Page 95 of Midnight Beast

Cormac stares me down. I stare right back. He’s bluffing and full of shit, but I can tell it has some effect on his traitor cousins. They begin to stand back up, their guns still in their hands, and if Cormac convinces them to make some final stand here and now, it’s going to be a fucking bloodbath. I might not want to kill them, but Julien won’t have any problem emptying his clip in all their skulls.

“That’s enough.” Seamus speaks, clear and sharp. He steps forward and presses the barrel of his gun against Cormac’s head. “This is over.”

Another quiet moment. Cormac’s mouth drops open as he glances back. Seamus only stares at him, expression hard, and surprise turns to more rage as Cormac realizes he’s been betrayed.

“You idiot,” Cormac says.

“Everyone, it’s done,” Seamus says over Cormac’s protest. “Put down your guns. The only person that has to get hurt here is Cormac. He’s been wrong from the start. He’s using you all, just like he used me, but I’m not letting it happen anymore. Put down your guns.”

“He’s right,” I say, stepping forward. “Only Cormac has to pay the price for this if you all lay down your weapons right now. We’re fuckingfamily, even if Cormac wants to tear us all apart.”

Slowly, one by one, the traitor cousins realize there’s no reason to keep fighting. When the first of them drops his gun, that starts a cascade of clattering metal.

“Fuck you,” Cormac snarls. He jerks his gun forward, aiming it at me, but he’s too slow.

I pull the trigger. Red blooms on Cormac’s chest. Seamus steps aside and out of the way as Cormac gurgles at me, tries to squeeze his trigger, but doesn’t have the strength. I step forward and put the gun to his forehead.

“You took your shot, but you missed. You don’t get a second chance.”

I shoot him in the skull. Blood and brain matter spray the truck and the pavement as his corpse slumps to the ground.

The night is quiet after the gunshots. Nobody moves. Everyone’s staring at Cormac’s dead, ruined body, his face a bloody mess, his skull shattered into little pieces.

“Well, that’s over with,” Julien says and turns away to his cars. “Pleasure doing business with you all, boys.” He and his French compatriots disappear into their vehicles as I walk over to Seamus and squeeze his shoulder.

“You did the right thing,” I say softly. “I know that was hard, but it was right.”

“I don’t regret it.” He nods at me, but I can see the sorrow in his eyes. It’s not easy to kill a friend you once looked up to.

I nod at him and pat his shoulder as my loyal soldiers round up all the dropped guns and get the traitor cousins herded into the truck. Once they’re piled inside, Seamus gets behind the wheel and drives the whole lot of them back into the city, back to the Hayes Group warehouse, where they’ll put the drugs back where they belong.

Niall walks with me back behind the grocery store. We leave Cormac’s body where it fell. “This is going to be on the news,” hesays, gesturing back at the corpse, lying alone in a parking lot. Abandoned in the end. “Everyone’s going to know.”

“Good. I want the whole city to hear about what happened tonight.”

“The heat’s going to be bad, you know that, right?”

“We’ll weather it. We always do.” I nod at Niall and he grins back.

“Guess I’ll see you at home,” he says, and our group splits back up as the sounds of sirens blaring in the distance draw closer and closer.

Chapter 48

Valentina

Ilike planning jobs. I reallyhatewaiting while someone puts my plan into action.

Especially when it’s Ronan.

There are too many variables tonight. I wanted another week to get everything hammered out, but he made it clear that wasn’t possible. I wanted to argue, and he only kissed me and promised he’d come home.

That was nice, but it didn’t really help solve my issue.

Which is I’m an anxious, worried wreck.

“You don’t have to keep peeling if you don’t want to, dear,” Dierdre says. She’s sitting across from me, chopping vegetables.

“No, no, it’s okay.” I take a deep breath and get back to work. “How many potatoes am I doing, exactly?”

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