Chapter 54
R iordan
A week on, and life was in danger of returning to peaceful. The city was rebuilding, the clubs operating as normal. Arran, Shade, and Everly had held meetings with the new lead prospect for mayor, a woman named Mary Pressley who Everly used to work with. Apparently Everly had inspired her to battle her anxiety and not let it hold her back.
She was popular with voters. Leading in all the polls.
She’d also praised the warehouse and promised to advocate for the right for women to operate how they wanted to, which I guessed meant she’d taken a bribe, but either way, everyone was happy and no one missed Mayor Makepeace.
I resumed my shifts, though was spending less time on the club floors and more going out with Arran and Shade. Shade particularly wanted me to be geared up to support Cassie in her predator elimination plan. He trained me in taking down targets without being seen, and by the third attempt, told me I was a natural.
Weird way to shine, but I couldn’t deny my surge of pride.
On the home front, strange things were happening. Parcels kept being delivered, all addressed to me. Gifts from Cassie. Clothes, all in my size and mostly shades of grey and black, a replacement leather jacket, a fancy sports watch that I freaking loved.
Bike helmets for us both with a comms system. We sent her borrowed one back to its owner then had fun dirty talking on rides through town.
Another notification had come in for a delivery today, not long after we’d woken.
Cassie turned off the telenovela—Alexia and her lover were now happily engaged and expecting a baby—and tugged me with her to the door, her excitement palpable. “This one is too heavy for ye alone.”
We went to the lift, and I pulled her into my arms as we descended the floors. “Stop buying me things.”
Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Never.”
I tried and failed to keep the smile from my face. I loved the way she loved me. Wholeheartedly. Without restraint. It spilled out into everything she did.
We slowed at the ground floor, and I put my lips to her ear. “Am I going to have to tie you to our bed for you to stop?”
“Ye can try.” She led me through the corridors to the main back entrance to the warehouse, all while I pictured her constrained and naked.
Our bed was new, as well. Delivered yesterday and so heavy it had taken several crew members to help me get it upstairs. Cassie had quipped that she wanted our nest to be furnished with a mattress no one else had fucked on, but I suspected it was to gift me a bed of my own for the first time in years. I got with the programme quickly.
I also loved the way she described our home. A nest. Coming back there after a shift gave me a burst of happiness I could never have anticipated. All because of her.
At the back door, Mick stood beside a smart-looking delivery guy, checking paperwork with his forehead lined. “I wasn’t told to expect this.”
Cassie breezed past them. “My bad. I wanted it to be a surprise. Can ye show us what ye brought?” she asked the delivery guy.
He followed us outside. In the car park, a huge black SUV gleamed in one of the parking spaces. A chunky and masculine ride with a silver grille and darkened rear windows. Cassie made jazz hands at it.
Confused, I tilted my head. “I don’t understand.”
“Struan said that your ride was held together by, how did he put it, Sellotape and prayers? That sounded dangerous. I upgraded ye.”
My jaw dropped. “You bought me a car?”
She beamed. “You needed something more appropriate for work. Can ye blame me?”
Beyond her, the delivery guy wore an expression of shock I imagine reflected my own.
The car was spectacular. I’d thought about how I’d support her if I needed to snatch a body and deliver it somewhere she’d asked. My ancient, knackered Rover was out of the question. Borrowing one of the skeleton crew vehicles had been my solution. This was…
“I’m speechless,” I finally managed.
She peeked up at me. “In a bad way?”
At last, my muscles unlocked, and I brought her in for a hug. “Never. You could never do anything bad. Thank you.”
“Yay! Let’s take it for a spin. You’re already insured.”
“You’re a whirlwind.” Still, I took the keys and helped her inside.
We drove out into the city. The damn car was a dream with every high-end feature she could’ve arranged in such a short space of time.
“You look so fucking beautiful perched in my passenger seat,” I told her.
Cassie preened. Other than when wielding a blade, she was at her happiest when making others happy, and I loved her for it.
By unspoken agreement, I took us out of the city limits and into the countryside. While the sun set, I parked in a lane and ordered Cassie to climb in the back. With rough urgency, I tore her clothes from her and buried my face between her legs until she was screaming, then I fucked her more slowly, christening the car with the first of what would be countless fucks on its plush seats.
On our route home, we passed the edge of what had been Four Milers’ territory.
Cassie took a breath. “Can we go see?”
I turned the car for a macabre tour into the ruined neighbourhood. At the church, I pulled over and idled the engine.
Cassie gazed at the cordoned-off site with big eyes. “They’ve cleared the rubble. I bet they’ve got the bodies out. Do ye think there’s news on who they can identify?”
“I don’t know. Arran can find out.”
Horror passed through me again at the thought of how easily it could have been her, and I unclipped her to bring her to my lap.
“I would’ve died without ye finding me in that lane,” she said.
“I can’t even think about it without my stomach turning.”
“Can we go home?”
I kissed her as a way of answering to show her just how fucked up over it I still felt. Our enemies might be dead, but it would take a long time until the memories faded.
We returned to the warehouse, hunting down Arran and Genevieve.
In the management office, Arran called Kenney. “How many bodies did you pull?”
“How the fuck are you always one step ahead of me?” the chief constable griped. “We got thirteen charred lumps from the basement. No others found in the building. Forensics gave an informal identification for six, Reginald Rose, Sydney Stanley.” He rattled off another three names, none of which were familiar. “Last is Adam Walker. RIP your loss and all that.”
Arran hung up on him. He murmured something soft and cupped my sister’s face.
Genevieve gazed up at him. “I’m glad he didn’t name Convict. That still means something, doesn’t it?”
“He hasn’t come home.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s one of those unidentified bodies, does it? There’s still hope.”
Sadness flickered in his eyes. He blinked it away in a practice I was too familiar with myself. I’d done it for years when protecting my sister from misery she didn’t need to share. “I’m sorry about your dad.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t cut me out.”
Arran’s eyes shuttered closed, and he touched his forehead to hers. “Okay. I’m fucking devastated. I don’t want to believe it, but faith is hard to come by in this world, and he’s been gone for too long.”
I glanced away, tuning them out for the private moment I didn’t need to share. I only tuned back in when Gen said her father’s name.
“I’m okay. I expected it. I feel sad for Adam but I also know he did this to himself.” My sister came to me and squeezed my arm. “I don’t think I could ever forgive him for how he treated you, and with the way he was ready to join a rival gang, he could’ve given them the power to hurt us. Imagine if he’d succeeded and took Bronson’s job. Imagine what information he could have shared on us both. This is going to sound terrible, but like Everly with her dad, I’m not sorry that he’s dead, only on what we missed out on at his hands.”
I felt the same. For her sake, I’d tolerated him. For my own, I’d long stopped missing the father I’d never had.
Cassie tilted her head as if suddenly working something out. “Reginald Rose, is that Red’s real name?”
Arran inclined his head.
She smiled. “No wonder he shifted gears with his nickname. I wish I’d known that while he was alive.”
The two of them chatted about it, and Gen led me aside.
In a low whisper, she said, “The news brings me neatly to something else I wanted to talk to you about. As you know, I don’t want a formal wedding, but Everly is handling it all for us and talked me into a first-sight kind of deal at the registry office. You know, so Arran sees me in a dress and hopefully gets all teary. Will you stand at my side?”
She didn’t want to be given away but instead wanted to bring me closer.
My throat clogged. “I’d love to.”
Genevieve hugged me, and I scrubbed my knuckles over her hair, just to be annoying.
Then I had work to do, and during that, another sister to find.
On my request, Everly joined me in the CCTV office where I was taking my lunchbreak with Manny. Shade escorted her down then stood at the door, his expression conveying how he didn’t trust her being anywhere out of his sight, but after a minute, he managed to leave her with a gruff request for us to be watchful.
My newest, older sister sat neatly with her hands in her lap. Her gaze left Manny who was on a call, and settled on me. “It’s really nice for just the two of us to talk. Do you want the latest on the house?”
I shook my head in the negative. “Favourite colour?”
Everly blinked. “This week, a bold red stripe because Christmas is the next celebration I have on my mind after Arran and Genevieve’s wedding. Yours?”
“Blue.” Like Cassie’s eyes. “Favourite movie growing up?”
A smile stole over her lips. “ The Princess Diaries . How about yours?”
We talked until we ran out of questions. About her baby, about how we would’ve been friends if we’d known each other as kids. I even indulged her subtle query about if I had a big party on the horizon and would I let her do the planning.
After, I hunted down Cassie.
My emotions had been on a rollercoaster the past few days, and I needed her.
But when I entered the apartment, she was on the sofa with a stranger standing over her. A big guy with extensive tattoos down both arms.
And in his hand was a gun.