CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Connor
S eeing a gun pointed at me, I’m painfully aware that my luck has run out. I fucking screwed up somewhere. The wrong chair. The wrong rope. Hell, the wrong rat.
But it’s too late for regret.
With my eyes going wild and my brain short-circuiting, I manage to catch Rhys on the ground. He’s unconscious with blood trickling from his forehead. Christ, what the hell do I tell his brother Trace? My Aunt Freye?
This is all my fault. I’ve gone too far to lure Raina here when she clearly doesn’t care about this guy who’s about to fucking kill me. This animal will finish off Rhys for sure when I’m dead. God, Quinlan Empire can’t handle two deaths like this.
A gunshot explodes in the tight space. I smell the smoke, and the howling in my ears drowns out everything else. I brace for the pain. The blackness. I exhale sharply, touching my body, looking for a wound that’s not there. I’m still vertical.
I wait to feel the weight of death pulling me under. I wait to see my sister Norah and my da.
But none of that happens.
The rat falls backward, crashing to the ground with a hole between his eyes. Blood spatters the walls and beads up on the floor tiles. A trickle finds its way into the drain, feeding the real rats who live below me.
Through the ringing in my ears, a noise behind me breaks through and spins me around.
Her gun raised, Raina drifts into the hazy light. A smoking barrel fills in the gaps of my fractured mind .
She’s trembling with her weapon still pointed at me. “Don’t move,” her shaky voice croaks.
I see it all in her eyes. Her mind is working. Killing this Albanian just severed her ties with them, and she doesn’t know if she should kill me too because she’s got nothing to lose.
“Raina,” I whisper, needing to change her mind immediately.
She has everything to lose by killing me. I’m her only hope right now. She needs me.
I inch forward, hands raised. “You saved my life.”
She doesn’t respond. Just keeps staring at the dead body, like she can’t process what she’s done. It’s her first kill. Her eyes are so dark and haunted, but she doesn’t lower her weapon.
“Raina.” I keep my voice steady and careful. “Give me the gun, Venom. You did good. You did the right thing.”
She doesn’t respond, but tears spill down her cheeks.
Swallowing, I talk fast, “Listen to me, Raina. I know the Albanians put you up to this.”
Her nostrils flare. “It doesn’t matter who sent me.”
“Yes, it does, baby. Because they lied to you. Levin Berisha wasn’t your father.”
She flinches at Berisha’s name, her fingers tightening on the trigger.
“They’re using you, Raina. Someone has been feeding you bullshit. The new kyre wants you to put me in the ground, but as soon as they figure out what we know, they’ll bury you right next to me.”
Which is how I would prefer it...
Her breathing quickens. “Shut up, you’re a liar.”
I shake my head, not knowing which lie to mop up first. “You are not Berisha’s heir. Noel—” I let out a humorless laugh. “Noel is not going to marry you. This whole thing is a trap. ”
Her throat bobs as I take another step.
The gun wavers, but she doesn’t lower it. “My mother wrote me a letter.”
A jolt cuts through me. This is intel we didn’t have.
“She told me my father—”
“You are related to someone in the brotherhood. Just not Levin Berisha. I have proof.”
Confusion wars on her face, a crack forming in the walls she’s built. Good. I need that crack. But she’s still holding the gun, and it’s still pointed at me.
I can’t risk her pulling the trigger.
Shockingly, she lowers the gun, and I think she finally trusts me. But she turns and runs for the front entrance. I dive for her. She moans in surprise when I yank her against my chest, knocking the weapon from her hand. It clatters to the floor, skidding across the blood-splattered tiles.
I pin her to the wall, keeping her still. Our bodies are one as our chests heave in sync and our breaths mingle.
Her pupils are blown wide, more tears brimming at the edges. She’s breaking. Falling apart.
My voice softens. “Thank you for saving my life.”
She swallows hard. “No, don’t.”
For the first time, I see real fear in her eyes.
Not of me.
Of what she’s gotten herself into.
Behind me, Rhys groans.
I keep her hands pinned behind her back as I glance at my beat-up cousin. He pushes himself up, wincing as he touches the gash on his temple. Blood smears across his fingers.
He looks up and sees Raina in my arms. “What the fuck?”
“She killed the rat,” I tell him immediately. “I was looking down the barrel of your gun, mate. She saved my life.”
Rhys’s gaze flicks to Raina, assessing, wondering if I’m so far gone for this woman that I’ll say anything.
Swallowing, he mutters, “Is that what happened, lass?”
Gulping for air, she says, “Yeah.”
When Rhys nods, I ignore how he doesn’t believe me, but he seems to believe her.
I stare at him. “You need a doctor? I can call Cormac.”
Rhys strokes his already swollen jaw and shakes his head. “Not likely. Just some ice. Maybe over whiskey.”
“Maybe your neighbor can come pick you up,” I say wryly.
Rhys’s expression darkens. “Don’t you dare.”
He bends down and pries his gun from the rat’s quickening, dead hand.
I cringe at the idea he’ll call his brother Trace. My enforcer might have a completely different spin on this situation and go over my head to Griffin. They’ll take Raina as some kind of hostage to use for leverage with the Albanians.
Not. Happening.
“Rhys, look at me. Are you stable enough to call your men to get rid of this body?”
“Aye.” Nodding, his back straightens. Rhys is ex-military and a tough bastard.
“My gun...” Raina mutters. “The bullet.”
It can be traced to her.
“Rhys, give me that Sig on the floor. It’s hers. I want this guy cut up and buried somewhere, but that bullet in his head stays with us. I want it back.”
Rhys saunters to the gun and picks it up. His eyes on Raina, he hands it to me. “Don’t try anything, lass.”
I take the gun. “Rhys, you okay?”
“I got it, Connor,” he grouses, wiping away more blood before he gets on his phone.
I tighten my grip on Raina’s arm. “I’m taking her to my apartment.”
Rhys doesn’t argue and starts speaking Gaelic into his phone.
“You’re coming with me.” I run my hands up and down her body. “Have any more weapons?”
She grunts, “Thigh.”
I push her against the wall again, my knee right in the crack of her ass. A breathy moan escapes her lips. Using all my weight, I hold her in place. Her body is soft. She’s not coiled to fight me. Watching for a knee in the balls, I palm her thigh until I feel the blade.
I get her favorite knife with the black elk handle from the sheath on her pants and slide it along the floor toward Rhys. “Lock this up, cuz.”
I steer Raina toward the metal door that leads to the passageway connecting my apartment to the chamber. Time is valuable. At any moment, Raina can snap out of her shock and attack me.
“Can I trust you, Venom?” I ask softly. “We’re going to my apartment and we’re going to talk more.”
Raina breathes heavily. “Okay.”
I have to trust her. I have no desire to keep her or any woman a prisoner, tied up, and helpless. My bed, maybe? But for fun, not for torture. Okay, maybe a little torture. Like running my tongue on her clit to bring her to the edge of an orgasm over and over.
With my gun pointed, I nudge her ahead of me. “You know the way. Walk. Take your time. I’ve got all night.”
Nodding, she ambles. Her rubber-soled shoes are silent on the cracked cement heading down to my apartment.
“Did you break into my place again? Is that how you got into the tunnel? ”
“Yeah,” she gripes, still sounding out of it.
We make a long, silent journey until I reach the steel door. I push it open and tell her, “Stand in the middle of my living room.”
Wordlessly, she obeys the command. Pleasing me but worrying me as well. She’s not a yes- woman. She’s a rebel. And that feral Albanian blood in her made her a risk-taker.
She stands the way I told her, hands dangling loosely at her side. No clenching fists, no pulse throbbing in her wrist. I bring over a metal chair and plant it in front of her.
“Sit.”
“I’m not a fucking dog,” she spits out.
“Take a seat, princess,” I coddle her.
With softer eyes on me, she plants her ass in the chair. But before she can react, I clip handcuffs to her wrists behind her back.
Squirming immediately, she spits out, “You bastard.”
I bring my face close to hers. “Take it as a compliment, Venom. I know there’s a fight in you somewhere that can come out any second. You’re no submissive. And I fucking love that about you.”
Christ, she’s perfect for me.
“It’s going to be all right,” I whisper, crouched in front of her. “I’ll protect you.”
“You can’t,” she whispers, sounding hopeless.
“Have faith, Raina.” I reach out, tilting her chin up so she has to look at me. “ I didn’t kill Levin Berisha.”
A sliver of awareness flickers in her expression. “Bullshit, they wouldn’t start a war if—”
“My brother killed Berisha. And all the men he brought with him that night. I was there, but I didn’t pull the trigger. That was Shane.”
A Shane that not many people have seen.
“It was still a Quinlan who killed their kyre ,” she says softly. “They just got you and Shane confused.”
“True.” I nod. “Did they bother to tell you why we killed him?”
She thinks about that. “It sounded like some turf scuffle.”
“Turf scuffle?” I don’t mean to mock her. I’m angry at them, not her. “Berisha stormed my sister-in-law’s club, killed a dozen people, dragged her by the hair into her office, and then the kyre himself, tried to rape her. My brother’s wife. His pregnant wife.”
Her eyebrows furrow. “God, I’m sorry.”
“He didn’t even get his pants unzipped. Shane got there and killed him.” I grip her chin. “Raina, that man was not your father.”
Her lips part. “How are you so sure?”
I cup her shoulders softly. “We had his DNA from the attack, and I had yours. Our testing is top-notch. The results are accurate.”
Confusion, betrayal, and rage simmer in her gaze. She doesn’t know what to do with those emotions.
Neither do I.
So, I do the only thing that makes sense. I kiss her.
She gasps, but I don’t give her a chance to pull away. My hands slide to her face, fingers tangling in her braid. She’s soft, warm, and trembling against me.
Then she kisses me back.
I pull off and gaze into her eyes. “Do you believe me? I want to trust you. Uncuff you and feel your hands all over me tonight.”
And the next night and the next. But I don’t voice that. It hits me that I’ve just made this little stray cat mine. I’m not letting her go.
Ever.
“It’s okay, Venom. You’re mine. I promise that no one will hurt you.” I slowly reach around for the handcuffs and slide the lever to release one hand.
I bring it around and kiss it. Then place it against my face. “Punch me if you want. Scratch me.”
Blinking, she says, “I don’t want to punch you. I just want...”
“What, Venom? What do you want?”
Her eyes rake over my body. “I want you.”
I crash my mouth against hers while loosening the other hand. She grips the back of my neck and kisses me with a desperation that drives every swipe of her tongue against mine. It’s frantic and messy. Her hands clutch the ridges in my abs, dragging me closer.
I don’t hold back, I go at her like my life depends on it. In a very real way, it does, since she can kill me. I deepen the kiss and devour her. Right now, she’s the only thing that exists on this fucking planet.
Her breath is uneven, her body pressed against mine.
This is chaos. This is a mistake.
But fuck if I care.
Raina visibly quivers as I reach for her pants. With the pop of the top button and lowering of her zipper, her breaths come in short clips. Keeping my eyes on her, I slip a finger beneath the soft panties and swipe across smooth skin until I reach her center.
And fuck, she’s dripping wet for me.
Game. On.