Chapter 52
Chapter Fifty-Two
RONIN
S itting on Tally’s bed, surrounded by her peachy scent, is where I am when Black calls.
“You took your time getting back to me. Should I be worried?” It’s a loaded question because my patience is so fucking thin right now. All I want to be doing is driving over and slitting his throat.
Keegan’s hand clamps over my knee, stilling it so we can all hear better.
“I can’t be jumping to your demands, Ronin. I’m caught in the middle of an investigation and have been in a debrief at police headquarters for hours.”
“Ahh, so what is it you’re investigating?”
In the distance, I hear his hollow footsteps. Beside me on the floor, Tynan’s fingers are racing over the screen as he searches for Black’s signal.
“You’ve seen the mess on the streets, right, Ronin? Or is your head only in things that concern you?”
“And you’d be meaning what?”
“I’d be off my head if someone important to me was at the pointy end of a kill order. Especially one given by the great Paddy O’Connor. He’s still our Boss, right?”
“I’m struggling with your tone and disrespect, so you might be needing to repeat the shite that’s spilling from your fucking mouth, Black.”
“Maybe you’re right, Ronin. But again, it doesn’t seem like the time is right for us to be arguing over manners, when we’re all working on doing our part to bring peace to the streets.”
“Stop fucking Nancy-ing around and forgetting who you work for.”
Rafferty’s legs wrap around my waist from the back.
He’s doing everything in his power to keep my erratic anger as tame as possible.
His movements stir up his scent, but also Tally’s, and it’s exactly what I need.
Still, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, as is knowing a part of my wife’s ring finger is in a gift box.
It’s a sight that will haunt me until I’m taking my last breath.
“My apologies, Ronin,” he says. But it’s clear in his tone, he’s anything but sorry.
“We’re all stressed and snowed under. Arthur Kelly’s death is a concern for the Garda.
It's where a lot of manpower is currently being funneled, and I’m not managing this one.
I’ve got a Superintendent wanting arrests urgently.
I managed a call through to Paddy earlier, though, and let him know our key suspect is Tally.
It looks like she’s been working on the sly with Walsh, the bar manager from O’Malley’s. ”
I grit my teeth, trying to keep the rage out of my voice. Keegan’s hand clamps harder, and Rafferty pushes his head against my back, scenting up a storm. His brother holds up a note that gives me a place to tunnel my anger.
Black and the Fanning brothers aren’t showing up on any network that Tynan has hacked. And they’re definitely not at police headquarters as Black suggested. They’re shielding their location, and if that’s not the workings of a guilty man, I don’t know what is.
“Best let you get on with your job, Black. I apologize if I’m in a prick of a mood, but put yourself in my shoes, won’t you?
I’m positive you’d understand what it’s like trying to see things clearly if your loved ones were being threatened.
” I take a quick breath, not letting him speak.
“If you’d do me a favor, though, take my call when I ring back.
I’ve already had to remind Doyle how life works. I’d hate to have to repeat myself.”
I hang up, seizing back control from the slimy prick.
“You recorded the call?” Keegan asks Tynan.
“Aye. I got it all. If we need to go, I can strip the layers back in the car, see if we can pick up any background noises that would help us figure out where he’s holed up. And who else is involved.”
Keegan stands but stays close. His strength is pouring off him in waves.
His Alpha is eager for blood to be spilled, and if anything, it reinforces again that we’re cut from the same cloth.
Touching my hand to Raff, I tap his arm, and he lets me go in an instant.
I love him with everything, but right this second, I need Keegan.
Like it’s always been with us, there’s no question or judgment, just a place for me to fall apart for a few fucking minutes.
Burying my face against Keegan’s neck, I take his scent from the source, letting it become the air that fills my lungs and pumps through my veins.
His sugar and cinnamon smell levels my anger to something more manageable, while his strength crushes me and holds me together.
“We’ll find her. I vow it.” His mouth is against my ear, his words said just for me.
He’s never made a promise he didn’t keep.
His hands pull me up from where I’m hiding, and he searches my eyes to make sure I’m the Alpha I need to be.
His lips tip ever so slightly, and even though our fucking world is falling down around us, when he slams his mouth to mine, he reminds me how far we’ve already come in loving each other. And how far we’ve got to go.
Tynan and Rafferty leave us alone. I appreciate them both for their respect, but I need them with me too. I walk over to grab the pink box off the side table to go see where they are.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that’s macabre even for you, Ronin.”
“It’s our wife. It’d be wrong to leave any of her behind. Honestly, it’s not like you can talk. I’ve seen you rubbing and sniffing that tracker of hers.”
“Aye. And Tynan looks ready to tackle me for it each time.”
We need the humor, as dark as it is. Keegan sobers up as I do.
“I vow it, Ronin. She’s coming home with us. No matter what state we find her in, she won't ever be alone.”
I nod well before he even finishes speaking. Since I know his brain so well, I knew where he was going with what he was saying immediately.
“Aye. I’ve never been partial to using women in what we do. But with Black, we’ve lost our sway over him, and it’s high time we remind him that he sold his soul to us. He went into this knowing the collateral we’re owners of include his life, his wife, and all that money we paid him.”
“Time to collect?” Keegan says, his eyes shimmering and full of emotion. Lots of fucking fear for our wife, but there’s also a void of pain and retribution for those responsible that I read in them too.
As I walk downstairs with less of a loaded weight on my shoulders, Tynan nods his head, calling me over to him in the kitchen.
Rafferty slides under my arm as soon as I come to a standstill.
For his own need to touch, as well as knowing it’s what my Alpha needs too.
A reminder of what we’re all protecting.
The text on the screen, from another of our contacts hidden in the government, solidifies what we already suspected.
“The DNA matched. As we figured, the blood is Walsh’s. So, the question is, why’s Black pretending he’s still alive and pinning Arthur’s murder on him?”
It’s a question for all of us to think over, but there’s no rush in answering it. Not long after, we’re pulling into Black’s street and parking in his driveway, with a convoy of men and trucks parking on the grass out front.
The house is too grand for a copper on his salary, but he’s always told the story of his wife being left an inheritance a long time ago. It’s not something people would check, because so many simply overlook women and believe whatever a man says.
I know different. I’ve been blessed with the privilege of meeting some of the most fearless, formidable women, so I know strength.
I’ve seen what they endure and their ability to stand tall in the face of adversity, to protect and love.
My wife is one of those I’m proud to include in that sentiment.
Though, one day, she’s going to have one pink arse.
There’s no reason on earth that could ever pacify my Alpha as to why my wife walked into danger without us. I’ll be putting her over my knee for it and reminding her of her importance to our pack as soon as I can.
“Jesus, Ronin, where’s ya fecking head at?” Keegan clicks his fingers in front of my face.
I slap his hand away as a filthy chuckle slips past my lips. “Thinking of our wife, is all. You got to give me them moments, Keegan. We’re about to unleash the beast, as they say. All I was doing was motivating myself.”
“By thinking of Tally?” Tynan asks.
I nod, checking I’ve got enough weapons on me. “Admittedly, I was envisaging her, arse up, on my lap. So, there is that.”
A smile spreads over Tynan’s face. “It scares me how alike we all are sometimes.”
Then, like usual, he’s the first one at the door.
Rafferty’s got a sledgehammer in one of his hands, hanging it casually down.
After the first knock, he gives me an unprompted, unscripted display of the power and brawn he hides under his designation.
His swing has the door exploding into the house, with Keegan, Tynan, and myself following the chaos.
Upstairs, there’s the noise of thundering feet. A door slams from further in the house as a tense silence announces our arrival. It lasts for a handful of seconds until Kee twists around and calls in the movers.
The inside of Black's house is as telling as the front that this pack is wealthy. But the lack of security is also a sign Black has become entirely too comfortable in the life we’ve provided for him.
Next to me Keegan, tuts as he looks at the gaudy displays furnishing their home, pointing out certain objects to the woman in charge of repossessing everything not nailed down.
Leaving our team to do their job, I grab Rafferty by the back of his vest.
“You’re not fucking going up those stairs first, Rafferty. I literally don’t care if you’ve been dipped in fucking platinum. Get it through your gorgeous skull, Kee and I are catching our prisoners, and then you can join in the fun. Jesus, Omega.”
He twists around, and I see the lusty tease in his eyes.
“You fucking kidding me right now, are you not?” I growl against his ear as he glides like water behind me.
“You’re the one who was talking about putting Tally over your knee.”
“And your brother was too!”
“Yeah, well, my brother’s not going anywhere near my cock, thank you very much.”
“Can we get our head out of our grand sex life and focus on capturing Black’s pack yet?” Keegan snaps.
I turn back to glare at Rafferty. To make a point he was out of line. But he’s rolling those big blues of his at me, and I belt out a laugh that blows us being somewhat stealthy out of the water.
Using that as our decoy, we rush the stairs and each take a room, capturing the others in Black’s pack without raising a sweat.
Dragging them back down the stairs is more problematic, as their survival responses kick into gear, but after a few moments, and a couple of decent hits from them, we have them stripped fucking naked and tied down.
“Where’s your children?” I bark at one of them.
The older Beta shakes his head, fighting at my influence, but he buckles in a handful of seconds. “Boarding school. Don’t hurt them.”
I lean down and snarl in his face. “Say fucking please, Alpha O’Connor , and I might be more inclined to listen.”
He’s tongue-tied as fuck trying to get those words out. The Alphas next to him are doing the same, and there’s so much goddamn noise, I nearly miss the text on my phone.
Nearly.
But I’m glad I don’t. Though I wish I did.
Opening the text from an unknown number, my wife’s beautiful face fills the screen.
I can, for the most part, block out the cock filling her mouth.
It’s a right fucking battle, though. Wrestling control of my primal side rates up there as one of the hardest things I’ve had to do.
Complete and utter bullshit, mind you. Showing the image to the rest of my pack is the actual hardest thing I’ve had to do for a while.
I find my strength in the sheer level of unadulterated hate that Tally girl’s glaring at the camera.
I get a handle of my near atomic rage seeing what she's enduring because, without doubt, I know she’ll survive.
She’ll be fracturing inside, hurting and damn near losing faith, but she’ll keep all that hidden from the world.
Our pack will be the only ones who see the true cost to the sick game she’s been drawn into.
And it will be our privilege to help her regain whatever is stolen.
While my pack works through the fallout of seeing firsthand what someone is doing to our wife, and then taunting us with, I walk over to where Black’s wife is. She meets my glare head-on.
Clearing the nerves from her throat, she speaks, her eyes flittering all around, not settling for long on my face.
“The Alpha you are looking for is my husband on paper only. I refuse to share a bed with him, or any of them.” She flicks her head at the men we captured.
“Take everything you want, burn what’s left.
Just don’t hurt my children. Please, Alpha.
I’ll testify against him. I’ll tell anyone who will listen that he’s been on your books for decades. ”
And there’s that strength her pack obviously never wanted to acknowledge.
“Give me one thing,” I demand.
Her eyes lock on mine, and I watch as the wrath and fury she’s lived with blazes until it’s all I see. “If you’re looking for the person who’s responsible for Arthur’s murder, I’d be looking at my husband.”
I cock an eyebrow. Not in surprise, but as a sign for her to explain herself.
“Despite Arthur expressing deep disappointment and urging my husband to stop his long affair with Aisling, Arthur’s wife, it wasn’t something Black was willing to do. He made his choice. She made hers too. And I just made mine. I want my children.”