Page 36 of Blood & Heartache

“Hold on, are you saying Melony is who shot the mayor tonight?” I demanded.

Luca just nodded.

“Holy fuck, this is bad,” I said with a slightly hysterical laugh. “How severely was Wilson hurt?”

“Two bullets to the chest is what I saw. One probably hit a lung, the other was lower so might not have hit anything vital. Personally, I’d say about a seventy-five percent chance he’ll make it,” Luca answered.

“What the hell are we going to do? Is it better for the mayor to live, or do we ensure he doesn’t make it?” I asked as a sinking feeling sat like a rock in my stomach. “We have no idea what Gunner said, what information he leaked, not to mention the fact that when they fingerprint the fucking house, they’ll know it’s him.”

“No, they won’t,” Ryker announced as he entered my room. “I made sure none of our fingerprints or DNA are registered in any database. Even if they have his prints, he’ll come up as unknown.”

The other three entered just behind Ryker, all of them dropping their gaze to Gunner. Jace walked over to him, pulled large zip ties out of his pocket, and secured Gunner’s arms behind his back. While this total betrayal surprised me coming from Gunner, I’d known something was wrong. I just didn’t think it would lead to the mayor being shot by a scorned mistress and one of my men setting me up to fail.

“Luca, was there any proof that Gunner is working with Flora or Harvey?” I questioned as the reality of that possibility struck me.

“No, he wasn’t involved in that from what I could tell, but Ryker should be the one to do a deep dive into his devices,” Luca pointed out. “I don’t think Gunner is smart enough for Harvey to want to use him, but who knows? After what he said to you, though… I doubt he’d help someone as evil as Harvey.”

I agreed with that assessment, but clearly, I had to ask after missing the fact one of my lieutenants could turn on me like this. Daddy had hand-picked them all personally to work with me, so what made him choose Gunner over someone else? Had I put too much trust in these men? Was my rule never to get attached to people something I needed to live by in all situations?

A hand gripped my chin and forced me to look up into Ryker’s familiar eyes. “I heard everything he said to you, Astin, and none of it was true. You’re not a monster, no matter how many vengeful alters you have hiding inside you. Yes, you lost your father, but you aren’t alone, not as long as I’m still alive.” Releasing my face, Ryker kneeled before me and clasped his right hand to mine. “That day I swore my blood oath to you, I meant every damn word of it. I promised to always have your back, to protect you, and be by your side. Trust me when I say I realize I fucked up most of those things leaving you alone to come here, but I did it to keep my promise to you. Tin-Tin, I’ll never leave you again, even if you order me to because I vowed my life was yours.”

Tears welled up in my eyes no matter how much I fought against my emotions. Now wasn’t the time to be a blubbering idiot because my first love was telling me all the things I wanted to hear. Everything in me wanted to believe him, but if tonight had showed me anything, it’s actions spoke louder than pretty words. Gunner believed he was all in, ready to help and support me as I took my place in this world. Then when he finally pulled back the curtain and saw what that world was like, he wanted to run away so fast he didn’t care who he trampled in the process.

“He wasn’t wrong about everything. I almost killed you, and I did take out our men when they got in my way. How can you say that isn’t something a monster would do?” I challenged but waved off his answer. “This isn’t what we should be worrying about. My feelings won’t matter for shit if we have the police investigating us. Even if they don’t have Gunner’s fingerprints, they have Melony, right? Wouldn’t she simply shift the blame onto us?”

“About that,” Luca murmured. “Melony won’t be talking to anyone.”

Twisting, I faced the man sitting so calmly next to me. “Did you kill her?”

“Not yet, but she still won’t be talking to anyone. I planned on staging a scene and making it look like she killed herself over Wilson ending their relationship,” Luca shared. “It would put everything in a nice neat little box the police will be overjoyed to receive. The only thing I’m unsure of in this plan is the mayor himself.”

When he explained his plan, it really was rather brilliant. It would give them someone to blame who had the perfect reason to attack the man in a jealous rage and leave us the fuck out of it. Yet the mayor posed the biggest problem.

“Who do we have at the hospital who can get us the information we need?” I asked, looking at the five men who still claimed to be loyal to me.

“We have some people in the Family whose wives work at that hospital. If I can borrow your office, I’ll reach out and see who can get us what we need,” Jace said.

“Yes, go,” I urged. “The sooner we know all that we can about what’s happening, the better. What else do we need to get ahead of while this situation is still young?”

Braxton poked Gunner’s body with his foot. “What are we going to do about him?”

Now, that was the ten-million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

Chapter 16

I’d decided to have Gunner detained in one of the interrogation rooms in the basement. The last thing I needed was for him to say anything to anyone or possibly communicate with law enforcement or some other enemy who’d help him to rid the world of my evil. In twelve hours, I’d be holding my address to the Family, followed by the oath ritual. This couldn’t have happened at a worse time, but maybe that’s what Gunner was hoping for.

We had all moved out of my suite and into the conference room where we could act and talk freely without fear of the wrong ears listening in. Liu joined us as did Boykov, who had returned with my laptop. “Seems it was too much to hope you’d have a full night’s rest before dealing with the Family.”

“Yes, well, I’d been thinking it was a rather peaceful evening, so it’s probably my fault,” I muttered as I booted up my computer.

There was a knock on the door, something that didn’t happen unless it was urgent. I looked over at Ryker, but he seemed as puzzled as I was at the sound. He pulled out his phone, and I assumed was looking at the video feed to see who it was.

“Fuck,” Ryker swore. “The cops are here.”

“You have to be joking,” I snapped. “Why the hell would they come here? There’s no reason at all they should have connected the dots to us. Unless you missed something, Ryker.”

“Astin,” Atticus cut in. “While speaking to the police might not be something you want to do, leaving them to wait isn’t going to help. I suggest you listen to what they have to say. If we know what they’re thinking, then it will give us knowledge as to how best to proceed.”