26. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
T he ride to The Cage is silent. Anger spills out of me every time I breathe. It’s directed at them, but I’m angry with myself. My head is screwed on so crooked, I convinced myself we were doing a good deed by going to war with the Zhangs. We were disrupting the cycle, giving those women and kids another chance. Instead, Lorcan and Finn were lining their pockets at the expense of those helpless people.
“So far,” Finn shifts in the rear, and I tense, anticipating a comment I won’t like, “this is turning out to be a stellar night. Thanks so much for inviting me and Lorcan, Kimmy. So kind.”
“Fuck you, Finn.” I focus on the front passenger window as night falls across the city. “You invited yourself.”
“At some point, you’ll be thanking me for doing that.”
“Doubt it.”
“Leave her be, Finn.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Finn points his finger toward me. “She’s pissy because she had some Robin Hood fairy-tale bullshit in her head. Money and power. That’s it. It’s pretty simple. If we’re not getting one or the other from a transaction, it’s useless to us.”
Attaching himself to Lorcan stretches my anger almost to the breaking point. Deep down, I realize he’s right. Lorcan gave me the same money and power speech when I first started working for them. It shouldn’t surprise me. But in the last few months, I’ve been lulled into a sense that, even if there isn’t more to Finn, there is to Lorcan. He’s not all bad. There’s goodness in him. There isn’t an ounce of goodness in what they’re doing with the trafficking victims.
“I don’t want to hear your theories on why I’m angry.” The car butts up to the curb, and before anyone else can get out, I throw open the door. As I climb out, a hand grips my elbow with surprising firmness.
“You’re angry.” Lorcan’s lips are close to my ear. “I get it. Being reckless on a night like tonight isn’t good. Keep a lid on it.”
Yanking my elbow out of his grasp, I tug my coat into place. “Don’t touch me.” I give him a cold stare.
He rears back, annoyance and hurt flash in his hazel depths. “Kim.”
“I’m serious. Hands off.”
Finn rounds the car, and his attention shifts between our two tense postures. He lets out a short bark of laughter. “Yeah, this is gonna be a lot of fun.” Squaring his shoulders, he nods to the other guards we brought from another car.
We travel in a minipack now that we’ve attacked the Zhangs. Lorcan, Finn, and I are in the middle. Makes me wonder whether Lorcan’s out-in-front stance when I first started was another facade he wore. Maybe he and Finn are more alike than I want to believe.
Distance. I need distance. I can’t keep sinking into this life. We all have a role to play, and mine is to take them down and stop them from ripping each other apart. It isn’t to get swept away by either of them.
As we’re led to our seats, stale sweat, the sharp tang of fresh blood, and the overwhelming stench of too much cologne causes my stomach to roll. There are too many smells at once. The warehouse is packed with people dressed in a range of clothes from the very expensive and glamorous to something more akin to my yoga outfits as Lorcan likes to call them.
A burly man leads us to a group of three seats in the second row, close to the aisle and central to the action. Carys often surprises me with the people she knows and the things she can do. Rage-filled music is being pumped through the speakers, which is probably supposed to get the crowd in the mood for the bloody fists flying. As we file in, I realize I’ll be stuck between Lorcan and Finn. There’s no way I’m sitting next to Lorcan for the whole match.
Before I enter the aisle, I hesitate. “I’m going to the bathroom. I’ll be back in a minute.”
“They’re over—” Finn tries to point.
“I know where they are.” Moving past him, I head for the hallway as other people mill around me, taking seats, getting drinks, and placing bets.
I locate the accessible bathroom again, somewhat surprised there isn’t a line up this near to the match. Once I’m finished, I open the door.
“The everything woman in my establishment, using my facilities. Whatcha doin’ here?” Derry’s dark gaze bores into me as he comes forward from his relaxed pose against the opposite wall.
His position forces me to either retreat into the bathroom or stand my ground. I’m not a fan of retreating. I clasp the edge of the still-open door. My free hand skims my side to where I concealed a small tactical knife in case I ran into trouble tonight.
“The fight.” I tip my head in the direction of the action.
With a shove, Derry propels me into the bathroom. The suddenness catches me off guard. I stumble as he rushes in behind me. My fingers scrabble for the blade. Before I can latch onto it, his hand is around my neck, forcing me backward against the wall. My fingertips graze the hole in my pants where the knife is lodged, but I can’t quite get it in this position.
“Did you know they were fucking with me? They never intended to do a deal.”
“No.” The word is pushed out as I calculate my odds and options of getting out of here in one piece without having to kill him. I could do it. The grip on my chin isn’t strong, but it’s still spiked my heart rate.
“Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see a fight.”
His hold lessens when he comes closer to my face, his lips inches from my ear. In another man, it might even be a turn-on, but he smells like garlic and cheap cologne. “You’re one of those women. You get hot and bothered by a bit of violence.”
Am I one of those women? Maybe. But his brand of violence isn’t the least bit seductive. I swallow and then smirk. “If I was hot and bothered about violence, you’d be on the floor right now.”
He takes it the wrong way and presses his bulky body closer. Derry eases off enough on my neck my index finger manages to get purchase on the handle of the knife. I pull until it’s almost in my palm.
“You know, the O’Malleys and Donagheys had a good relationship for years. Mutually beneficial. Then Finn had to find out about how his momma was done in, and it went to shit.”
“Loose lips sink ships.” Another piece of the puzzle.
“And fucking paper trails.” Derry’s lips graze my earlobe, and a shiver of revulsion goes through me. Again, because he’s a clueless wonder who’s had too many women with no choice but to say yes, he takes my shiver as excitement. “You like that?” he murmurs.
“Not even a little bit. Your garlic and cologne combination isn’t working for me.” I push the knife up my sleeve and try a less violent approach to getting free. In one sharp movement, I latch my hands onto his shoulders and slam my knee into his groin with as much force as I can muster.
He stumbles, cupping himself, groaning through clenched teeth, “You’re gonna regret that.”
With a flick of my wrist, the knife pops out into my hand. “Unless you’re packing, I doubt it. You don’t touch a woman who doesn’t want to be touched. It’s a lesson I hear you’ve yet to learn.”
“It ain’t gonna be a woman who teaches it to me.”
The door creaks open, and Finn slips in. Derry’s in such a rage he doesn’t register Finn’s presence. I keep my focus on Derry.
“If it was going to be a woman, I think she’d be the one to do it.” Finn’s tone is low and menacing. “If it needs to be a man, I’m happy to oblige.”
Derry whirls around faster than I expect from a man clutching his balls. “Finn.” His eyes are wild with fear. “We were talking.”
“I think you were touching. And I’m pretty sure”—he holds up a finger—“I told you what touching her meant.”
“I was just tryin’ to find out why she was here. You’re not on the list.”
Funny, he didn’t say a word about a list. I flip my knife around in my hand, content to let Finn lead this line of questioning.
“Didn’t sound like it to me. We’re on the list—Carys Van de Berg, party of three.” His arms are loose at his side, but every once in a while, he makes a fist and releases it, as though he’s warming up his hands.
“Van de Berg.” Derry smirks. “Wasn’t she the chick who almost got you deported to Ireland or some shit?”
Finn’s right fist connects with Derry’s face so fast, if he wasn’t doubled over again, I’d wonder if it happened. He coughs and touches his face with his fingertips, grimacing.
“How many times did he touch you?” Finn asks.
“With his lips or his hands?”
Finn brings his fist around hard into Derry’s side. “Sounds like at least twice.”
“Oof.” He falls to his knees, hands raised, bent at the waist. His breathing is labored. “I didn’t mean any harm.”
I snort. “You mean you couldn’t do any harm.” Rolling my eyes at Finn, I tuck my knife into my pants.
“I’m not getting into this with you anymore tonight.” Finn’s icy gaze watches him stumble to his feet. “I got a fight to watch. Don’t think this is the end of it.”
Derry clutches his side and limps out the door without saying a word. At least he knows better than to taunt Finn any more.
“Thanks,” I say when the door clicks shut. “How’d you know where I was?”
“’Cause you headed in the wrong direction to the bathroom. The bathrooms for the fight are on the floor. You don’t go down this hall unless you’re doing business. Lorcan wanted to come, but I didn’t figure you wanted his help.”
I shove my hands into my coat pockets. “I didn’t need help, actually.”
Finn chuckles. “Can’t give an inch, huh?”
“Would you?”
He eyes me with what seems like a touch of respect. “No.” When I go to step toward the door, he steps with me.
“The fight is about to start.” I can never read him, and it’s exasperating.
“Are you pissed at Lorcan, or is this something you two engineered to create a rift between you?”
“Are you reselling those women and kids to someone else?” I stare at him, hoping I misunderstood.
He shrugs.
“Then I’m pissed. At both of you. Not just him. But mostly him.”
“A leopard doesn’t change its spots ’cause it starts banging a cougar.”
“Nice, Finn. Real nice.” I cross my arms and refuse to focus on him. “How’d your mom die?”
“What’s that have to do with anything?”
“Oh, lots, I think. Derry brought it up.”
“Any hack with Google can find out the answer.” He ruffles the back of his hair. “I’m not sure if I’m impressed or annoyed you haven’t bothered.” He sighs. “Car accident. Faulty brakes.” His voice drips with derision on the last two words.
“The O’Malleys had something to do with that?”
“They did. Look, Kimmy. It’s complicated. It was a long time ago.” His face is shuttered. “I got my revenge.”
For the first time since we started talking, I lock my gaze with his. “Did it make you feel better?”
He chuckles but it’s devoid of humor. “I’m probably supposed to give you some bullshit answer about how it wasn’t what I thought it would be. Right? I think that’s what you’d want me to say. But it felt exactly how I thought it would. I balanced the scales. I set things right.”
Balanced the scales . Is that how I’ll feel when I know who murdered Chad and why? Will killing whoever it is, assuming they’re still alive, give me a sense of rightness?
This time, when I go around Finn, he lets me. He follows me out of the bathroom. “I know he hired you to get close to me.”
I stop and whirl on him in the hallway. “Yes, Finn, because the world clearly revolves around you.”
“I’m glad we agree.”
Sashaying back, I trail my finger down the front of his shirt and pitch my voice low to say, “If that were true, I’d be doing a pretty terrible job. And I’m good at everything I put my mind to.” I glance up under my lashes. “You see. If I were trying to get close to you, I’d have done it by now. I’d be like a second skin. Every time you took a breath, you’d breathe me in like oxygen. Every time you went to bed, you’d feel me pressed up against you. At night when you dreamed, you’d dream of me.”
He angles his head so his lips almost touch my ear, like Derry’s did earlier. Only this time, when the shiver races through me, it’s not followed by revulsion.
“I know what you’re doing, but I can’t help being intrigued by you.” He smirks. “My brother knows me well.”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“The fight’s about to start.” Lorcan is at the end of the hallway, his voice echoing toward us.
I flinch as though scalded, and Finn chuckles. Tension radiates off Lorcan. Seeing him there causes an ache to spread across my chest. I want things I shouldn’t.
“The fight.” The words are forced out of his lips.
“Yeah.” I turn from Finn. “I heard you. It’s about to start.” With that, I stride past Lorcan, avoiding his gaze. He tries to snag my arm, but I sidestep him.
“Come on, brother.” Finn’s mocking echoes in the corridor. “Is that all you’ve got?”