10. Ronan
RONAN
E very time the man’s heart beat, I felt it stutter. Power was holding someone's life in your hand and knowing you were the one in control.
I stared into the man’s soul, playing the judge.
“No one can touch her.”
I squeezed harder, making sure he couldn’t talk back.
My own fucking heart hadn’t let go of its anger since the second I’d watched her take off toward Carrow. The Thornes were appropriately named, because their presence was becoming a thorn in my side.
The only thing good out of her little act was I wasn’t the only one ready to reach out and murder the man next to her.
Jett had nearly launched himself at Harrington. Instead, he’d figured out where Thorne Sr. was sending her and Carrow.
I kneed the guy’s balls and he crumpled to the floor, giving me a moment to look at Margaux.
“What’s in your hand, little bird?”
I asked her the question as she stood there with eyes that looked, well shit. Was she going to cry? Not my problem. She’d walked away from us. Jett was hurt and I was pissed. What right did she have?
“I don’t know. A contract of some kind. I think it has to do with the casino being torn down. Is that related to what you are trying to figure out?”
If I were ever allowed to be surprised I’m pretty sure my jaw would have dropped. In fact, I could see it in my boys’ eyes. None of us saw this act coming.
“Why did you come up here?” I asked. I needed a specific answer right now.
“You said you needed information. My uncle has it. It might have backfired a little. I didn’t know I would be offered up for the contract. My fiancé is supposed to be getting me a doppelganger, but in the meantime?—”
Jett’s lips were on hers in a single second and fucking hell.
Yeah. I got it. She hadn’t betrayed us. Hell, she was trying to help.
In all the years of knowing that her uncle had broken the engagement agreement with the Barone family, I’d never once been sad.
I knew the reason for the marriage. Her parents wanted her protected from the enemies her father had made.
I’d known for some time that Senator Harrington had been behind the car accident killing the lawyer and his wife and leaving my future bride in the wrong hands.
I hadn’t wanted the marriage. But Barone wanted loyalty. I still wasn’t offering up what she’d been promised, but I was intrigued.
“Get Jett off of her.” Talon reached for Jett and pulled him away with only a small protest. “Pretty girl, there’s more where that came from at home.”
She blinked.
“Home?”
He was smiling ear to ear. Shit. If she won him over we were fucked. I couldn’t break his heart. Hell, I wasn’t sure he had one until now.
“Yeah. Home. You’re ours now,” Jett said.
I hung my head, pulling the asshole to his feet and feeling a new surge of anger. He’d touched my girl.
I froze. My girl? Not just mine as in contractually obligated. But mine as in I was downright fucking pissed anyone would think to hurt her.
“Jett, you can’t just go around telling girls they live with us,” I said behind clenched teeth.
He turned to me.
“But, Ronnie, she was always supposed to be yours. Can’t you share? We have extra rooms if that’s what you’re worried about.”
I glared at Margaux, but not because I hated her, because I knew I was going to lose.
“Little bird, come here.”
She looked at the others before she finally started my way. I handed her a large knife, one that had been concealed beneath my suit jacket, right next to the gun.
“You want a home with us?”
She nodded. Why was this so easy? Shit.
“Alright. Then prove your loyalty to the Barone family.”
She took the knife and then looked at me, the floor, and the room.
“It’s going to be messy, isn’t it?”
I laughed at the unexpected question, and so did Talon and Jett. Knox, however, slid next to the guy and grabbed him from me, dragging the man’s feet on the ground behind him while he coughed and wheezed once he was free from my hold.
Without saying a damn thing Margaux followed Knox to the bathroom where he tossed the guy in the bathtub.
“I already have two guys on their way up to clean up. Now what will you do with him?” Knox said to her as I walked into the bathroom.
She took the knife, and damn. The crazy in her eyes had my cock hard, but maybe it should have shriveled, because what she did was next-level mean.
“I told you, I don’t suck random guy’s dicks.” And she stabbed him once, right where his tiny dick probably was in his pants. It was hard to say, but he screamed and blood pooled as she yanked the knife free.
The blood ran over her hand, dripping over his pants. She shifted her stance and stood closer to him, Knox’s hands still holding the guy pinned by his shoulders.
“Hasn’t anyone ever told you that if you can’t handle the punishment you shouldn’t have done the crime?” she asked him.
I wasn’t sure, but the guy had a that glazed look like he was going to pass out. I reached out and slapped him.
“Answer the lady,” I said, leaning back against the counter.
“Fuck you. You’re just a tool to be used,” he said, his words holding more bite than I would have expected for a man who was growing more and more pale with every ounce of blood flowing down the drain.
What had me at the edge of the counter, watching with far more interest than a Barone heir should have had in any woman, was the way that mask of hers dropped completely. She shifted closer. I wanted to reach out and hold her back. Jealousy? I wanted her to look at me, not this asshat.
“Maybe I am a tool, but at least I’m not a corpse.”
Before any of us could stop her, she stabbed the knife into his neck.
The bathroom was silent except for the gurgles of the guy’s drowning screams.
Talon broke the silence first.
“Shit, princess. Twist the blade and make sure he bleeds out faster,” Talon said, coming up to help her with the knife.
“Pretty girl, you look fucking hot right now,” Jett said from the doorway.
Her chest was moving rapidly as she pulled away her bloody hands. Knox moved before she could pass out and pulled her into his arms before he helped her stand and move to the sink.
I watched as she let another of my brothers touch her. Jett first. I couldn’t stop him anyway, but him getting attached? Knox now taking care of her? Why was it that any plan with her never seemed to go as expected?
Karma hated her. She was cursed to be my wife. The car accident hadn’t done her any more favors. And since then? I’d watched her over the years because she was too close to that shit Harrington. He’d pissed off the family by killing one of our lawyers, but then to have stolen someone that was ours?
Watching Knox help her wash her arms as she had that first kill kind of wonder on her face, my heart ached like it suddenly showed up to the party.
Jealousy wasn’t the right word. My boys were my family.
My chosen brothers. We were together through thick and thin.
I’d die before I hurt them, and I was never willing to be without them.
Maybe that was the original reason I’d never gone into detail about the arranged marriage.
A woman would have been nothing but a problem for me.
I shook my head clear.
“Do wives usually need to be tested?” Talon asked.
I narrowed my gaze.
“Who said she’s a wife?”
He shrugged.
“I think at this point what else can she be? Protecting some girl is a bit harder than it is to just marry her. Jett here is willing,” Talon said.
Jett practically shoved his way into the bathroom.
“Please, can we keep her, Ronnie? Please?” Jett asked.
I looked at my watch. One problem at a time.
“Anyone got a status on Carrow?”
“Detained. Turns out pussy was a little more entertaining than saving his so-called fiancée,” Talon said as he pulled his phone out. “Scratch that. He was detained. Get her cleaned up. Carrow seems to be a premature kind of guy and is already done with the distraction.”
I studied her in the mirror while Knox grabbed a towel to help dry off. When I thought she’d take a bit to process what happened, she proved me wrong. Her eyes met mine through the mirror.
“Can we circle back to what Talon said?” she asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest and motioned for her to continue. Talon had asked two questions. Which one did she want?
“Was I being tested?”
I cocked my head.
“Yes.”
She did a slow nod. Knox had finished drying her arms and hands off but hadn’t left. In fact it was hard not to notice the way he kept his arms caging her in on either side against the counter, protecting her.
“And why did he ask about a wife?”
I closed my eyes for a moment. How did I handle this? I could tell the truth or I could just blame Talon and Jett for being assholes. I sighed.
“Why? Does the word offend you?”
I opened my eyes, unsure of what I would see on her face.
“If I marry one of you I can’t marry Carrow.” Her words were matter-of-fact.
“That is true,” was all I said.
Something about this woman was just fucking wrong, because I swear when I thought I’d see trauma and fear all I got was some shiteating grin.
“Which one of you needs a wife then?”
Our answers were delayed when the door opened and two guys in all black with masks on joined us.
“Cleanup crew. Time to go, Margaux.”
I grabbed her away from Knox and he let me. I pulled her along into the hall with the others hot on our trail.
She yanked against my hold, forcing me to stop and look at her.
“Wait. I want an answer.”
If any of my brothers said shit, they were going to eat my fist and I think they knew it. I might have been unsure what to do with her, but they would have hell to pay if they tried to keep her all to themselves.
She planted her heels and I got sick and tired of pulling her along.
“Little bird, why would you trade one cage for another? You’ve proven yourself useful, now we just need to work on your self-preservation instinct.”
Her mouth closed and she was quiet for a moment. A cleaning cart rolled by us and stopped at the room where the two guys were now carrying out a duffle bag between the two of them. We’d have to wipe some cameras, but this would disappear in a few more minutes.
Margaux looked at the woman and the cleaning cart.
“Should she be going in there?”
Talon answered.
“She’s good. Nothing money can’t buy. Besides, that cart is an easy way to get bodies out.”
Talon picked up a lock of her hair and twirled it between his fingers.
“Let’s get out of here, princess. You can question the meaning of life later,” Talon said.
Margaux still wasn’t moving.
“What? You missing your fiancé already? A second ago you said you’d marry any one of us.”
Why did I like the way she glared at me?
“I don’t miss him, but I want to know if he is really coming back. I want to know what he’s up to. I can get on board with meaning nothing to everyone?—”
I pulled her into my arms and pushed her into the outcropping on the other side of the hall. The cleaning lady was already coming out with a bag of trash, and Carrow stopped before entering the room.
“What the hell? Why are you cleaning the room?”
From our position, it was hard to see, but her words and tone were exactly as they should be.
“The room’s empty. I was told to get it ready for the next guest.”
My brothers were already in the stairwell, or at least out of sight, but Margaux didn’t seem to get the memo.
She tried to push past me, forcing me to push against her body, making sure she couldn’t move.
“I.”
Without having a better plan to shut her up, I did the first fucking thing that came to mind. I bent down and pressed my lips to hers. Her fists pounded on my chest for a few seconds, but when I prodded her mouth to move, she stopped fighting me.
She tasted like a sin I’d craved all my life. Arranged marriages were shit and never worked out, but fucking hell. Why was she so damn delicious? Why did she look desperate and sad one second and the next she seemed to forget what being human was?
She had demons.
We all did.