by Ruby Vincent
“Ah!” I pounced on him, securing him in a chokehold. He had no chance to escape me. I kicked open the basement door and threw him inside. His shouted echoed up the staircase as he hit each one on the way down.
Straightening, I dusted myself off and fixed the blanket properly around me. I skipped downstairs, kicking the door shut behind me.
“Oh, Angelo,” I called. “Where did you run off to?”
I hit the bottom step in time to see him snatch a gun off the wall. He twisted and pulled the trigger.
Click.
Click. Click.
“Those aren’t loaded, dumbass.”
He kept frantically clicking the trigger. I put this lapse in common sense down to the bullet wound seeping blood from his shoulder.
“I’m glad we finally have this chance to talk.” I took the gun away and flung it across the room. Hopping on the rack, I smiled at the hapless banger struggling to keep himself upright against the cage.
“Where to start?” I sang. “Oh, yes. What is it you think you know about me, Angelo?”
Sweat dotted his forehead and upper lip. His face was bleached of color, which I put down to the bullet and me—thank you very much.
“I know exactly who you are, Adeline Redgrave.” He spat on the floor. “How could I fucking not? But I’m guessing your boyfriends up there don’t have a clue?”
I couldn’t hold it in any more. I laughed—full-blown belly laughs that made me cry. “Not a one,” I said. “Absolutely no idea. I mean, I didn’t plan to be in the bathroom when they killed Spencer Raiden, but there I am taking care of a drunk chick, and they just walk right through the door. It was like Christmas.”
I climbed off the rack. Each step closer to drove him harder into the cage. “I was interested in the Merchants from the start. I needed a gang to infiltrate, and they were new and untested. I thought I’d hang around some unsavory types like Raiden Spencer and let them point me in the right direction. That worked out so much better than I thought.”
“Stay back,” Angelo cried as I crouched next to him. “Back!”
“Let me tell you something—I don’t know if you know this—but you men are scarily easy to manipulate. Those chiseled hunks of men up there didn’t think for a second that I haven’t been exactly where I wanted to be all this time.”
I pulled a face. “Okay, I did almost lose my nerve when the cage got involved.” I flapped a hand at it. “Tried to kill Sinjin. But once we got over that little tiff, it’s been smooth sailing.”
“Why are you doing this?” he cried.
“Isn’t that obvious?” I laughed. “I’m after Kieran, you stupid old fool. I am going to find that ledger, and this city will live under my manicured thumb. It’s the way it should be. I am my father’s daughter after all.”
I bopped his nose, “Speaking of Kieran, would be a good time to tell me everything you know about him.”
“I don’t know anything,” he said quickly.
I tsked. “Now, don’t lie to me, Angelo. I don’t like being lied to. One more time, tell me who he is.”
“I don’t know!”
Getting to my feet, I grabbed the bars of the cage and dug my boot into his shoulder. His screams bounced off the soundproof walls.
“Who is he?!”
“I d-don’t know! I swear, I don’t know!”
I stomped him again. Then again. Then twice more for the insult attempting to win me in a game, and watching while that Corbin trash assaulted me. Then I did it again.
Angelo whimpered on the floor, tears soaking his cheeks.
“It doesn’t stop here, Angelo.” I moved off, circling the room. “To borrow phrase from my love, I will be the law in this town. For your crimes against children, the Kings will be rubbed out like smudges from the earth.”
Back to the wall, I slipped a knife off the ring.
“Once I have the ledgers, every other gang from the Blood Brothers to the Rolling Ninety-Nines will fall in line. Or they’ll die.”
I bent before him again. “I suspect my boys, the Merchants, will have something to say about that. I didn’t give a shit at the start, but damned, if they haven’t grown on me. I mean, Sinjin and Brutal got me so twisted up, I couldn’t hold my sweet-little-cook routine when their pants came down.”
I sighed. “I’m truly falling for them, which is unfortunate because it doesn’t my plans one iota. That’s going to be one hell of a fight, but future me will deal with me.”
“Listen,” he rasped. “You don’t have to kill me. Kings have more money and money than the Merchants ever will. That child sex stuff was Corbin, not me. You and I can work together.”
“Is that what you were hoping we’d do when you tried to win me off Saint? I don’t appreciate being treated like an object, anymore than I appreciate being called a bitch.”
“That wasn’t what you think. I was trying to help you. Get you away from that—”
“Shh,” I crooned. “It’s okay. Enough of that begging, now. It’s making me see as even more pathetic than I already do.”
His face twisted. “It’s not me who’s pathetic. Look at what where you’ve fallen. Spreading your legs for any blue-haired thug if it gets you back on top. You’re pitiful!” he spat “And your time is done. You’ll never find Kieran.”
I waited for him to end silly speech. “Saint asked me a little while ago what my style of killing was. Stabbing, shooting, beating. It wasn’t until then that I really thought about it,” I mused. “I don’t have a style per se. I think what I really prefer is—”
My hand flashed out behind my back, sinking the knife in his neck.
“—when they never see it coming.”
I wiped the knife on the dying man’s pants, and sat back to wait.
“Adeline?!”
“Finally,” I muttered. “You better not have any diseases,” I hissed at Angelo’s body.
I pressed the knife against my side, and sliced.
“Ah!” That scream was not fake.
“Adeline.” Sinjin burst into the room, trailed by Brutal, Mercer, and Cash.
I burst into tears. “I tried to hide down here, but Angelo was waiting. He a-attacked me. I had to kill him, Sinjin.”
“It’s okay,” he soothed. Sinjin gathered me in his arms. “Everything’s going to be okay. I love you, Adeline. I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”
“It’s okay.” I turned my sobs up to maximum, hiding my smile in his collar. “You’re here now.”
“This will never happen again,” Mercer said. “We’ll protect you.”
I bit my lips in case a sob came out as a laugh.
Oh, boys. I know you will.
If you’d like to read the next book in the series, Cash, click here.
Cash
They ripped me from my safe, perfect world and bound me in chains.
Now it's Cash's turn. The cold, hard, analytical leader has a problem he needs me to solve, and he's not asking.
I'm driven deep into the world of cons and corruption. I can't tell if anything around me is real. Least of all the smiling, pleasant people.
Someone is playing us for a fool, and it might be me.
The time will come when I have to make a choice: Right or wrong?
Love or money?
Me or Cash?
All I know is, one way or another, the war between us will end.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruby Vincent is a published author with many novels under her belt but now she's taking a fun foray into contemporary romance. She loves saucy heroines, bold alpha males, and weaving a tale where both get their happy ever after.
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