Chaos Kills (Seduce and Destroy #3)

1. Ozzy

ONE

ozzy

A WEEK AGO…

“Ah, there you are.”

Basic blue eyes glance up at me from over his cell. A glass of brandy in his hand, my uncle leans back in his leather chair to assess me. His grey suit demands respect, order, and special privilege behind his solid oak desk.

One he used to chastise Torin and me from constantly.

Torin would take most of the fall. I would return the favor by getting back at Ramsey for fucking with him.

Anticipation hangs thick in the air as I stand, pending the response Uncle Emilio so eagerly and impatiently wanted done.

“Did you do it?”

I’m ready for his wave of anger to spill over when I tell him the answer that’ll send him over the edge.

The thing is, it doesn’t bother me. Emilio Wildes has always thought of me as slow. That I worship the ground he walks on.

Truthfully, I think he’s a waste of time and space.

A man with no morals.

No loyalty flows through his veins. He leads with fear and intimidation. It’ll get him nowhere in the end.

“No.”

Uncle Wildes immediately chucks his phone exasperatedly onto his desk with an unforgiving thud. “Why the fuck not?” He rises, buttoning his suit jacket and alluding that he’s going to go have it handled in a different way. “I don’t know what to do with you, boy. I thought my order was clear enough for you to carry out.”

“Your daughter.”

His face softens at the mention of his only kin. The one thing he’s wanted more than anything since South Shore became his main focus of domination for his own selfish needs. “What about her?”

“She’ll want to do it herself, sir.”

Emilio’s eyes slit back to being annoyed. “Haven won’t.”

She will.

Especially with what my cousin has done. I’m sure she’ll choose to add him to her hit list, which will be something I won’t allow.

He’s blood.

He’s protected me. Torin is all I have besides Cairo and Reeve who still exists in this world.

And her.

Bay Astor-Wildes, with her impeccable black hair that matches what my soul feels like.

What my tattoos look like.

She is all dark features and crystal blue eyes that I’ve only had the chance to view up close once.

They almost killed me.

I wasn’t quick enough at first to dislodge the rifle in her hands, but when she racked the bullet back in the chamber, I would’ve been happy to die right there.

Besides, what did I really have to live for, anyway?

Reeve, Cairo, and Torin are always hovering over me when they think I’m getting too deep. Prison will and could do it to you, I guess.

But that night, I had a mission—kill the man inside who just happened to be Bay’s so-called father—but what I found out was so much more.

I found her.

And since then, I’ve been obsessively watching and protecting her from afar. Yet, I misjudged and failed her the moment Torin sent off her sisters and got Levi Wallace locked up.

Nonetheless, as my uncle stares at me with disappointment in his eyes, I’m surprised he believes I’m so exceptional of an idiot that I wouldn’t recognize his bullshit plan.

I also didn’t identify that Bay Astor had more sitting behind her until I was approached about it.

And then I discovered my illuminating purpose.

Preserving her .

“If you can’t do it,” Emilio huffs, hovering his glass over his lips. “Then I’ll have Ramsey?—”

“No.” I keep my expressionless gaze on him because he’s royally fucking up around here. If he’d stop acting like a selfish prick, maybe he’d see what he could do to make her happy.

That’s the name of his game, isn’t it?

He has some backward-ass notion his power is going to drive her into turning around and accepting him for who he’s supposed to be—her father.

But what do I know?

Ever since I got out of prison, he’s taken me back in like a puppy. Little does the fucker know that I went to prison and stayed put because I wanted to get away from society and how I painfully didn’t fit in.

At least behind metal bars, I read how to blend in. I learned how to fight. I mastered how to be a nothing. I was never going to be Torin, and I sure as hell don’t have the mindset or energy of a fucking looney tune like Ramsey.

Who’s leading to pose another problem in my agenda.

“It’s not her decision,” Emilio grinds out, as if his word is final when it comes to her. And we both know it doesn’t work that way. “It’s mine. And I advised you to kill Matteo De Leon slowly for murdering Lennox and attacking my daughter.”

And the only reason he knows about that is because of me.

“And if it fell on her?” I mutter. “Then what?”

“What do you mean if it falls on her?”he snaps back. “I own Sheriff Muncy.”

“De Leon has specifically told his men, very clearly, that if something happens to him, it’s either Torin’s or Bay’s doing.”

Emilio’s nostrils flare. “Then make it look like a fuckin’ gang-bang duel, for all I care. I don’t give a shit. Just do it. She’s due to marry Ramsey with her stupid requests, while I…” He continues, but I don’t listen.

All I hear is that she’s marrying Ramsey, and my heart stops.

She can’t.

She belongs to us.

Torin, Cairo, Reeve…me in the background.

When The Stowaway started to burn down, I carried her out. When Reeve fake-raped her in front of The Void, I was the one who put rounds in every single one of those motherfuckers’ heads. I took her home. I chased Matteo De Leon out of her house when he broke in and tried to harm her father.

I’ve been there.

I’ve watched her, studied her…she’s…

“I want her.”

The room immediately falls deathly silent around me, but I can still hear the violent pulse of my heart beating inside my ears.

I can protect her.

I can…

I can’t make her happy, but I can bring her sisters back. I know where they are. I fucking know everything.

“You?” Emilio’s one-word question is a mixture between shocked and appalled. “Why would I give my only daughter to you, boy? She doesn’t know you. You don’t associate with anyone besides me and the boys. You barely function.”

But you’d ask me to assassinate Matteo DeLeon?

“Because…” My tongue feels heavy in my mouth as I try to force the words out. The unadulterated idea that I would have to meet Bay in person freaks me out.

Yes, I technically have met her before, but that was by accident.

I never wanted to face her again.I’m not built like my brothers. I work behind the scenes. I am the shadow.

“Oz, you do good work for me. You keep tabs on her, dig up things I never would’ve known…but your social skills…” He tries to resemble a doting parent with how his features soften, but he can’t hide the way he’s not. “You’ll scare her away.”

“Not any more than Ramsey.” I pull my focus up from the dark wood of his desk. I need to show him I’m wholeheartedly serious about this. I could’ve pawned this off on Reeve, but he’s not Emilio’s son. Torin would’ve been the perfect choice if he hadn’t let his emotions get the best of him. Cairo still thinks she’s gonna slaughter us all with his rational yet extreme thoughts. But I…need her to remain here where I can protect her. And not under Ramsey’s dark wrath. “I can keep her here. Ramsey will drive her elsewhere.”

Emilio meets my gaze, and he doesn’t completely dismiss the idea at first because he knows I’m right.Ramsey will get possessive and wild. He’ll fuck up and harm her with his temper, need for men, and she’ll end up fleeing because of his maniacal mindset.

“But can you keep her in line?” my uncle finally challenges. “She’s not?—”

“I know who she is.” I swallow, through the weight of having her belong to me. Not just within my view, but at my side. “Better than anyone.”

“How would you know someone you’ve never spoken to?”

I almost roll my eyes. “I know everywhere Bay goes, sir. I’ve heard everything from the boys. I know how she ticks. What makes her angry or sad. She can’t hide it from me when she doesn’t know I’m there.”

“She doesn’t trust well. And she won’t because you’re linked with me.”

I don’t speak as he pushes his cheek out with his tongue, pondering the pros and cons of me versus his psycho clone of himself.

He couldn’t keep Bay’s mother with him, so why does he think Ramsey will be able to? He’s not that fucking stupid.

“You recognize you’d have to come out of the dark, correct?” I nod, feeling my stomach surprisingly twist in response before he perks a curious yet unassured brow. “Why?”

“Because I want her here.”

Emilio’s expression skews up. “Why would you care?”

A blanket of sweat forms at the back of my neck, but I hold his stare like I’m holding on to the hope he’ll change his mind. It’s a worthless thing to have because it’s proved to be disappointing in the past, but I need this to happen.

I can’t fully protect her with Ramsey and The Void.He’d never let me by, and Ramsey will suffocate her.

“Out with it,” Emilio carps, but it’s not sharp and edged just impatient and intrigued. “What are you planning to do if I allow this?”

I start with the obvious and the thing he’d like to hear most. “Keep her within the family.”

He tsks, then slowly sits back down and swipes his brandy back up. “I heard that.” Taking a long sip, he keeps his eyes locked on me, the freak, in front of him.“However, nothing seems to work.”

If Torin had kept his cool, we may have been able to play it off. However, he ruined everything with the news of Judah, and he’s not been acting right.

He’s not himself at all.

“If I bring her sisters back, I’ll already have a win.”

“Bring them back where?”

“I can get her a house. That’s two things.”

He shakes his head. “She’ll never accept them.”

“She’ll have to.” Because without a place, her sisters will have nowhere to go. “And her father?—”

“ I’m her father, Ozzy,” Emilio seethes, clutching his glass until his knuckles turn white. “She was taken?—”

“Not yet,” I retort flatly. None of that scares me more than her. “She doesn’t consider you anything but the man who turned in Penn Northcott and terrorized South Shore.”

Emilio scoffs under his breath, drawing his drink back to his lips. “She’s a smart one, that girl.”

She is.

That’s why she’ll never become his.

I watch Emilio take another sip of his alcohol while he mulls over the decision to give me his only heir. It’s all going to come down to who he can control more, me or Ramsey.

And on cue, his oldest son strides into the room like the serpent he is.

“Dad, I got that contract you—” He stops when he sees me. I don’t have to turn for the door to know that his distaste for me—no, his intimidation of me—is imminent. “Ah, what is the little freak doing here?”

Emilio flashes him a shut the fuck up look, but doesn’t answer the question. “Does it have the signatures?”

“All three of them.” Ramsey appears at my side and slaps the thick stack of papers in front of his father. “We’ll work on the others. There are two or three more companies that function out of that port. I think with the right motivation, we’ll be able?—”

“There are six,” I cut in monotonously because they’re talking about threatening South Shore’s founding families, who hold ports, to work for them and not Levi Wallace.

“Six?” Emilio repeats through knitted eyebrows, then glances over at Ramsey. “I thought you said there were four?”

“There are,” he sneers back, steering his heated gaze to me for opening my mouth in their conversation. “What does he fucking know?”

“Everything,” Emilio inserts without a second of hesitation. He sighs, as though he knows what I said is what’s best for Bay but doesn’t want to do it.

In a perfect world, his stepson, the one he raised in his own image, would marry his blood. Together, they would rule over The Landings.

Except they’re a few screws loose with Ramsey. More than me and way more than Bay will ever accept or deal with.

“Why doesn’t my son know there are six dealers within South Shore’s port system, Ozzy?”

I stare back at my uncle's unflawed curiosity. “I said I kill people. I’m not a mind reader.”

He chuckles, a rich and deep rumble from his chest that he emits when I’ve done or said a thing that pleases him. “Fair enough. I’ll think about what you said.”

“And what was that?” Ramsey snarks, stepping up to me and standing in the way of me and his dad. “What are you doing around here, mental case? Aren’t you supposed to be still locked up for attempted murder?”

“Murder,” I correct him, focusing on a silver paperweight on Emilio’s desk. “He died.”

“In the hospital.”

“But he still died.”

Ramsey scoffs as if that’s not impressive. “You’re supposed to slaughter and watch the light die out from their eyes, not pray for the best while you walk away.”

“He was fifteen,” Emilio chimes in for me, as if I need to be protected from Ramsey’s bullying. “And he was poppin’ caps in people’s asses while you were out stabbing dogs.”

Ramsey’s face hardens in my periphery, but I never steal a glance at him.

No, he’s a nobody with a severe attitude problem, and if anyone should be scared here, it should be him of me, not the other way around.

“You think you’re hard now?” He bumps my chest, but I don’t budge. “Why the hell my dad even deals with you is beyond me. You’re nothing but a fuckup with a?—”

“You dropped off what you needed,” Emilio chimes in, glaring at the back of his son’s head. “Get to work on the others.”

“How about emotional damage over here tells me where they’re at? Since you know everything, right? Creepin’ around in the dark like a bitch.”

“Ramsey,” Emilio grinds out, his patience peaking over to becoming pissed. “I said get going.”

His son doesn’t pry an inch as he looks down at me like I’m a piece of shit on his shoe before backing up and giving me some space.

“What about the South Shore girl?” Ramsey glimpses over his shoulder at Emilio. “Did she agree? I need to know if I’m about to have a wife cleanin’ up after me and being on my arm.”

Emilio’s silence speaks for itself.

He’s not.