Twisted Games of Revenge (Sinners of Ravens Hollow #3)

Chapter 41

After the boys brought me home, I climbed into bed and slept for three days. Every time I woke, someone different would be holding me tightly, kissing me and telling me I was safe and loved. Our conversation has been minimal, mainly Ricky and Maddox demanding I eat and take my pain meds, nothing real.

Nothing about what happened.

But a comment I just overheard has my ears pricking up and me wanting to venture out of bed for the first time. The hotel is gone . I’m sure that’s what I just heard Ricky say.

“Alex says we need to get down there and started on the clean-up today,” comes Maddox’s voice from just outside the door to my bedroom. “Is she awake?”

I’m awake, just. When I woke this morning to the smell of fresh brewing coffee, it was Ricky’s arms embracing me. He left in search of breakfast for me, but he didn’t get far. Maddox must have been waiting right on the other side of the door. The night of the auction, I recall Valentina saying something about them being too busy putting out fires to be concerned with me.

“What happened to the Flamingo Hotel?” I ask, sitting up in bed, running a hand through my tangled curls.

Ricky glances over his shoulder, surprised to see I want to talk or that I’m sitting up. I’m not sure which one.

Maddox also pushes his way into my room, with a fresh mug of coffee that he places on my bedside table before coming to sit on the end of my bed.

“What happened?” I ask them again when neither of them have answered me.

“Enzo,” Maddox mutters.

Ricky joins me back in bed, resting his head against the headboard. He looks exhausted. “After they arrested you, we all waited down at the station for you to be released. But none of the fucking corrupt pigs would tell us anything. It was Maddox who realized your tracker was moving and you weren’t even in the holding cell anymore.”

“The cops on Enzo’s payroll orchestrated the whole thing, making sure you were separated from us,” Maddox adds, and it all makes sense. It’s what I had assumed.

“But they didn’t know about the tracker.” I find it now hung around my neck and clutch it tightly in my hand. “They were fucking idiots; they didn’t even search me properly. I fucking knew something was up.”

Ricky pulls me in closer and kisses my hair. “Lucky for us.” He offers a half smile, and I see how that night is still haunting him. “When we realized it was a set-up, we went straight to Geovani’s place and got the chopper. We knew there was no way Enzo would let us into his estate if he was holding you there. That’s when we knew Marco was involved. Geo’s place was trashed and he and Dani were gone.”

“I saw you through the window of Enzo’s office. You know Enzo wasn’t the one in charge anymore, right? Marco had taken over; he was the one dishing out orders to Enzo. He lost his shit when he realized Alex had tricked him by marrying me already.” A laugh escapes me. It’s not funny, I know it’s not, but fuck, it was satisfying to see that look on both their faces, knowing we had something over them.

Maddox pulls my hand toward him, kissing the back of it. “We figured as much. He must have been the disguised voice Enzo was talking to on the recording, that or it was the lawyer.”

“They had some lawyer there. You know it was Marco who killed Detective Carillon. He tricked Dani and had her teach him how to hack into your servers, he was using her the whole time.” A dull, throbbing ache settles in my chest, a heavy weight I can't ignore. A pain that feels like it will be there forever, my brother’s betrayal cutting so deep.

“He’s lucky he’s dead,” Maddox mutters, his eyes darkening, and I can only imagine what he’s thinking right now. “Being shot by his girlfriend was a lot more humane than he deserved.”

A tear slips down my cheek, but I swipe it away. I won’t cry over my brother anymore. His greediness is what got us all twisted up in this war in the first place.

Ricky strokes my arm tenderly. “By the time we got off the chopper, Enzo was waiting for us, and Marco had already snuck you out of there. Down some underground tunnel none of us even knew existed until yesterday when Alex and Geovani went and searched the estate.”

Maddox’s haunted eyes lock with mine, his grip on my hand tightening. Like he’s afraid to let me go ever again. “It must have been then he realized you had a tracker on you, because we couldn’t get a signal again. The boys found your necklace in the tunnel.”

I stare back at them, the unspoken silence reflecting the fear they must have felt knowing they had lost me. Geovani would have been losing his shit. And Alex, I don’t even want to imagine. “What did you do?” I whisper.

Ricky picks up the story. “We got a call from our security guards at the club. We thought he had taken you to the Flamingo Hotel. It was early hours of the morning, not long after the club had closed when we received a call to say the place was alight. We split up, two of us went down there, the other two kept searching for you. Everyone was involved. Sloane had all the Iron Strykers out on the streets as well, searching every possible location we could think of.”

“The Flamingo Hotel was too far gone. The fire crew tried to save it, but it’s a burnt-out shell now,” Maddox adds, and my heart sinks for them.

“I’m sorry. I know you boys loved that place.”

“It’s just a club, baby doll, we can rebuild. It was you we were desperate to find.”

“Sometime mid-morning,” Maddox says, “one of them girls from The Raven’s Nest messaged Sloane with a notification about the charity auction that was taking place at midday. We all knew that’s where you would be. But we couldn’t get into the place. It was so tightly manned with all the rogue cops working for Enzo.”

“Then Dani came running out the side of the building, from one of the fire escapes. She was bawling her eyes out, completely distraught because you were still inside, and she said Valentina had you. Said you helped her escape. She was also our ticket back into the place. With her and Malachi’s computer expertise, the two of them worked together and short circuited the security system, getting us access through the back entry just in time to see Enzo trying to sell you in that auction.”

“By helping Dani escape, you saved yourself,” Maddox adds, his eyes meeting mine.

My head drops. “I couldn’t save our baby.”

“Enzo knew, baby doll.” Ricky pulls me into him. “Enzo knew about the baby, he hurt you with the intention of making sure the baby didn’t survive. There was nothing you could have done.”

He hugs me close, his arms strong and warm around me. And I let him, needing his strength to pull me through. I can’t slip back into the horrible thought patterns I have been having since I found out my baby was gone. After some time, I pull away with a heavy sigh. “Where is Dani? Is she okay?”

Maddox looks to Ricky. “She’s staying at Geovani’s apartment. He’s over there checking on her now. But from what he said yesterday, I don’t think she is.”

I sit up a little straighter, down my now cold coffee quickly, then stand. “I should have been to check on her already,” I say, feeling guilty. I’ve been stuck in my own personal hell, and I forgot about all the other people affected by this. I move to my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans and a sweater, tugging them on. “Sloane?” I ask.

“Sloane’s fine. But she has been demanding to see you as soon as you’re ready.” Ricky’s smile, a slow, knowing curve of his lips, tells me everything – she’s been pestering him relentlessly.

I turn back to them, and they both look shocked to see I’m out of bed. “Okay. First, we go see Sloane, then I want you to take me down to the club with you for the clean-up.”

Ricky stands and comes in close. “Baby doll, you have been through a lot. Maybe you should be resting.”

I glance over his shoulder to Maddox who smirks at me. “I have been in bed for three days. I’m done resting. I need to help you guys.”

After the boys made me eat some toast for breakfast, we dropped in to see Sloane and she said she would meet us at the boys’ club. But as we pull up, I’m not sure that was a good idea. I’m in shock. Nothing could have prepared me to see the utter destruction. There is practically nothing left. “Please tell me no one was inside when this happened,” I gasp.

Maddox looks over his shoulder to me. “Not many, our quick-thinking security guards got them out in time.”

“Thank God.” Relief washed over me as I placed a hand over my chest, feeling my heart slow its frantic beat. We get out of Ricky’s Jeep and move closer to the rubble as Sloane and Onyx pull up and move toward the building as well.

“I’m so sorry, boys, what a waste,” she says, coming to join me at my side.

The four of us gaze out at the destruction in silence. I’m not sure where you even begin to tackle such a chaotic and overwhelming mess. Charred brick walls, some still standing, showed gaping, black window frames where glass once was. The back of the building, the part behind the club where I was with Maddox only last week, is the worst damaged. It’s completely demolished, the brick fallen to nothing but a pile of rubble. So much history gone.

“The fire started in the hotel at the back,” Alex says as his arm snakes around me. I glance over to him. I didn’t know he would be here, but I’m so glad he is. He’s unshaven and in casual clothes, just jeans and a T-shirt. He looks so much younger than normal, a vulnerability in his eyes I have never seen before. He’s lost so much this week. Not just his baby but his parents as well. And even though they were awful humans, there must be part of him that is mourning them.

“We started this club to protect the women who used to work for Enzo. And even down to his ultimate destruction, this was Enzo’s way of trying to prove he still had all the control. Destroying their safe place to work. Destroying something that meant so much to us because we defied him.” His voice is hoarse and strained, and I can see he’s not mourning them. He hates them every bit as much as I do.

I slip into his body, feeling the warmth of his skin as I hug him tight. He’d been worried he would turn out like Enzo, but that could never be possible. He strokes my hair, the four of us looking out over their old club in silence. What else is there to say?

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up this morning. I had a media conference to run,” he explains.

I offer him a soft smile, not even sure why he’s apologizing to me. “That’s okay.”

“I saw the paper. Good work. The press will be a new weapon altogether with you in charge of such a big share of it,” Sloane says to him, and I’m surprised, but I think by her expression, it was a compliment, not a stab at him.

Alex looks to me to explain. “A story released this morning revealing the awful truths that have been buried in this town for so long.” He hands me the newspaper that was tucked under his arm, and the title on the front page, Sinners of Ravens Hollow, stares back at me, sending a shiver down my spine.

“I can’t read it,” I murmur, not able to revisit the details so soon. “But I hope whoever told the story made sure to leave no room for error. That man was pure evil and so was my brother.”

Ricky takes the paper from me, flicking through the story.

“My journalist did a good job. It’s an exposé, detailing the pervasive corruption of the police force, their blatant disregard for justice; the sordid underworld, its dark dealings leaving a trail of bodies and broken lives; and the reign of Enzo, whose rule brought only destruction and chaos to our town.”

“‘The screams of the innocent still echoing in the streets,’” Ricky reads one line. “Chilling.”

Maddox nods in agreement. “That shit sends shivers down my spine,” he says, and I nod in understanding. It’s why I can’t read about it. Not now or probably ever.

Sloane raises a perfectly manicured brow. “Hope you left out the massacre at the end.”

Alex’s lips twitch up at the side into a cruel smile. “Personally, that was my favorite touch to the story. How Enzo, his last remaining men, and the corrupt law enforcers, including the police commissioner, turned on each other, finally bringing an end to all the pain and suffering they have caused.”

“Well played, Mr. Moretti,” Sloane says. Her smirk is subtle, a slight upturn of her lips, but I see it—she’s impressed. So am I. I guess the press really can be used as a weapon. Lucky we’re on the right side of it.

“Have you had any more time to think about my offer, Sloane?” he asks my friend, and I wonder what the hell they have been doing while I was out of it.

“Your girls are welcome at my club. Tell anyone who is interested to come meet me tonight at six. Harley can help me deal with all the new registrations and inductions. Right, Harley?” She looks to me.

“Sure,” I agree with a half-smile. I feel the tension kick up a gear, and the boys all exchange looks, but they don’t open their mouths to stop me. And I’m grateful. I can’t keep moping around my apartment all day and night. I need to keep busy. “I’ll go to work with Sloane while you guys deal with this mess. Not even sure how you do.”

“Be safe, temptress,” Maddox growls out. He’s awful quiet today, even more so than usual.

“New mayor,” Ricky announces, still reading the paper.

Alex grins, a mischievous glint in his eyes that screams he was the mastermind behind the selection. “That’s right, I forgot to tell you we found a replacement.”

“So, you’re off the hook?” I ask, relieved. That idea of Enzo’s was never a good one.

“I was never going to run for mayor, princess. I might not be my papa, but I’m no saint, and this town needs someone who can reform it. In other good news, we also have a new police commissioner, flown in from New York two days ago, bringing a whole team with her.” He raises a brow toward the boys and Sloane. “Best behavior till we know what we’re dealing with, people.” I know what he’s implying. There is real law enforcement in this town now. The balance has been restored.