Ash’s eyes snapped to his. “What do you mean?”
Nikolai stood and then very strategically pulled a needle from the inside of his jacket and whispered. “A gift for her final moments. Follow me.”
They went into the private room.
The door clicked silently behind them.
And we waited.
Ten minutes later, the door opened. And I saw Ash age in front of my eyes. No longer was he the carefree college student who had an easy joke or an eye roll when things got too serious.
He was changed.
Altered in a way that I couldn’t explain.
And then I heard Uncle Chase say something that nearly stopped my heart. “His heart may not survive this.”
My dad nodded and said, “Are you saying that because yours never did?”
Chase squeezed his eyes shut and hung his head. “He’s more Luc than he is me, and now her death, it will bring out all the bad parts I tried so hard to hide from him. My son… will become the monster.”
“Annie,” Tank whispered her name, gaining everyone’s attention. Her face was bandaged, and she was holding her right arm in a sling. Bruises marred her cheeks as her eyes fell to the busy ER. “I’m so sorry.” Tank pulled her into his arms, but she shook her head and moved away from him, her eyes landing on Ash.
Ash clenched his jaw as she approached, tears streaming down her face. “She said…” Her words were muffled by her own sobs. “She said ‘tell him I loved him.’”
Tears streamed down my cheeks as Ash closed his eyes like he couldn’t bear to look at her, and then they jerked open as he lifted his head and glared, fists clenched at his sides. He walked right up to his dad, grabbed the gun from his hand, and walked out of the ER.
“Where’s he going?” I whispered.
Junior sighed and slowly pried me away from his body and sighed. “To kill them all.”
“What do we do?” My chest ached as Junior straightened and pulled the gun from his pants, and turned off the safety.
“We do what we were born to do,” he said with a hard edge to his voice. “We back him up.”
“Okay.” I nodded and shot a look to Breaker, who was already joining us, and side by side, we walked by the bosses, our eyes locked straight ahead.
Our blood had been spilled.
Now, we would spill theirs.
I stopped in front of Tank and held the gun to his head. “Was this you?”
He paled. “No.”
“Do you know who?”
He was silent and then released a breath. “Yes.”
“Give me one good reason not to shoot you.” I gnashed my teeth and waited while the men around me kept silent.
He stared me down and then said, “Because I’m an FBI plant.”
I almost burst out laughing at the ridiculousness of it. Maybe I was going crazy. I called over my shoulder. “Is it true?”
Chase answered first. “Yes. We knew yesterday.”
“Cool.” I pulled my gun away from his temple and shoved him toward the door. “You’re driving.”
He sighed and muttered. “Figured.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Junior
We pulled up to Eagle Elite when it was starting to get dark. I didn’t hide the fact that my Glock was out just like Serena didn’t hide the fact that she looked minutes away from executing Tank if he blinked wrong in her direction.
He pulled out his own fifty caliber that I’m sure he’d been packing the entire time and walked with us toward the dorm.
“Before you go in, just know—” He put his hand on my shoulder. “—it’s not all of them; most of them are innocent.”
“Innocent.” I snorted. “They’re about as innocent as I am.”
He swallowed and looked away. “I’m a De Lange too, you know.”
Junior cursed while Serena looked ready to scratch his eyes out.
He kept talking. “Your dad gave us options,” he said thickly. “Either for or against, and since I was a fucking twelve-year-old when I lost both parents to a De Lange cleansing, I chose to work for the law and keep the FBI on our side.” He shot Serena a look. “I’m good at pretending.”
She lunged for him, which only earned a laugh from me. “Holy shit, and why didn’t my dad let us know?”
“It was need to know, and then you invited everyone into Eagle Elite, which was brilliant, by the way.”
“Thank you.”
“And I knew my cover was about to be blown.” He sighed. “Last night I got a text from one of the guys, said he was tired of being a charity case and that somebody needed to make an example. I texted Serena to meet for coffee as an excuse to get in and talk him from the ledge, but his roommate said he’d left for the weekend.” A spasm of emotion twisted his face for the briefest moment. “I wrongly assumed he’d changed his mind and was a big talker. If you want to blame someone, blame me.”
I slid my key card and jerked the glass door open. “No blaming in this life, we’re all at fault. Let’s just hope that Ash hasn’t already killed everyone since we’re about four minutes behind him.”
We piled into the building then took the elevator to the top floor.
I heard a gunshot and then a scream.
Shit.
The minute the doors opened, I saw Ash, standing with his gun pointed up and dust coming from the ceiling.
“Who?” he shouted.
One of the girls started crying while guys surrounded all the girls, hugging them, protecting them.
Not how I’d seen my Friday going.
We stepped in behind him.
He did a double-take, and then his face softened. “You guys don’t have to do this.”
“Neither do you,” Serena said in a quiet voice. “It was one person, Ash, not all of them.”
“It doesn’t fucking matter!” he roared.
“It does.” I stepped next to him. “Because we aren’t our parents, and you, Asher Abandonato, are not your dad.”
My words hit him like a blow to the chest as he very slowly lowered his gun. Tears filled his eyes as he stared ahead. “It hurts.”
“Then let it hurt,” I rasped. “But hurting someone else who didn’t do shit, isn’t going to make your hurt any less severe. You’re bleeding man, sometimes the only way to heal is to let the blood do its job—cleanse.”
“You’re a De Lange,” Ash said bitterly. “You’re technically the heir!”
“Then shoot me.” I took a step back and held up my hands. “If that’s going to make you feel better, fucking shoot me!”
More screams erupted around me as Ash lifted his gun again. “And what if I do?”
“Then you prove to everyone around us that we’re broken, that the system’s broken, that history can’t help but repeat itself over and over again.” I shook my head. “We’re better than this, Ash. We’re better than our parents. We need to fix this. Not make it worse.”
“Shit, I hate when he makes sense,” Breaker muttered under his breath while Serena shot me a panicked look.
I nodded slowly in her direction and mouthed, “Banana.”
It was our code word for her to turn on her psycho flirt mode. It was impressive as hell to watch.
With a shocked smile, she sauntered up to Tank and pressed the gun against his back, then pressed a kiss to his cheek, using tongue. “Which one?”
Tank let out a little moan that I know he felt all the way past his dick to his toes and back up again. “I was going to tell you regardless.”
“But this is more fun.” She grinned, kissing the side of his neck, distracting him enough to grab the gun from his hand and point it at him. He had two guns on him; it was going to be either him or the guy that did this.
“Cute,” Tank said in an amused voice. “And his name’s Benji.” As he said it, his eyes darted away from Serena’s face and locked onto mine. “And he’s standing behind you right now with a gun.”
“Well, that’s fun,” I muttered and s
lowly turned to face the guy who thought he was tough enough to try to take out Ash, me, and my family, my blood. Rage like I’d never known coursed through my system as the little shit-looking freshman pointed a gun that I was one hundred percent certain would turn out to be stolen at my face.
I would be shocked if he could grow a mustache. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
He shoved his glasses up his face. “It’s your fault!”
“My fault?” My eyebrows moved up in surprise. “My fault that you decided to cut the brakes on Ash’s car? My fault that the love of his life just died while you sit here ready to piss yourself? Do you even know how to fucking shoot that thing? Because the safety’s on.”
He looked down at the weapon he held. And that was all the time I needed as I kicked him in the stomach and smacked the gun out of his hand. Ash picked it up immediately.
And just like that, little Benji had nothing.
He held up his shaking hands and spat on the ground. “It was worth it. You guys all deserve to die for what you did to our parents!”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Serena said in a chilling voice. “Because we did nothing, just like you did nothing. We were all born. Some of us in the right place at the right time, some of us in the wrong place. We can either fight or join sides. Benji’s chosen his. What about the rest of you?”
She looked around the stunned expressions. Nobody said anything.
And then she looked back to Benji. “Looks like you’re the only one stupid enough to try to hurt what’s ours.” She held up her gun and then whispered, “Ash, I’ll let you do the honors since this is your loss.” She moved away, and Ash stepped forward. He grabbed Benji by the shirt and slammed him against the wall.
Benji’s head made a crunching noise against it as he started to cry.
“No.” Ash gritted his teeth. “You don’t get to cry. You don’t get to beg for mercy. My soul mate is dead because you thought you had something to prove, revenge gets you nowhere, just ask our parents.” He shoved him to the floor. “Too bad you won’t get the chance to.”
I was shocked Ash made it quick.
Two shots directly to the forehead, and it was done.
No torture.
No screams.
Ash pulled out his phone and barked into it. “Cleanup on campus. One dead.”
He hung up and held out his hands to the rest of the students on the floor. “Speak up now if you have a problem.”
They were silent.
“Good.” He put his gun away. “Don’t forget curfew’s at midnight, and mid-terms start in three weeks.”
And just like that, he walked away.
And just like that, we followed.
The hush hung heavy in the elevator as we rode down.
The minute we got outside, one of the Escalades pulled up, Dante jumped out and sighed. “Just one body? You sure?”
“He’s sure,” I said quickly. “Hey, let the parents know we’re all crashing at Nixon’s, and no shit about all of us getting ridiculously drunk, okay?”
Dante nodded solemnly. “Two twirls, man.”
“Two twirls,” I repeated and looked at Ash.
After a few seconds, Ash finally repeated, “Two twirls.”
Tank got into his truck with us and started the engine. “What does two twirls mean?”
“Everything,” Serena said, tears in her eyes. “It’s a long story, but it means that you need to capture every moment when you get it, don’t waste life doing just one twirl when you can do two.” She stared straight ahead but slid her hand toward mine and gripped. “Life’s too short to worry about too many twirls, take as many as you want, and be thankful you have the opportunity to twirl in the first place.”
I squeezed her hand right back.
Tank pulled out into traffic. “But why twirling?”
“It’s a long story,” I answered for everyone. “The point is, we lost someone today, so we aren’t going to go home and get sad. We had our vengeance; now we get drunk.”
Ash was deathly silent as we drove the entire way, his jaw clenching and unclenching every few seconds like he was about to lose it, so when we got to Nixon’s, I grabbed a bottle of whiskey and pushed him toward the basement door. “Just don’t kill me.”
“No fucking promises,” he ground out as we made our way down to the gym.
He hurt, so he needed to hurt.
And I was going to be the punching bag.
I took a swig of whiskey and winced.
Fingers crossed, I kept all my fingers.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Serena
Most everyone skipped the wine and went straight to the hard stuff, choosing to crash in our huge theater room while happy movies played in the background.
Breaker made Tank take enough shots that the guy had let go of all of his inhibitions and was trying to adorably hit on me as if he knew what to do with me once he had me.
Most men didn’t.
Junior did, a voice reminded me.
My hands shook as I downed the rest of my vodka shot. It could have been him. It could have been any of us.
I wasn’t afraid often; today, I was terrified, and no amount of booze or Disney movies was going to take that away.
He could have been taken from me.
He was mine.
Mine, damn it!
The world felt thick around me as I made my way toward the door.
Tank blocked it with his massive body and then gave me a sloppy grin that was too adorable to be sexy. “Going slomwhere?”
I sighed. “Tank, Tank, Tank.” I patted him on the shoulder. “I would eat you alive.”
“I might like it.” He leaned closer, tilting my chin toward him.
“You also might bleed to death.” I winked.
He barked out a laugh. “I like your sense of humor.”
“Wasn’t kidding,” I pulled him in for a hug. “We’ll find you a nice girl, don’t worry. Also, give me your keys.”
He dug into the front pocket of his jeans and took at least five attempts before he dangled them between us. “Done.”
“Yeah, you need to hydrate. It’s hard to hang with Italians who drink wine for breakfast.” I pointed his body toward one of the leather couches. “Sleep.”
“I’m not shleeepy!” he argued, but his eyes were already closed as he stumbled across the couch face down.
In the corner, Breaker snickered, a bottle of gin in his hand. “Lightweight.”
“Did you drink all of that?” I pointed at the bottle.
He made a face and then held up his fingers and then hid it behind his back like I’d somehow forget a fifth was over half gone, and he’d been the only one drinking it.
Something flickered in his gaze, an emotion I knew well.
An emotion I was dealing with right now.
Fear over the future.
Fear for Ash.
And fear that the guys still hadn’t returned from downstairs.
With a sigh, I nodded to Breaker. “Stay with everyone; I’m going to go check on them, all right?”
“Yeah,” Breaker croaked just as Dom made his way into the room, took one look at all the cousins laying around with alcohol, and smiled to himself.
“Make sure nobody dies,” I teased.
My brother grinned. “Babysitting, my favorite.”
“How’d it go?” I asked once I was almost past him.
His eyes flickered away while his jaw clenched. “He was nineteen, had the whole world ahead of him, and was in the foster care system since the age of eight. How do you think it went?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and whispered, “The bosses did wrong by them, Dom.” His gaze froze over, but I had to say my piece. “They were just kids.”
“You have no clue what the fuck you’re talking about, or what hell they were put through. They gave them choice after choice Serena, step off that damn pedestal, and take a look around you. You’re alive because they did the har
d thing. Now it’s your turn to do what needs to be done, no matter how bad it hurts.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “And trust me, it hurts all the time.”
I looked away.
“This is your kingdom now,” he murmured. “Yours, Ash’s, Junior’s—but don’t for one second think the bosses won’t take back the keys if you guys go soft.”
“We would never.”
“Then there’s no reason for you to be afraid, is there?” He said in a clipped tone before making his way into the theater room.
Breaker started chanting. “Dom, Dom, Dom.”
And dread filled my stomach as I made my way down the hall and toward the basement.
I stopped when I heard my dad’s hushed voice. He sounded pissed. When I rounded the corner, he barked something else into the phone at his ear. “We’ll talk later, Phoenix. Yeah, okay. You too.”
“Everything okay?” I asked once my dad slid his phone back into the pocket of his black slacks.
“Depends.” My dad relaxed a bit. “How much have you had to drink?”
I rolled my eyes. “I like control; you know this—makes me the worst partier in the world.”
My dad cursed under his breath and then, in a totally uncharacteristic show of weakness, pulled me against his chest and kissed my forehead. “I’ve never been so fucking terrified in my entire life.”
I clung to him. “Dad, I’m fine; I’m here.”
“I would send you away,” he rasped. “If I knew it wouldn’t bring down an entire kingdom.”
I relaxed against him, then drew back. “Don’t take away my only purpose in life, Dad. I’m good at this; you made me good at this. I’m not your princess anymore, I’m your assassin, I’m your right hand, and I was born to be ruthless, just like my dad.”
His expression softened. “You’re right; you’d be a horrible doctor; you’d probably just let patients bleed out because you’d be annoyed they got shot in the first place.”
I burst out laughing. “That’s why Violet gets to practice pre-med, and Izzy law, and me, well…” I grinned. “I’m more comfortable with a gun than I am with a scalpel.”
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