by Ruby Vincent
“What I knew is you wanted me for me. You protected me. You kept me close. You loved me.” She laughed harshly. “I knew that until tonight. Shocked and naïve is damn right. I asked you that day if I was the woman on your arm, or a card in your deck. Tonight you finally gave me my answer.”
“He was never going to take you! What part of that don’t you understand? You’re mine. That’s not going to change.”
“It is, Sinjin.”
“Saint!”
“Sinjin!”
She bent over her bag and shoved in the clothes that had fallen out. “I’m leaving. The kids are safe. Angelo’s running scared. I’ve done what I needed to do, Sinjin. I won’t be your pawn in a war between you and Kieran. If my place isn’t by your, Brutal’s. Mercer’s, and Cash’s side as your equal, then it isn’t here.”
“You’re not leaving.” I threw bag again.
A hard force tackled me. Adeline and I tumbled into her armchair, tipping it backward. My head cracked the wall. Adeline smacking and shaking me kept pinned.
“What are you going to do, Saint?” she cried. “Put me back in the cage? Threaten to kill my family? Are we back to this now? Because that’s what it will take!”
“Why?!” That was all I could shout. All I could think. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because you don’t love me!”
The confession was a death knell that stopped us both. We tangled there, chest heaving, battle raging on in our eyes.
“You don’t love me, Sinjin,” she whispered. “You don’t let me in or show me how you feel. Mercer won’t lift his veil of mystery for a second to reveal something real. Brutal still holds back with me. And Cash doesn’t even want me here. I’m falling in love with men who don’t love me.”
“Stop.”
“You don’t love me, Saint.”
The torrent was building. Swelling. Battering the shields. “Stop saying that.”
“Then, you say it.” Her tear dripped down my cheek. “Tell me you love me, and I’ll stay. Tell me I’ll never be a choice between you and Kieran again.”
“Adeline—”
“Say it.”
“Adeline.” I took her face in my hands, and she was gone.
She climbed off and walked away.
The torrent exploded.
I picked her up, shoved her against the wall, and crashed my mouth on hers. Adeline shoved me off, screaming. I flew at her again.
We stripped each other violently. Ripping and tearing the clothes off our bodies. We fell on the bed—mouths and hips connected.
I didn’t know if I loved. I shut myself off to that emotion and all others when the last person left who loved me died as the price.
Adeline kept digging. She tore and searched and demanded something inside of me I wasn’t sure was there.
She lay beneath me. Her breaths were soft and slow in sleep, barely disturbing the pillow. You wouldn’t believe this woman was the unrelenting force of destruction against everything I thought I knew.
This I do know, I thought. She’s not leaving.
Adeline Redgrave is mine.
I WOKE ALONE THE NEXT morning.
I didn’t have to seek Sinjin. I felt him in my body’s kinks and the soreness in my middle. I smelled on my skin. I sensed him somewhere in the house, waiting for our final showdown.
My suitcase as rescued off the floor and set my bed. I continued my silent, solitary packing.
It was too to ask me to live in a house of men who didn’t want me. Who wanted me for sex, food, and or as their protégé in their rise to the criminal top.
I couldn’t do it. Not like this.
It was no use of they didn’t love me too.
“Adeline.”
Sinjin stood in my doorway, carrying two mugs.
“Is that for me?” I asked softly.
“Yes.”
The barest smile tugged at my lips. “You fetched.”
“For you.” Sinjin held out the tea. The very act looked like it hurt him. Knocked him off balance. “I’ll do more things for you. I’ll bend. I’ll open. I’ll break. If you stay.”
“It’s simple, Saint.” I cupped his outstretched hand, feeling the warmth spread through him to me. “I’ll stay for as long as you want me, if you love me.”
“I... want to,” he got out. “Show me how.”
“I can’t.” My last shred of hope crumbled to dust, taking my tears with it. “If you have to want, it means you don’t.”
“Adeline—”
“Go, Saint. Please.”
He went.
His footfalls thundered on the stairs. The front door slammed shut. I was alone.
I finished packing and began taking my things to the car. My car. I’d have to return it, but I could ask Gianna to do that in a few days when I stopped bawling enough to speak.
I ran my hands over the hood of the white Chevrolet Camaro, thinking of the boys.
Mercer will crack some joke and disappear into his room when he finds out I’m gone. Cash will show no reaction of what he feels either way. Brutal was hard to guess. Part of me thought he’d track me down and put where I belonged like he done so many times. Another part of me hoped he would.
Why does it feel like I’m going through four break-ups instead of one?
I closed my eyes, summoning the power to get in the car and leave.
Because I fell harder than they did, or possibly ever will. You can’t stay, Adeline. Get in the car.
I reached for the door handle.
A creak sounded, turning me toward the gate, and the man pushing it open.
“Hello?” I called. “This isn’t a fire station. People live here.”
He didn’t stop what he was doing.
“Hey,” I said louder. “This is private property.”
He finally turned to me, and pulled out his gun.
Screaming, I dove on the gravel. Shattered glass showered me from the blown-out window.
I ran.
I bolted for station and threw myself inside as cars squealed into our lot.
They found us. The Kings had found us, and I was alone.
Fumbling for my phone, I dialed the first number I could think of.
Bang! Bang!
“Hello?”
“They’re here!” I knocked over the knife block ripping one out. “The Kings are breaking into the station!”
Bang! Bang!
“Come—”
The phone was torn from my hand. I spun—knife out, and Corbin brought the club down on my arm. It skittered across the floor.
The ruined man was more terrifying than the weapon he readied for another strike. Blood stains soaked his shredded clothes. Bruises covered his body. Blackened his eye. Swelled his lip.
“I told you to take the deal,” he said. “Now it’s our turn, bitch.”
He swung, hitting me across the temple. Pain exploded in my head.
Then everything went black.
“...DID WELL.”
“Thank you...”
My eyes fluttered open. Blurred, spinning figures surrounded me.
“...end this pup.”
I tried to focus and a burst of pain scattered my thoughts. My skull pounded.
What happened? I went to put my things in the car and...
“Ah. Finally. Hello, Adeline.” One figure in particular stopped spinning. My world cleared on Angelo Castillo. “Nice to have you with us.”
“What... did you do?” I rasped.
“Nothing yet.”
Blinking, I took in the taking up my living room. One. Five. Eight. Thirteen Kings standing at attention behind Angelo and Corbin. A bandage encircled Angelo’s left arm—the single evidence of our ill-fated game of blackjack the night before. He crossed his hands in front of me, finger tapping on his gun barrel.
I lifted my arm, and found I couldn’t. My hands were bound to the stool.
“We can’t get started until your boyfriends arrive,” Angelo said. “D
on’t worry, I already called. They’ll be here soon.”
“How?”
“This is how.” Corbin got in my face, holding his hand up between us. A foul stench washed over me, wrinkling my nose. Days locked in a basement had not been kind to him.
But it was nothing compare to weeks locked in a room while your rapists were trotted through the door.
“Broke my thumb.” The swollen, purple appendage backed him up. “It was simple from there to get out. Which I did last night. While you were having your lover’s spat, I figured out where I was and called Angelo. Those medieval torture device make nice décor, but there’s a reason we’ve moved on.”
I scoffed. “Well done. You slipped the trap and found a way back to Daddy. I wonder if that’ll earn you enough forgiveness for creating this mess in the first place.”
He slapped me across the face.
“I didn’t start this! You did,” he hissed. “You came into my club. Stole from me. Killed my men. Attacked our business. You wanted a war, you got one.” Corbin twisted to Angelo. “Boss, please.”
Angelo relaxed in Mercer’s favorite chair. “Go on,” he said, waving a hand.
That was all the warning I got. The punch knocked me to the side. The chair tipped and I crashed to the floor. The unbroken fall jarred my bones. I crumpled there dazed and shaking as the third blow landed.
Corbin tore my hair. He bloodied my nose, and split my lip. One working hand did not slow him down.
“Wait till your boyfriends get here.” Corbin hauled me up only to push me over again. My head struck in the same place bleeding spot. I cried out. “They’re going to watch me hold you down and fuck your worthless cunt,” he poured in my ear. “I will get untold pleasure from carving that blue-haired son of a bitch to pieces in front of me. I’ll start with the fingers and end with his dick.”
Corbin lifted me, setting me upright. “I will enjoy this so much, I’ll have to fuck you again.” He squeezed my face till my lips puckered. My muffled scream leaked out as he kissed me. “How about a taste?”
“No!”
Corbin made to rip my shirt. I snapped forward and headbutted his nose.
“Argh!” He stumbled, but came roaring back. My shirt fell in pieces around my wrists. “I might sell you to Bryan Acker permanently.” Corbin cupped my breast, squeezing and tweaking my nipples painfully. The men hooted and laughed. “Make back the money you cost me in full.”
“Get off!” I trashed, rocking the chair. I’d risk cracking my head to get away from him.
Saint! Cash! Mercer! Brutal! Where are you?!
“After me and the boys have had our fun with you, of course.” Corbin sucked my nipple into his mouth. He moaned loudly as tossed his head, tongue wagging and lapping me up.
Revulsion lived under my skin. I ached to flay it off and burn it at the feet of Corbin’s stake.
“You will regret this,” I hissed. “I will kill you, you filthy, low life beast. Make you feel every bit of pain you caused.”
“That’s enough,” Angelo spoke up.
“I’d like to see that,” Corbin said, swinging my breasts by the nipples. “But I wonder how that’s going to happen without your gang backing you up.”
“I said that’s enough.”
The Merchants are dead, Serenity. And we’ll start by shooting their leaders as they rush through—”
Angelo put his gun to Corbin’s temple and fired. The man dropped dead at my feet.
I stared at his body in disbelief.
“You were right,” Angelo said calmy. “Bringing us here wasn’t enough to earn my forgiveness. I let him have his revenge. Reclaim his dignity. But the greedy fuck has caused me trouble for the last time.”
“What do you want?” I asked, fixed on the gun.
“You know what I want. You knew it last night.”
Shouts sounded from outside. The front door banging into the wall reverberated up the high ceilings.
“No matter how this ends, Adeline,” he said. “You’re coming with me.”
“Angelo!” Saint roared.
“Ah! Guns down!” Angelo spun me around. He hooked me around the neck, and dug the barrel into my aching tempting. “Now. Or I blow her brains out.”
My Merchants blew in like the avenging angels Saint swore they weren’t. Breathing hard, hatred etched in their face, and guns held steady. They approached Angelo without fear.
“What did you do to her?” Saint demanded even as Angelo’s men circled them.
“This was Corbin’s doing.” Angelo gestured to my nakedness. “I stopped him before he could do but worse. But I won’t stop them”—I flew into waiting arms—“if you don’t get on your knees!”
Angelo’s men tore at me. Three of them ripped me free of my bindings and pinned me to the floor. My pants were shoved down my ankles.
“No!”
“Stop!” all four of them bellowed.
“On your knees!”
Sinjin found my eyes through the crush of chaos. He looked at me, only at me, as he sank to his knees.
Mercer, Brutal, and Cash followed one by one.
“Drop the guns.”
They clattered to the floor.
“Well, well, well,” Angelo began. “What are we going to do about this, boys?”
You could hear the kitchen clock tick its seconds; it was so quiet in the room.
“I’m have a dilemma because I desperately want to kill you. You disrupted my business and cost be millions in lost clients. If you were any body else, you’d be skipping to hell alongside Corbin right now. But there’s my problem,” he said. “You’re not just anybody else.”
Angelo strolled the length of the kitchen, relaxed and shooting the shit. “Now even thirty years old, and you four built a network of crime I can’t untangle. I had people searching for weeks and couldn’t find you or your men. I couldn’t find your money. Your territory. Or your enemies. You’re ghosts,” he said.
“Ghosts who struck the first damaging blow to the Kings in forty years, and I can’t help but think the Kings will last another forty with as a part of our ranks.” He pointed the gun at Sinjin. “I made the same offer to your leader last night, but now I’m asking again... with sweet Adeline’s virtue on the line. Accept my generous offer, or watch her be violated in the possible way.”
Groping fingers probed my middle.
“Stop!”
“Get your fucking hands off her,” Sinjin shouted. “We’ll do it! I accept. I’ll join the Kings.”
Sinjin, what are you saying?
“Will you?” Angelo asked. “What happened to the pretty speech you have last night about ruling in blood, and you’d give up your gang when I stepped over your corpse and took it. Wasn’t there also something about never kneeling before me?”
I watched Sinjin’s jaw ticced from across the room. His rage was living electricity charging the air. But he didn’t fight back.
He didn’t get up.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Sinjin said. “I apologize. Let her go, and I’ll whatever you ask.”
“So will I,” said my perfect Brutal.
“Me too,” said Mercer.
“We’ll be Kings,” Cash said. “I’ve got twenty suggestion off the bat for your tightening up the weak-ass security and dealing with your traitorous men. Let her go.”
“Hmm. I’m not convinced,” Angelo said. “I’ll need to hear that apology again. Add a ‘boss’ this time.”
“I’m sorry, boss,” Sinjin said.
“One more time. All together.”
“I’m sorry, boss,” they chorused.
My hatred licked at my soul. The vile scum was loving this—holding my violent rape over the heads of the men. And my Sinjin, who swore he’d never kneel, beg, or bow, did all three the women he didn’t know how to love.
Stupid, fucking fool.
I wasn’t sure if I meant him or me. It fit us both.
He told me he loved me in all the ways he knew how
, and now that I finally hear it, it’s too late.
And Brutal who I said wouldn’t let me in. It wasn’t into his world that I needed entrance. He wasn’t opening the door because he was coming out of it. Talking to me. Comforting me. Laughing with me.
Mercer holding me on the kitchen floor as I cried. Cash promising avenge the wrongs done to me.
It was I who needed to learn what love was.
“Thank you, gentlemen. I believe you’re sincere,” Angelo said. “But on further reflection, I don’t see how I can trust a bunch of sneaking bandits who scuttling around my city like rats.”
Angelo leveled the gun between Sinjin’s eyes.
“Kill them.”
“No!” I screamed.
Crash!
The window blew out. Glass rained down in glittering slow motion, drawing every eye but mine, pinned as I was.
I saw Angelo fall. Witnessed he knees crumpled. Face contort with pain. And his gun go flying.
The Kings spun on the ruined window, shooting out into the sky, and the Merchants seized their chance.
Mercer, Brutal, Cash, and Sinjin riddled the men on top of me with bullets. They collapsed over my body. Dead.
“Adeline, take cover!”
I didn’t need to be told twice. A shootout erupted in the converted fire station of North Quay.
Wriggled out from under the bodies, yanking my clothes up.
Cash flipped the table over. The boys ducked behind for cover as I dove behind the couch.
A blanket draped over the side, tickling my hair. I pulled it tight over my exposed breasts.
The air was choked with gun powder. I couldn’t hear my heart pound in my ears for the shots going off in an endless chorus.
“How do we get out of this?” I breathed. I stuck my head around the couch.
Angelo crawled across the floor, pulling his forehead with his good arm. He reached the stairs and tumbled down, disappearing out of sight.
“I don’t fucking think so.”
Keeping low, I army crawled in quick pursuit.
“Redgrave,” Cash shouted. “What are you doing?”
“Taking cover!”
A bullet struck the floor in front of me. Picking up speed, I reached the stairs and pitched down, sliding none-too-gently to a frantic Angelo yanking at the knob.
