by Sophia Gray
“I’ve never been afraid of you, Ciaran,” Shane snarled at me. “You’ve always been weak and that was why Pa picked you. You were weak just like him.”
I did my best to keep his words from stinging me. I wasn’t weak and Pa hadn’t been either, but you couldn’t make people like Shane understand that. All they understood was violence and their own inadequacies. I understood things like forgiveness and second chances.
For anyone but him. Shane had used up all his chances.
“You saying you’re afraid of a weak man?” I asked, teasing him, mocking him.
I heard the frustration in his voice as he said, “I’m not afraid. Never have been. I’ve been waiting for the chance to face you head on.”
I actually laughed at this, though it was humorless. “Oh, really? Is that why you snuck up on me in the cold when I came for a peace talk and aimed a tire iron at my skull? Yeah, you’re really eager for a fair fight, I can see.”
There was a long pause and for a second I panicked, thinking the line had gone dead. But then Shane spoke again, this time his tone cold and flat. “Meet me. If you want to save your girl, meet me at my house, other side of town.” He rattled off the address to me and I just barely got a pen to jot it down with before he finished. “If you don’t get here by midnight, I’m going to take it out on that pretty little girl of yours. Don’t be late, asshole. I don’t think she’s interested in playing the same games I am.”
He hung up before I could roar in fury, leaving it to boil inside of me. My whole body trembled with it. If he touched her, I would kill him. If he laid a single finger on her, I would rip him apart with my bare hands. She was an innocent in all of this, but more to the point, she was mine. He couldn’t have her, and I’d kill anyone who tried to take her.
I threw the phone at the wall, unable to hold it inside. I was breathing heavily and other than that sound, the room was silent. Everyone stood around me motionless, waiting for me to deliver orders whatever they might be.
It took me several minutes, but I managed to calm down enough to think. Not an easy task when thinking of all of the things Shane might do to Elle if I didn’t save her. And there was no guarantee that he was as good as his word and wouldn’t touch her before midnight.
Taking a deep, slow breath, I let it out and finally turned to my men. “I’ve got an address and a half-assed plan. I don’t expect any of you to follow me. I wouldn’t ask a soul to walk into the lion’s den like that, but I’m going. Those of you who don’t want to follow, walk out that door with Patrick. He’ll lead you to those greener pastures.” I shot him a quick look, not one that was condemning or even teasing, but rather one that was encouraging. I wouldn’t hold it against him or any of the others for leaving and at least with Patrick in the lead, I knew they’d be in good hands.
But Patrick smirked at me and shook his head. “Sorry, boys. If you want to ride off into the sunset, you’ll have to follow another cowboy. I’m going to follow Billy the Kid here into the wild, wild west.” He gestured to me, his eyes telling me just how serious he was.
A sense of camaraderie filled me. The knowledge that he would go against his own better judgment and follow me into danger told me just how loyal he was to me, how loyal he had always been. I gave him a quick nod of appreciation.
I turned back to the group, but before I got the chance to say anything more about them leaving, I had people step forward and speak up. They asked me what the plan was. They told me they were ready to go to war. They told me they were ready for some payback.
They told me that they weren’t afraid to die.
It reminded me these were men, not boys, and that they were warriors to boot. They weren’t afraid of a fight and they weren’t afraid to go down in a blaze of glory. I was proud to call them my men.
Even so, I knew our numbers were not great. Half the guys were still off cleaning up the mess. Several were also still scouting out locations. That’s going to be the first order of business.
“Danny, get on the phone. I want you getting ahold of every Lucky Skull who isn’t here,” I ordered, getting into military mode. I had a plan, but it wasn’t by any means a guarantee, and the more men we had, the better chances for success were. And we could use all the luck we could get. “Give them the address and the deadline. If they can make it, great, but we won’t count on them. No telling if they’re close enough to make it in time or not.”
Turning, I focused on Doc. “I want you to look everyone here over. If they’re good to go, great, but I don’t want to be worrying about taking care of dragging soldiers, got it?”
Doc looked annoyed and asked, “Does that include our fearless leader?”
A couple of guys snickered at that, and I smirked. “No,” I said plainly.
Doc rolled his eyes, but didn’t argue with me. He just muttered under his breath and shook his head, then began to quickly look people over. He might not have liked the idea of us running into a battle we probably couldn’t win, but he was loyal like the rest of them. We were going and he’d get us there as best he could.
“You got a plan, boss?” Danny asked, looking both worried and determined to see this through.
I nodded my head. It wasn’t a great plan, but I had one. I pulled the brothers aside. “We’re going to have to get a few things in the works here, and it means not all of us are going to be at the fight.”
The brothers shared a grim look, understanding that this wasn’t going to make the fight in our favor by any extent. “What do we need to do, boss?”
“I need you to go to the cops.”
The expression on both of their faces was identical and almost comical in their level of surprise. Not that I could blame them. I wasn’t exactly keen on inviting the cops to this kind of party either, but I knew we wouldn’t have enough men on our own to win against the Hounds. And maybe I could kill Shane, but there was no guarantee that cutting off the head of the snake would be enough to kill the whole damn horde of them. Which meant we needed numbers.
I didn’t exactly have the time for a recruitment drive to boost numbers, so I was going to have to play a little dirty.
I explained to the boys my plan. If we could get the police to raid the place and find some incriminating evidence against Shane and his men, then they’d have to arrest them. Get them off the streets. Our streets, to be specific. It might be enough to save the lives of my men.
“But doesn’t Shane have guys on the inside?” Danny asked, scratching his head like he was confused as to how I thought this plan was going to work.
Not that I could blame him. I knew the risks of this plan going sour. “Yeah, he does. Which is what we gotta tell the police, and why I need you two to go in person. I need you to pick out the right people and enough of them that if you catch a couple of the wrong ones there might still be a shot of doing this right.”
Patrick frowned, then shook his head. “How the hell are we going to do that? It could be anyone working for him.”
I nodded. I’d thought of that, too. Glancing at the phone I’d tossed at the wall, I realized there might be a way to get around that. “We need to find another phone belonging to a Hound.”
Danny frowned, not getting it, but a light sparked on in Patrick’s eyes. He’d caught on. “We’re going to call the police pretending we’re one of the Irish Hounds. We tell whoever is there that there’s been a shootout over here and we need ’em to cover it up. Make it look like the Lucky Skulls are responsible. Whoever shows up, we nail.”
I grinned and nodded. It wasn’t a foolproof plan, but I had hopes for its success. Maybe they would get a clean cop when they made the call, in which case they could just tell them what was going down at Shane’s place. But if they got a dirty cop, he’d believe them and come to cover the whole thing up, giving the boys a good chance to figure out a couple of the dirty cops, at least.
I sent the brothers off to find a phone off of one of the bodies, hoping I hadn’t just smashed the only one. I didn�
�t think so, but it would be just my luck. As they did so, I went to the others and gave them the second half of the plan. The part that would incriminate the Irish Hounds enough to get all of them thrown into the slammer with any luck.
I gave them the rundown, explaining how I needed all the bodies of the Lucky Skulls moved. That got some surprised looks, too, but no one questioned me. It would take time, and maybe we didn’t have enough, maybe this was all a lost cause, but it was all I had and I had to risk it.
Finally, when all the orders had been given and my men had scattered, I realized I was the last one who would be headed to the address Shane had given me. Maybe I would get lucky and my men were close enough to help me. Maybe my crazy plan would work smoothly and I’d have reinforcements.
But I wouldn’t hold my breath. No, I was going in there prepared for the very likely possibility that I was going to be facing Shane alone.
And I was ready for that.
Chapter 4
Elle
I’d expected to be left alone after being tied up, but I wasn’t.
“Make sure someone’s here watching her,” the man who had been in the backseat with me said. “The boss will be pissed if we lose track of that dumb bitch.”
Then he left. I should have been relieved. He’d been the one toting the gun the whole time and now that he was gone, I should have been put at ease. But I wasn’t at ease. In fact, now that I was left alone with mister tall, dark, and scary, I found myself wishing someone else would walk through that door. I didn’t care if they were armed or just crazy like Shane. I couldn’t say why exactly, but the man lingering in the room with me gave me the creeps. There was something about him that made me shudder inside.
He grinned at me as soon as the door closed behind his friend. His eyes, a muddy brown, raked over me. That look made me feel dirty, slimy.
“My name’s John,” he told me, like we were going to get to know each other or something. “You got a name, pretty girl?”
My skin crawled at the tone of his voice and the way he leered at me from across the room. I was grateful for the distance between us, but I wasn’t supremely confident that distance would remain for any length of time. I decided quickly that keeping him talking might work more in my favor than staying silent. “Elle,” I bit out, not liking giving the man my name, but not knowing how to avoid it. “Why don’t you guys just let me go?”
He actually laughed at me. Like he thought that was the funniest damn thing I could have said to him. Maybe it was. I knew it was a pointless question, after all, but I wasn’t expecting to get him to obey me. I was just trying to keep some distance between us.
Which evidently was not going to work. He took a step towards me. “Let you go? Honey, I think you don’t really understand who you’re dealing with here.”
I lifted my chin defiantly. “I know who you are. You’re the Irish Hounds.”
He grinned widely at me. “That’s right. And if you know that, then you know we’re nothing to be fucked with.”
Feeling braver than I was, I said something that was probably the dumbest thing I’d ever said in my life. “Well, you’re partially right. I know you’re nothing.”
The grin disappeared instantly from his thin lips. He pulled them back in what was almost a snarl. “The fuck did you say?”
A cold chill of fear ran through me, but I didn’t take it back and I didn’t apologize. I wouldn’t let this guy terrorize me, because I was pretty sure that was what he was trying to do. That determination didn’t keep me from being terrified out of my mind, but that didn’t mean I would let it show. “You heard me. All you are is a bunch of nobodies who weren’t good enough for the Lucky Skulls. A bunch of assholes who couldn’t didn’t make the cut because they have real standards.”
“Bitch,” he said coldly, and stomped towards me.
My idea of keeping him talking to keep him away had clearly backfired. That was what I got for being mouthy, I realized, but I couldn’t seem to hold myself in check. I didn’t like the slimy feeling he gave me. Not that I liked anything around here, but that especially was bad. It made me scared for things other than my life.
It took him only a couple of strides before he was in front of me, leaning down and snarling in my face. He was so close that I could smell the mixture of tobacco and mint rolling around in his mouth and the stale scent of spit. Gross. “You don’t know the first fucking thing about us,” he told me in a snide, condescending tone. “People like you are oblivious to how things really work around here. You think you got it all figured out, but we’re the ones running the show. You know who buys our drugs? People like you. You know who buys our cars? People like you.” His eyes dropped, deliberately trailing over my body. That alone was enough to creep me out, but then his hand made the same trail. He caressed my shoulder and went down over my left breast.
“Get off of me!” I yelled at him, trying to struggle, but it was no use. “Don’t fucking touch me!”
He didn’t listen. His hand went down my waist and was just landing on my thigh as he said, “And you know who comes around to fuck us? That’s right, girlie: people like you.”
“I don’t want anything to do with you!” I yelled at him, fear and panic rolling around inside of me, causing my heart to drum in my chest to a hammering beat.
He grinned widely. “Oh, you say that, but when I start spreading those long legs of yours, you’ll be begging for it.”
True fear washed through me. He was going to rape me. It was one thing to die—a terrible thing that I definitely didn’t want happening to me anytime soon—but this? This was terrible in its own ways. Worse because I couldn’t do anything about it, and there would still be no guarantee that after everything I wouldn’t still die.
Oh God, please don’t let him touch me!
I opened my mouth to scream right as a deep voice yelled from the door, “Get the fuck off of her!”
John jerked back from me instantly, his hand wrenching away from me as though I had burned him. I wished I had, but of course, no such luck. At first, my heart dared to hope that it was Ciaran having come to my rescue, but almost instantly I shoved that hope aside. The voice was all wrong, and would John have jerked back like that if the order had come from Ciaran? Maybe, but probably not. He probably would have gone farther just to irk Ciaran.
My eyes dared to leave John, who had moved several feet away from me to search out the owner of the voice. With sad realization, I saw it was Shane not Ciaran. Although I was grateful to have the grimy hands of that awful, sleazy man off of me, I found no real comfort in Shane. I hadn’t forgotten that he’d had me kidnapped. And I hadn’t forgotten that he was hoping to use me as bait to lure in Ciaran.
“Boss, I—” John began to explain, his voice sounding panicked and his eyes wide to echo the sentiment.
But Shane, who looked thoroughly pissed, didn’t let him get a word out. “Shut up. You fucking asshole, what did you think you were doing?” he snarled angrily, looking me over with calculating eyes. I didn’t like his eyes going over my body after what had just happened with John, but I didn’t get the same feeling as though he were raking over me, devouring me, sliming me up with his dirty thoughts. His was analytical and assessing. He wanted to make sure that I was all right, but not because he was concerned for my safety; I knew that much.
John opened his mouth to explain himself, though I couldn’t imagine what he possibly had in his own defense. Before he could get anything out, however, Shane jumped all over him again.
“I told you to tie her up and fucking watch her!” he roared angrily at the other man. “Was that order too Goddamned difficult for a block head like you? Too many brain cells required to process that particular request? Or are you just too much of a fucking animal to keep your dirty paws off of a pretty girl?”
John, who was looking more and more scared as Shane spoke, swallowed heavily. I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down nervously. His gaze jerked around the room as t
hough searching for something to defend against his own actions. Briefly, that gaze landed on me and I knew he was sending daggers my way.
“Don’t look at her, you moron!” barked Shane. “Look at me! The one giving the damn orders!”
Instantly, John’s gaze jerked back to his leader. “I, uh, was just—”
“I know what you were just,” growled Shane. He took a step closer to John. “Now I want to know what the hell you were thinking.”
John swallowed again, then finally seemed to sag. For a moment, he sounded like a little kid, whining to his parents when they caught him with his hand in the cookie jar. It was both pathetic and disgusting and made my lip curl back in response to him. “C’mon, boss! Look at her. I was just having a little fun. We’re gonna have to fucking kill her anyway—”
Something that felt like a cold stone dropped down into my gut. We’re going to have to kill her anyway. I didn’t know why this surprised me or unnerved me so badly, but I hadn’t really thought about it. But, of course, he was right. They would have to kill me. Even if Ciaran came for me and. They couldn’t exactly let me walk away, could they? I’d seen too much. I’d seen where they lived, how they had killed people. I could identify Shane for certain, as well as the asshole John over here. I could pick out several others, too, though I didn’t have names for them. If they let me go, I could hand them over to the police on a silver platter complete with a bow wrapped up around them neatly.
Which meant there was no way I was going to walk out of here alive. Not unless Ciaran somehow pulled off a miracle. First by coming for me and second by getting the both of us out of here alive. And seeing as how I wasn’t supremely confident he would do the first of those things, I wasn’t feeling overly great about my chances for survival. The knowledge left me sick inside and I was so distracted by the knowledge of my own impending demise that I only barely registered their continuing conversation.
“Damnit, I know that!” Shane yelled, still clearly pissed. “And when the time comes I’ll take care of it. But that doesn’t mean you get to get dirty with her first!”