All Hail

by J Bree

  As we walk into the elaborate dining room, with the most exquisite artworks that my mother would have loved, I glance over at the paneling and make a note of the lines on the wood there that aren’t a feature the builder wants your eyes to follow. He’s blended them well but I’m too good for that kind of trickery.

  Useful information for later.

  Atticus pulls out a chair for me as though he plans for us to at dinner together as if nothing has ever come between us. I want desperately to believe it.

  But I know it’s a lie.

  “I told you I don’t want to argue with you, Floss. Please can we just eat dinner and talk like we used to?” he murmurs to me, his lips brushing against my ear and I have to hold in a shiver at the feeling.

  I nod and take the seat, letting him fuss over me before he takes the seat next to mine at the head of the table. His manners are absolutely impeccable, the type you have to be born into because no one taught at a later age can run through them quite as smoothly, and as soon as he’s relaxed into his seat the door at the end of the room opens.

  Within seconds there are dozens of dishes laid out on the table for us to choose from, not unlike the dinner I had cooked for Aodhan. The room feels different though, the intimate feel completely missing, but still there’s some part of me that craves this moment with my childhood crush.

  He really has crushed me.

  “Tell me about Amanda Donnelley.”

  His eyes snap over to mine as he passes me a plate loaded to the brim with vegetables sautéed in garlic butter. “We’re having dinner together, isn’t there something else you’d rather talk about?”

  I take a glass of wine from one of the butlers. “You told me I only have family and pawns, and you’ve chosen not to be my family so I’m not sure there is much else to speak about.”

  He takes a sip of his own glass of bourbon, the same that Ash prefers, and then he reaches over to take my hand.

  I hate myself for the way my stomach fills with flutters for him.

  I hate it.

  “I will tell you about her if you promise to stop acting like you hate me. You’re breaking my heart, Floss.”

  Fuck. “You don’t have one… or maybe it’s just impossible to reach. How about you tell me about her and I’ll take your information into consideration next time I see the bitch in public?”

  He scowls at me but nods anyway. “Amanda Donnelley, on paper, is the only daughter to a very old family from the West Coast. Her mother was an heiress from Europe and her father was from a long line of successful businessmen but he never migrated to the States with his family, preferring to stay where his business is.”

  I shrug. “And on paper I’m a graduate of the finest school in the country taking a gap year to find myself after four boring years of dance and study. Paper doesn’t mean shit to me, Atticus.”

  He takes a napkin to wipe at his mouth like he’s finished his meal even though he’s barely touched it. “She’s the bastard daughter of a Columbian drug lord… and she’s the only woman your father ever had a relationship with who didn’t die at his hands.”

  I very slowly set my cutlery down.

  That is probably the single most horrifying thing Atticus could have said about her because to bed my father… willingly? The man who enjoyed the most violent and sadistic torture? No, he needed it to be able to get off and now, now I know for sure that Amanda isn’t just a fucking bitch.

  She’s clearly fucking deranged and she needs to die.

  After dinner Atticus offers to walk me up to my room to get changed before we leave for the Twelve meeting together.

  I narrow my eyes at him, because I’m not an idiot and he’s being just a little too accommodating after the nightmare of a conversation over the main course. I make sure to walk with him slightly in front of me but after we get to the stairs it’s clear that none of his men are following us and there are none of them to be found on the third floor where my rooms are.

  “What are you doing, Atticus? What are you playing at? I don’t have time for games tonight,” I say with a sigh, suddenly so tired of playing these games with him.

  There’s nothing I love more than moving the pieces across the chessboard but we’ve been playing together for years and I’d like it to be over.

  I’d like to have him or just leave him.

  We get to my room and Atticus opens the door for me, gesturing into the room like he’s being nothing but a well-bred gentleman exactly how his bloodline intended for him except that Luca is sitting on the lounge chair in my room.

  I turn to face Atticus but he grabs my arm and pulls me the rest of the way in, snapping the door shut behind us both.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get your hands off of me, you have no right to lock me in here!”

  I shake his hand off even as he does what I say but he takes a step back until he’s physically blocking the door. “You’ll be safe here with Luca. These threats have been too specific, too pointed for the stalker not to know about your movements. There’s no way we’re going to risk you coming to the meeting.”

  If I were any other member of my family, I’d take a swing at him. I don’t know why he’s so desperate for me to hate him but he really is shoving me off that cliff and into loathing. “There’s no way you can know that! There’s no way you could possibly know that tonight is the night that the stalker would do something and it’s good to know that you believe your own men to be so inept that they can’t keep me safe during the meeting. I, however, have full faith in Illi and the Stag. I’ll just call one of them to pick me up.”

  He doesn’t move an inch at my threat and I snap. “If you walk out of that door and leave me here I will—“

  His lips are rough against mine as he cuts me off with a kiss and I bite his lip in frustration. It doesn’t even slow him down, he just grabs my hips and walks me backwards towards the bed.

  I let him for a half second before I remember Luca is sitting there.

  I break away from him. “Have you lost your goddamn mind? You can’t just kiss me into submission, I’m going to the meeting! Lips named me her representative and I’m going. You’re a stickler for the rules, Atticus, you can’t break this one.”

  He lets me go fully and, though his lips are wet from my kiss and his hair is messed up from my hands, his eyes are as cold as ever. “I told you, Floss. I’d rather you be alive and hating me than have you and lose you to death. Luca will keep you safe and he’ll keep you here. I’ll make sure no big decisions are made until the Wolf returns home.”

  My lip curls but his eyes flick over to Luca and for once the grinning idiot looks somber at his task for the night.

  Probably because he knows I’m going to burn this motherfucker to the ground.

  I pull myself up, roll my shoulders back and then I cross my hands in front of my body, the standing variation of the Avery Beaumont Power Pose.

  Atticus doesn’t give a shit about it, he just turns on his heel and walks out the door.

  The moment it clicks shut I go for my phone only to find the pocket of my dinner jacket empty.

  Atticus took it while he distracted me with a kiss.

  I have to rein in my rage, hold it back and make a plan because there’s no doubt in my mind that I can get out of this room without having to commit murder.

  “The door isn’t locked Avery, but there’s no way I’m letting you out of my sight. The Crow was very clear about keeping you in the house, safe and secure.”

  I glare over at him and I wait. I wait until I’m sure Atticus has left and is on the road to the meeting. Luca checks his phone a couple of times and I’m careful about being discreet as I take note of where he’s keeping his phone. The same pocket has a slight bulge, either a wallet or keys and the main doors of this place will require a swipe card to get through. He also has three guns, one in his boot and two on either side of his hips.

  I pout. I pout in a way that I’ve never pouted before with anyon
e other than my family. I force my eyes to get a little teary, I huff out a breath a few times like I’m throwing a full mental tantrum and when Luca’s shoulders slump a little, I know I’ve psyched him out. He thinks I’m lost without my phone and my endless supply of helpers so now is the right time to act.

  I feign a slip.

  One of the biggest lessons Lips had taught me was to work smart not hard.

  Luca is easily three times the size of me. He’s tall, taller even than Ash, and he’s obviously been working out even more now that he’s not being forced to follow the Jackal around all day. There’s no way in a fair fight I’d be able to win against him.

  So, I’m not going to fight fair.

  It’s not fair of them to all think that I can’t handle myself in this situation. They won’t let me make my own decisions about what I can and can’t do which is utterly ridiculous because I’m not overestimating what I can handle.

  I knew I couldn’t kill Diarmuid so I asked Aodhan to do it for me.

  I know I would be safest here while Illi and Aodhan went hunting for whoever is sending the photos in the first place so I didn’t argue about it.

  Not once have I let my ego lead me to my own destruction.

  I leave that idiotic bullshit to the men.

  So as I pace the floor in front of the bed I wait until I’m out of Luca’s reach and I cry out, crumpling to the ground like I’ve twisted my ankle. My bag is within reach from here and thankfully Lips has given me a list of things to always have on hand.

  The number one thing being cable ties.

  Luca jumps up from the bed and rushes over to me, crouching down to fuss over me like I’m a damsel in distress.

  It’s like riding a bike, the amount of times Lips and I worked on the simple maneuver and in under three seconds I have Luca on his back with his hands secured behind his back. I’d asked her about it but she had learnt it from an old Taekwondo teacher she had in the Bay. It’s the one thing she’s still very closed mouth about, that man who taught her how to disarm people like size doesn’t matter at all.

  “What the fuck?!” Luca grunts and I lower myself down under I can whisper in his ear, “Compliments of the Wolf of Mounts Bay. I choose not to kill you on a daily basis. Remember that.”

  I then pull his phone out of his pocket and dial Illi’s number, frisking him for keys or a swipe card in case I need one to get out of here.

  “You had better be calling to tell me your boss changed his mind or there’s about to be a whole new fucking war in the Bay. Where the fuck is she?”

  I chuckle under my breath at him, tugging on the zip tie one last time to make sure it’s tight. “It’s me. I need a pick up, Luca is a little tied up.”

  There’s a pause and then Illi roars with laughter down the line, so loud I have to move the phone away from my ear so he doesn’t blow out my ear drum. “Ah, Queenie, you never stop surprising me. I’m already at the door, am I breaking it down or can you walk out?”

  I keep the phone at my ear while I strip out of the jacket I’m wearing and I pull one of my white blazers on, grabbing my ghost gun and slipping it into my purse. Luca starts grunting on the ground as he tries to free his hands and I smirk down at his struggling back.

  It’s good to be on the other side of the equation.

  “If any of Atticus’ other men try to stop me, I’ll shoot them dead.”

  Illi grunts. “Keep me on the line, kid. I’ll come fucking running the second I hear a bullet leave the chamber.”

  I slip my heels back on and then walk out of the room with my head held high and a smirk on my face. I also have a gun in my hand and I’m not at all the naive girl they think of me.

  I don’t aim it at any of the men keeping guard in the halls.

  No, I press the barrel to my own temple and then I watch them all sweat like a whore in church over it. Not a single one of them approaches me, all of them vaguely terrified that I’ll accidentally pull the trigger like some inept little girl.

  I’m tempted to tell Illi to come in here and gut them all for the insult.

  When I reach the door there’s a maid standing there in her pristine black uniform with a phone in her hand. When I approach she switches it to speakerphone.

  “Avery, do not walk out that door,” Atticus snarls down the line, none of his usual cold calm to be heard.

  I tilt my head at the woman, ignoring the sounds of Luca being freed from upstairs and raging his way down the flights of stairs. Instead, I point the gun at the woman’s head and smirk.

  “Like I give a fuck about the help. Move or die, the choice is yours.”

  Unlike every last one of the bodyguards, this woman judges my seething rage correctly and knows I won’t just pull the trigger.

  I’ll do it with glee.

  She side steps and I swipe Luca’s card to open the door. He yells out my name but the moment it swings open Illi appears in the doorframe and the air gets sucked out of the entire foyer at the rage in him.

  I hang up and throw Luca’s phone onto the ground, slipping the gun back into my purse with the safety on as Illi crushes the phone under his boot.

  “You okay, Queenie? I’m under strict orders from the kid to go full bloodshed and gore on this place if you have so much as a scratch but I didn’t need her permission to do it, I’m fucking itching for it.”

  I glance over my shoulder at Luca and let all emotion drain out of me until I’m my usual cold shell. “I’m fine. We’re late for a meeting, Illi.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The meeting is being held at the Unseen MC clubhouse and the drive there isn’t so long that Illi and I can discuss absolutely everything that has occurred since we last saw each other, the debrief we really need, but I do manage to tell him about that bitch Amanda Donnelley and her sexual deviancy… because of course you’d have to be fucked up to bed Senior.

  My mother was naive and compliant to the match her parents picked out for her, obedient and loyal to a fault.

  Amanda doesn’t have that excuse.

  “I’ll kill the bitch, just tell me where she spends her days and I’ll carve her the fuck up.”

  I smirk at him, totally on board for her getting the most blood-soaked and violent death, and murmur, “The moment I know that information, it’s yours. I have to give it to her, she’s very skilled at staying off of the map.”

  Illi shrugs. “Isn’t that the Coyote’s job? Throw it at him and tell the little fuck to earn his spot on the family protection roster. He called last week about some asshole showing up to his bunker and threatening to blow the place up.”

  I raise an eyebrow at him. “Who the hell is trying to kill him? Let me guess, he hacked into some guy's records for extortion purposes and it’s backfired on him? Typical.”

  “Doesn’t matter, the asshole is dead now and the Coyote lives to rifle through someone's emails another day.”

  “How do you go about assassinating someone? Say I needed a man to be taken out without being linked to me, how would I do that?”

  He grumbles under his breath, as he weaves through the traffic as we get closer to the slums of the Bay. “You call me or Lips and you ask one of us to do it for you. Your job is the politics bullshit that we hate and all the other evil genius shit that you do. You don’t need to become a killer just for fucking credibility. Don’t let that piece of shit Crow make you think any differently.”

  When we arrive at the clubhouse, Illi parks up but he doesn’t make a move to get out of the car. I wait with him, expecting him to warn me about some new threat or tell me we’re waiting on Aodhan, when he blows out a breath and rubs a hand over his face. “Look. O’Cronin told me about what went down thanks to that fucking cunt D’Ardo. I’ve watched you two together to know he isn’t lying about the how of it but I need you to know that you say the word and he’s dead. Fuck, Queenie, you say the word and they’re all dead. I knew… fuck, I got one look at you coming out of there and I knew something had happened but
I thought it was D’Ardo. I wish I could cut his fucking head off all over again.”

  It’s very sweet and very Illi of him. “I appreciate that but I’m not traumatized by it. It’s… it was the lesser of all of the evils and I definitely don’t want you to kill Aodhan. He’s been… he’s been perfect. I’d just rather never talk about it again and I definitely cannot let Ash know about it or see those photos. Illi, he’s a lot more like Senior than people think, he’s just— he uses those skills for the people he loves, not against us. If he finds out then he will destroy everything.”

  Illi nods and we both watch as Aodhan walks out of the clubhouse and makes a beeline towards the car. “He’s a good man… was a good kid too. Did a fucking good job of growing up right with the shit hand you two were dealt. I’m gonna find the asshole who has the tape. I promise you.”

  I nod and then my car door opens, Aodhan helping me out and pulling me into his arms. “I’ll beat the life outta that fuck for trying to lock you down, Queenie. I’ll take him the fuck out.”

  Burrowing into him a little, just for a second, I reply, “It’s fine, I proved a point. I doubt his staff will stare at me like I’m a little defenseless girl anymore.”

  I pull away from him as he chuckles and Illi stalks past us towards the clubhouse. “I’m assuming if you’re out here then they’re waiting on us, O’Cronin? I have some words for that fuck Crawford.”

  We follow him into the building and I thank God that I haven’t been forced into this building before and I pray I never have to set foot into it again because the smell… the smell is fucking foul.

  I gag.

  Illi chuckles at me. “Yeah. The sweet stench of stale beer, cigars, and pussy. It’s not really your scene, Queenie.”

  I choke the words out past the sleeve of my blazer that I press over my nose. “We’re burning this place to the ground the second Lips is home to help out. I won’t be able to sleep tonight knowing it’s sitting here, stinking like this, in the same state as I am.”

  Aodhan chuckles at me and tucks me into his side a little more securely as we walk past a large table of bikers, gambling and drinking together like this place isn’t the pits of hell.