by Maia Dylan
Kieran nodded and stepped into the corner of the lift. “You think your mate knows that I am here with you? I don’t want to freak her out, especially if she’s as kickass with those fighting batons as you say she is.”
The trouble Diablo’s men had been intent on causing was not limited to one neighborhood last night, and when reinforcements were needed two neighborhoods to the west of where he, Jacob, and Violet had been, Mason had made the difficult decision to go.
It hadn’t been easy, especially for a protective son of a bitch like him, but he had faith that Jacob would watch over Violet, and he knew for a fact that she could take care of herself. When he had left, she had been standing between two young punks using her batons and her sharp sarcasm on both of them indiscriminately. When he’d called out that he needed to go help some of his pridemates who were spread too thin around the city, she had managed to throw him a quick air kiss and a “see you later, kitty cat,” before he left.
“Yeah, she knows,” Mason replied. “Besides the fact that Jacob is with her and he knows that it was the two of us heading over, she has cameras all over this building. No one gets in or out without her knowledge.”
The door swept open into the living area, and Mason took a couple of steps out of the lift and came to a halt. Jacob was sitting on the coffee table grinning like an idiot at him and Kieran, while their mate was fast asleep on the couch in front of the large fire place. She had managed a shower and a change of clothes from the fancy custom fight suit she had been wearing. He and Jacob had watched fascinated as she managed to put a whole arsenal of weaponry into purpose built compartments of that suit. But the yoga pants and oversized t-shirt looked just as amazing on her, and with her hair up in a twist she looked so damn young and innocent his heart ached.
“She fell asleep halfway through a sentence,” Jacob said quietly, moving to look back at her, the devotion clear for all to see on his face.
Mason walked closer to look down at her, and he felt his heart clench in his chest. “Is she okay? Was she hurt at all?”
Jacob gave a small laugh. “A couple of bruises, but nothing serious. When she was swinging those damn batons no one could get near her. There were a couple of times when there seemed to be waves of the fuckers coming out of the woodwork and going straight for her—” Mason frowned, not liking the sound of that at all, “—but then she has these tiny metal things that she placed on people that administer an electric shock. They weren’t big enough to house enough energy to knock a person unconscious, but enough to distract them enough that she could get close enough to knock them unconscious anyway.”
Mason’s frown evaporated, and he grinned, loving the sound of that and the fact their mate was so damn kickass. It really was a turn-on.
“Does she know I was coming?” Kieran asked from the entrance. He hadn’t taken another step into the apartment, obviously wanting to make sure he was invited. When Jacob nodded Kieran walked further into the room, and sat on the armchair furthest from them, obviously giving her space.
“How long has she been asleep?” Mason asked.
“Not nearly long enough,” Violet grumbled sleepily from the couch as she pushed to sit up, sweeping her hair from her face, and blinking sleepily. “Boy, I thought cats were quiet. You two are terrible.”
Jacob laughed. “Yeah, Mason and Kieran can be a little on the rowdy side.”
Violet turned to level Jacob with a look. “I was talking about you and Mason.” She turned to look over at Kieran, who was staring openly at her, and Mason saw her eyes lighten in color. “That one’s silent.”
Mason looked between his mate and his Alpha as they stared at each other in wary silence. “Okay, well, Violet, this is our Alpha, Kieran Murphy. Alpha this is our mate, Violet Riccitelli.”
Violet stared at their Alpha for a moment then blinked a couple of times before relaxing back on the couch.
“So, do I pass inspection, Ms. Violet?” Kieran asked dryly.
Violet grinned. “For now. I can only read auras. I can’t see the past or the future, and I certainly cannot read your mind, but the colors I see in your aura tell me a little about you. Your aura, although not perfect, rings with loyalty, honor, and a strong sense of what is right. Your mama lion raised you right! So, yep, for now you do pass inspection. Until you do something monumentally stupid and I have to beat some sense into you.”
Kieran threw back his head and laughed. “Damn, you are more than a match for these two. I kinda wish I met you first. I might have given them a run for their money.”
Twin growls erupted into the apartment, and Jacob rose slowly from the coffee table to stand shoulder to shoulder with Mason. In unison they turned and both glared at their Alpha. Kieran’s eyes turned amber, and Mason could feel the pressure of the man’s dominance filling the room. He and Jacob both withstood the pressure for as long as they could, but within seconds they fell beneath it and knelt on one knee on the floor. Their Alpha was dominant and strong as fuck, but it had been a while since Mason had felt it used against him though.
“It would be best for you, if you let them up now, Alpha kitty.” Violet’s voice was cold, her tone deadly, not one he had heard her use before, and Mason’s growl of displeasure immediately shut off as he stared over at his mate in concern. She had moved to stand up beside the couch, and there was a gun in her hand. He had no idea where she had grabbed it from.
“Violet.” His words were slightly garbled because his canines had descended, but he heard the desperation in his tone. “It’s okay, Jacob and I challenged him.”
“We did, baby,” Jacob confirmed in a clear voice, obviously not having to battle with his leopard like Mason was. “He was just reminding us of the order of things.”
Violet nodded. “Oh, I know how it goes. I’ve watched Animal Planet. I get how the head lion has to fight off the other lions for the right to mount the lionesses, but that it is not going to happen! I am just not that into you, Alpha kitty.”
The pressure dissolved immediately, allowing him and Jacob to get to their feet, and when Mason looked over at Kieran, he was shocked to see his Alpha’s cheeks with a sweep of red across them.
“What, no! Wait, I—you,” Kieran stuttered, and Mason couldn’t hide his grin. He had never seen his Alpha flustered before. “Sorry, let me try that again. Violet, I have no wish to mount you.”
Violet’s brow rose. “And why the hell not? I happen to know I am extremely mountable. You should be so lucky to get a piece of this.” She ran a hand down her side. “What, you think you can do better than me?’
“Not at all!” Kieran held up his hands in a supplicating manner. “You’re hot! Honestly, if you were single and not mated to two of my pride I would be all over you. But this is—” Violet made a small sound, and Kieran’s eyes narrowed. “Son of a bitch, you’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”
Violet grinned as she lowered the gun her side. “Maybe just a little. Sorry, when you get to know me you’ll learn that I am fluent in sarcasm, and according to my ever patient assistant, smart ass is my second language.”
Kieran nodded. “So noted. I will be sure to run everything you say through my internal bullshit-o-meter from now on.”
“That would probably be a good idea.” Violet winked in his direction and reengaged the safety on her weapon. Mason knew she did that deliberately. She hadn’t pulled that gun for show. Her words may have had a playful tone, but her intent to shoot was absolutely there. If Kieran had reacted differently, she had been prepared to use the weapon.
“And that is noted as well,” Kieran said dryly as he relaxed back in the armchair. “I wanted to thank you for agreeing to have a look at that bullet.” Kieran’s face fell slightly, and Mason knew he was thinking about Jason.
“I’ve analyzed the chemical compounds on the bullet.”
Mason turned to look at his mate with shock. When the hell did she find time to do that?
“There were traces of a neuromuscular block and an
anticoagulant. The first one is designed to create paralysis and is often used as an anesthetic. The second stops your blood from clotting. The effect of those would have worn off eventually.”
“Could either of those force a shift?”
Violet thought about that for a moment then nodded. “I believe it would. From what I have read, your animals are a part of you, and your musculoskeletal system changes within you. The change is very quick, and I would think painful, but then your feline genes would come into their own and the change would be completed.” That had to be the most clinical description Mason had ever heard about a shift, but it sounded right. “A neuromuscular block would create a type of paralysis in the musculoskeletal system, and I’m pretty sure that would force the change.”
Kieran nodded, amber flickering in his eyes. “And the anticoagulant means that our blood won’t clot. Without the wounds clotting, there is no way for our healing abilities to take hold and heal the wound. Fucking bastard.”
Violet nodded. “Yep, Santiago is a bastard, and one that deserves to die a horrible death somewhere I can watch with a bowl of popcorn and a beer. But what he’s got on those bullets, we can counter.”
Kieran nodded, and he relaxed back into his chair. “Thank you. Without something to fight the effects of those fucking bullets, I’ve had to tell my team to keep their animals in check. So, tell me, Violet, what did Santiago do that put him on your shit list?”
Violet sat back down on the couch, and tucked her legs up under her. “You want just one reason? I would have thought you’d know of at least a dozen reasons why that asshole would end up on a person’s shit list.”
“I do, most definitely, but what I am wondering is why a woman like yourself, with the obvious resources that you have, would bother. We now know that you have sponsored trusts and programs for the families of his victims. You have purchased stocks, offices, and store fronts for businesses he has screwed over. So what’s with all the Good Samaritan shit?”
“And I can’t just be a Good Samaritan?” Violet asked with an exaggerated flutter of her eyelashes. Mason was starting to get a very good read on his mate. She used her sarcasm and her humor as an effective diversion when a conversation was stepping into areas she wasn’t keen on going.
“Of course you can, and I have no doubt that you are,” Mason said as he sat down on the couch next to his mate, Jacob taking her other side. “But I think that there might be more to it than that. When we asked you a couple of days ago if he knew who you were, you side stepped the question. I think there was more to the story than you let on.”
Violet was silent for a moment, looking down at where her fingers were playing with an imaginary piece of lint on her shirt.
“Violet,” Kieran began as he leaned forward in his chair. “I know that we are on the same team, and I hope like hell you can figure out how to counter Santiago’s fucking bullets and you will fight with us. Not just to help me protect my pride, but because this fucker is taking women from the streets and from their families and selling them into the sex trade. I cannot allow that to happen in my city. I would also love to know why I get the feeling that you feel guilty about the crimes committed by Roberto Santiago.”
Violet’s gaze flew to his Alpha, and Mason knew he had it right. “Because I do, Alpha Kitty. How could I not? I had the opportunity to end that man twelve years ago, and I failed.”
****
Violet felt a pressure building with her chest. It was as if someone had placed a weight directly on her, and it was restricting her breathing. In a slight panic, she pushed up off the couch and stepped around the coffee table to pace a little.
“Every single person that man has sold into slavery, or had killed, or the lives he has ruined in the past twelve years, is because I failed,” Violet confessed. “This morning, I caught up with Josie Cadman, to thank her for alerting us to Diablo’s gang mobilizing for Santiago. He is directly responsible for the deaths of her parents, and the disappearance of her sister, leaving her all alone in the world. How do you think it feels to stand there talking to her, knowing that it was a man I had failed to kill that took her loved ones from her? I had him, dead to rights.”
Mason leaned forward in the couch, placing his elbows on his knees. “Violet, you’re what, twenty-two years old?”
“Twenty-four, but to be fair, some of those years counted for at least, like seven years because of how much they sucked.”
Mason smiled at her. “Well, even at twenty-four years old that means that you were only twelve at the time. You should never have been placed in the position to have or want to kill a man at that age, let alone take on the burden of guilt for having not done it. No matter who that man is.”
“And if that man is my father?” Violet swallowed hard. Saying it out loud after all these years had seemed almost impossible until she’d actually done it. She looked around at the three men in the room expecting to see horror, or disgust on their faces, but there was nothing but acceptance.
And more confusingly from Mason and Jacob, a healthy amount of pride as well.
“We wondered if you’d find the courage to tell us, baby,” Jacob said gently, and Violet sat down hard on the ottoman beside her.
“You knew?” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “How did you know? I have done everything in my power to keep that hidden. Not to mention Santiago himself went to great lengths to ensure that any reference of a daughter was removed and lost forever. How could you possibly know?”
“You know better than to expect that by simply deleting something on the internet would mean it was gone forever,” Kieran answered. “Despite the atrocities your father is responsible for, you do come from a great man. Stefano Riccitelli was an honorable man. Someone I am very proud to have met.”
Violet wrapped her arms around her midriff, suddenly feeling chilled. “You knew my Poppa?”
Kieran nodded his expression sad. “Mostly he knew my dad, but yeah, I did, too. He was a friend to the Black Ridge pride when my dad was Alpha. You and I met once when you were with him and he visited. You could have only been about six or seven, and your hair was black then. Your Poppa was livid because you’d come to him for a visit and were covered in cuts and bruises. I remember my dad telling him they were consistent with fighting, but not the type of schoolyard fights one might have suspected a child of that age engaging in. These were way more intense.”
Violet searched her memory, and vaguely remembered a time when she had been with her Poppa and visiting some “friends”. The memory was more vivid than most, because Poppa had been so angry. Not at her, never at her, but definitely at her father, not that he gave a shit. During the visit, she did remember a dark haired little boy, older than her by a few years, but still a boy. He had played with her for a while, just some innocuous board game, but it distracted her from the adult conversations around her.
“You played a board game with me,” Violet nodded as the memory cleared. “I won, from memory.”
Kieran grinned. “Yeah, but I totally let you.” His expression turned somber. “I was distracting you from the conversation because Stefano was there to ask my dad to help him remove your father from the equation. He could no longer stand by and allow what Santiago was getting involved in, to touch his beloved granddaughter, but Santiago had gotten too damn powerful, and he couldn’t take you out of that environment without help.” Kieran looked away for a moment, before leveling his stare at her. “But my dad said no. He looked over at you, and despite how withdrawn you were, and the bruises you had on you, he said every little girl deserves to have a father.”
Violet wanted to scream a denial at that. Roberto had never been a father to her, not really. And to have that be the reason for the head of this pride not taking steps or measures against the man laying siege to this city, was an insult. Something in her expression must have given the men an insight into what she was thinking.
“Violet, my dad was a great man, but he made mistakes, too, and
in this case he made a huge one. If you think that the fault of your father and everything he has done in the past dozen years should be placed at your feet, then our pride is just as guilty for the actions that he has committed since that day.”
In that moment Violet realized that perhaps the blame was never hers to bear and it should sit firmly with the man who had been responsible.
“There’s certainly someone else who should take the blame for what happened in the last two days,” Mason snarled, and Violet turned to see a look of distain on his face. “Whoever this fucking IEH organization is, they need to take some of the responsibility for the blood spilled in Chicago.”
Violet frowned. “Why would you say that? Everything I have read from this organization has been nothing but truth. They tell the people that there is a war going on right under their noses, and that they need to take notice and be part of the solution.”
“But they also invite retaliation,” Jacob argued. “Think about it, baby. Do you think there would have been as much bloodshed and pain caused in the past two days if they hadn’t sent that last message? It cannot be a coincidence that everything started less than a day after it was released.”
Violet shook her head. “I don’t accept that. The last message called for the city to stop turning their backs on what is happening right in front of them. There was nothing in there that identified some of the shit Santiago is up to, or the crimes that he is guilty of. It was a call to action for everyone who calls Chicago home to stand up and take notice of what is happening in their neighborhood, and when they see an injustice, or they witness a crime, they do something about it. I did not see anything in that communication that could have sparked the violence of the last two days.”