Page 178 of Lawless

Reid scrubs his hand down his face before the burner in his pocket begins ringing.

Pulling it free, he stares down at the screen.

“J, you’re with me. Let’s leave the girls to talk about dick.”

A grin curls at my lips. “My girl can talk about my dick all day long if she wants,” I offer. “Jacob’s ladder, Aubs. Fucking epic. Right, Dove.”

“Now, J,” Reid barks like the impatient motherfucker that he is.

I expect him to march toward his newly-claimed office, so I’m confused when he heads for the stairs.

Jude and Mav are deep in conversation as we climb the stairs, although it ends abruptly when we step into the room.

“How’s it looking?” Reid asks.

“Great. Healing really well. He’ll be back to full working order in no time.”

“Alana will be thrilled,” I deadpan, earning more than a couple of glares.

“Great. Can we have a moment?” Reid asks.

Jude hesitates before packing up his stuff and scurrying out of the room.

“It’s okay, he was finished,” Mav murmurs, when Reid props himself up against the dresser and hits the speaker button on his phone.

“Malakai Saint,” he says in greeting but also to clue us in as to who we’re talking to.

“Harris. Rumor has it that you’ve been trying to hunt me down,” he says smugly.

“Well, couldn’t get hold of the organ grinder so thought I’d turn my attention to the monkey,” Reid snarks.

“Takes one to know one.”

Malakai Saint is the stepson of Hazard Grove’s infamous leader Sidney Hyde.

Reid and I haven’t had a lot to do with him. He’s always been one of Victor’s associates, and he’s been one of the hardest for Reid to break with his plan to bring Victor down. And Malakai—or Kai to those who actually know him—hasn’t been all that much easier to get in contact with.

Until Mav crashed into our lives.

“We need to talk, Saint. We’ve got some issues right now, and we need—”

“Well, fuck me sideways,” he taunts. “Is the great and mighty Reid Harris actually asking me for a favor?”

Reid’s teeth grind. There’s no fucking way he’d reach out like this if it weren’t absolutely necessary.

“I’ll owe you one, Saint. That’s for fucking sure.”

“And my old man isn’t interested in this… arrangement?”

Reid sucks in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring.

He’s going out on a limb here. I might not know too many details about what’s going on, but I do know that Reid is taking a massive fucking risk here.

And if he’s wrong…

“I’m hoping that we could do this, heir to heir and all that.”

Silence.