Chapter 32 Willow
WILLOW
Vic shows me a few more moves, then gives me a quick rundown on how to load and shoot a gun, and by the time we’ve wrapped up our impromptu lesson, Malice and Ransom get back.
“Any trouble?” Vic asks, glancing up as they walk through the door.
Malice shakes his head. “Nah. Dumped the bodies and got out of there.”
He still has a streak of blood on his jaw, dried to a dark color now, and the sight of it makes my stomach turn. Death seems to hover over us all the time now, like an uninvited fifth member of our little family, and I hate it.
“How did it go this afternoon?” I ask, glancing between Malice and Vic. “Did you get any leads?”
I would have tried to get more information sooner, but being almost killed put a damper on that.
Malice sighs, rubbing at his face with one hand. “Maybe. It wasn’t as useful as we wanted it to be, but…”
“…we talked to a man who has a few criminal connections, and he knew of a gang leader who hates Olivia Stanton,” Vic finishes, picking up the thread of the thought. “Jonah Kent.”
“Someone she had you go after for a job?” I ask.
Vic shakes his head. “No, but it’s still worth reaching out to see if he can help. We’re looking for someone who hates Olivia and will want to put her in the ground the same way we do, and it sounds like this guy is just the type we’re after.”
“How are we going to get in touch with him?”
“We’ve got a connection,” Ransom answers. “Apparently, he’s done some business with the Kings of Chaos before.
“Who?”
“Do you remember when we took you to that club, Sin and Salvation?”
I frown, thinking back. It feels like it happened fucking ages ago, but I have a sudden flashback of being fucked by them in the bathroom of that club. Heat rushes through me at the memory, and my cheeks flush as I nod.
“The people who run that club should be able to put us in touch with the leader of the Enigma gang.”
“Can we go now?” I ask eagerly. “And try to get the info from them?”
Malice’s face hardens. “Vic and I will go again. Just the two of us. You almost just got killed, Solnyshka. You should stay here. With Ransom.”
A ripple of panic washes through me at that thought.
“No!” I shake my head. “We’re not splitting up again. It’s more dangerous to be separate than together. And besides, I want to be a part of this. I’m the one she’s after. I want to help bring her down. I’ve earned that.”
“You don’t have to earn it,” Ransom cuts in. “You’ve already proven yourself, angel. We’re just trying to keep you safe.”
“And I think we’d be safer if we stuck together.”
“She has a point,” Vic says quietly. Malice turns to glare at him, and he just shrugs. “It’ll be easier to protect her if we’re all together. If one of us goes down, there will still be two more bodies between an attacker and Willow.”
I don’t like the sound of that at all, and that’s not what I meant about being safer together.
But Malice actually seems swayed by his twin’s argument, so I keep my lips pressed together instead of arguing that none of them should be throwing themselves in front of bullets for me.
Vic already did that once, and the memory still haunts me.
Finally, Malice nods curtly. “Fine. But we stick close together, and if I tell you to run, Solnyshka, you fucking run. No hesitation. No questions. You get me?”
“Yes,” I say, my heart thudding unevenly.
“Good.”
We head to the car and then hit the road, Malice driving and Vic up front as usual. We make it to the club without incident, and all three men cluster around me like a phalanx of bodyguards as we head inside, surrounding me and keeping their eyes peeled for trouble.
It’s getting to be late evening by now, and the club looks pretty much the same as it did the last time we were here.
The dance floor is packed with people, a sweaty mass of bodies that grope and grind against each other.
The atmosphere is thick with smoke and the scent of sweat, but we ignore all of that.
We’re not here for fun tonight, so we head right up to the bar.
There’s no sign of the men we met before, so Ransom flashes his charming smile at the bartender. He leans in over the bar to speak to her, having to get close to be heard over the music.
She shakes her head at first, seeming to brush him off, but then Ransom’s face goes serious and he says something else. The bartender’s eyes widen, and she nods, holding up a hand in the universal sign to wait.
She slips through a door that must lead to the back of the club, and it’s only a couple minutes before she comes back.
“Okay,” she says, raising her voice so we can all hear her. “You can come on back to the office.”
We go around the bar and then through the same door, and once it closes behind us, the sounds from the club are muffled. The bass still thumps through the walls, but it feels more distant than being out in the mix of it. It’s easier to hear myself think.
We walk down a short hallway and then knock on a closed door.
“Come in,” someone calls from inside.
Malice opens the door, and we all file into the office.
I recognize one of the men inside from the last time we were here.
He’s got glasses, laughing amber eyes, and model good looks, and he gives us a curious look as we enter the small space.
The other two are more serious looking, one with icy blue eyes and harsh features, and the other with green eyes that seem to pierce through us as he looks us over.
There’s a scar on his upper lip, and he looks relaxed and at ease as he sits behind the desk on one side of the office, but it’s pretty obvious that if we made a wrong move, he’d be ready to put a bullet through our heads in a heartbeat.
Ransom takes over the introductions, the most personable of the brothers as always.
“Willow, I think you met Ash before, right?” He nods to the man with the glasses.
“Right,” I answer. “Nice to see you again.”
Ash grins and gives me a little salute.
“And this is Priest and Gage,” Ransom continues. “This is Willow. She’s with us.”
The three of them look me over, but it’s not the same way other men do it.
There’s nothing predatory or lecherous in it, and I remember that they have their own partner, a woman that all of them apparently love.
They’re just looking at me to get the measure of me, and I have to wonder what they see.
“What can we do for you?” Gage asks. He looks at Malice, and I can tell that they’re both the leaders of their respective groups. They both have that air of carrying the burden of making the tough calls and expecting their orders to be followed.
“What do you know about the Enigma gang?” Malice asks.
Gage raises an eyebrow. “I can’t answer that until you tell me why you want to know.”
“We need a way to get in touch with their leader.”
There’s a beat of silence while Gage sizes Malice up, and Malice doesn’t flinch away from that perceptive gaze for a second. He lets Gage look, but the impatience is there in his posture, the way he folds his arms.
“Why should we get involved with whatever shit you’ve got going on?” Gage asks. “I can tell you have some kind of problem, but that has nothing to do with us.”
“Oh, come on, Gage,” Ash says. He lounges on the couch off to the side, spinning a pen idly between his fingers. “Where’s your sense of community?”
Gage makes a face. “We’re not in a community. And we’re not running a charity.”
“It’s not charity. Consider it… payback. They’ve helped us out a lot, remember?” Ash gives him a significant look.
“There’s no debt there,” Gage argues. “They got something out of that too. It was an equal exchange.”
Ash rolls his eyes, and it’s pretty clear that this is a common thing for the two of them. They have a dynamic, much like the Voronin brothers do, and if Priest, Ash, and Gage didn’t all look so different, I’d almost think they were brothers as well.
Priest, who’s been mostly quiet through all of this, finally speaks up. “I think Ash is right.”
That catches Gage’s attention, and he glances over at the blond man with a sigh. “He’ll never let you forget you said that, you know.”
Priest doesn’t quite smile, but his lips turn up at the corners a little.
“I know. I’m just saying that it can’t hurt to have a friendly exchange here and there.
We help them out now, and then maybe they’ll help us out later if we need it.
More connections don’t hurt. I know you don’t trust anyone but us.
But the Voronins have proved themselves.
And we know what it’s like to need help in a tight spot.
They’re not even asking for that much, all things considered. ”
As the leader, Gage could easily tell the two of them to shut up and that his word is law or whatever, but he doesn’t do that. He listens to them and seems to be weighing their words carefully.
There’s respect there, a closeness that goes beyond family. I remember the silver haired woman who was with them the last time we were here. River. They have to be close to be sharing one woman, I suppose. And I remember how that was the first time I felt less alone in falling for multiple men.
Finally, Gage turns his gaze back to us, looking at each of us in turn.
“How do I know this isn’t going to come back and bite us in the ass?” he wants to know. “If we’re going to do you a favor, I need to know why.”
My men all look at each other, as if they’re silently debating how much they should say. But I step forward, clearing my throat.
“We don’t want to start any trouble,” I tell Gage, glancing from him to the other two.
“Especially not for you. But we’re in trouble ourselves.
We need to talk to the leader of the Enigma gang because he might be our only chance to keep my grandmother from killing me.
We just want to end this. I want a chance to not have to live in fear for myself and my men all the time. Please.”
I can hear the emotion in my voice, but I don’t try to hold it back. If Jonah can truly be an ally against Olivia, then we need him. And I need Gage to know that this is important.
He and the other two Kings of Chaos exchange looks, and Ash gives me a little smile. “Yeah, I think we can relate to that. Not wanting to live in fear is a damned good goal. Gage?”
He and Priest both look to the man behind the desk, and finally, he nods.
“Alright. We know the Enigma gang from some business we did with them this past year. Their leader is Jonah Kent. Their territory is on the east side of the city.” He gives us a cross street, as well as the name of the tattoo parlor that apparently serves as their legitimate front and base of operations.
“You’re looking for a tall man, dark hair, weirdly light colored eyes. ”
I breathe a sigh of relief, a rush of gratitude filling me. There’s still no guarantee that Jonah will help us, but at least we can ask him face to face.
“Thank you,” Ransom says. “That’s a huge help.”
We turn to leave, but Gage’s voice stops us before we can go. “Hey.”
I glance back to see him staring right at me, and something in his eyes makes me think he understands what we’re up against better than I’ll probably ever know. He dips his chin, his expression serious.
“Good luck,” he tells me.
I nod, offering him a smile that I hope looks less terrified than I feel.
I hope like hell that we’ll have that luck. Because we definitely need it.