by Sarah Bailey
“Stop it,” she yelled at him through her laughter.
“Um, may I ask what’s going on?” I said as I wrapped an arm around her.
Rory walked in shaking his head and rolling his eyes.
“He’s trying to get me back for tickling him, threatened to put me over his knee and everything.”
I raised an eyebrow at Xav who’d stopped next to us and was giving Ash a look of utter disapproval for going to me to protect her.
“What? She needs to stop being such a bad girl.”
I snorted.
“You like the fact Ash is a bad girl.”
He grinned and shrugged.
“Only when she’s being bad in the bedroom… like last night.”
Ash blushed heavily before burying her face against my chest. She’d been a naughty girl for us last night. Letting us take her whatever way we wished.
“He was winding me up about my dad,” she whispered. “He deserved it.”
“Don’t tell me you were calling Viktor, Daddy V yet again.”
Xav’s grin widened.
“She loves it really.”
I shoved him away from us and he thankfully retreated towards Eric.
“He’s gone, happy now, sweetheart?”
She nodded against my chest, wrapping her arms around my neck. I stroked her hair before she raised her head, blue eyes twinkling. Next thing I knew, she’d kissed me, her tongue parting my lips and delving inside my mouth. What followed was probably far more PDA than the boys needed to see this morning, but Ash didn’t seem to give a shit.
When she pulled away, her smile made it all worthwhile. The way her eyes lit up and her body relaxed into me showed me how much she needed our affection right now. To remind her who she belonged to. Who she had to rely on.
The only thing which didn’t make it worthwhile was the uncomfortable stirring it gave me. I swear to god I had no control when it came to her pressed against me.
“Are we all getting kissed like that this morning or is Quinn getting a special treat?” Xav asked, leaning against the counter as he helped Eric with breakfast.
He was pouting which made me smirk. Ash squeezed out from between me and the counter and skipped over to him. She stood there with her hands on her hips.
“Jealous?”
“Very.”
He grabbed her and she let him kiss her with as much passion as she’d kissed me. His hands were all over her, squeezing her behind and making her wriggle against him. When he let her go she glanced at Eric. He leant down and kissed her forehead.
“After I’ve finished this, beautiful.”
She smiled and took the mugs from Xav who’d made tea and coffee, placing them at our respective places on the counter. She proceeded to set out knives and forks for us all and stacking a load of plates next to Eric. Then she slipped into a stool next to Rory, glancing up at him with a shy smile. He put a hand on her knee, squeezing it but didn’t move to do anything further. She simply rested her head on his shoulder, running her fingers down his arm and fiddling with his splint.
“Only another week until this should come off.”
“Thank fuck,” he muttered. “It’s itchy as hell.”
“Aww, Ror. I know, but you’ll be better and then we can…”
His eyes darkened and his mouth curled up at the side.
“We can what, little star?”
She bit her lip.
“You can chase me again,” she whispered, but I still heard her.
Is that what they got up to when he took her down to Kent?
Rory looked like he was vibrating with need at her words. He turned to her fully, taking her chin between the fingers of his uninjured hand.
“You want me to hunt you down and ravage you?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, please.”
“Little star,” he growled.
Then he was on her, their kiss messy and uncoordinated, but neither of them seemed to care as they practically tried to climb into each other. The display made it worse for me. I glanced down at my cock which strained hard against my zipper, internally cursing the fact I found anything and everything about Ash hot as fuck.
“Um… okay… wow, what the fuck?” Xav hissed at Eric, indicating them with his head.
Eric glanced at them and his eyebrows shot up.
“I thought you found them cute as fuck.”
“This is not cute… it’s like two rabbits going at it with each other.”
Eric snorted and turned back to the stove, but not before glancing down at his crotch.
“Yeah, okay, try telling that to your dick.”
“Hey!”
“I’m not the one with a hardon over Ash and Rory sucking face.”
Xav turned away, for once in his life looking a little embarrassed. And I was glad I was sitting down so no one could see how aroused I was by it.
“Are you done yet or what?” he muttered. “I’m fucking starving.”
“Calm down, I’m just going to plate up.”
Xav stalked away and sat next to me, glancing at Ash and Rory who’d stopped kissing and were instead staring into each other’s eyes.
“Did I miss the memo about it being a free for all with Ash this morning or something?”
“Isn’t it a free for all with Ash every day?”
Xav stared at me.
“Did you just make a joke?”
I shrugged and sipped my coffee, not bothering to give him a response. Thankfully, Eric dumped a plate in front of Xav then and he dug in, mumbling his thanks. Eric rolled his eyes before dishing up everyone else their portions and coming to sit down next to Ash with his own. She leant over to him, her smile wide and he required no further encouragement. His hands dug in her hair as their lips met. Xav was too busy eating to make any smart remarks. A small mercy.
The rest of breakfast was a subdued affair with the mood turning a little sour. I think it all dawned on us this was it. No going back. As Xav liked to say: ride or die.
The four of us tidied up the kitchen whilst Eric went to get the supplies we needed. When he came back, we all stood in the dining room together, getting kitted up with earpieces and weapons. We’d packed everything else we needed in the car.
“Ready?” I asked, eying the rest of them.
“As I’ll ever be,” Eric replied shrugging.
Rory gave a sharp nod and Xav saluted.
“Ready,” Ash said.
I took a deep breath.
“Let’s get this show on the fucking road then.”
Chapter 30
The drive towards the city centre was quiet, as if we were all lost in our own thoughts. I sat up in front with Quinn whilst Ash was sandwiched between Xav and Eric. I tried not to think too hard about how it mirrored the way they’d been last night. Tried and failed. Ash had looked like a fucking queen. The way she’d taken all of us, begged for it, needed it. Fuck, it’d been everything. It’d taken a lot for me to come around to the idea of all of us having sex with her at the same time. I didn’t want my issues to surface even though they were my best friends and I’d never had major problems with physical contact with them. When it came to it, we’d all got lost in the moment and it’d been fucking incredible.
I shook myself internally. Now was not the time to be remembering the way she’d trembled as she came around my cock or the others.
Quinn parked up one street over from where Russo’s building was. A huge place which housed his offices for his investment business, but Ash told us it’s where he conducted his shady shit as well. The place had a basement, which is where she suspected he was keeping Isabella. That was our aim. The boys and me. To get Isabella out.
Quinn hadn’t been thrilled when Ash suggested she go after Russo alone. She’d insisted due to knowing her way around the building better than we did. We’d never been in here before. When we’d taken Ash, it’d been from Isabella and Frank’s place next
door in the block of flats he owned.
I think Ash also had something to prove. She’d kept telling us she wanted to be the one who destroyed Frank. Ultimately, we had to concede to her. She would not back down on it. And I knew our girl could do it. She had a ruthless streak with a thirst for vengeance when it came to Frank fucking Russo.
“Let’s go,” Quinn said, getting out of the car.
The rest of us piled out, gathering up our shit from the boot and locking up. We got out onto the main street and blended into the crowd before branching off down a side street and skirting our way around the building to the back entrance.
Xav checked his phone for the time as we all ducked behind the huge bins outside so we were out of sight. There were two people smoking out back. Ash had told us they were out there like clockwork at eleven in the morning every day to take a cigarette break.
She peered around before dashing out, keeping her steps silent. She shadowed the two men until they reached the backdoor. One of them used a handprint to open the door and they both disappeared inside. She ran forward, sticking her foot in the door before it closed. Then she waved us over. We all moved quickly, reaching the door as she pulled it open, looking left and right inside.
Ash stepped into the building with the four of us crowding in behind her. We followed her down the hallway until we reached a room with a security code. Ash bashed in the numbers and it unlocked. We all piled in one by one, with Ash checking the hallway again before closing the door. The room we’d entered was full of computer equipment. It was eerily dark with only flashing lights to illuminate the room.
“Would you look at that?” Xav said, striding forward with a grin.
“Don’t fucking dawdle,” Quinn grunted.
Xav glared at him before setting to work with the servers. We needed to cut all the security feeds and essentially throw everything into chaos within the building by shutting it down. Whilst we infiltrated Russo’s building, triggering a catalyst of events, the favours we pulled in meant we had Colm’s Irish gangsters causing issues for Russo’s supply lines and a few others creating noise. Attack him from several sides and drive his men to make mistakes so we could get lost in the chaos. That was the plan. Ash predicted he’d already be raging over his nephew’s death and us finding Nate. We’d got word earlier he was still in the ICU in a medically induced coma, but they’d be bringing him out of it in a few days.
“Bombs a-fucking-way.”
Xav had already plugged something into one of the computers. I assumed it was the virus he’d created to rip apart their firewall and hack their systems.
“How long?”
“We give it five minutes then we move.”
Quinn got his phone out and fired off a few messages. Eric stood with Ash, his hand on her back as she stared at the wall in front of them. Her face was void of all expression. If I could take away what she had to do next, I would in a heartbeat. Had Ash said no, she couldn’t go through with killing Russo, Quinn and I would’ve stepped in and taken it on. But my little star was nothing if not determined.
Quinn turned to her, his eyes dark and his expression grim.
“Little girl…”
“I can do this,” she whispered. “I can.”
Eric frowned at the way her voice trembled on the words. I stepped forward, taking her by the hand and pulling her closer. Cupping her cheek with my uninjured hand, I stared down into her crystal blue eyes.
“Don’t focus on the act itself. If you do that, you won’t go through with it. Focus on what it means to rid the world of him. Think about what you have to live for. Why you’re doing this. Hold on to those reasons tight, little star. Remember we love you and we’ll be waiting for you at the end of it all.”
She stared up at me for the longest moment.
“Thank you, Ror.”
I saw in her eyes what she couldn’t say. This might be the very last time we saw each other and she didn’t want to say goodbye. The others might not recognise it but I did. I knew Ash was scared she wouldn’t come out of this alive.
I pulled her into my arms and held her tight for a long minute. There weren’t many words left to say. We’d said them all last night.
“I love you, little star,” I whispered. “Forever.”
She pulled away, giving me a sad smile before she hugged the other three one by one. Quinn looked down at his watch as Ash was holding Xav.
“We need to move.”
Eric pulled open the door and checked the hallway. He signalled it was clear and the five of us piled out of the room. We went left and Ash went right, glancing back at us for a moment before pulling up her hood and making her way towards the central bank of lifts. We went towards where she’d told us the door to the basement was. You could access it via the lifts, but it was heavily guarded. We needed to capitalise on the element of surprise as much as we could.
“She’ll be okay, won’t she?” Eric murmured to Xav as we all walked.
“She has to be.”
She really did have to be. If she wasn’t, I don’t know what the fuck any of us would do. Living without Ash didn’t bear thinking about.
We’d just reached the door when all of our earpieces crackled into life.
“People are running around like headless chickens. No one’s noticed me,” Ash said.
“Good,” Quinn replied. “We need it to remain like that. We’re heading down now.”
He punched in the code she’d given us, but it didn’t work.
“Ash… are you sure this code is right?”
“It’s Isabella’s birthday. One, three, zero, eight.”
Quinn tried again.
“It’s not working.”
“Fuck, he must’ve changed it.”
“Get out the way,” Xav said to Quinn, nudging him with a shoulder.
Quinn put his hands up. Xav had a tiny screwdriver in his hand and was pulling apart the entire panel within minutes.
“Knew it wouldn’t be this easy,” he muttered.
Lucky for us we had him here, or we’d be screwed. Getting through the door would be impossible considering it looked like reinforced steel. Quinn kept checking his watch, getting more and more agitated by the minute.
“Would you stop looking at me like that?” Xav ground out.
“Like what?”
“Like I’m taking too fucking long. I know, all right? I got this.”
Quinn looked away, but I could see he wanted to hurry Xav along. Eric was keeping watch a few feet away from us to make sure no one came down this way.
“Xav,” he hissed. “I hate to agree with Quinn, but we’ve got two employees on their way.”
“Fuck.”
Quinn pulled a gun out, followed by Eric. Xav looked like he wanted to smash something whilst he worked with the wiring.
“Hold on… and… there.”
The door made a hissing sound as it clicked off the latch. Quinn ripped it open whilst Xav hurriedly stuffed the wires back in place and screwed the panel back on. Eric backed away from the corner and we all dashed into the stairwell together, pulling the door shut behind us.
“That was a fucking close one,” Eric said as we started down the steps.
“Are you guys okay?” came Ash’s voice.
“Yes, little girl. Xav got us through at the last minute. We’re going on radio silence in two minutes when we reach the bottom, okay?”
“Yes, I’m in the lift now. I don’t know if anyone saw me, but we’re all in now. No going back, right?”
“We’re in this together. We’ll let you know when we’ve got Isabella. Going dark now.”
We reached the bottom of the stairwell. Quinn looked between us, his eyes filled with determination.
“This will be bloody and fucked up.”
“No fucking doubt,” Xav said with a shrug.
“Time to gun some fuckers down.”
He turned and opened the stairwell
door.
Ash was right.
There was no fucking going back now.
Chapter 31
Quinn walked out the door first, his eyes darting around as the rest of us followed. The dank corridor was dark and had a musty smell as if no one had been down here in a long time. Ash had told us this part of the basement was where all the electrics and the boiler room was.
Quinn pointed at Rory, indicating he needed to stay in the middle. With his injury, we didn’t want him getting in the firing line. We’d given him knives and he could somewhat fire a gun if he held it in his left hand and squeezed the trigger with the right.
I didn’t much like having illegal guns in general, but when you lived the way we did, they were necessary. When this was done, we’d get rid of this shit and be done with the criminal underworld. Today was the culmination of years of fighting towards one goal. To kill Frank Russo. I didn’t care if it was Ash who’d do the deed and not one of us. He needed to be eradicated from the world so he couldn’t spread his corruption and greed any further.
We walked slowly down the corridor as Quinn turned on a torch, illuminating the way in the darkness. Eric and Rory went after Quinn and I brought up the rear. Not that we thought we had anything to fear from someone coming up behind us but you could never be too sure.
When we reached the end, Quinn peered out around the corner. He indicated it was clear and we moved on, each of us checking our surroundings. I hoisted my kitbag up on my shoulder and held my gun tight as we edged along further. There was a light at the end of this corridor with doors on our sides. Ash told us those were storage rooms so there’d be no need to check them.
We all flattened ourselves against the wall when we reached the end. Quinn had turned off the torch and looked around the corner. He held up two fingers and nodded his head towards the right. Two men up ahead. Eric indicated his gun with his head. Quinn gave us a nod. They were armed. We might have silencers on our guns, but they would still make a hell of a noise, regardless. The moment gunfire started, it would alert everyone else.
