Page 5 of Montana Falls
He was innocent, and she wouldn’t hurt him. I was sure of it.
I ran my hand over my face, trying not to worry too much about the fact that a single thought of my captivity was enough to make me sweat. I didn’t have time to think about it all when it stopped me from doing things now, though. So I shoved that shit down and carried on faking that I was fine.
“I don’t know why, I don’t care why either. But if you are with me, then you won’t be hurt. At least not by John or Cassie.” I glanced up at Misha as I tucked a lock of my shorter silver hair behind my ear. “You don’t have to come. You can stay here, butI wanted to use you for a handful of seconds to help me distract John, so we could light his ass on fire and shoot him.”
“No.” Lincoln stormed over to me, getting right up in my face like the little dickhead he truly was in his soul. A dickhead who cared and was worried, but a dickhead none the less.
“Okay.” Misha frowned at his brother. “Its fine, Linc. She knows what she’s doing. I trust her.”
“We’re not testing this shit out like a fucking game. If either of you dare to take a step outside, then I will follow. And I sure as fuck don’t think your stalker cares about killingme.”
I glared up at Lincoln, wishing more than anything I had a tank to hit him with until he learned to be more pliable. I fucking loved his stupid ass, but he really needed to learn how to be more of a yes man for me.
“Don’t be apendejo.” I huffed.
“Don’t be self-sacrificing and a brat.” He grabbed my throat and squeezed his tattooed hand hard enough to make me gasp. “End of fucking discussion,boss.” He sneered the last word just enough to annoy me. “Pick something else.”
For what felt like the longest moment, we were in a glare off. But then Price came slinking back over to us, wrapping his arm around my waist as he cut his eyes at Misha.
“Linc is right, baby. You’re not risking yourselves on a hunch. We can do something else,” he said. “Both of you are staying put.”
Misha tried to speak, “But-”
Price cut him off. “But nothing. I’m on Linc’s side with this; if you try to walk out, then we will follow and then I will beat both your asses for being stupid as fuck.” He sighed as Logan came back downstairs with a bag full of things he started tinkering with. “Let’s just chuck a bunch of fire out the front door and hope we kill everyone; it’s the best thing to do.”
“Fine.” My jaw ticked a little, but in all honesty, they were right. It was dumb as fuck to walk outside, even if I was sure my plan would work. So, though I wished I could get my own way, I relented. “Set some fires,mi sol. We need to blow things up and hopefully make an O’Malley kebab. If this works, then I will not be abratabout anything. If it doesn’t, then we try my plan.”
Shrugging out of the hold of two of my guys, I strode towards the stairs, needing to get the rest of my plan into action before John gave up waiting for me to come outside, and simply stormed into the damn house. Or shot us. Through the glass.
Fucking hell.
This was ridiculous. Too much. I didn’t have the mental energy for another shoot out right now, least of all when two of my people were missing, with one of them apparently betraying me. It was a fucking nightmare, and I was tired and a tiny part of me regretted ever deciding that being a leader was something I wanted, when it only led me to being shot at or tortured, more than being sane and at peace.
“Papi, I need you to listen to me for a moment.” With only a little attitude, I moved so I could place my hands on either of Ares’ tanned cheeks; the ones stained with tears I knew he would forever shed. Thanks tome. Always me. “You need to be brave and concentrate so we can make sure your family is safe. Do you understand?”
He glanced at me, lip wobbling but voice firm. “Okay.”
“That man outside… he is evil. He is rotten to his core, and he is not going to care that you are children, or innocent or even… even his blood.” My throat was tight. “He will kill us all, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Ares swallowed hard, wiping away the tears in his eyes and forcing himself to calm down. He did it with effort, but he made it look easy as a mask of indifference fell across his face.
If you didn’t know better, you would have thought he was perfectly fine.
“That guy is our family?” His eyes narrowed. “Mum’s brother, I guess?”
“Yes.” I swallowed hard. “Your uncle; John O’Malley. An evil, evil man. Trust me. So I need you to grab your machete, put shoes on, and take your family to somewhere safe. You need to be a grownup for a few minutes and make sure that you don’t die today, then after that, you can be sad and angry until you are ready to stop.”
“I can do that.” He licked his lips, eyes only narrowing slightly. But I had no time for more explanations or questions. We were in a rush, and in a handful of seconds, he had his machete in his hand, and his sneakers on his feet, the other kids doing the same when he ordered them.
Did it hurt me to protect an O’Malley? To glance down at the silent girl a few feet away, wrapped in her friend’s arms as she did nothing but stare at the sheet that covered her mama’s corpse. As I wondered once more if she was why John was here today.
If it was her, he was after, not me.
Did it piss me off just a little that I was at risk, that my men were at risk, for what was the blood of the very family I vowed to slaughter entirely? I wasn’t sure if I could answer that. I didn’t know if it would make me horrid to admit that a petty part of me was resentful… The tiniest part of me wanted to leave them to die because they were O’Malley’s and I knew that was a vile thing but it was true.
It was just the other ninety-nine percent of me who wouldn’t let children pay for the sins of their ancestors.
Who wouldn’t let innocent people pay for anything at all.
