He looked back at her. “Well, that depends how good you are, sweetheart. This mess you and your brother caused me is gonna cost me a fucking ton. I’ll want my money’s worth.”
She held his stare. “I promise, I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Yeah, you will. Pack your stuff up and I’ll get someone to move it to my place after the party.” Kane stepped outside and let the door swing closed behind him. Ryker was still struggling against the men holding him, but he let up when he saw Kane reappear.
“Let him go,” Kane barked, and Ryker shrugged off the men’s hands.
“What did you do to her?”
Kane put his head back and laughed. “Nothing,” he locked eyes with Ryker, “yet.” Ryker flinched as Kane over pronounced the word. “She’s inside, you should go and thank her for saving your skin, Ryker.”
Then, growing tired of the conversation, Kane crossed the courtyard and beckoned to his lieutenants to follow him.
Chapter 7
Ryker appeared in the doorway to Kane’s room and found Cassidy standing in the middle, her head bent, and shoulders slumped. He paused, his eyes raking over her, and landing on the fleece at her feet. If Kane touched her, so help me, God!
He strode across the room and picked up the hoody. Rolling the fabric in his big meaty hands, he gently pulled it over her head, dressing her like he did when she was four. His sister remained silent, her face unreadable as she allowed him to thread her arms through the sleeves.
Taking her hand, he led her out of Kane’s place, across the courtyard, and up to their room. It was taking everything he had to keep his mouth shut and his shit together. Ryker didn’t have to ask her what happened in there, because he knew just what type of bargain Kane would make.
Inside their room, he leaned against the door and watched her climb on the bed and curl up into a ball. He wanted to fucking scream and hit something. God damn it, I should have got her out of here months ago.
Cassidy closed her eyes, and it almost broke his fucking heart. Although Ryker wasn’t a hundred percent sure what had gone down in that room, he was pretty sure Kane hadn’t been in there long enough to have done much to her. He might have had a sneak peek at what he was going to get, but Kane liked to savor his pleasures.
“When?”
Cassidy continued to stare at the wall. “Halloween. He’s throwing me a birthday party, and I’ll move my things into his place after.”
“Shit. You don’t have to do this, Cassidy.”
She glanced over at him. “What choice do I have?”
“Don’t do this for me, the worst that’ll happen is I’ll get a beating to teach me a lesson. But Kane can’t afford to lose me right now. If war is imminent, he is gonna need every man he has. You do not have to do this.”
Cassidy shrugged her shoulders. “You know as well as I do I’ve been living on borrowed time. There isn’t a woman here that he hasn’t screwed, Ryker. We are all his fucking property. He’ll find something else to hold over me, anyway, so I may as well get something out of this.”
Ordinarily, Ryker would have chewed her out over her language, but he let it ride. “Over my dead body.”
She climbed off the bed and went to him. Folding her arms around his waist, and leaning her head against his chest, she clung to him. “It’s no big deal. I can handle this.”
Ryker pinched the bridge of his nose, and inhaled sharply, his control was slipping, but he’d be damned if he let her see him lose it. He bent his head and kissed her hair. “I promised to protect you, to keep you safe…” Her grip tightened around him. “And that’s what I’m gonna fucking do.” He reached around and untangled her arms from him. “Stay here until I get back.”
Ryker thought she might protest, but instead, she nodded and climbed back on the bed. His hand shook as he closed the door behind him and stormed down the stairs in search of Falcon.
Falcon had the hood up on his truck, his hands covered in black greasy smears from topping up the oil. As Ryker approached, he stood back and swiped his hands on a rag, the expression on his face neutral. Falcon was much better at keeping his feelings under wraps than Ryker. He struggled to keep his emotions off his face, which was bad news when you had to deal with Kane Munch.
“She okay?” For a split second, deep concern registered in Falcon’s eyes.
“For now.” Ryker was too aware of how many people were around to say any more. “You wanna get breakfast?”
“Sure.”
Neither of them spoke until they were halfway across town.
“Define okay.” Falcon glanced across at Ryker as he drove.
Now there was no mistaking how the guy felt. His dark brown eyes had taken on an ebony quality, and his high cheek bones had become more pronounced as he sucked on his teeth. The way Falcon gripped the steering wheel left Ryker in no doubt the man was just as furious.
“He didn’t touch her.”
“You sure about that?”
“He didn’t have time to fuck her. You saw how long he was in there. But he may have… shit, I don’t fucking know. She wasn’t wearing her hoody when I went in there, and she seemed shook up, but Cassidy never said, and I wasn’t gonna fucking ask her.”
“If she was my fucking sister, I would have.”
They fell silent as Ryker brooded. Falcon was right, he should have come right out and asked her.
Falcon pulled into a lot at the back of a launderette, and they climbed out to head over to the small diner next to it. They took a booth in the far corner and ordered pancakes and coffee. When the waitress left, Ryker put his elbows on the table and leaned across to Falcon.
“We have to get her out, now.”
“Shit. It’s your call, but you know this’ll fuck everything up.”
“I’m not sacrificing my fucking sister.”
“I didn’t say you should, but it’s been over fourteen months, Ryker. A couple more weeks and we’ll have enough…”
“Kane is taking her on her eighteenth birthday. That’s two fucking days away, Falcon. It has to happen on Friday, before he gets his hands on her.”
“Okay, okay. I ‘ll speak to Liam.”
“No, you tell Liam. I won’t negotiate. You get her out, and you disappear, and I’ll get the evidence we need to put Kane away.”
“Huh, maybe we have enough. Your testimony, mine, even Liam’s. The stuff Cory left you… it could be enough.”
“It’s not. Most of it is uncorroborated, or his fingerprints aren’t anywhere near it. I need Kane’s book. It has everything—dates, numbers, deals, recruits, deaths. If we stand up in court without it, we’ll be dead before the trial ends. Get Cassidy out, and I’ll go and get it.”
“That’s suicidal, Ryker. Kane keeps it on him all the time. How the hell are you going to get it?”
“Don’t worry about me. Just get her to Liam, and make sure Kane never finds her.”
“Shit, we need more time to plan this.”
“It has to be Halloween. Kane’s holding a party at the club for her, but she needs to disappear before that party finishes.”
The waitress brought their plates over and lowered the heaving platters on the table. “More coffee, boys?”
Falcon nodded, and she refilled his cup, but Ryker put his hand over his. He was jittery enough, he didn’t need the added caffeine to make him more wired.
“Will you be wanting anything else?” the waitress hovered above them and when Ryker shook his head, she pulled out the check and placed it on the table. “In your own time, then.”
When she was out of earshot, Falcon leaned across the table. “It’d make more sense if you went with her. You’ve risked enough already, and Kane has you marked. It’s all gonna lead back to you.”
Ryker stuck his fork in his pancakes and twisted it, tearing off a piece that was three cakes thick. He raised it to his mouth. “I’m seeing this through. Kane owes me twenty-five fucking years. You forget I grew up in this damn shit hole? I’ll be d
amned if I am gonna look over my shoulder for the rest of my life.”
“We both did, Ryker. I want this as much as you. Fuck, we’re so close, I don’t want to blow this.”
Ryker shoved the large pieces of pancake in his mouth and chewed. It tasted like sawdust, and he could barely swallow it.
“You and Cassidy are the only true family I have.” Falcon wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve.
It was true. Ryker’s dad left them with Falcon’s mom when he went out on a job. Ryker never knew his own mother, and their dad never even referred to her by name. But Falcon’s mom had been there for him and Cassidy when they were little, and after she was mowed down in the street, Ryker’s dad repaid her by watching over Falcon, too.
Brothers. In every sense of the word—gang brothers, and even though they had different blood in their veins, they had been brought up like real brothers, too.
Chapter 8
Liam reached for his buzzing phone and squinted at the number flashing on the screen. As soon as he saw it, he was wide awake, and he answered the call. “One minute.” Then muted it and swung his legs out of bed.
Next to him, Marlena was still sound asleep. Her long ebony hair splayed out across her back, brushing the top of her round shapely ass. He stumbled from the bed and searched amongst the mess in her bedroom for his jeans. Marlena may have been pretty skilled between the sheets, but any talents she had stopped there. Her housekeeping skills were a fucking mess, and in all honesty, even when she wasn’t high, she was as ditzy as they came.
Finding his pants hanging from the door knob, he pulled them on and then did a sweep of the room for his shirt and shoes. He put those on as he made his way through her filthy apartment. Outside, he closed the door behind him and squinted at the bright, late October morning that greeted him. Unfortunately, the cheerfulness of the day just sent a throb through his temples, reminding him he may have overdone the shots last night.
He unmuted his phone. “Ok, Falcon, what’s up?”
“Ryker wants Cassidy out now. Kane has claimed her.”
“Fuck. Okay, when?”
“Friday. I’m not sure how we’re gonna do this yet, but I’ll get her to you.”
“She know anything?”
“No.”
“OK. We’ll use the bookshop, and take things from there. What about Ryker?”
“He’s going for the jackpot. This is it.”
“Whoa! Seriously?”
“It’s what we’ve been waiting for, man.”
Liam’s breath caught in his throat. He wondered if he ever thought this would happen. When Ryker and Falcon helped get him out of the Devils six years ago, he never thought he’d make it outside for four months, let alone four years. It had taken him a long time, but he’d eventually found a way to pay his friends back.
“I’ll speak to my people and set things up to move you all.”
Falcon’s breathing turned heavy on the other end of the phone. “Fuck, I hope this works.”
“We’ll make it. I haven’t worked this long to see this fail now. You have a time frame for after Cassidy is out?”
“Not yet. But Ryker reckons he is closing this down. I’m thinking a couple of days, tops. But once Cassidy vanishes, we have no idea how Kane will react. He doesn’t like his people going off the grid as it is, and… well, he has plans for her. He’s gonna be fucking motivated to find her.”
From Marlena’s, Liam went back to his house and stripped off his clothes. Once under the shower, he made a mental list of what he needed to do. He was one hundred percent sure Kane didn’t know he was back in the area. Around three months after he left the Devils, a couple of Kane’s goons had gotten pretty close to tracking him down, but his fake death put paid to that.
It helped that no one in Chicago knew what he looked like. He’d always had this chameleon-like ability to blend in with his surroundings and go unnoticed. In fact, before he left the Bowker Street Devils, he doubted only a few people could give any sort of description of him and three of those were the guys he was working with now—Ryker, Falcon… and perhaps Cassidy.
He switched off the hot water and padded to the sink. While he brushed his teeth, he regarded his reflection. He hardly recognized himself these days. The dark hair really changed up his skin tone, and although it was a hassle to keep up with the roots, it looked convincingly natural, as his eyebrows had always been way darker. His face shape had changed, too, over the years. Partially because of the fitness regime he was fanatical about, and partly because of some involuntary correction work—a result of a broken nose he’d suffered when he was sleeping rough not long after he shook off the gang. He’d lost the piercings he’d sported when he was in the Devils. They didn’t fit with the priestly persona, but one day, he might get them redone. The ink helped, too. When he left the gang, he’d only had the one piece, and that was now hidden under the black band around his wrist.
Liam pushed the wet flop of hair back from his face and leaned in closer. After a moment, he pulled out a photograph from the bathroom cabinet, and held it up next to his face. He looked from his own reflection to the picture of Kane Munch. Comparing his cheek bones and his chin, he turned his head to the side and imagined Kane’s profile. With a sigh of relief, he thrust the picture back inside the cabinet, happy that he couldn’t detect any likeness.
There was only ever one other person that knew Kane was his father, and his mother had been dead for years. He doubted Kane even remembered her. One drunken, debauched night, a little over twenty four years ago, the fucker had taken his mother, screwed her brains out, and then cast her aside like a piece of shit. Even though in the following months she had been passed around several of Kane’s lieutenants, there had never been a doubt in his mother’s mind. She’d known Liam was Kane’s son, and it was a secret she made him promise to keep.
After he left the Devils, taking a paternity test was one of the first things he’d done. It was one of those ones you sent off in the mail, and one of the guys responsible for his freedom had found some of Kane’s DNA on police file.
After the results came back, he’d burned them, watching the paper curl, turn black, and crumble to dust. No one else ever needed to know his secret, least of all Kane Munch, but it had made him more determined than ever, to bring down the Bowker Street Devils, ending their reign of terror once and for all.
“You have to postpone this. We can’t bring in back up and ensure your men’s safety with so little notice.” Rand stood looking out of the high-rise across the city. He looked uncomfortable in the starched shirt and tie that was choking him.
“I told you, it has to be Friday. This was never gonna happen under test conditions, you know that, man. Ryker is not going to throw his sister under a fucking bus just so you can get all your ducks in a row—and frankly, neither am I. We pull her Friday, I’ll take care of her, just get us some fucking backup in case we have to go in and get Ryker and Falcon.”
“You sure they are on our side?”
“We’ve been through this. You’ve seen the stuff they have brought us over this last year. The dossier is six inches thick. We have enough to shut down the money laundering and the trafficking. We have evidence to solve six cold murder cases—that information is iron clad…”
“But we don’t have Kane.”
“And you don’t think some of those motherfuckers will sing as soon as they see the noose around their necks? If the gang is decimated, a dozen guys will turn Judas. Hell, they will be falling over each other to give evidence.”
Rand turned back to face Liam. “I wish I had your confidence. Ok. My resources are your resources, but I don’t want any spillage into our other operations. After whatever the fuck went down the other day, I almost lost our man with Creed.”
“I take it his reported death in the papers means we no longer have anyone in there?”
“No. He’s lucky to be alive after that truck hit him, but we couldn’t risk him going back after that.” Ra
nd narrowed his eyes. “That’s sixteen months work down the drain. I’m gonna have to try to get another man in there, but that could be another year from now.”
“What’s our predicted tally on the Devils?”
“I reckon we have enough evidence to put fifty-one of them away. It’s a good haul, but I don’t know if we have enough to nail Kane.”
“Maybe we won’t have to, fifty-one is a big number. Kane is gonna be vulnerable, the Creed Brothers might seize their chance on a takeover, and perhaps we won’t have to worry about him anymore. And if not, a trial isn’t the only way to wipe that scum off the streets.”
Rand shook his head. “You keep the fuck out of this. I invested a lot in your training, I will not lose you in a fucking duel.”
Liam pointed to his collar. “I’m a peaceful man, now.”
“Bullshit. You’re a vicious prick with a giant chip on your shoulder, and a vendetta pumping through your veins.”
Chapter 9
Friday, October 31st
Cassidy’s stomach had been churning since the early hours of the morning. This was her eighteenth birthday, and she couldn’t have dreaded it more. She pulled the over-sized jacket around her and looked down at the courtyard beneath her. To get from her room to the outside world she had to pass through it, and as usual, Kane was down there. It was like he was holding court or something. The motel courtyard was the place where other gang members reported to him, where Munch disciplined his flock— sometimes praised them… sometimes executed them.
Off to the right, he had a throne-like area set up; raised two feet off the ground, it allowed him to lord over his minions even more. Kane was already tall and intimidating. A man in his late forties, she guessed. Though to be honest, he didn’t look it. If he wasn’t so cruel, one might have called him handsome, and perhaps to the women on the street, he looked that way. He was definitely charismatic. The Devils followed him with utmost loyalty, just as they had followed his father and brother before him.
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