by J Bree
I swallow and he shifts again to zip up without moving me from his lap. There’s nothing stopping me from getting up. Nothing at all except I can’t move away from him. I can’t, no matter how much I want to.
Aodhan knows.
He wraps his arms around me and holds me against his chest. It’s embarrassing now that Luca is here and the little bubble we had around us has burst but I close my eyes tightly like that will help.
“The Crow is going to bleed you out for this, Stag.”
I swallow against the lump in my throat but Aodhan doesn’t react at all, just runs his hand up and down my back like he can’t hear the threats. I should say something. I should speak up and stop the war that could break out here but—
I’m tired.
“Where is Lips and Ash? I’m surprised you found me first,” I mumble, and Luca huffs at me.
“They went to the Jackal’s private rooms, where I’m sure he wants to be found. I knew better. He wants the Wolf in his lair but you? He’d want to play with you here. Avery, if you need me to kill Aodhan, tell me now and I’ll get you out of here without any fallout. I won’t breathe a word to anyone about what I saw and we can say the Jackal took him out before I got here. Say the word.”
There’s a click and the collar finally comes off but Aodhan doesn’t move and I can’t pry myself away from him.
“If anyone needs to die for what happened in this room, it’s me. I was the one who forced him.”
My voice cracks and Aodhan’s arms tighten around me. “Take out the camera. She doesn’t fucking need that looming over her. Throw me your jacket, I need to get her cleaned up. Avery, just breathe.”
I didn’t realize I’d stopped but I tuck into him tighter and take a deep, gulping lungful of air. Luca grunts and frees Aodhan’s legs before he goes to do as he says, compliant now he has a little more information.
I’m sure he’s seen enough of what the Jackal enjoys to make his own assumptions about what happened.
Aodhan uses the shredded remains of my camisole to clean me up and then he helps me back into my scuffed up yoga pants, his hands gentle and always conscious of the bloodied mess my feet are in. There’s a steady stream of blood trickling out of the stab wound in his stomach but he doesn’t pay it any notice at all.
Makes me wonder if it’s not the first time he’s been stabbed.
Once Aodhan has me tucked into Luca’s jacket he helps me to my feet, holding my hips until he’s sure I can stand without my legs giving way. All of these little things he’s doing, all of the little things I have no idea how desperately I need until he’s giving them to me, I feel so unworthy of them all.
I didn’t give him a choice. Even before the Jackal forced our hand with the collar, I’d decided what was going to happen, not him.
I can’t look at him.
Aodhan steps in close to me so that he’s blocking Luca from my view, his back to the other man like his presence means nothing to him. I find it oddly comforting… like this moment between us was real and we did survive this together.
I’m so confused.
“What was the necklace he took from you?” Aodhan murmurs and I startle. I didn’t think he’d notice something like that.
“It’s… it was a gift from the Wolf. Something that means a lot to us both, it’s something very personal to our family.”
He swallows and nods before glancing up at Luca. “You trust him? Can I leave you with him and know you’re going to make it out to the Wolf? He offered to kill me for you so my guess is yes but I need to hear it from you.”
I glance over to Luca but he’s watching us both carefully. Shit. “Yes. I trust him.”
Aodhan nods and hands me the gun Luca just handed him. “Shoot first.”
And then he disappears, stalking out and into the lair like he’s going to find the Jackal and slit his throat for what he’s done and… God, I hope he does. I hope he gets that kill for us both.
I think I’m in shock.
Luca waits for a second and then motions towards the door until I follow him out. There are men waiting at the end of the hall dressed in suits so I’m certain they’re Atticus’ men.
I have to speak up before there’s a chance they can overhear it.
“Luca… I don’t want Atticus to know,” I whisper, and he nods.
“I’ll take it to the grave, Avery. Chin up, if they ask why you’re crying remember how badly your feet hurt.”
Chapter Seven
Aodhan
Watching Avery’s stiff back as she walks into her giant, empty fucking mausoleum of a house on heels that could kill a man is a special form of torture.
Not just because she’s the most fucking heartbreaking woman to look at that I’ve ever met but because I know just how broken she is inside right now and there’s nothing I can do to fix it.
Nothing except to break Luca’s jaw.
So I get right onto that.
The Butcher chuckles under his breath when my fist connects with the asshole’s jaw, his attention still on the door Avery just walked through so the blow lands fucking perfectly and sends him to him knees.
The Crow snaps at me, “Maybe you should wait until you’ve built a name for yourself before you start burning bridges, Stag.”
The Butcher scoffs from behind me but I keep my eyes on the asshole spitting blood out onto the driveway. “You speak to her like that again and I’ll fucking kill you. I don’t care who you belong to, I’ll take you the fuck out.”
The Crow snarls at me again, “You might have taken your seat on the Twelve during a war but that isn’t how this works.”
The Butcher steps right up until he’s chest-to-chest with the Crow again. “Nah, that’s exactly how this works. The Wolf has made it clear that anyone who fucks with Avery is dead. Keep your inductees in line before I do.”
Luca straightens up and rolls his shoulders back like he’s ready to fight back but his eyes are wary of the Butcher.
I get it.
The man is a fucking machine, bigger and more deadly than the three of us put together, but Luca still looks ready enough to jump in for his boss so I guess that’s something.
“I will deal with the new dealer in town. Keep your noses out of it and stick to what you’re good at. Contract killing and drinking yourself to death with errant bikers.” The Crow sneers and then he steps away from the Butcher, jerking his head at Luca until they both climb into the Rolls Royce and finally leave.
The Butcher watches as the taillights disappear down the private road, his arms crossed and a scowl on his face that I’m not sure a lot of men see and live to talk about it.
“You told Arbour you were with her the whole time.”
I nod slowly and he pegs me with a look. “So why the fuck is she shaking over seeing that asshole? What the fuck did he do to her? Because I don’t give a fuck who his boss is, that girl is family. She risked everything for the Wolf and that loyalty means a helluva lot more to me than some bullshit gangster club you’re in.”
It takes me a second to realize he’s talking about the Twelve. I guess it still feels a little fucking foreign that I won the Game and now I sit at that table.
I did it to get rid of the abusive men in my family, to keep food on the table, and to stop the women from being murdered.
I never gave a shit about power.
Not until I saw the girl who wields it like a weapon.
Now it’s all I can think about. All of the little power plays in the Bay, all of the players on the board, the business men and the senators… every last one of them is on my radar now because I need to be sure that she’s safe.
I glance at him and, though it might be signing my own death warrant, I shrug at him. “I was with her and he didn’t hurt her. Something happened in that room and he knows about it… she doesn’t want to be reminded.”
He frowns at me. “Why is she okay with you then? If you were with her then why aren’t you a reminder too?”
&nbs
p; I’m not going to talk about it with fucking anyone so I deflect. I lift my shirt until he can see the scar there, still red even though it’s healed up perfectly. “I guess the knife she pushed into my guts was enough to make me a safe place. Besides, she knows I’m not gonna say a fucking word about it. I’d rather fucking die and I’ve proved that to her. Luca though? He’s loyal to the Crow. He could start running his mouth and bringing up shit that might just break her.”
He stares at it for a second and nods, the corners of his mouth twitching up. “You’re lucky the Wolf taught her where to aim. She wouldn’t have hit anything important by accident.”
I smirk back. “I’ll remember to thank her when they all get home.”
He nods and the smile drops away from his face. “There are a lot of people on our list to die for what’s gone down, anyone who gets away is a risk.”
Is he… are we about to be working together? What the hell has my life become that the most infamous killer in the Bay is making plans with me about taking people out?
“I’m finding Diarmuid. I’m finding that fucking cunt and I’m killing him for what he did.”
He nods and looks back over to the door, but there are lights on upstairs so Avery has clearly gone up to bed.
“I have some people already looking into where he disappeared to, I put some feelers out.”
I nod. I have no doubt that the Butcher’s information network is much bigger than mine is but Diarmuid is still my problem to deal with. “I want the kill. I’m grateful that you’re helping track him down but his death should be mine.”
He shrugs at me. “As long as he’s gone, I don’t really give a fuck who does it. I was gonna offer to bring him to Queenie but she’s not into blood-soaked scenes. The kid might want it though.”
I’ll call the Wolf myself to put in a claim.
Diarmuid didn’t just betray the family, he was just another black mark against the O’Cronin name and I’m fucking over that shit happening. He’s the last male of that generation left breathing and I’ll be happy when he’s in the ground.
The Butcher claps me on the shoulder and I turn away from him to stalk back over to the Impala. It’s late enough out that I should really head home and try to get some sleep but I know the second I shut my eyes, all I’m gonna see is Queenie’s face.
Her face at Luca’s words, her face when she watched her family drive away, her face when she sank down on my dick at the Jackal’s orders and bled down my fucking thighs.
“O’Cronin.”
I glance back over my shoulder at him and he’s standing there, a cigarette hanging out of his lips and his keys in his hands.
“You’re a part of the family, call me Illi.”
Chapter Eight
Avery
I barely sleep for the next few nights.
I spend my days working through the information the Boar gave me about the other Graves siblings and start putting together some profiles for each of them. Colt is exactly what Illi said, a decent biker who is very clearly forced to play by his psychotic father’s rules. Chance is a wild card, nothing he does ever follows a pattern or reasonable thought process. He’s definitely going to be the one to watch out for because everything I see is a warning sign.
It’s all a little too Joey-like for my comfort.
There’s Wyatt James who lives in Colorado. Single, works as a cop which is kind of hilarious, and other than a photo of him in uniform, his file is almost entirely empty. A blue-collar, upstanding citizen with eyes that I’m now finding all of the Graves siblings share.
It’s a little creepy.
The Boar failed to mention to Lips that her brother Noah Ramsden, six months younger than her and born in Utah, is dead. A drug overdose at the grand old age of seventeen, his mother was a junkie and he spent his entire life in and out of juvie for dealing and stealing offenses. The photo in the file is from grade school and he was a cute kid, far too skinny and a bruise on his cheek that mottles his skin. I make a lot of notes about him because I know for sure that Lips is going to have a lot of questions.
I won’t be surprised if there’s a trip to Utah in our future.
So with Nate and Poe, we know six of the seven siblings. With Atticus already looking into Morningstar it’s probably not a good idea to hand him this information and ask for his help. I’m sure he already has eyes on it but other than the eyes, there’s nothing on these pages linking the siblings with different surnames.
I wonder how the Boar found them in the first place?
I’m up early with a face mask on, lying on my bed texting an old informant about DNA profiling when a text comes through from the Coyote.
Heads up. A search warrant was just issued for your house by the MBPD.
I sit up in my bed and hit dial.
Viola Ayres, the late Senator Ayres daughter and the tech genius girlfriend of the Coyote of Mounts Bay’s girlfriend picks up. “You don’t have time to ream us for waking you up, start hiding your shit.”
I scoff at her as I get up, straightening the hem of my nightgown. “What exactly do you think I keep stashed in my house? There’s nothing here for them to find.”
I’m careful even in my anger to not say anything that could be used against me if they’re also tapping me lines. Viola is a little less cautious which makes me wonder how secure the Coyote’s phone line must be.
I can’t imagine Jackson ever choosing his words with care.
“Well, what’s the phone call for then? I didn’t think we were close enough to sit around gossiping.”
I tip my head back and stare at the pristine white of my ceiling while I try not to lose my cool. “What is the warrant for? I haven’t done anything that would require police to come and destroy my house so who the hell is coming after me? I need to know before I start making phone calls. We’re on a time crunch here, Ayres, you’re spending too much time with Jackson and turning into a pain in the ass.”
She huffs down the line at me and I hear the clicking of her fingers on the keyboard. “Your guess is as good as mine. There’s a gag order on the warrant so only the judge who signed it and the Police Chief know what it’s for.”
The Police Chief.
He was in Senior’s pocket for years, cleaning up after him and getting rid of evidence trails have earned him an obscene amount of money for a man of his caliber.
Maybe this is just his anger at having his side hustle cut off.
He’s on my list of people to replace anyway, maybe this will just speed things up for me.
I take a deep breath and then I get to work.
By the time there’s a knock at my door, an over-the-top thumping of a fist like the man doing it enjoys the power he thinks he has a whole lot, I’m dressed entirely in white again. I’m lucky I look great in the color because with all of the power plays I’m having to make I’m wearing it a lot.
I’ve already called Lips, Illi, and, although I didn’t want to, Atticus to let them know exactly what is happening.
Atticus is on his way.
Illi too but they’re both planning very different actions for what is happening here. The Butcher will be mentally planning out every second of carving these men to pieces for daring to show up on my doorstep.
The Crow will be plotting out exactly why they would be showing up.
Either way, they won’t find a thing.
“Avery Beaumont, open up! We have a warrant to search the premises and we will break the door down if required.”
Oh, I wish they would.
I wish they would break down my eight-thousand-dollar custom door because the hellfire I would rage down onto them for daring would be so satisfying. Even without the resources I usually borrow from Atticus, there’s a lot of options I have for myself.
I need to fill my black book a little more.
Maybe instead of trying to find myself I should just get back to what I’m good at and start ruining people’s lives, manipulating them into being under my th
umb, and then I’ll feel a little more comfortable in my own skin again.
I walk to the door and unlock it, pulling the double doors both open wide with my head held high and my posture perfect in my eight-inch heels.
Half of the men standing there in riot gear look a little dazed at the sight of me. I know exactly which ones are dirty cops, they all gulp at the sight of the Wolf’s most trusted confidant standing before them dressed entirely in white, but the others are not expecting to be here to search the house of someone like me.
A nineteen-year-old girl, dripping with old money and good breeding.
The only person who doesn’t look shocked or concerned is the Police Chief, George Drummond, who’s standing there with a sneer curling his lip up at me.
I give him my signature icy look back.
He holds up a folded piece of paper in one of his meaty fists. “We have a warrant to search the property, all of the buildings, and cars. Doesn’t matter who you call about it, Beaumont, this is happening today.”
I shrug and hold out my hand for the paper, not because I need it but because I’m playing along. “Is there something specific you’re looking for? It may be faster if you tell me.”
His lip curls even more. “I know exactly who you are and what your family does. I’ll find her, no matter how fucking well you try to hide her.”
Her?
The men all start moving, some searching outside and others walking past me to get into the building but not a single one of them brush against me as they pass.
Their Police Chief might not see it, but the men all seem to know who the real danger here is.
“I’m not sure who you think I’m harboring here but I assure you, I’m home alone. My brother is out of town, so he definitely hasn’t snuck some girl in here without me knowing.”
I don’t know how much he knows about how my family is made up but it’s probably for the best that I leave Lips’ name and their relationship out of this for now. It might let me get a feel of what the hell is actually going on.
Drummond finally hands me the piece of paper and steps forward, his face flushed in anger and sweat beading on his forehead so he looks like he might be in danger of a stroke. “I will find my daughter, Beaumont, and if you’ve harmed her in any way, I will throw the fucking book at you. I know exactly where your family’s skeletons are buried.”
