“Time to go.”
He doesn’t wait even a second for me to follow, just gets out of the car and hurries across the street. I scramble after him, and from the corner of my eyes, I see others coming in from all sides.
I’ve already got a knife in my boot, a gun on my waist, and plenty of ammo in my pockets. Still, I’m not sure I’m prepared for what the fuck we’re walking into.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jaxon
There is a crowd of people around us, and I do my best to keep my eye on Fionn so I don’t get lost. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. He didn’t give me directions, like he never does—I just stick to his side, and follow his lead.
We walk down an alley and end up in a dark parking lot that could hold roughly twenty cars. The far end is a tall brick wall with a wire-metal fence on top, bushes and weeds poking through the holes.
A handful of the most expensive cars are parked spaciously. The ground is wet from the rain we had earlier, and the air is chilly. Fionn yanks open a door that isn’t locked, which feels stupid—or he has someone on the inside.
Maybe that’s why he’s so sure about it this time. Maybe there is someone on the inside helping.
We all flood inside like rats, and I’ve never felt small in all my life—until now, surrounded by these large men with beards and muscles and beanies and large jackets. I don’t fit in at all, but tonight, I am part of them.
The first gunshot goes off, and I duck out of instinct. A few of the guys around me flinch, but the sound seems to enrage them and they move faster to join the chaos. My hand is already on my gun, pulling it out and readying it in case I have to use it. It wouldn’t be the first time I shot someone, and each time I do, I get better at it. My aim is good, but I need to work on steadying my hand.
Shouting, things breaking, gun shots, punches… all the sounds you expect to hear in an all-out mafia brawl assaults my ears the moment I enter the large space. I have no idea who is who, but I recognize one of the guys who walked in beside me and see him catch a right hook which disorients him, so I take off that way and pistol whip the guy who hit him. He drops to the ground, groaning. Someone stomps their boot down right on his throat, and he doesn’t make another sound.
The room is full of men fighting, which is a big problem—because where the fuck is my mother?
The room floor starts to fill with bodies, blood splatters the walls, and the shouts turn to groans. I find Fionn through the crowd with a big grin on his face. My stomach fills with butterflies, and I walk through the chaos right to him.
“It’s time,” he says, patting me on the shoulder.
Adrenaline courses through my veins, my vision going blurry as I follow after Fionn down a hall towards quiet. Blood covers these walls too, along with brain matter, but I don’t see any bodies. Not sure what the hell that means. I put my attention on Fionn, following after him like an obedient pet.
We turn into a room. My gaze goes first to the tall man standing in the corner, then to the woman tied to the chair with a gag in her mouth and tears in her eyes… and then to the body lying on the ground, unmoving, blood dripping from their mouth.
My chest seizes, all the air in my lungs refusing to go anywhere. I can’t take more in. I can’t let it out. I’m just frozen.
Everything around me stops. It’s quiet. My vision darkens around the edges.
It’s a loud screech that has me coming back to focus. And when I blink, my mother is bleeding from above her eye and screaming like a lunatic.
“—like that! Do you know who I am? Do you know who my husband is? I will have you killed! Fucking murdered!”
She goes on, but I drown it out, stepping further into the room and crouching down beside the body.
Vincent’s eyes are empty, blank. Long gone. He’s been dead awhile now, his skin already ashen, but as I scan his body, I don’t see from what. The only note of an injury is the bit of blood coming from his mouth.
“What did you do?” The word comes out raspy, uneven, and not at all loud.
My gaze darts to my mother, who is still going on about pointless shit, and I hop to my feet and grab her by the throat. “What the fuck did you do?!” I bellow, and she finally shuts up.
No, Vincent and I weren’t exactly friends, but we sort of were? We weren’t close, and he had been threatening me, but he was only doing his job. He helped me out these last few months, and he was the one person who gave me a chance. I’ve known him since I was a kid. I knew the game, and because of that, I was able to trust him. He didn’t judge me or blackmail me; he gave me chances. Laid everything out in front of me and let me make my decision. I’m more pissed than I am upset, because it’s not like he was innocent. Clearly he isn’t, but who the fuck does she think she is, doing this to people?
“You think you can just hop from family to family and do whatever the fuck you want?” I bark.
“How dare you!” My mother gasps, and I squeeze her neck tighter. Her cheeks start to go red, her eyes widening with fear.
“Okay, that’s enough, lad,” Fionn says, putting his hand on my shoulder.
I grit my teeth harder, staring at the woman that I loathe with every fiber of my being. I don’t want to let her go. I want to watch the life leave her eyes. I want to see the last breath she takes. I want to see her life end.
