Page 86 of Destroy (Deadly Hearts 2)

ChapterThirty-Seven

Ruby

Making my way downstairs, after showering away great sex and packing my bag to leave in a hurry – yet again, I contemplate on something I did, or rather didn’t do, with Cillian. We have never had the “do I need to use protection” talk. I mean with four other guys in the room going bareback, one would assume that we are all fine with it. I should have said something, but to be honest, Declan’s previous comment about his twin not being with anyone since Siobhan stuck with me, so I’m sure he is all squared away. Assuming, of course, Declan knows that for a fact.

Anyway, what’s done is done. I doubt Cillian would have knowingly gone into it if he knew he shouldn’t have. He doesn’t strike me as the type to be an insensitive asshole.

“Hey,” I say when I see them all gathered in the front room. “We ready to go?”

“Tadgh isn’t here yet,” Cillian says worriedly, but then turns as a car crunches on the gravel outside. He peeks around the drawn curtain and relaxes. “He’s here now.”

I tense up. I can’t help it. Acting on pure instinct, I cross over to Declan and wrap my arms around him. He smiles down at me and kisses me swiftly, but I grab his head and deepen the kiss until I can hear that Tadgh has entered the room. Nothing wrong with showing him that I do in fact belong to Declan, in a manner of speaking, of course.

I hear a grunt and satisfied that my point has been made, I pull back. Declan is giving me a curious look, but I ignore him and cuddle into him, placing my head on his shoulder.

I don’t know what it is about that giant psycho that strikes fear into my soul, but fuck if it isn’t real.

“Are you okay?” Declan whispers in my ear.

“Mm-hm,” I murmur. “Just fine.”

He kisses the top of my head and then untangles himself from me to cross over to Cillian. They have a quiet talk with Tadgh, who seemingly can’t resist shooting me a glance over the tops of their heads.

“Seriously?” Cillian spits out all of a sudden. “That fuck.”

“What is it?” I ask, going over to them.

“He has already ordered the hit on you,” Declan says. “But don’t worry about it, we’ve got this.”

I nod slowly, my blood running cooler. It’s just any other day at the office. I thrive on the darkness and the thrill of this world and now I have to embrace that and push the slight smidge of fear aside.

“What else?” I ask.

“He’s taken four men with him. Highest ranking members of the mafia,” Tadgh says, his black eyes focusing on mine.

I blink. “Really?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.

“What are you thinking?” Declan asks with a frown.

“Full sweep,” I say. “You up for it?”

He balks slightly.

Cillian chokes back a cough.

Tadgh grunts his approval.

“Why not?” Declan says, recovering quickly. “If you are absolutely sure.”

“I am. And to be honest, I want him to know I’m coming.”

“Ruby, no,” Declan says, taking my arm and squeezing it. “You are not going anywhere near them.”

“Yeah, I am. I’m not sitting back and letting you have all the fun. It’s been a while since I got my hands dirty. I want to scrub blood out from under my fingernails. I want…”

He cuts me off by pressing his lips to mine. “You don’t have anything to prove,” he murmurs.

“I do. To myself. I will leave the four protection detail to you, I want to take out Connor myself.”

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