Free Beyond Control by Kit Rocha

brother. I'd have asked eventually--the boss told me I had to. But I can tell Dallas you don't have anything, and that'll be the end of it."
    Jared looked away and finally said, "He doesn't keep to Eden. Might find him out here in the sectors sometime, if you figured out where to look."
    It felt carefully phrased. Deft, though Jared was always deft. Ace wasn't a fan of having to pick and choose his words or when to let his silence do the talking, so he filed the tidbit away and changed the subject. "If you don't want to swing around the club, I could always bring a party to you."
    His friend ignored the offer. "He'll owe me one. Your boss."
    Ace's blood chilled. "Is it that dangerous? Fuck, man. I'll go to my grave for O'Kane, if that's what I have to do, but the gang's got my back. Don't go out on a limb for him if you're not gonna take protection."
    "Relax. At best, I might spook a few rich ladies." Jared grinned. "The city has them to spare, and so do I. But he'll owe me, all the same."
    "Gladly, if you can give him anything. Dallas wants to spike his morning whiskey with this bastard's blood."
    "Then I'll keep it in mind." Jared finished his drink and clinked the ice in his glass. "Another?"
    It'd take two, minimum, to get the taste of politics out of his mouth. "You know it," he replied, holding out his glass. "Now, about that party. You have got to meet this new girl who's doing shows with me. She's got a dirty fucking mind and she's inventive."
    Jared poured the refills with a chuckle. "I'm sure she's wonderful, but is there any particular reason you're dying to bring her around here? You O'Kanes have plenty of filthy parties."
    Plenty of parties he spent watching Cruz count Rachel's teeth with his tongue. "What, I can't miss hanging with an old friend?"
    "I can't help but be curious as to the source of this sudden nostalgia."
    Ace produced his best leer. "Maybe I miss refined debauchery. We can do wonderful things to a lady when we work together."
    Jared wasn't fooled. "Does it have anything to do with how studiously you've avoided talking about Rachel lately?"
    "Have I?" He hadn't thought he'd been that obvious, but he'd mostly been trying to avoid thinking about Rachel at all. Life was better simple, and there was nothing simple about the tangle of emotions evoked by her and Cruz and their fucking tongues. "Nothing to tell. She's making big eyes at Bren's military police friend."
    "That's not exactly nothing," Jared replied.
    His friend's voice held an uncomfortable edge of sympathy, and Ace needed more whiskey. "Nothing to do , then," he said as he leaned over to snag the bottle. "City boy doesn't share, and I don't play that game. I gambled on a slow chase, and I lost. So it goes."
    "As you say. I am sorry, though. I liked her."
    "You can still like her. She's not dead." Ace knocked back the whiskey, enjoying a brief moment of comfort as it burned its way down his throat and kicked him in the guts. Or maybe that kick was this conversation, battering away at his determined denial. "Sorry, brother. I'll replace your booze."
    Jared snorted. "Fuck the booze. I buy it by the case, and Dallas cuts me a sweet deal."
    Of course he did. "Then screw you. I'm drinking it all."
    "Good." He abandoned his glass on the coffee table and leaned back in his chair with a slow smile. "Drink it all, and then tell me about the redhead who works at the bar. The tall one."
    Feeling like he'd just stepped clear of a minefield, Ace relaxed into the couch cushions and began to extol Trix's many, many charms. But somewhere in between a loving description of the busty redhead's glorious tits and her deliciously spankable ass, he acknowledged that his reprieve was likely to be short-lived.
    The O'Kanes lived in close quarters with high stakes. Sooner or later, someone was gonna stomp on one of those mines, and the whole thing would blow up in their faces.

Chapter Five
     
    She could hear him grunting.
    Lex stared at Dallas's door and ran