Page 44 of Ruthless Reign

Even if a selfish part of me was glad she said it.

“No,” Kaleb answered her. “Not as far as we know.”

He looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded. I spoke to Dad briefly after the meet. There still wasn’t any indication the Sons had caught wind of anything. At least not yet.

I had a feeling that if they did, we would know. I didn’t think Séamas O’Sullivan had a single patient bone in his body or any capacity for leniency when it came to his ruthless reign.

But thrones changed hands all the time and all it took was one man to steal a crown. One man to turn the tide.

“That’s good,” Becca pressed, clinging to the positives, but the light in her gaze dulled as she spoke again, her tone shifting, lowering. “And the next payment? I mean, the next time you have to go out to the canyon to meet the Sons—that’s soon, right?”

Kaleb nodded gravely. “Yeah, Vixen. In a few days.”

“And you guys have to be there?”

Neither of us answered her but our lack of reply was reply enough. She nodded to herself, her face falling as she stared at the floor. “Right. Of course you do.”

She cleared her throat and when she lifted her head, there was a smile on her lips but it was forced. Fake. Trying to cover up the way her eyes had turned red and the way the tension had returned to her shoulders.

“I should get back out there,” she told Kaleb and then paused, turning to me. “Do you want me to ask them to leave? You didn’t look happy when you came in and?—”

“They can stay,” I found myself saying before I could stop the words.

“Just keep the music low,” Kaleb added. “We need to be able to hear if someone’s coming.”

She blinked as if she hadn’t considered that and wished she didn’t have to consider it now. “Right. Shit. Okay.”

And then she was gone and Kaleb sat heavily on the edge of my bed, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Is it enough?”

That the local police wouldn’t help but would be our eyes and ears?

“It has to be.”

“Anything else?”

“Dad managed to secure arms and more ammunition for us.”

Kaleb’s eyebrows drew together. “How?”

“Diesel. You and I need to head up to Thorn Valley and facilitate pick up before the meet on Wednesday. The Crows are going to meet us.”

“He actually asked them for help?”

I shook my head. “No. It’s just the guns. For now at least.”

I got the look on his face. It was the same one I wore when Dad told me. He didn’t ask for help. Was so fucking staunchly against it. But Zade convinced him that this was something we could ask for. They got a sizeable ‘donation’ to their arsenal when they took out the Kings and the Dead Men. Enough to share.

Kaleb said nothing for a minute but I could tell he was thinking through something. I leaned against my dresser, arms crossed while I waited for him to spit it out.

“I think we should leave her with them,” he said finally. “When we go up to do the hand off, Becca stays with the Crows.”

I cocked my head at him, resisting my gut instinct to rip his head off.

“Just until after the meet,” he added, and I shut my mouth against the attack it was about to spew at even the mention of it. “Then, as long as she wants to come back, we can go and pick her up.”

I felt my eye twitch. He was right. About leaving her with them at least, but only for the meet. We could pick her up the same night, after it was over. I didn’t trust another soul on this earth with her for longer than that.

As far as we knew the Sons didn’t know about her, at least not more than that Kaleb and I were spending time with her, but maybe that was enough to put her at risk. Make her a target. I needed to be with her. It was the only way I could eradicate any threat against her. The Crows might stop to think. They might be distracted. They might hesitate before taking blood that might see them right back in a gang war.

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