Rogue (In the life of the Rogue Book 1) by KaNeshia Michelle Page A

attempted thoughts were gone.
     
    ***
     
    I cocked my head to the side as bottle smashed against the wall and shattered.
    “This is bullshit,” Zander inhaled a long pull of his cigarette and breathed it through his nose like a bull would breathe steam getting ready for a charge.
    He looked for something else to throw, while I lit my own cigarette and fanned out the flame from the match. “It’s not like we can say no.”
    “So Johnny’s dead,” Zander said.
    I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Internally I was asking if I truly cared if my brother wasn’t here anymore. I listened to the even tone of my heart beat. My face was dry, devoid of tears, and I was only too sure it would remain that way.
    “He was stupid,” I said.
    “He was no different from us.”
    “And who’s us ?”
    “We’re the smart ones, Tristan. We were the ones who tried to escape the family: you in pussy; me in family; Johnny in money.”
    “If that’s what you want to call it.”
    Zander huffed and patted his pockets for a cigarette and came up on his last one. He stuck it in his mouth, his dark eyes glaring at me while he crushed the empty box in his hand until his dark flesh turned white.
    The cigarette dangled unlit in his mouth. “Fucking convieant for Lulina, though, don’t you think? Johnny’s out – killed quietly - and her daughter’s in and blood is better than marriage.”
    I let my cigarette drop from my mouth and crushed the burning bud with the heel of my shoe. Sure we were indoors, in our hotel room, but the many burnt cigarette holes already in the carpet told me I wasn’t the first use the floor as an ashtray.
    My hands slid into my pockets. “You’re looking at me like you want me to do something about this transition.”
    “I do.”
    “What’s that?”
    There was a cruel curl in Zander’s lips as he said, “Kill Lulina’s hell spawn.”
    “I’m not a killer, Zan.”
    Zander raised his voice, almost screaming at me while the cigarette between his lips bounced and bobbed, and hung on for dear life. “Did you not even consider the reprocussion this shit can have?”
    “No. Why don’t you enlighten me?”
    He leaned back on the bed and laughed. “We’re fucked up, T. We’re a liability.”
    “You’re the liability.”
    “No,” he corrected, “ we are both a liability. We can’t be trusted. So what makes you not consider that new management won’t clean house, stenghten the strengths and clean out the weakness, the liabilities, and we may not make the cut.”
    “You’re still high, Zander.” It wasn’t that I thought he wasn’t making a good point. I knew he was.
    Somethings you choose not to hear, not to see. It was better to be surprised when the shit train came rolling in. Better that than see it coming and know there was nothing you could do to stop it.
    Zander wasn’t done with his sermon. “Kill her, Tristan. Don’t take any chances. We need a boss and I elect you.”
    “I don’t think your vote counts.”
    Zander found and secured an empty beer bottle. His eyes had gone from dark to blazing. His arm cocked back, ready for a throw that I knew wouldn’t miss.
    “Don’t do it, man,” I said, and couldn’t deny there was a shake in my voice.
    Zander let it fly. I moved my head out of the direct path but wasn’t so lucky this time around with the glass. A shard of brown glass caught me in the eyebrow. Before I could even feel the sting of the cut, or even the first drop of blood emerging, my gun was in my hand and the barrel was resting against Zander’s forehead.
    “I told you not to do it,” I said through my teeth.
    He smiled at me. “Glad to see I got your attention.”
    And here was the sting in my eyebrow. Here was the blood dripping down the side of my face and wetting my dark shirt. “I told you I’m not a killer.”
    “You could have fooled me. And after tonight, you will be.”
    “That’s tonight, though, lucky for you or I would have put a hole in