25. Riley
“You don’t want the money?”Austin scoffs in Maddoc’s face. “You’ve put too many fucking resources into tracking the girl down for me to believe that shit. Unless… oh.” He glances my way, then smirks back at Maddoc. “I see.”
“You see shit.”
“I see that you’re fucking weak.”
A vicious sound rips out of Maddoc’s throat, his body jerking forward like he wants to hit the man.
Dante and Logan stop him, and Austin laughs.
“Weak,” he repeats. “It’s why West Point is gonna wipe you Reapers out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but make no mistake. It’s gonna happen.”
“Not worth it, Madd,” Dante says quietly, the killer that lives so quietly under his laid-back charm visible just under the surface for a moment when he meets Austin’s eyes. “No point goading this shithead into doing something we have to respond to. Not here, where we’ll regret it.”
Austin’s eyes narrow and the look on Maddoc’s face says he wouldn’t regret a single second of it. I feel the same. But Maddoc doesn’t have the reputation as a leader that he does for no reason, so instead of showing Austin why West Point will never come out on top over the Reapers, he reins it in.
“Let’s go,” he bites out, giving his seconds a sharp nod to let them know he’s got his shit under control again.
Of course Austin doesn’t leave it alone, but we all ignore the final, taunting comments he throws out and split away, heading back to the Escalade.
Maddoc slips behind the wheel, and I flick a concerned gaze toward Logan and Dante. Maddoc’s agitation is obvious, but Logan just stares back at me impassively while Dante’s lips curl up at the corner as he gives me a small shake of his head.
Fine. They know him best.
I slip into the back seat with Dante while Logan takes the front.
“We need to ramp up the search for Chloe,” Maddoc says as he pulls away from the curb, tires squealing. “Logan, you need to get in touch with Isaac.”
Logan nods as Maddoc keeps rattling off orders that he needs his seconds to give the Reapers, and Dante leans forward as the three of them start up a rapid-fire conversation about protecting their territory. “We need to find a way to do it without sparking another fucking blowup between us and West Point.”
“We can’t afford that,” Logan agrees, glancing up from the phone screen his fingers are flying over for a moment. “But the upside is that McKenna can’t, either. That alone will help keep more violence from blowing up.”
“That, and the smackdown we both just got from The Six. McKenna’s gotta know they’re not fucking around.”
“He knows,” Maddoc says grimly.
Logan’s lips tighten with disdain. “But does it matter when the man doesn’t always behave rationally?”
“That’s why we’re gonna stay a step ahead of him,” Dante says, going on about the logistics of how they plan to do that.
I tune out the details, my mind still stuck on what Maddoc said to Austin McKenna back there.
I know how deep their rivalry goes. I’ve seen how much that sadistic bastard tests Maddoc’s control. So Maddoc could have just been trying to throw Austin off the scent when he told him that the Reapers weren’t going after Chloe’s inheritance anymore. It could have just been some kind of strategic move totally divorced from their actual plans.
That makes the most sense, because over the time I’ve been with them, I’ve gotten a good idea of how badly they need the money if they really want to put an end to this gang war. Their plans for my sister still aren’t okay, but the last few weeks have given me plenty of opportunities to see the kind of difference it would make to their organization and understand where they’re coming from even if I can’t forgive it.
Unless he really did have a change of heart. That would change everything.
I look out the window but don’t register the sights. My hands are trembling in my lap and my stomach jumps with nerves as my mind ping pongs between hope and disbelief.
I half expect Dante to notice how agitated I am the way he usually does, to lean in and call me princess and remind me that I’m not alone here. But he doesn’t, because the three of them are still talking about finding my sister. Which means that no matter what Maddoc told Austin McKenna, they haven’t given up on doing that.
Was he lying?
Are they still planning on using her?
Will they still try to force her to marry one of them?
Or are they actually helping me for some other reason now?
I suck in a slow, stuttering breath. Then another. This truce with the Reapers was always tenuous, and the idea that maybe I won’t have to fight them when we finally find Chloe, that I won’t have to cut and run and leave whatever it is between the four of us behind, has me totally twisted up inside, both scared and dangerously tempted to believe it.
As soon as we get back to the house, I get in Maddoc’s face, because I need to know.
“Did you mean it?” I demand, putting my hand in the center of his chest to stop him when it looks like he actually thinks he’s going to head straight back to his office without talking to me after dropping a bombshell like that. “Did you mean what you said about my sister’s inheritance?”
“Get out of my way,” Maddoc growls, even though we both know if that’s really what he wants, he can just push past me.
“Not until you answer me,” I say when he doesn’t, curling my fingers into the material of his shirt and then smoothing it out again.
Maddoc’s face may not give anything away, but under my palm, his heart is racing as fast as mine is.
“You told Austin McKenna that you don’t want my sister’s money anymore. Is it true? Did something change?”
Maddoc looks away. “McKenna was trying to start shit with us, and no goddamn way was I going to let him get away with that. Not right there in front of Saraven. The Six would have destroyed us for that.”
That’s not an answer. It’s also not the way it seemed to me.
Maddoc’s control cracked. His emotions were clearly high. It felt like he cared.
And he still isn’t pushing me away.
“Just fucking answer me already,” I say, my voice shaking a little. “Yes or no, are you still planning on using Chloe once we find her? Is that why you’re doing this?”
Maddoc scowls. “No one’s going to do anything with Chloe or her money if we don’t fucking find her. So if you still want that to happen, then get the hell out of my way. West Point’s gonna double down to try and get to her first after today, and the only thing standing in their way is me, Logan, and Dante. We’ve got work to do. ”
With that, he finally plucks my hand off his chest and steps around me, then stomps off down the hall.
My heart is still pounding, and I look to Logan and Dante for… something. “You heard him.”
I mean it as a question, but I can’t bring myself to actually ask it again.
“We heard,” Dante agrees, giving me fucking nothing.
Logan nods. “And he’s right. We do all have work to do.”
“What? Logan. You know that’s not what I meant!” I yell at his back when he heads up the stairs toward his room, hands on my hips. Behind me, Dante snickers, and I round on him. “Was he doing that on purpose?”
“Doing what?”
“Not answering me.”
“Who? Logan, or Maddoc?”
“Both! Dante!” I smack his shoulder. “Now you’re doing it too.”
He grins, catching my hand and holding on to it. Then his smile slowly fades into a more sober look. “We really do have to get to Chloe before West Point does, princess. Maddoc’s right about that. McKenna ain’t gonna fuck around. Not now that he knows the kind of money at stake with your sister’s inheritance. And not now that…”
“Now that what?” I prompt him when he pauses, my stomach full of nerves.
Dante sighs, then turns my hand over and strokes his fingers over my wrist. “Now that McKenna knows it is personal for Maddoc.”
And then the fucker drops my hand and heads up the stairs after Logan without bothering to explain that comment either, proving that there’s more than one way the man makes me want to scream.