Chapter 28
R iordan
My revenge haze lifted. “Bronson admitted it?”
“He did,” Arran confirmed.
It had been a while since I’d seen the man dating my sister, and I jerked my gaze away as Gen kissed him way too enthusiastically for a brother to see. But her happiness had a ripple effect, a sense of lightness settling over our bonfire party on the warehouse roof.
“That’s it, the killer’s been caught. He can’t hurt anyone else,” Everly said.
“Did Bronson say why he wanted Cassie?” I asked.
Shade produced a phone from his pocket. “He said a lot at the end, they usually do. Ye can watch the recording to hear it all.”
“Ye taped it?” Cassie breathed. She didn’t have the same air of joy. If anything, her mood had dimmed.
Shade passed her the device, unlocked with a view of the bloodied, tied-up gangster.
My gut curdled.
“I’ve made a cut to give anonymously to the cops. It contains the pertinent details but keeps us out of the frame. It doesn’t show his death either. That’ll be left for them to assume, or maybe think he left the country.”
His death. They’d killed him. I reached for Cassie, encircling her arm. She swayed against me.
Shade continued, “Red gets it first. Then, along with the cops, it’s being sent to the major news sites and some of the bigger social media warriors who’ve been banging their war drums around town. The news goes out in time for breakfast, so watch it now but then I need that back. I’m not keeping the burner phone or the full video as a trophy.”
With trembling fingers, Cassie walked swiftly away to sit cross-legged beneath the lip of the roof ledge, her focus locked on the screen and the scene playing out. I stared after her, but Shade addressed me before I could follow.
“Strike one against the mayor. I like it.” He indicated to the fire. Patches had already formed in the canvas, the thin paint layer turning to ash. “Manny said the cops were here. I take it ye were seen when ye paid him a visit.”
I grimaced. “He wasn’t home, but we were chased by Piers.”
“We? Don’t tell me ye took Cassie along.”
“No, I didn’t.” I put meaning into the words.
Understanding lit in his gaze. “She went anyway. Fits, considering she apparently can’t be apart from ye.”
I rankled at the taunt.
Across the rooftop, Arran held up a hand. “Red has the video. I’m expecting his call. Eyes on me for silence.”
A hush fell over us. A new tension rose in me at the thought of the drug lord seeing his second-in-command in the position Arran and Shade had put him in. At the words Bronson had said. A month ago, Red had told Arran he wasn’t responsible for the murder of Cherry, but now the responsibility was in his lap. It had been his man.
Shade waited at my side.
In her huddle, Cassie continued watching the screen, a parting of her lips the only tell that what she was watching was affecting her.
I flicked my gaze back to Shade. “Cassie wanted Bronson. Ye knew that.”
“He wasn’t hers to take. I’ll find someone else for her.”
“Better, or it could be me next.”
Shade blinked then laughed at my moment of levity. I’d surprised myself.
“You’re a riot, Riordan.”
“Call.” Arran’s words pulled all attention back to him. Standing alone in the centre of the roof with the sparkling city behind him, he set the phone on loudspeaker. “Red.”
A long moment of silence played out, then, “Doctored?”
“I’m not dignifying that with an answer.”
Red breathed audibly. “That fucking idiot. On behalf of my people, I express our regrets for Alisha. This was not done under my direction.”
“You lost control of your man,” Arran sneered.
“A junkie who had no hope of keeping his position. He was on the outs. It won’t happen again.” Red’s voice hardened, as if he spoke through gritted teeth. “Is he dead?”
“He is.”
“An eye for an eye. Then that’s an end of it.”
It should’ve been. Surely it was. From Red’s explanation, Bronson had gone rogue and acted solo. I didn’t know Red other than in passing when I’d taken a job from his gang in order to keep a roof over Gen’s head. I hadn’t even dealt with Bronson, so low down was the connection. But Arran’s expression held nothing of peace or resolve.
His smile chilled me.
“See you around, Red.” He hung up the call, my sister going straight into his arms.
Everly made her way over to where Shade and I stood. She had her hands clamped around herself, only a thin sweatshirt keeping out the chilly night. “As nice as it is to see that destroyed, the smell of smoke is making me nauseous. I’m worried about it being poisonous. Mind if we go downstairs?”
I shook my head in the negative, and she and Shade left.
Likewise, Arran guided Gen down the steps with words about talking to the crew. Jamieson had already gone, when, I didn’t notice.
It left just me and Cassie on the roof.
I crossed the tarmac and settled down beside her, keeping my eyes off the screen where Bronson was fast-talking. She shivered against me.
“Listen.”
She scrolled back. Pressed play.
“…I gave my life for the Four Milers. He’ll see it destroyed through his own bullshit ambition. It’s mine. It should be fucking mine. I proved myself over and over.”
Another voice sounded. Arran’s.
“You killed to provide that proof.”
“Aye, and I will again.”
“Who?”
“Those damn sluts.” Bronson ranted on, his words becoming incoherent.
Arran’s calmer tones returned. “Say their names, Bronson.”
I kept my focus on Cassie’s profile, not wanting to know what Shade was doing to elicit the information.
Bronson gasped, the sound wet. “The skeleton crew bitch? Alisha. She had it coming.”
“And the rest?”
“Think I asked their names?”
“Then tell me where.”
“The church steps, the back of a car, the empty mansion.”
I swallowed. That was exactly where the others had been killed, though it was an assumption that had been made for Natasha Reid who’d been dumped from a car outside the warehouse.
“Cherry, Natasha, and Amelia,” Arran said pointedly. Slowly. “You’re saying you ended their lives for the purpose of taking over the Four Milers?”
Bronson made a sound, a crooked, evil chuckle that I would never forget as it chilled me to the bone. “I never had a hope, did I? That fucker is going to kill the club. It doesn’t matter who I did or didn’t kill.”
“Confess it or deny it. This is your last chance.”
Something cracked. Bronson cried out.
“Daniels’ little sister would’ve been next. I’ll promise ye that. Aye, string me up for them all. I’ll die with the Four Milers in my heart and on my tongue. In my heart,” he screamed.
Cassie ended the video.
Silence fell around us. Enough light had gathered in the sky for me to pick out her pensive, distant expression. Whether it was from the loss of the kill, or his threat to her, I didn’t know. But I waited it out with her, sitting side by side until she took a breath and stood.
Together, we returned downstairs, traveling in silence to the ground floor and the management office. The clubs were shut, and we found Shade on Divide’s dance floor where Arran had amassed the remaining crew, dancers, sex workers, and other staff still here at the close of business.
People jostled each other, smiling. Picking up on the scent of celebration in the air.
“You’ll hear it on the news over your breakfast,” Arran was saying, “But I want you all to join me in saying fuck you to Bronson Lesk. He took Alisha from us. Lesk, I hope you burn in Hell. In Alisha’s name, Divine and Divide will be closed for a private party tonight. You’ll all get a full night’s pay in exchange for raising a glass with me.”
A cheer went up, relief passing over the crowd, two of the dancers hugging and sobbing.
Cassie didn’t smile. She slipped up to Shade and returned the phone to his care, then led me from the nightclub and back to her apartment.
In her bedroom, she eyed my t-shirt. “Can I sleep in that?”
I stripped it. Watched with hunger as she covered herself with it. When she climbed into bed, I got in with her. Hugged her but made no move to do anything more.
And though I drifted off quickly from the night of drama and stress, I suspected the opposite would be true for her.
I woke in the late afternoon to find myself alone in bed.
“Cassie?” I called out into the quiet of the apartment.
No reply. No sound came from the bathroom or elsewhere in the spacious pad. The bedroom door was open a crack, but when I strode out in my boxer shorts to hunt through the rooms, she wasn’t there.
I didn’t like the silence. Missed her being near.
Worse, it sent thoughts racing through my head. Bad ones. Dark ones. Thoughts that curdled my blood.
Finding my phone, I tapped her out a message. Her reply came instantly, allowing me to take a breath.
Cassie: Didn’t want to wake you. I had an SOS from Dixie so came down to the brothel. Here when you’re ready. Manny’s around.
It settled me a small amount, but the questions didn’t stop. What if she hadn’t replied? What if I couldn’t find her?
I paged over to a new message, this time with Shade. That guy was into enough shady shit to earn his nickname a hundred times over. Last night, he’d smiled in my presence. It was enough to make me take the risk.
Riordan: Do you have a method for tracking another person?
Shade: Bodily or a vehicle?
Shade: In both cases, aye, Riot, I do. Care to explain?
Cassie tracked my bike. Seemed only fair that I had a solution in return.
After a fast shower and a much-needed shave, I was dressing when a knock sounded at the door.
Shoving my feet into my boots, I answered it. Manny stood the other side, a huge bunch of flowers held out.
I snorted a laugh. “You shouldn’t have.”
He pressed his lips together. “They aren’t from me.”
“For Cassie? I’ll take them for her.”
Manny handed over the bouquet. “They’re not for Cassie either.”
I squinted at them. “Sure you’re delivering them to the right place?”
“I am. By the way, you’re off the clock for tonight. Arran’s throwing a party. He made a point of suggesting you hang out with the crew. Get your face known a little more.”
I inclined my head. I’d barely spoken to anyone since coming back, only making small talk with Lonnie and Mick who’d helped guard Cassie at her house. Lonnie had been off with me, so I had work to do in making friends. “See you down there.”
He left me to the strange bouquet made up of darker-coloured flowers, berries, and structural leafy twigs. Blues, purples, greys. Not the roses you’d buy your mother. I carried them over to the kitchen and set them on the counter, discovering a card in their depths. It was addressed to me.
A strange feeling crossed my chest.
I opened the envelope and pulled it out, flipping it to read the words.
To Riordan. Did a girl ever buy you flowers?
I like being all your firsts.
Love you so much it hurts (even when I’m pretending not to) – your Cassie
Holy fuck.
I dropped to my haunches, staring in shock at the display then reading the card again.
I fucking loved that she’d done it.
She was right, no one had ever bought me fucking flowers, and no one had ever loved me like she did either. I lay back on the centre of the floor in her fancy-ass apartment and put my hand to my chest. Why did it ache so much when she did sweet things? I breathed in deeply and just let myself feel it. All the spiralling, crashing strength of Cassie’s devotion.
The pale, late afternoon’s light filtered over me, at odds with the urgency that burned in my veins.
Last night, I’d tried to stop my emotions. I’d felt too much, and it had fucked me up. At some point, I’d lose her, and that was more terrifying than the risk of staying with her.
A certainty settled.
I told her I wouldn’t fall in love with her. Maybe that had been a lie. Whatever the rising Cassie-shaped energy in me turned into, it was my secret to keep. If she knew our being together risked my heart, she’d back away. It had been one of her conditions, meaningless for me at the time but now a problem.
I liked her. A lot. I was going to do all I could to keep her.
Including lie to her face about how I felt.
Another thump hit the door. “Riordan, open up.”
That was Shade. I jumped up to answer, and he leaned on the frame, two objects in his hands. Ah. The tracker I’d asked for.
“Does Cassie know you’re doing this?”
“Not yet. She put one on my bike, though.”
He watched me for a beat then raised his shoulder. “Fair’s fair. Safer for her if one of us can find her.”
He gave me a small gun-type device. Mimed using it. “Shoot into a fleshy part of the body. Best done while asleep.” On his phone, he showed me a map, centred on Deadwater, a blinking locator right over the warehouse. “This is the app to track her on. I’ll send ye the link.”
He zoomed in, the locator which had to be Everly, showing a distance marker and height elevation.
I exhaled. “As easy as that.”
“As easy as that.” He stowed his phone. Then he paused, his mouth twisted in some dark humour. “Oh, Riot? Just so ye know, if she wants to do the same, I’ll happily let her shoot ye in the arse, too.”
I resisted rolling my eyes. “Good to know. By the way, is Riot my crew name?”
Not everyone had one, most noticeably Arran who people just called the boss, but the more I was around the skeleton crew, the more I picked up. Shade and Convict were crew names. I’d heard Tyler referred to as Ghost, and there were others I’d barely got my head around. Cassie’s brothers had them, too.
“Let’s not get excited. We’ll see if it sticks.” The enforcer drifted his gaze over me in a shrewd, assessing way. “I have concerns over ye and your closeness to the inner circle. Not earned but gifted by your sisters and Cassie.”
“I’m working here, aren’t I?”
“Because Arran decided to keep ye close and not let Red get in there first. Your loyalty is a problem.”
My pulse picked up. I stood taller. “That’s bullshit to suggest I’d sell out the crew. I’d never do anything to put Cassie or my sisters’ safety at risk. You should know that from my actions.”
I’d taken him on, not once, but twice. I’d do it again if I had to.
He prowled a step closer, no humour in his dark looks. The tattoos all over his arms and up his throat added to the menace that gave him a reputation I’d heard about long before I met the man. “Ye wouldn’t hurt them, sure, but ye work for Arran and me. It’s us who suffer if ye hear something and decide to give it away. It’s our hard-earned position in the city that rattles when ye decide to shake the tree.”
He meant the mayor. “I won’t back down from my plans for my father, and I swear I’d never sell you out. Isn’t that good enough? I’m a man of my word.”
He tilted his head. Smiled.
Then made a tiny gesture with his fingers.
What the fuck? A skeleton-masked man rushed me and shoved me against the wall. A sack descended over my head, the black material blocking all light. At the same second, my wrists were crammed together. Secured with a zip tie.
“Get off me,” I bit out.
“Don’t fight it, Riot. You need this as much as we do,” Shade ordered. “One little test and it’ll all be over.”
In darkness, I submitted to their control. I had no other choice.