Page 71 of Unhinged
Gary didn’t respond, just stared wide-eyed at Noah. As did the others. This Noah had been born of so much pain and trauma and had come out stronger for it. His brothers seemed fascinated by Noah, but Adam… Adam had never been so horny in his whole fucking life. Noah looked fierce and so fucking sure of himself that it made Adam want to drag him out to the car and fuck him right then and there.
But there was no time for that. There was truthfully no time for any of it, including Noah perched in Gary’s lap, head tilted, as if he was truly trying to gauge the man’s fear.
“Noah likes to play with his food before he eats it,” August said. “Excellent.”
Noah stood but continued to stare down at the older man.
“I mean, it’s only fair he’s the one who gets to kill Gary,” Avi said. “Right? That kill belongs to Noah.”
Adam snapped his head around. “Noah’s not killing anybody. Just because he’s being inducted into the family doesn’t mean he needs to be initiated with blood.”
“Every one of us had to make our first kill,” Archer said, as always sounding inconvenienced.
“Noah said it himself,” Avi reminded. “He said this was a test. Dad is clearly using this as some sort of experiment. If Noah is part of this family, he’s going to have to get his hands a little dirty.”
“No—”
Noah cut him off. “I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have to,” Adam swore.
Noah looked at Gary, his gaze almost frigid. “I don’t have to. I want to. But not until it's over. I want him to watch the others die first.”
“Then it’s settled,” Archer said. “Get the man’s phone and let’s get this over with.”
“What if they don’t show?” Noah asked again for the hundredth time, chewing on his thumbnail as he watched Adam gaze out the window through a pair of binoculars.
They sat in an abandoned shack that had once been a bait and tackle shop, approximately five hundred yards away from an old wooden building that had once been a fish hatchery, whatever the hell that was. Adam had said the whole marina had shut down years ago and had sat abandoned for more than a decade. It was one of the forgotten properties in Thomas Mulvaney’s vast portfolio.
“They’ll show,” Adam promised without looking up from his post. “Your idea was smart. Even my father thought so.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Thomas had said the plan was reckless and risky. But he’d also said he was going to sit back and let it play out. He was putting a lot of faith in Noah. Too much faith if he was being honest. Noah’s bravado from the other day had vanished in a puff of smoke the moment they’d posted up in this dirty dilapidated shack that reeked of rotting fish, even though there were none to be found.
Still, the area was perfect for their purpose. The rotting wooden building would go up like a tinderbox once they were all inside, and—unlike Gary’s cabin—was unlikely to start a forest fire. Thomas didn’t strike Noah as much of a conservationist, so he imagined it had more to do with unwanted attention than saving wildlife and vegetation.
Noah shook his head, chewing harder at his nail until Adam had reached up and tugged his hand from his mouth without looking, dropping it to Adam’s jean clad thigh.
“You’re going to chew off your own hand like a bear in a trap. If you need a distraction, I have something you can play with,” Adam said, clearly amused with himself.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Archer muttered in Noah’s ear.
“Yeah, coms are live. Try not to act like heathens,” Atticus added.
It felt weird hearing other people in his ear, but there was something weirdly exciting about it, too. The adrenaline rushing through his veins made him jittery, his heart racing like he’d had too many energy drinks.
Adam chuckled. “Baby, relax. I can literally feel your nerves from over here.”
“Here being six inches to your left?” Noah sniped, feeling suddenly sulky.
“We don’t have time for marriage counseling today,” Avi said, voice low. “How about we save the hurt feelings for when we’re on the other side of this pile of bodies? No?”
Adam continued on like his brothers hadn’t even spoken, looking only at Noah. “Relax. Everything is going exactly as planned.”
“You know who says that? That one person in every movie right before it all goes to shit,” Noah said, earning another amused smirk from Adam.
Adam was right, though. Gary had sent out the distress call, alerted his pervy friends that they had a verifiable threat to their operation and he was calling an emergency meeting to figure out how to rectify the situation as quickly and quietly as possible. He’d been impressively convincing. Noah assumed it was the hunting knife pressed to his balls and not a sudden attack of conscience.
He gnawed on his lip. “Seriously, though, there’s twenty of them and only six of you.”
