Page 4 of Montana Falls
“Did you not hear him,pendejo? He is surprised I’m here, and he is after something. If not a sneak attack on me, then why else would he be after in this house?” I darted my eyes to the kids. “He must have been after his sister, or his… or one of them. Finding out I was here too was lucky for him.”
Did it make Hades my sister? Stepsister? My egg donor had been married to her potential daddy. Did that mean she was part of my family? Or did I disown her and think she was someone else’s problem?Fuck. Was I even right with my thoughts that shewas John’s daughter, or was I just seeing ghosts in the shadows? Maybe she truly was a twin.
Maybe the fact she looked nothing like the rest of Shannon’s family, but a lot like John’s dead first wife, had the same level of smartness as that same woman, and was the right age to be his presumed dead child was simply coincidence.
Yeah. Coincidence.
“We need to get the kids to safety.” I knew the answer to my thoughts before I spoke. “If we can get them out of here, then we don’t have to worry about protecting them.”
I would look out for her and the others because, despite everything inside of me screaming that I was helping O’Malley blood, I wasn’t a complete piece of shit. Innocent people were not who I went after. If I did, then I would be no better than John, and my mama would have rolled in the grave I put her in.
“So what do we do?” Price narrowed his big blue eyes that were filled with nothing but confidence in me, that I hoped not to disappoint. “How do we get them out of here?”
My brain raced with a dozen different ideas, only one seeming slightly feasible even if it wasn’t a pleasant one. It would hurt just a little. Mostly my ego. Maybe my actual soul if things were being controlled by Cassie O’Malley, and not just a fluke.
I whistled loud enough to grab everyone’s attention before I shot off my list of orders.
“Lincoln, call the police. Report the guns and gangsters and pretend to be a passerby or something.”
“The cops?” He wasn’t questioning me, just curious.
I nodded. “I have no power here, but neither does John. The best case situation is he gets shot by an armed officer and we get to watch him die before we get out of here. Worst case, he is distracted and we all end up arrested. Either option is fine with me.” I would have a tantrum about the handcuffs, but with my surname and bank account, I wouldn’t be in them for long.
Sometimes I enjoyed being a billionaire mafia boss with a surname that everyone feared. It was exceptionally useful.
“Sure thing, princess.” Lincoln had his phone out instantly, dialling 999 and kicking off the start of what was either going to be a mass funeral or a cunning escape. Or a handful of hours in an English jail before I found the best lawyers nearby to free me and my men.
I turned to Kody and Price, words coming fast. “We all need weapons. Give the children knives if they don’t have any, and see if there are more shotgun pellets lying around.”
Maddox coughed a little and waved to the sideboard. “They’re kept in there.”
“Okay, good.” Price moved to the sideboard, Kody heading into the kitchen to supply knives as I carried on my demands. “Logan, find some stuff to blow things up. We don’t have grenades, but we need something flammable that’s like-”
“I have some petrol upstairs.” Hades’ soft voice danced in the air, her sniffles softer but by no means gone. “In my chest of drawers. I have a bunch of stuff to start fires, including a can of petrol and matches. Plus, a little bottle of ethanol and there’s a box of firecrackers I stole from… from mum’s bedside table. She took them from Ares a couple days ago but hadn’t got rid of them yet.”
Though I could see the benefits of some gas, I had no idea what ethanol was good for. Logan did. And he thanked the girl for her help and scurried upstairs two at a time, fetching whatever he needed as I turned to the last of my men.
“Mish, I need you to follow me.”
He was ready instantly. “Where?”
“Outside.”
“Are you fucking insane?” Lincoln hissed as he slid his phone back in his pocket and grabbed the shotgun. “You’re not going outside. Either of you.”
“It’s the only way I can distract long enough for us to do something.” I snapped back. “John wants me dead, but his sister wants me more. And she also won’t hurt Misha, so neither would he. I can use that for a moment to give you all the time to shoot.”
“What do you mean?” Misha frowned as he came beside me, happy enough to listen to my orders even if he would be in the slightest bit of danger.
“Cassie won’t hurt you. She said… she said as much when she had me, okay? She kept saying over and over that you were innocent. You were a good boy and she wouldn’t hurt you.”
Never Misha. Not Misha. Misha is good. Misha is innocent.
Over and over again I had heard the same thing and though it hadn’t meant much to me at the time, now it meant a lot.
Cassie didn’t like hurting good people. Innocent people. And whilst I didn’t think any of the people she had killed had been guilty, technically, they were all killers. All had violent streaks and souls with darkness and light. When she shot at Price, he was a killer, too. Even if he was just a teddy bear to me.
But not Misha. Misha was just light. Just goodness. The only people he’d killed had been in my club, and Cassie clearly didn’t know about it.
