Page 124 of Ruthless Reign

“You know this place. The layout. Things we could use to our advantage. I assume since your dad is alumni and makes some hefty charitable contributions, he also knows the layout. There’s lots of open space but also lots of places that are easy to barricade with multiple exits. Places to hide, too, if necessary.”

Fucker had a point.

And with tomorrow being a Sunday, no one would be here save for a couple janitors, and we’d send them home with a couple wads of bills to pay for their silence.

I did a slow turn, considering the gymnasium, thinking it might look good painted red.

“He could be right,” I said, and all eyes turned to me.

I swallowed, slapping down that fluttering, chaotic thing in my chest until it lay flat before speaking again. “If we wait, the risk is greater. We should attack while Séamas is weak, even if we are outnumbered. This is our turf. We have everything we need right here. We can end this, Dad.”

Please. Let me fucking end this.

Dad thought about it, and I could tell he was really thinking.

“If we kill Séamas,” he said, watching for Aodhán’s reaction. “Will his men continue to fight?”

Aodhán’s green eyes shifted, considering. “Some will,” he replied. “Many won’t if they know he’s dead. They follow him not out of true loyalty, but out of fear.”

“Yeah, because he’s a fuckin’ dictator,” Kaleb muttered.

Aodhán didn’t disagree. “But he won’t show himself. Not right away. Not until he thinks he has victory close at hand or if he thinks he has a shot to take you out and make a spectacle of it.”

The calm way Aodhán talked about his father killing mine made my trigger finger twitchy, but I got the feeling he was only trying to be as honest as he could. And right now, it was what was needed.

“Do you think the smaller gangs will join us without Diesel here to back us up?” Ma whispered to Dad.

“Maybe. A couple for sure, but the ones we weren’t certain about we can’t risk contacting in case they go running off to the Sons to report.”

“A couple could make the difference,” Kaleb said, the eternal optimist. “We should get there here.”

Dad nodded.

“This shouldn’t be my choice alone,” he said. “I won’t ask my men to fight a war that they didn’t ask for—not outnumbered like this. It’s a fifty-fifty shot they won’t be going home. It should be up to them.”

My teeth ground. We need every one of those men out in the hall. But I respected him for not wanting to force them, even if I think I would’ve in the same situation.

The metal doors opened, and his men flooded the gym. From the looks on their faces, I knew they were listening to every goddamned word from the other side of the door.

“You don’t gotta ask, boss,” Briggs said. “We’re in.”

“Get word to the other gangs,” Dad said, and the light was back in his cold blue eyes. Violent and bright. “Bring them in quietly and then get some fucking rest, boys. We finish this at dawn.”

Oo fuckin’ rah.

All of us needed rest, but as soon as we were done setting up a makeshift sleeping area, I had a feeling none of us would be using it.

Made from emergency bedrolls and dusty pillows in the area of floor space in front of several rows of curved auditorium seating, it looked like the last place I wanted to lie down and shut my eyes.

It would just make it all come so much quicker. I wanted to live in the last hours before dawn. And judging by the vending machine coffee in Kaleb’s hands, I knew he wouldn’t be closing his eyes anytime soon, either.

Aodhán cleaned and double checked the arsenal of weapons Damien left with us, Hardin beside him—the two of them working in silence to get ready for what was to come.

“Are you scared?” Kaleb asked me, and I shifted to face him.

“Aren’t you?”

“Terrified,” he admitted, the skin between his brows pinching as his eyes roamed my face. “I wish we could get you out.”

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