Raiden: A Stand Alone, Irish Mob Crime Romance (The Kent Brothers Book 2)

by A. M. Hargrove

  “Listen to us, little fool, this will go much easier on you if you shut your mouth,” Gem said. We both wore ski masks and used deeper voices, hoping to make her believe we were men. She was very sharp, so we were sure she figured us out.

  “My granda will kill you.”

  “Not before we kill you and your mother. Unless you behave, and do as we say, that’s exactly what will happen. Will you obey us?”

  “Yeah.”

  Gem and I shared a look. She was lying.

  The blindfold was still in place. Her hair was too tidy, so I would tease it to make it look matted. As I reached for it, she turned her head and bit my hand. She sunk her little teeth into my flesh and wouldn’t let go. Gemini belted her across the cheek, and it surprised her enough she released her grip on me.

  “That little fucker,” I swore.

  “Touch me again, and you’ll get another one.” She spit blood out of her mouth. My blood.

  Gem grabbed the roll of duct tape we had and ripped off a strip. Then she covered her mouth. “We’ll touch you any damn time we want, you little demon.”

  My hand dripped blood, so I smeared it all over her face. Gem teased her hair, and I put dark purple shadows beneath her eyes. Then I created old wounds on the side of her forehead, cheek, and next to her eyebrow.

  “We need to take the tape off to stuff some of these cotton rolls into her mouth,” I said. “They’ll make her cheek, where I’d smeared the blood, appear swollen.”

  “Good luck with that.”

  “If I show you how to keep her mouth open, do you think you can do it?”

  “Sure.”

  There was a point under the lower jaw that was painful if enough pressure was applied. It would make the person keep their mouth open. They did it to me in training, and that’s how I’d learned of it. I showed Gemini where it was, and she pressed down. When the girl opened her mouth, I crammed the cotton rolls in, much like a dentist does when doing restorations. Then I re-taped her mouth shut.

  After we finished, we checked her out on the video, which we would film in black and white. She looked rough. We tied both hands and feet to the chair and her face looked authentic. We staged the room the day before and it was dark and dreary, with no outside light coming through. The dinginess of the room made her appear filthy.

  We began the video.

  “Aiden O’Brien, you’ve had your opportunity. Your threats against Kent Enterprises weren’t taken lightly. Try to destroy it with your bombs, and your granddaughter and daughter die. See her now, Aiden? She’s still alive, but any other threats against us, and she won’t be.” We brought the camera in closer to get a better look at her, but not too close. She struggled and screamed beneath the tape. From my angle, she showed up looking abused. Then we cut.

  Gem texted Drex, and he came upstairs with Isla. They watched it and afterward sent it to Huff so he could create a copy.

  Our next step was to show it to Aisling’s mother and film her reaction.

  At first, when we told her Aisling was being beaten, she didn’t believe us. Then we showed her the video, and she raged.

  “We can stop anytime. All you have to do is call your father and tell him to stop the bombing and killing,” Drex said.

  “He’ll never do that after this,” she spat.

  “An eye for an eye then,” Drex countered.

  “How can you do this to a child?”

  “The same way your father can.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I laughed. “He’s willing to take out our families, which includes a one-year-old. That doesn’t bother you, does it? But it’s not okay for us to threaten your daughter.”

  “He’d never do that to a child.”

  “Clearly, you don’t know the depths of your father’s cruelty,” I answered.

  “Let me call him.”

  Drex handed her a burner he carried. Once he had Aiden’s number, he’d send the videos.

  The time had come to see if this plan would work. We observed her as she tapped in the numbers. He answered, we’d had our doubts.

  “Da, you need to help.” Pause.

  “They’re hurting Aisling.”

  “I don’t care. Do as they say. Stop all this nonsense.”

  Pause.

  “So what, he’s in prison. I just want them to free Aisling.”

  Pause.

  “It wasn’t my fault.”

  We heard him shouting at her.

  “I don’t give a damn. If they hurt her, I’ll find a way to kill you myself.”

  She ended the call and handed the phone to Drex.

  Drex grabbed the number and then sent the videos.

  Sinead stared at us. “He doesn’t care. He doesn’t care about his granddaughter as much as he cares about revenge.”

  “Then I guess it’s too bad for your daughter.”

  We turned to leave.

  “Wait! I can help.”

  I walked up to the large cage where she was being held. “How? You just called your father, and he doesn’t give a damn.”

  “I know things, things that can…”

  “Can what?”

  “I have information about his business,” she mumbled.

  “What you’re saying is you’ll give up evidence on him in order for him to be captured?” Isla asked.

  That was a huge shocker. None of us had expected this. If she did this, it would be a windfall for us.

  “Yes, as long as my daughter is no longer harmed.”

  “How do we know we can trust your information?” Drex wanted to know.

  “You won’t. That is, until you investigate it. I know the location of every one of his hideouts. I know most of his business associates.”

  “Why did he trust you with this information?” It was Drex again who asked this.

  “He didn’t. He never trusted me with anything. To ensure the safety of Aisling, I hired someone to hack into his accounts so I had this information in case something ever happened to her. I guess it finally paid off.”

  Something she said didn’t sit right with me. I’d discuss it with the others later, but as of now we had a plan, or at least it seemed we were at the start of another.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Raiden

  “No, no, no! This won’t work. He didn’t bite on either of the videos. Not only that, I don’t trust her one bit. She’s holding something back,” Scottie said as everyone stared at her. Her anger hit every one of us like a bolt of lightning.

  “Why are you saying this?” Isla asked.

  “Intuition. Did you notice her eyes as she spoke? Her father must have put her up to this.”

  Cruze, who had been absent for the exchange between Sinead and the rest of us, strolled into the room. “What’s going on?”

  We brought him up to speed.

  “Want me to feel her out for information?”

  I scoffed. “Are you going to use your manly charms on her?”

  He shrugged. “You never know.”

  I nearly groaned. “Do what you want but don’t reveal any information to her. Clear? If anything leaks out, all this work is for nothing.”

  “I won’t.”

  He left and Drex questioned me. “Do you think that was wise?”

  “I’m not sure about anything anymore. All I know is I want to return to normal.”

  “Everyone, listen up,” Scottie began. “I know what I’m talking about. That woman is lying through her teeth.”

  “What if she is?” Gemini asked. “What are our next steps? We sent the videos to Aiden. What if she’s bluffing?”

  “She could lead us right into a trap.”

  Scottie’s persistence had me swayed. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. What do you propose?”

  “We go along with her but understand it’s a trap.”

  Drex threw up his hands. “Are you crazy?”

  “Maybe. But we’ll have enough men to cover us in case.”

  “In case,�
� he said. “We don’t know what’s in store for us.”

  “Didn’t you run maneuvers in the military? Prepare for ambushes? That’s what we’ll do now.”

  “She has a point, Drex,” I said. “I see where this is going. Go along with Sinead, make her think we’re falling for what she says, but prepare for the worst-case scenario.”

  Gem put her hand on Drex’s arm. “Yes, this makes perfect sense. Even if it is a ruse, we might get solid information.”

  “Fine. Let’s see what Cruze comes up with.”

  While he was down there, Gemini and Isla checked on Aisling. They gave her water and took her to the bathroom. It was quite an ordeal, according to them.

  Scottie held up her bandaged hand and said, “I don’t doubt it. I’ve experienced the demon firsthand.”

  “Did you cleanse that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, and I put antibiotic ointment on it too.”

  “Good. Bite wounds get infected easily.”

  Cruze came back and informed us Sinead agreed to work with us, which was not new information. She was worried about her daughter and begged him to help her.

  “I believe her. I think she’s legit.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes at my gullible brother. An attractive woman and he was all in. “Good for you because the rest of us don’t.”

  Drex announced, “We need to get Huff out here for the computer work. We can’t let on because she may activate something to warn Aiden.”

  “Good point,” I said.

  Huff arrived three hours later, and we went down to question Sinead. Initially, she was very knowledgeable about Aiden’s US locations and business activities. We asked her about the military weapons, to which she responded she knew nothing. However, she supplied us with information on his drug traffickers in major cities and his key operatives. When we asked where his hideouts were, she gave up the locations of three.

  Drex and Huff stared at each other before Drex asked, “How involved with his business are you?”

  “Not at all. He’d never let me in, even though I begged. He said women weren’t strong enough, didn’t have the stomach for it.”

  She was lying. I knew enough about people from my business dealings to tell. The lack of eye contact was a dead giveaway.

  The only truth she relayed was Aiden’s view on women, which didn’t surprise me.

  Using my head, I motioned to Scottie to leave the room. When we were back upstairs, I said, “She’s lying.”

  “No kidding. And I would’ve thought she’d be much better at it. I’m wondering if Huff can track the call she made to her father. That could give us a better starting point.”

  “They must have a code.”

  “Oh, you bet they do, Raiden. My guess is he trained her for a day like this. The bad thing is, we’re at a disadvantage. He knows we’re not killers.”

  “Can we make him think we are? You staged the beating of Aisling. Why not stage Sinead’s death?”

  “I’d worry about retaliation.”

  That was a point I hadn’t considered. He was threatening to destroy Kent Enterprises. That was idiotic, I hadn’t thought of it. Which made me think. I grabbed my phone.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Calling the business to make sure everyone got out okay.”

  The head of security answered and told me what I needed to hear. Everyone was safe, and they were still searching the building. They had found nothing so far. Sighing out my relief, I passed the information on to Scottie.

  “That’s excellent news.”

  “True, but why did Aiden threaten us then?” I asked.

  “It had to be a diversion.”

  Scottie had something, but what? “If so, what? He doesn’t know where we are.”

  “Reynolds?”

  “What about her?”

  “She’s not using her cell phone, is she?” Scottie asked.

  “No, they took it away from her and gave her a burner.”

  “One of the staff, then.”

  Our eyes met, and we both hurried back down the steps. “Hey,” Scottie said to everyone, “we need to talk.”

  The room emptied as they followed us upstairs, where we explained our thoughts.

  “Fuck,” Drex shouted as he slammed his hand on the table. “Get every one of them in here.”

  His people had hired six people, yet only five showed up.

  “Where’s Sharon?” Drex asked.

  “We don’t know. No one can find her.”

  “Now we know who our little bird is,” Scottie said.

  I glanced around the room and something else bulldozed me. “Where’s Cruze?”

  Everyone assumed he’d been downstairs when we questioned Sinead, but when we thought about it, he’d been absent.

  “The last time I remember seeing him was when he came up after talking to her,” I said. “I’ll check his room.”

  Scottie grabbed my hand and said, “I’m coming with you.”

  His bedroom door was wide open, and there was no sign of him. We searched the rest of the house and even walked around outside, but he was nowhere around.

  We checked the mudroom because that’s where everyone hung their coats when they came in and his was missing.

  “He’s gone. Sharon must’ve lured him away somehow. Fuck.” I couldn’t go through what I did with Acer. We had to find him, and fast. Racing back to where the others were, we shared the bad news.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “We try to contact Aiden. This time it will be an eye for an eye,” Drex said.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Scottie

  My gut wasn’t happy with Drex’s statement. We couldn’t murder someone just because they’d taken Cruze. I wasn’t foolish enough to think Cruze was safe. Making O’Brien think Aisling and Sinead’s lives were in danger was one thing but killing one of them was beyond the range of my moral compass.

  “No. If you go forward with this, I’m out.”

  “So am I. I love my brother with everything inside me, but murder is out,” Raiden said.

  Acer stepped forward and agreed. “We can’t stoop that low. Cruze wouldn’t want us to.”

  Drex shook his head. “Fine. What do you three suggest?”

  “We have to contact him.”

  “How? The information Sinead gave us is bogus.”

  “Track the number she dialed and go from there,” Scottie suggested.

  Gemini asked Huff, “Is that possible?”

  “Yeah, I can get it.”

  “Then do it,” Drex commanded. He was pissed, but so was I. This wasn’t a game we were playing, and I wasn’t in this to take someone’s life.

  My frustrations finally got the best of me, so I left the group and went to the room I shared with Raiden. I was pacing when the door opened.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “I should be the one asking you that.”

  “Clearly, you’re upset.”

  “Yes, I am. I refuse to kill someone on command. Defending a life is one thing, but not this.” I flung an arm out.

  Raiden was at my side and in a comforting tone, said, “Hey, you won’t ever have to kill someone on my account. As I said down there, I agree with you. It won’t happen.” Then I was in his arms. This had upset me, and the comfort his embrace imparted was more than I hoped for.

  “Thank you.”

  “For what?”

  “For being here when I needed you.”

  “Always. Today, tomorrow, forever.”

  I turned my face to his and our lips touched, gently at first. Passion flared and we both frantically stripped our clothes away, needing to find each other’s bare skin. We were both desperate for comfort, for some small distraction from this craziness we found ourselves in. First his lips, then his tongue skimmed across my shoulder, then down to my breasts. I needed him, this, everything. I moaned as he continued on to tease one nipple and then the other.

  “I’ve missed this.”r />
  My nails scraped his scalp. “We were joined at the hips less than twelve hours ago.” My breath hissed.

  “It’s never enough with you. I miss you when I’m not naked with you. Constantly. You’ve possessed me, bewitched me.”

  “Oh, I like the sound of that. I’m a witch.”

  “You are, and a very wicked one.”

  My hand reached for his cock, and it was hard and pulsating. “Let me show you exactly how wicked I can be.” I dropped to my knees and took him deep into my mouth. His groan spurred me on. It was such a sexy tone, I swallowed him deep and then circled his tip over and over as I pumped him with my hand.

  “Scottie.”

  Lifting my eyes, I saw him watching me.

  “Christ, you’re so fucking sexy with my cock deep in your mouth.”

  I tilted my head back and took him in all the way. Saliva ran out the corners of my mouth, but I didn’t stop. I worked him with a rhythm that would bring on a climax. Only he put his hand on my cheek and stepped away.

  “I need to fuck you hard.” I was quickly pulled to my feet and pushed backward to the bed. Then he spun me around. “Lean over.”

  I bent over the bed, and he took me by surprise when he thrust into me. My sensitive nipples scraped over the duvet and I dug my fingers into it as he pumped into me. His hands held my hips with a firm grip as our pelvises slapped together. It was merciless, punishing, and erotically delicious.

  “More.”

  “I’m close, are you?”

  “Yeah,” I huffed, and he plunged in deep again, pushing the air out of my chest. Between his cock and the pressure against the side of the bed, the sensation was exquisite. My nipples sent shock waves of electricity through me every time he pushed inside me.

  My inner muscles began to pulsate, and then I was there, experiencing a grand orgasm. He followed me a few seconds later, kissing my shoulder and nuzzling my neck. I loved when he did this. It was so sweet and somehow made it feel even more special.

  “Scottie, that was… amazing, exactly like you.”

  “How do you know the right thing to say every time?”

  “I only say what’s on my mind.”

  “I adore your mind then.”

  He pulled out and disappeared into the bathroom. When he came back, he carried a towel for me. This was also a sweet gesture. After, we crawled onto the bed.