Chapter 27
Shade
A message hit my phone, as demanding as its sender.
Cassie: My apartment, now. You get a chance to earn forgiveness.
I showed Everly, and she smiled.
“If she’s including you in what she’s up to, that’s forgiveness in itself.”
“What do ye think she’s up to?”
“Something deadly. You and your sister are all too alike.”
I lowered my lips on hers. My fiancé rested in our bed, one hand to her belly where our bairn grew. She kissed me softly, smiling more when I moved my lips to her ear, to the tattoo I’d inked behind it. Lower to her neck.
When I reached her chest, she giggled and pushed me away. “Go now or she’ll get grumpy waiting.”
“Fine, but one more. An important one.”
I stripped back the covers and raised her shirt, only baring her stomach so I didn’t get too excited. Onto her baby bump, I pressed my lips, then murmured, “Be good for your ma. She’s doing such a grand job in making ye.”
Everly sighed, her fingers ruffling my hair. “Our son or daughter is going to run you ragged, you know that, don’t you?”
“Aye, of course I do. I’ve been mentally preparing to lose every argument in this house for the next eighteen years.”
I couldn’t wait for our child to arrive. I was ready to be commanded by their needs. To let Everly rest so she could feed them and heal, then chase them around when they found their feet. I’d never thought that much about being a da, but with the woman I loved, it was as if I’d been made for it.
Well, that and murder.
I nuzzled her belly again. “If ye inherit your mother’s smarts and my aim, the world’s in trouble.”
Everly laughed. I rose for another pull at her lips. “I won’t be long.”
With her blessing, I left to head down one flight to my grouchy little sister.
Riot let me into their apartment, faint amusement in his once-over. Unlike Cassie, he’d forgiven me easily for taking Dixie’s bags from under their nose and keeping Tyler’s secret.
“I would’ve done the same,” had been his only answer.
Good man. I’d stopped wanting to fight him for a while now. We were family.
Cassie sat at the table, a series of blades set out on leather and a sharpening block recently in use from the metallic scent in the air. Ah, smelled like home.
I gripped the back of the opposite seat. “Who are we hunting?”
She glowered up at me from under her brow and slid a knife into a hidden sheath in her boot. “I’m going out to catch someone. I may or may not let ye come along as backup.”
I pursed my lips, already anticipating the cool air of the night. The takedown to come. “Ye mean I get to watch ye commit a crime for emotional closure? I’m honoured.”
She pointed another blade at me. “Leaning towards may not.”
“Aw, please.”
“You’re a dick.”
From across the room, Riordan laughed low, his motorbike helmet in hand. “Cassie, we went over this.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “And yet I’m still annoyed. I already have four brothers who keep things from me. I didn’t need another.”
I raised my hands in surrender. “I get it. I’d be pissed off, too. But wouldn’t ye have done the same in my shoes? Dixie asking for secrecy for a day because Tyler needed it? You’re only sour because ye were on the outside. So was everyone else.”
“Ugh. Don’t make me be reasonable. It clashes with my outfit.” She climbed up, her favourite bejewelled knife glinting in the light. “Fine. Forgiven. But I’m driving.”
For fuck’s sake. “The last time you drove, it cost the city three traffic lights.”
“No whining.”
In her fucking car, we took off into the city. Any irritation fled my system, the urge to catch and hurt someone taking over.
“Ready to tell me who we’re going after?”
Cassie gunned the engine, cutting up slower drivers at a junction.
My sister drove with murderous intent and zero regard for painted lines.
“Dixie texted our skeleton girls’ group that Sullivan is dead.
Mila cried about that fucking vote not being able to go ahead.
Well, maybe because I said the company just had to die.
I feel mildly responsible for upsetting her, so we’re fixing it with murder maths. ”
I raised an eyebrow, not following, though I liked the sound of a school subject I might have passed.
Cassie rolled her hands. “I feel bad, so we’re going to correct the body count. One fewer of those dudes puts it back to an odd number, therefore voting has a chance.”
“You’re balancing corporate governance with slaughter.”
“Exactly. It’s called taking the initiative. I would do it for any of my friends.”
Seemed logical to me. I didn’t fully understand the Marchant shite and didn’t want to learn. “Which are we going for?”
Cassie took out a coin. Flipped it. “Heads we ruin the financier. Tails it’s the other one. Democracy in action.”
I snatched it from the air and slammed it to the back of my hand. Cassie braked and peered over, ignoring the blare of a horn from behind.
I revealed it. Heads.
“Paul Debrock, congratulations. You’ve won the worst raffle in Scotland. Tonight is your night,” my sister sang and spun the wheel to take us north.
She tapped on the radio, ‘Blood in the Cut’ by K.Flay playing.
I tutted and tried to change it, just to be annoying. She whacked my hand away, and I laughed, enjoying the sibling fuckery in a way I’d never expected. From loner to family man. I was living the dream.
She thumped my leg. “Pain in my arse. I wish I hadn’t invited ye along.”
“Ye say that every time. Yet here I am. A loyal, homicidal Doberman.”
“A poodle at best.”
“How about a labrador?”
“A tiny, annoying chihuahua.”
Her insults continued throughout the drive, but when we were a minute out from Debrock’s place, the fun dialled back to bloodlust mixed with cold logic.
The lack of planning bothered me, so I walked Cass through a slower approach than the smash-and-grab she wanted.
We set up a perimeter around the modern mansion Debrock resided at alone.
Waited and watched from opposite corners.
Under our very noses, a figure crossed the lawn.
In my earbud, Cassie gasped and whispered, “Who the fuck is that?”
“If it’s Tyler cutting me out, again, I’m going to punch him.”
I took a picture before the figure plunged out of sight, then sent it to Cassie and zoomed in. Black clothes, some kind of dark scarf. There was nothing I recognised of him, though I was pretty sure he was male.
She hummed. “Definitely not Ty, even if he covered his face well. I’m sending it to my girls.”
“Surprise murder loses its impact if it’s in the group chat. Sure ye want to let that cat out of the bag?” I asked.
She paused. “Yeah, well, maybe I acted without thinking. It’s better if they know.”
She went quiet, aside from tiny tapping sounds and the occasional muted swear. Then Cassie took a breath. “Dixie says not to kill him.”
“What? Why?”
“Because that leaves the wrong person alive,” she read. “What does that mean?”
“No clue, but that sentence feels pointed.”
A scream tore through the air, male, pained and terrified.
My stomach tightened in anticipation, except this wasn’t my kill.
A second yowl followed, then the crash and thud of a fight. I was fifty feet away and could hear clear as day. Whoever the garden creeper was had launched a frenzy of his own.
“The bastard’s stolen our kill,” Cassie said.
“Fucker has. We’re being professionally embarrassed.” I warred with myself, wanting the blood. Not needing the hassle.
My sister made the decision for me.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we need to go.”
Goddamn it. She was right. Nothing ruined a perfectly good revenge mission faster than someone beating you to the body. And if this wasn’t random, we were already behind.