“Well,” I say, stepping toward him, “where oh where is my husband? I sure hope you didn’t lay a single fucking finger on him.”
He shakes his head before I even reach him. “I wasn’t there.”
I step on his hand, his scream cutting through the room as Demo flinches behind me. I crouch beside the Rogue slowly, keeping my boot exactly where it is while the bones shift under the pressure.
“Wrong answer.”
“I swear,” he sobs. “I swear I wasn’t there. Rook had him. Canon wanted him awake for the run. Varina was there too. That’s all I know.”
Varina. Oisín still loved her. If she stood in that room while they hurt him, I’m going to make her understand exactly what family costs when it becomes cowardice. Canon I understand. Rook I understand. Men like that are blunt instruments pretending to be people.
I stand as the Rogue curls around his ruined hand, sobbing into the blood on the floor. “Pike,” I call out.
“Yeah, VP?”
“Hold this building. Anyone breathing answers to Moth when he gets here. Anyone reaching for a weapon stops breathing first.”
“Got it.”
“Ash, Demo, with me.”
Sol is still standing outside like a fucking idiot when I exit the building. I almost get to him when my phone rings, Moth’s name rolling across the screen. Holding up a hand to my father, I answer the call, my smug smile fading into pure, unadulterated anger.
Moth debriefs me on the current status of the run but it’s the second piece of information that sets me on fire. “Thanks,” I mutter before shoving my phone into my pocket and looking at my father. I step up to him, inches from his face as I stuff the knife against his neck. “Loyalty, my fucking ass. You see, my men aren’t stupid.” Sol’s eyes widen a little as I start dragging the blade across his neck. “And if I find out you fed the information needed for the Rogues to take what’s mine? I willgutyou.”
Sol steps back. “Son…”
That’s all the answer I need but Oisín’s safety comes first so I just push past him. We hop back into the car and I dial Bricks. “West lot. Old auto barn.”
There’s a pause, just long enough for him to understand what that means. “Fuck. I’m five out.”
“Be three.”
He laughs once. “Yes, VP.”
Ash throws me a new gun just as we serve onto the gravel, Demo checking his and nodding before we get out. I’m not surprised to find the barn door locked when we get there. I kick it once near the latch. Wood cracks but holds so I kick it again, harder, and the frame gives with a splintering shriek that disappears beneath the roar already building in my ears. Light spills through the opening, chaos erupting within as someone yells Canon’s name.
Then I hear a sound that stops me worse than a bullet could have.
Oisín.
Just a broken, hoarse sound from somewhere deeper in the barn, small enough that any other man might miss it under the chaos.
Everything in me goes still for one breath.
Then I step through the broken door with blood on my hands, a gun in one grip and a knife in the other, and there isn’t a man in that room who gets to leave untouched.
Oisín
Thesoundofgunfirereaches me before anything else does. At first, I think it’s another sound pain my mind has made up, something my body invented while dragging me in and out of consciousness because it can’t decide whether staying awake is worse than disappearing. Then it comes again, followed by shouting, and something heavy hitting the floor hard enough to send a tremor through the chair beneath me.
The men around me react before I can fully understand what’s happening, everyone turning their attention toward the entrance.
Saint.
Gunfire cracks closer, loud enough to punch through the ringing in my skull. Someone screams outside the room as abody hits the wall beyond the door with a wet thud, followed by a low, furious voice I know down to the marrow even though the words blur through the haze.
Saint is here, though the relief hurts worse than some of the blows. I pull against the straps without meaning to, and the leather bites into torn skin. A broken sound tears out of me, Rook looking back at me with panic flashing under his cruelty before he turns toward the door again.
