Clover, Alabama.
Emerson had always been the bad boy in town, my boyfriend throughout junior and senior years, yet somehow my best friend’s worst enemy. She’s never liked him. They never saw eye to eye, and they got into each other’s faces more often than they got along. When we all moved up north, following Emerson on his new adventure, they became civil. But they’ve never hid their annoyance for one another.
“Didn’t you already do that this morning?” I scowl, my hands pressed into my sides. Having Josie around gives me a bit more confidence to maintain my backbone and not cower under his gaze.
“Josie here tells me you may need a little more persuasion.”
“That’s not what I said, dickhead.”
I scowl at her, my jaw already hurting from grinding my teeth.
Thanks a lot, friend.
“Okay, that’s true. She didn’t say that exactly. But she did tell me she hated me for fucking things up for you. You see,” he continues while I continue staring at my best friend, “that gave me the feeling there’s more going on between you and Franklin Wolfe than I’d realized. Is that true, Kenny?”
My eyes move back to Emerson.
“What is more, Em? I slept with him, you already know that because your little spy followed me around last night. He asked me to come to the races with him, so I did. You wanted me to gain his trust. I’m gaining his trust.”
Franklin: A Boston Mafia Romance (The Boston Wolfes) Page 11