Ruthless Ambition (Ruthless Devils #4)

Prologue

Six years ago

I sat in the car, frozen at the scene in front of me, looking at the two parked SUVs in front. Then I looked back at my date, whose knuckles were white on the steering wheel because he was gripping it so tightly. The cars in front blocked the road, halting our drive back to campus.

“What’s going on?” I asked him quietly. It seemed to be more than a car accident ahead. The more I looked, the more it was quite obvious that the cars weren’t there by accident at all.

They were placed there. Why?

“Dave?” I prompted him again, but his eyes were firmly fixed on the cars in front. Finally, he broke away from them and looked in the rearview mirror, his mouth a thin set line as his eyes narrowed.

Turning in my seat, I looked behind me. There was another SUV blocking us in. Wetting my lips, I turned slowly back to face front. “What’s happening?”

I thought he was going to speak, but up ahead, the car doors opened, and three guys got out. Swiveling in my seat, I looked over my shoulder again. Another two guys were behind us, heading our way.

Five guys.

With baseball bats.

As they got closer, I realized they all had hoodies pulled up and over their heads.

The headlights played havoc with their approach in the dark, and they were coming in and out of focus.

But as they neared, I saw they wore bandanas covering the lower half of their faces, making it harder to identify them.

“Dave?” My voice was a low whisper. I’d been apprehensive before, but now . . . now I was scared. My date wasn’t answering, and no longer wanting an answer, I reached into my purse for my cell.

His hand grabbed mine, my cell falling to the floor as he shook his head. “No. No cops.”

“What? Why?” I demanded, but he said nothing else. “Do you know them?”

I screamed suddenly when the first baseball bat hit the car.

“Fuck!” I yelled again when another followed, and then I heard the back taillight get smashed.

My door was wrenched open, and one of them reached for me, hauling me out as I fought him.

I may as well have hit a brick wall for all the good it did me.

“Settle down. We’re not here for you,” he said gruffly.

I watched as another swing of a baseball bat smashed onto the windshield, cracking it, the sound loud in the night. Dave was still in the car and making no effort to get out.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked as I struggled to get free of him. “Who are you?”

More swings and more damage happened as the four guys used Dave’s car like it was a pinata, and still, he remained in the car.

“Why isn’t he getting out?” I cried as the hands holding me tightened.

One of them at the car looked up and saw us standing there, watching.

As he walked up to us both, his head jerked to the one holding me, telling him wordlessly to let me go.

Which he did, leaving me free but frozen to the ground.

“Here, make the fucker hurt.” The new one passed the bat to the guy who had been holding me.

The words broke my daze, and I darted to the side, ready to run back to Cardinal if I had to. I heard a curse, and I knew someone was running after me.

“Oh no you don’t.” Hands grabbed me, lifting me against a chest as I was turned and carried back to the cars, as I kicked and struggled against him.

“Crazy bitch, stay here.” Dark eyes glittered in the night as he stared down at me, his bandana tight across his face.

“Don’t move, you wouldn’t want me to catch you a second time. ”

Both of us turned to the sound of a door opening.

Slowly, Dave finally got out. I heard the lunatic in front of me chuckle as he started to walk forward, now seemingly content to leave me behind.

Hastily, I grabbed his arm, halting him.

I didn’t know why, but this one had a more dangerous vibe than the one who took me out of the car.

“Why?” I asked again. “Why are you doing this?”

He looked me over once before he looked back toward his friends, who now had Dave pinned against the car. “Mayhem.”

“Mayhem? What the hell is Mayhem?”

“Stay here, don’t move, don’t scream . . .” He leaned in close. “And we may just take you back to school.”

“I’d rather walk,” I snapped at him. His laughter was loud as he turned away from me.

“Stay put,” he called over his shoulder.

Now that I was alone, I looked at Dave one more time.

It seemed the others were waiting for the jerk who had just left me.

I couldn’t hear what they said to him, but they seemed to form a tighter group around Dave as his head dropped lower, his chin almost on his chest. One of them prodded him with the tip of the baseball bat, and when Dave didn’t move, I knew I needed to call for help.

But my cell was in the car, on the floor where Dave had knocked it.

I watched as he got prodded again, and my mouth opened in shock when he dropped to his knees.

“No!” I screamed. “What are you doing?” Running forward to help him, I was caught up in strong arms as they held me back.

“How well do you know your guy?” someone asked me.

Ignoring them, I struggled to get to Dave. “Dave, talk to me, tell me what I can do.”

“What’s his last name?” someone else asked me as Dave’s attention remained fixed on the road.

“What?” Everything that was happening was surreal. The hooded figures, the face coverings, the baseball bats, the beaten-up car, and the light drizzle that had begun to fall — it was like a horror movie — and Dave just knelt there on the blacktop with his head bowed. What was wrong with him?

“You know,” one of them spoke, sounding almost jovial, “I don’t care what the fucker’s last name is either.

” He smashed his baseball bat off the hood of the car, so close to Dave that he flinched in fear.

“But what I do know . . . is that Dave likes to tie up his dates in his bedroom, and then he lets his buddies in, and they all take turns.” The guy leaned into Dave’s face.

“Don’t you, Dave? You like to watch your buddies fuck your dates without their consent, don’t you? ”

A strangled sob escaped Dave, and I realized I’d stopped struggling.

“You been to his room yet?” the guy holding me asked almost gently. “Has this happened to you?”

“No.” My voice was a whisper. “This is—” Clearing my throat, I tried again. “This is our first date.” Was it true? I didn’t know, but Dave wasn’t denying it. Wouldn’t you deny it if it weren’t true? “Dave?”

He said nothing. His head remained bowed, and his posture was one of defeat.

“How? How do you know this?” Looking around in the dark at five shadows, all of similar build and height, was intimidating, but now I felt safer with them.

“The girls finally talked to the right people.”

What did that mean? These guys were the right people?

“Jer,” one of them spoke, and I recognized his voice as the guy who caught me when I ran. “Take her back, she’s seen enough.”

I really had, but did I just blindly follow, taking their word for it? And when I saw that the baseball bats were still clutched tightly, the car no longer of interest, it was clear who the target was going to be.

“Don’t,” I protested. “This isn’t right. You should call the police.”

“Get her out of here. Take her to Orchard if she has questions; they’ll tell her what she needs to hear.”

Strong fingers wrapped around my arm, and I was being led away. I heard the first thud and automatically went to look back, but my companion jerked me forward. “Eyes ahead. Looking back won’t change anything, and all you’ll get is nightmares.”

He helped me into the SUV and even put on my seat belt. My hands lay useless in front of me as my body entered a state of numbness that was from more than just the cold.

“If you’re gonna puke, can you give me warning?”

“I’m not gonna puke,” I told him.

“Okay, ’cause you look like you’re going to throw up,” he muttered.

“I’m not going to be sick.”

“Uh-huh.”

We were driving on the road back to college when I suddenly unbuckled my seat belt. “I’m gonna throw up!”

As he swerved onto the shoulder, I leaped out of the car, and even as I wretched in the grass, I heard him grumbling about being right.

Asshole.

* * *

“What the hell happened to you?” my roommate, Chrissy, demanded as I entered the room. My companion left me at the front door, making sure I got in safely, careful to avoid the light. He was looking out for me but also eager to remain hidden. Whatever, my brain was fried.

“Have you ever heard the rumor that Dave let his friends be with his dates?” I blurted out. “Against their will?”

Chrissy stood in front of me speechless for a moment. “What? No! You think I would let you go out on your first date here with a rapist?”

“I don’t think he actually has sex with them,” I told her as I headed to my room. “I don’t know, but I think they said he watches.”

“They?” Chrissy demanded from where I had left her. “Who the fuck are they?”

I didn’t know that either.

“Angel?” Chrissy followed me, tugging on my arm. “Hun, tell me, what happened?”

As I replayed the bizarre evening to her, I was startled when she grabbed my arm, her eyes wide with excitement. “Mayhem? You got ambushed by the Devils?”

“You sound like that is a good thing,” I scolded her. “It was scary.”

“Are you crazy? They’re all ridiculously hot. Apparently.”

“They all just beat up Dave and his car.” I shook my head to clear it. “Seriously, this is not what you should be focusing on.”

“Sounds like he deserves it.” Chrissy sniffed.

“Yes, but what if he doesn’t? What if they were talking shit, and . . .”

“We need to ask questions,” Chrissy said as she left my room. I knew that look. That look was trouble.

“Do we?” I hurried after her. “I mean, of course I do, but at the same time, I don’t think I want to know!”