We walk down the side of the industrial warehouse and fall into formation, watching out for each other. The lack of securityaround the perimeter would never happen at one of our events. Nor would some security guard getting his dick sucked near a side entrance happen.
The man in question doesn’t even have a chance to make a goddamn sound. Tynan emerges from the shadows and chokes him out.
“Go home,” I bark at the woman before she can stand.
She races off in the opposite direction of where we’re going, which is inside.
The moment I step foot inside the door, I know we were meant to come. Tally’s perfume might be faint, but it’s here. And so is my niece. A tsunami of relief crashes over me. I take another big gulp of the air, and I’d put money on my niece being mighty fucking scared, but there’s no hint of her pain or her blood in the air.
The look Keegan shares with me confirms he’s picked up the same.
“They’re here. Daisy’s not hurt,” I say quietly against Tynan's ear. But Ty rarely misses anything, so he figured it out from simply watching us. Still, he didn’t miss what I said.
He tests the air for himself. And though it takes extra effort because he's a Beta,he eventually picks up Tally's scent. I know it’s hers because his pupils dilate like they always do when he talks about her.
“They’re dead. Whoever organised this shite,” he mouths back.
But I laugh out loud, not giving a fuck if our enemies know we’re here. I mean, we’re about to ensure they know it either way, but I get it would be better if we were in position.
I hate this crowd. The Kellys and the O’Connors are like oil and water, thrown into the same space. They’ve been a part of our world since the O’Connors made the streets theirs—until Sammy Kelly made a move, kidnapping ShamusO’Connor’s wife, raping then killing her to start a coup. It didn’t work. His own family sold him out to save themselves, but they never stopped being a problem since that moment. They should have been wiped from the world completely, taken out of the equation, but it was a different world back then, and one of my own flesh and blood forced an alliance. My great-grandfather stopped the fighting by taking a Kelly as his second-in-command.
We’ve been in a strange partnership ever since. Even my da works closely with them. He might be full of trust, but I’ve never forgiven them for what they did years and years back. Never will, either.
“Kee, there’s that cunt.” I talk quietly into Keegan’s ear, pointing over his shoulder.
“Might need more to go on than ‘that cunt,’ Ronin. It’s not like they’re a rare breed around here.”
He makes me laugh again. Too loudly again, apparently, since he twists around and glares. I zip my lips because Tynan knows exactly who I’m talking about, and he takes off like his arse is on fire.
“Fuck’s sake, Ty,” Kee hisses, but he’s also got his guns in both hands and is racing after him.
I whistle through my teeth, and the two of them are so attuned to the sound they stop without me saying a word. The prick I was referring to is the slimy pimp that manages the girls who jumped Tally. But for a sliver of time, our wife takes precedence over everything. I flick my chin her way, watching them finally take notice.
I get the confirmation I was after from Ty. As I walk past Kee, the usual scowl on his face disappears. It might only be a half a second, but the look of God-honest happiness, that flashes on his face lets him off the hook. Except, instead of giving us all amoment to watch our wife dazzle like a diamond in a pile of shit, Kee takes off.
I guess seeing Tally lit a fire under him, after all.
I grab a hold of the back of his suit jacket. “At least we can go in from that direction, let her know we’re here.”
Tynan gets where I’m coming from. Kee’s glare deepens, his eyes darting from her to the man who’s about to meet his maker. Lucky for Kee, seeing our wife and letting our wife see us wins out.
Chapter Fifteen
TALLY
As we race out of the doors and into the night, gunshots and screams chase us out.
“Keep your eyes closed,” I insist to the young girl, and she complies.
She’s small, maybe no more than eight, and I want to read all the signs she’s been well looked after, but I have lots of questions. Since everything is happening behind us, I stop next to a dumpster, hiding us in the shadows.
“Are you okay?” I ask quietly, holding her close still. My knees are resting on the ground, and I keep her back pressed to my chest, sitting her on my thighs.
She nods her head.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
She nods again, turning slightly to look at me. “I was at school, and the teacher said my ma had been in a wreck. One of the guards was going to take me home. It’s why I went with him because he was one of ours.”
