The Ruthless

by J Bree

  It’s his turn to shrug. “We still owe her. It’s only going to take another couple of months before everything will be paid off and fixed completely.”

  I nod. It says a lot about how proud he is of everything they’ve managed to achieve since he became a member of the Twelve. He’s the leader the family should have had in the first place, the type of man who does the right thing, no matter the cost to himself.

  It makes me proud to call him mine.

  When we walk up the path to Aodhan’s house, I can see it’s had the least work done to it so far. The gardens need work and the bullet holes from the shooter who’d left that photo of us in the Jackal’s lair are still there, no attempts to repair them.

  He slides his keys in and gives me a half-smile over his shoulder. “I’m barely here anymore; I’ve been more worried about getting the loft ready in case we needed it while your family was away.”

  I take a second to rein myself in, just in case the place is disgusting on the inside. I don’t want to be rude and run screaming into the streets because his housekeeping isn’t great.

  Deep breath, I follow him in. He flicks the lights on as we go through the hall and into the modest kitchen. Everything is scrubbed clean, so even though nothing has been updated in at least thirty years, it’s not so bad. The tiled flooring has some cracks in it and there’s a few patches on the walls.

  “This was the family home. It’s taken a while to fix all of the shit Domhnall broke.”

  I nod and find myself drawn over to the very few photos on one of the walls in the kitchen. There’s one of Aodhan and Cara as children. There’s one of his mother. I almost miss Harley in the photo of all of the O’Cronin cousins.

  He’d have to be only five or six in it, back when Éibhear was still alive and Aunt Iris was still whole. The grin on his face is so sweet and innocent, the kind that Ash and I never had the chance to have with Joey’s torture in our childhood.

  I snap a photo of it and send it to him.

  Then I send one to Ash, then Lips.

  Neither of the guys message me back, but Lips requests a copy for the family wall and one for herself. I have to admit, I want one printed and left in my room where I can see his happy face every day. A reminder that underneath the hulking asshole exterior, my cousin was once a very happy and loved little boy.

  I want Liam dead all over again.

  “I used to be very jealous of Harley. So fucking jealous, it’s almost embarrassing now to think of it,”Aodhan says, a pile of mail in his hands that he’s flicking through. Something so mundane while we discuss the horrors of life in the Bay.

  I glance over at him to meet his eyes and he gives me a rueful smile. “Éibhear fucking loved him. Iris too, they both thought he’d hung the moon. He was always clean and fed and loved, no matter what else was going on around here. Plus he was like looking at fucking sunshine, always grinning and happy. I couldn’t help but wish I had that too.”

  “I would’ve felt the same way. My… my mother was like that with Ash and I. She shielded us from a lot, favored us and spoiled us. She knew there was something wrong with Joey though. The day she was killed she was trying to run. She had every intention of leaving Joey behind after what he did to Ash.”

  He nods along as I tell him the entire, gruesome story. It only seems fitting to be telling him something so personal and revealing while standing in a house filled with the ghosts and ghouls of his own traumatic childhood.

  I can’t give him all of the secrets I keep, but I can give him my own truths and hope that it’s enough. The moment the whole story is out, I feel like I’ve aged ten years, utterly exhausted in a matter of seconds.

  He slings an arm around my shoulders and shoves the envelopes into his back pocket. “C’mon, Queenie. Let’s go see the family and get out of here before anything else gets dragged out of us.”

  I meet too many people too quickly. It’s loud and it’s chaotic and Aodhan stays glued to my side the entire time like he’s afraid I’m going to run screaming from the gated community.

  I’m wearing heels; there’s no way he’d lose me.

  The important thing is that I learn that no matter how I’ve built the O’Cronin clan up in my head, they’re just a family. A rough and loud and completely insane family.

  Harley would’ve fitted right in.

  Chapter Seven

  I wake up to a phone call from Lips, her ringtone cutting through the air and startling me upright until I find my phone in the sheets.

  Aodhan barely grunts and rolls over.

  “What’s happened? Are you okay?” I whisper, pulling myself out of the bed and stalking over to the bathroom so I won’t wake Aodhan.

  “Fuck, what time is it there? This isn’t an emergency, everything is fine… well, not fine because Finn’s bus got a flat and now he’s sharing with us while it’s getting fixed, and our bus isn’t big enough for the five of us.”

  I snort at her and perch my ass on the rim of the bathtub. “You mean you haven’t been able to have your nightly orgies and your idiot boys are grumpy over the blue balls? That’s rough. I’m sorry.”

  She giggles at me and I roll my eyes. She’s definitely drunk. I’m happy for her and sad for my plan of eight hours of sleep that just flew out of the window.

  “I miss you.”

  She sighs. “I miss you too. I should have just texted you this information but I wanted to hear your voice. Fuck, I sound like a creep but yeah. I don’t want to go on tour again without you.”

  I giggle at her honesty, all of the things she’d never let herself say without the whiskey softening her up. “We have four years of college to do after the tour, we’ll be sick of each other by the end of that.”

  She snorts and I can hear male voices arguing behind her. It’s someone I don’t recognize and I think Blaise but the shouting and bad line makes it hard to tell. “Impossible. If I ever move out of the ranch I’m buying the house next door. How much will that cost me? Wait, don’t tell me. My stomach hurts and I don’t wanna puke at how much your place cost you.”

  I laugh at her because she’s being cute as hell and then I cringe at how loud I’m being.

  Being in a relationship is weird.

  “Okay, what’s the information you need to give me before we get distracted completely?” I say, squirming a little because this isn’t a comfortable place to sit at all.

  “Right, right. Sorry. Illi put word out that we’re open to sponsoring someone for the Game. He got a few hits back but they were all fucking bad so I was starting to think I’d have to sweet talk Illi into taking a spot but then we got a call from a girl.”

  My eyebrows raise. “I thought you said you didn’t want to put a girl in after what happened during the last games.”

  And what a mess that had been. None of them were trained or prepared in any way, and they all had a death wish which is fine, it’s their own lives, but there’s something about a girl in the ring that makes or breaks men.

  Every last one of them died horrific deaths.

  “This one… this one is different. Her name is Lucia Ammoscato but she goes by Lucy—“

  “Wait, Ammoscato? She’s related to the Lynx?” I cut in. There’s no way I’d ever forget the details of that disgusting woman, even after Nate cut her head off for attempting to double cross his sister.

  She was also a cougar whore who had her eye on Harley.

  “Yep, her niece. The mafia family always have someone in the Twelve, but they’ve already picked out their male heirs they want in the fold and they’ve struck a deal with the Bear to have them both sponsored. They think they can both win and take the two open seats.”

  I scoff, because isn’t that typical male bullshit. “So she’s shopping around trying to go up against them? Why would we want to sponsor her?”

  There’s the sounds of a door opening and then closing, a lock sliding into place. The only place on the bus with a lock is the tiny bathroom so I guess this is just where
we both have these conversations now.

  “She didn’t shop around, she called me first. She had a whole speech prepared of what her intentions are and what she’s going to owe the family if we do choose to take her up.”

  Huh.

  “She fucking hated her aunt and half her cousins. She’s a couple of years older than us but I remember her from a couple of parties at the docks I went to. Honestly… my money is on her and I’d take her over the other Ammoscatos any day of the damn week.”

  That sounds reasonable enough but I need to dig through this Lucy’s entire life before I’m comfortable putting her forward. When I tell Lips that she doesn’t argue at all. “If you find any red flags, gimme a call and we can decide if it’s a deal breaker or not. You know we’re in this together, no matter what.”

  I fucking adore her. “I’ll get onto Jackson and Illi now, if she’s genuine then she’s our best option. Having another member who owes us and will side with us will be handy.”

  She hums under her breath. “That’s what I want, a majority rule that we can have up our sleeves when shit goes down. There’s been some talk about getting the skin auctions opened again and, honestly, I don’t fucking want that to happen. Beyond how fucking disgusting they are, Illi will lose his mind. I think he’s waited to start a family until that shit was dealt with.”

  I groan quietly. “Let me guess, the Bear wants that to be his new start? I think we should kill him. If we do it now we won’t have to worry about running another Game because this is time consuming. Who knew running the biggest crime syndicate in the country would have so many traditions and rules we’d have to follow.”

  Lips chuckles at me. “Remember in high school when we’d do everything we could not to have to kill people? How times change.”

  I huff at her, “Is that a yes? I’m taking it as a yes, Illi will be thrilled. He loves adding to his Twelve death toll.”

  “Better the member we know than some new blood trying to prove a point. We can reassess if it looks like he’s actually going to start the skin markets again.”

  She sounds sober again and I hate that all of this work talk has ruined her buzz. If anyone deserves to let their hair down it’s Lips Anderson.

  “Go fuck one of your boys on the couch or something, enjoy the rest of your night. I love you, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  She laughs a little too loud. “I love you too, go climb back into bed with your Irishman and do something that would enrage your brother. You deserve it.”

  I laugh at her and slip back out of the room, trying to quietly slip back into bed without disturbing Aodhan. The moment I get between the sheets he pulls me into his body with a little grunt.

  “What’s happened now?”

  I giggle quietly at the affront in his voice. “Nothing but we have a candidate for the Game. Go back to sleep; I’ll work quietly. Scout’s Honor.”

  He mumbles under his breath at me, a lot to say about how I’ve clearly never been a Girl Scout, and then he slips out of the bed and into the bathroom.

  Illi messages me back straight away, ready to dig into Lucy’s trash cans if that’s what it takes to vet her. Jackson takes a little time but when he does get back to me he promises to have a file to me in a matter of hours.

  There’s a Twelve meeting tonight.

  I was starting to get a little concerned that we wouldn’t have anyone to name and Atticus would have a complete blow up over it. We’d done the same last time, waited until the very first round of fighting before we threw in the street rat Illi had found.

  We still have to find someone for Aodhan.

  When he crawls back onto the mattress I mention this to him and even in the darkness of the loft I see him cringe. “I already have someone. Jack wants to enter.”

  My eyes snap over to him, and he lets out a deep breath like he’s been holding it in for months. “He’s been fucking suicidal since Myra. I don’t… I don’t think he wants to make it out alive.”

  Jesus H. Christ. “So what are you going to do?”

  He rubs a hand over his face. “I told him I wouldn’t put him in if he was just going there to die but he said he had more pride than that. I guess he just wants to flirt with death. If I can win it, he can too.”

  That doesn’t make me feel any better.

  The background checks all come up with nothing.

  Twenty pages of information from Jackson that all boil down to the fact that Lucy doesn’t play well with others… but only when provoked. The thing is, her cousins have all provoked her a lot and there’s tons of evidence on the Lynx trying to punish the girl.

  Illi only had one thing to say about her.

  “She’s a raging fucking psycho. We should definitely bring her on board.”

  I roll my eyes at him, because of course he’d love a little more psycho sitting at the table, but I ask Aodhan to drop me off at Illi’s warehouse so we can ride over together to the meeting with Lucy. She picked the restaurant and the time, and I’d only agreed because they would’ve been my choices too. It’s not my absolute favorite dining choice, but Illi will be able to find a steak or burger to murder and they do a great takeout option for him to grab for Odie when we leave.

  We arrive early for Illi to scope out the place before we go in. I’ve already checked all of the cameras and the guest list for the night, nothing flagged for me and because no one knows about our association with Nate or the fact that the Devil was the one cutting people’s heads off last year, I’m not too worried about this meetup.

  Lucy needs something from us.

  If she attempts to hurt either of us, the Wolf would come for her. It offers us an extra layer of protection.

  Not that the hulking, murderous serial killer sitting next to me needs it.

  “Are you wearing your knives? I didn’t get them to decorate the Stag’s safe house, Queenie.”

  I roll my eyes at him. “Yes, I’m aware of that and actually I am wearing them. I wore this jacket specifically to hide them, didn’t you notice? It’s far less tailored than my usual white blazer.”

  He looks at me like I’m speaking Spanish and el no entiende.

  “I have the throwing stars and some knives. The gun is in my purse, cleaned and loaded. I made Aodhan check it before he dropped me off just to be sure.”

  He grunts and nods his head, still not happy but satisfied enough to drop the issue. He gets out and I wait for him to come open my door, even though I really could do it myself. There’s something about being Avery Beaumont that has all of the men around me ready to open doors. I always thought it was a money and class issue but now I suppose it’s a respect thing. Illi does it because he knows how much I mean to our family and it’s the best way to keep me close.

  After we’re shown to our table, I take my seat and place a napkin over my legs. Illi immediately picks up a menu and I watch the relief roll into his body that the food here is real and edible.

  Hannaford has scarred the man for life.

  “Do you know what this chick looks like? I didn’t bother asking anyone for details because I don’t fucking care about that shit.”

  I laugh at him and flag a waiter down for some drinks because a wine to take the edge off is exactly what I need right now. Plus, it’ll make Lucy think we’re far more relaxed about this meeting than I really am. “I’ll let you know when she gets here, don’t worry, you just focus on picking which sauce you want for your steak.”

  He scoffs at me and then grumbles under his breath about the cost. I roll my eyes at his dramatics and pick out the salmon dish for myself. We won’t actually eat anything until Lucy joins us, we’re not total heathens, but there’s not much else to look at around the room that we haven’t already seen in the security cameras.

  I notice the moment she arrives.

  She comes through the back entrance which isn’t a red flag, because there’s private parking back there, and she makes eye contact with me from across the room, just barely dippi
ng her head in a sign of respect but one that she seems to struggle with.

  I can handle that.

  Maybe she does have the backbone to survive the Game, because skill will only get you so far. Well, it’ll get you through the first few rounds, designed entirely to weed out the weakest of the bunch, but the later rounds?

  You need to have a brain to survive.

  I’ve had a lot of input into the Game this time around. We can’t completely rig the competition so our own picks win, not this time around anyway, but there are ways we can make it more favorable and the final rounds are exactly that.

  There’s no way any of the meathead brawlers that the Viper has sponsored will ever beat the later rounds. I can feel it in my goddamn bones, so much so that I’d wager my entire fortune on it.

  I nudge Illi and he looks up to take a long, hard look at Lucia Ammoscato and make his final assessment.

  She looks exactly like the raging fucking psycho he promised me.

  The restaurant isn’t a black tie establishment but the leather jacket, black corset and pants that are so tight, I have a great deal of respect for her for managing to get into them.

  She’s also wearing thigh high boots over them, the silver clasps on them matching the silver jewelry draped over her. The only part of her that isn’t dark and screaming murderous goth girl is her white blonde hair, natural and curling slightly like she did put time and effort into it.

  She’s beautiful and not at all a wallflower. She smirks as she crosses the room, completely at ease with every eye in the room following her and making harsh judgments about her. I can basically see their opinions bouncing off of her like they’re nothing.

  I might like this girl.

  I might even want her to win the Game just so I can watch her shake that table of misogynistic assholes up.

  She takes the seat across from Illi and I, moving the menu away and flicking a hand out to attract a waiter. She’s been here before, clearly, and orders both her drink and food. We do the same and then there’s a moment of silence before she finally speaks.