Page 20 of Ruthless Reign

I was the reason they weren’t hurt.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that murdering two Sons was going to have horrible repercussions, but I told that little voice to shut the fuck up so I could have this moment. Ava Jade would be so proud.

“She isn’t always going to have a car to run people over with,” Hardin said suddenly. “She needs to know how to defend herself.”

Despite myself, I laughed. Fucking laughed.

Kaleb couldn’t conceal his answering smirk, reaching up to scratch the back of his head as if he wasn’t really sure what the fuck was happening right now, but he wholeheartedly approved. “Yeah. I guess she is.”

“There were only two, right, Vixen?” Kaleb asked and whatever tiny amount of joy I’d just managed to find in the darkness was snuffed out in a blink.

I whipped my head around and Kaleb and Hardin were instantly on edge, their weapons raised and aimed in the direction I was looking. To the mouth of the parking lot, where a black Lincoln had been idling, waiting for the return of the two Irishmen I just ran down.

But the lot was empty. The Lincoln gone.

“No,” I said on a trembling breath. “There was one more. In a black SUV.”

“Fuck.”

A horn blared as I revved through an intersection on a red light, slamming my palms against the steering wheel with a string of indistinguishable curses pushing out through my clenched teeth.

“What the fuck were you doing there?” I asked as if the night sky could answer, cranking the wheel right and then left, taking the ramp onto the highway. My teeth clenched hard as I spun the dial for the volume, turning up the music to drown out all other thought and distraction, needing to think clearly. With a single focus.

What now?

Two words. One question. An indeterminable amount of fucking possibilities, each one more repulsive than the last.

What the hell were they thinking bringing her there?

Were they that fucking daft?

She could have been hurt. She could have been killed.

I took the second exit, one that led to a darkened county road where I pulled half a mile into nothingness before turning down the first long drive and throwing the Lincoln into park near a twisted almond tree.

I couldn’t be certain how long I sat there, music blaring, the Pixies begging the question Where Is My Mind.

Yeah. I scoffed into the dark as I turned the music down and released the steering wheel, sinking back into the seat with a sigh. Where the fuck is my mind?

I let my head drop, digging my cell out of my pocket as I ground my teeth. I stared at the message on the screen there with a sour taste in my mouth. It was from Da.

Séamas

Is it done?

Aodhán

It’s done.

But there was a complication.

I sent the replies before I could overthink it.

The phone rang in my hand before I could finish typing out the next message. I swallowed hard and leveled out my breathing, slowing my heart rate enough to answer by the end of the second ring.

“Complication?”

“Finn and Eoghan were?—”

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