Chapter 8
EIGHT
ARES
"You know that feeling you get right before everything goes to hell?" I looked around me, peering through the trees in the direction of the park.
"I know it well," Ice agreed. "As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that's what the tingling in the back of my neck right now is. We should have told Kennedy to meet us at home."
"She was closer to here than she is to there," Mannix said, looking as unimpressed with the situation as we were. "She should be here in a minute or two."
"She better be," I growled.
I knew she'd save herself. She'd always been a badass.
Sometimes I wondered what the hell she saw in us.
Not that I wasn't going to let her go anyway, no matter what happened.
Till death do us part and all that stuff.
I didn't need a ring or a piece of paper to make that commitment to her. I just needed her.
A flash of movement between the trees caught my eye. I pointed and started forward.
"Wait," Mannix started to say, but then he and Ice were following me, probably into an ambush.
"There's another one over there," Ice said.
I turned and followed his line of sight. He was right. There were two, maybe three people hidden amongst the trees, waiting for us.
"Is this where we turn around and get the hell out of here?" I asked. I didn't want to, but walking straight into an ambush was dumber than fuck.
"We can deal with them," Mannix said. "I want to know who the hell thinks they can fuck with us. They should know by now we fuck back twice as hard."
"At least twice," Ice agreed.
"Maybe several times." Mannix nodded.
"The amount of times doesn't matter," Ice said with a shrug. "We can work that out later."
"Why don't you wave a flag telling them where we are? So they can come and get us?" I said sarcastically. We weren't exactly being quiet.
"I wasn't going for stealth," Mannix said darkly. "Let them know where we are. It'll be the last thing they learn before they die."
"Let's not hurry that too much," Ice said. "I want to have fun with these assholes. After everything they put Kennedy through."
I didn't know what that was yet, but I grunted my agreement. Even if they lured her away with chocolate and took good care of her, I wanted to fuck them up.
"Did someone mention fun?" Hunter Brantley stepped through the trees, followed by Parker, Lila Bell, and finally Kennedy.
I ignored him and hurried forward to give her a hug instead. The moment she was in my arms, I didn't want to let her go again.
"Are you okay?" I leaned back to take a good look at her.
She didn't seem harmed. Her hair was messy and her clothes were rumpled. Her feet were bare but I saw no visible bruises on her.
"I'm fine," she assured me. "If you know someone named Tony, you might want to look into him."
"Several," Ice said with a laugh. "Things just got very uncomfortable for everyone with the name Tony that's been anywhere near Dusk Bay for the last year."
That was excessive, but I didn't bother to mention it. Better he took it too far than not far enough.
Without waiting for me to step back, Mannix and Ice both put their arms around her and held her before stepping back and returning their attention to whoever was waiting for us.
"I brought some others with us," Kennedy said.
She looked back over her shoulder as Chelsea appeared, Storm Keller and Daniel Frost right behind her, both a wall of rugby-playing muscle. Nothing I was intimidated by, but I wasn't the one whose face was about to be turned inside out.
"Chels," Ice called out happily. He stepped away to give her a hug and offer a fist bump to her boyfriends. "Glad you could come and give us a hand."
Storm shrugged. "Anyone who kidnaps women needs a punch in the face."
"A punch in the face for starters,” Frost agreed. "Who are we killing?"
"We need to determine that," Hunter said, rubbing his hands together. "Let's go and find out, shall we?" He looked like this was some kind of game.
That was pretty standard for either of the twins. They lived for shit like this. They'd probably die for it too, but that was not my problem.
"Thanks for the party invitation, by the way," Parker said as they made their way past us toward the shadows in the trees.
"Yeah," I said with a grunt, and trudged along beside them.
This was strangely preferable to a Christmas party. I don't care if I had my priorities backward. I really, really hate parties, especially crowded ones. Especially ones we were forced to host. Against our will. Who does stuff like that anyway? Reuben was a sadistic prick. If you ask me.
His brothers were like him in that respect.
Are you sure you're okay? I asked Kennedy. "I could take you home if you want." We could have a private party while the rest of them dealt with whatever the hell this was. That sounded like a perfect plan to me.
"I'm fine," she said softly. "I want to see what this was about."
I considered telling her no and insisting on throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her away from here.
Reluctantly, I got it. Someone thought it was okay to take her.
If it was me, I'd want to know who and why.
The only reason I really relented though?
As far as I could tell, there weren't hundreds of assholes waiting to murder us the minute we stepped out of the trees. A few assholes, we could deal with.
"This is weird," Mannix said, stepping carefully.
"You know, this might be about them getting their hands on the twins," Ice said lightly. "It might not have anything to do with any of us."
Hunter and Parker both glanced back at him and grinned.
"If they wanted our attention that badly, they only had to say so," Hunter said. "We're very amenable when we're in the mood."
No one asked how often that was.
We stepped through the trees as the shadows hiding in them stepped out onto the park.
There were four of them. No, five. Four men and one woman.
"Is that…" I started.
"Looks like it to me," Hunter agreed.
"Kaya Mancini. I thought she was dead. Along with the rest of her family." I frowned.
"She promised not to make any more trouble. And left town," Lila said, her expression dark.
"I haven't made any trouble," Kaya called out. "I apologise for all of this. I figured if I asked for a meeting, I'd be refused."
"You thought right," Mannix called back. "What do you want?"
He pulled out a gun from the back of his pants and aimed it at her.
She raised her hands to the side of her face. "I don't want any trouble. I want to return to Dusk Bay and I don't want anyone killing me." She made it sound almost reasonable.
"So you kidnapped our woman?” I growled.
"No harm was ever going to come to her," Kaya assured me. "Tony was supposed to bring her here and return her to you."
I looked around at the men who stood around her. "Which one of you is Tony?" I demanded.
"Tony has left town," Kaya said. "He's been paid. He won't be seen around here again.
"We'll consider leaving you in peace, but we need his details," Mannix said. His tone was firm. He wasn't backing down on this.
"Deal," Kaya called back with classic Dusk Bay loyalty. So touching. "Tell you exactly where he went. Then I can live my life?"
"Why do you want to come back here anyway?" Ice asked.
Kaya averted her gaze. "I have my reasons. I won't cause anyone any trouble. I'll stay out of your way if you stay out of mine."
"I'm not sure we shouldn't kill her anyway," Mannix said.
"If you kill me, you'll never find Tony," Kaya said simply.
"Who's to say we won't kill him, then you?" Ice asked, his tone pleasant but dangerous.
"I guess I have to trust you," Kaya said, shrugging one shoulder. "I know what my family was like but I'm different. I don't want to get involved in all of that anymore."
I caught a faint snort from Chelsea. She'd tried to stay away from the lifestyle too, but it came after her and took her back anyway. It might well do the same to Kaya.
Honestly though, that wasn't my problem either. I had Kennedy back. Ice would take care of Tony. And somehow we'd get through this stupid Christmas party.
"Give me all his details; we'll deal with him," Mannix said he pulled out his phone and stepped toward her carefully.
The men around her stiffened, but none made any attempt to stop him. Were any of them with her, or were they just her minions? I suspected they were nothing more than hired help, here for this meeting, to protect her from us.
Kaya took Mannix's phone and tapped on the screen, entering details, before handing it back.
He glanced down at it and nodded. "We’ll deal with this asshole. Don't think this is the end of it. We'll be keeping a close eye on you. Just in case."
She nodded. "I wouldn't expect anything else.
" After all, her family attacked the Dusk Bay Demons arena, amongst other things, before they were wiped out.
She might get to return to Dusk Bay, but she was always going to have to watch over her shoulder.
Reuben would make sure of it, even if we didn't. Which we would, because she already took our woman once.
We wouldn't give her another opportunity.
We should kill her now and be done with it, but the decision was made.
"Let's go and kill this prick," Ice said.
"We're coming with you." Hunter said, gesturing toward Parker.
"Us too." Frost agreed, putting an arm, hand on Storm's bicep. "Let's deal with this asshole."
Kennedy sighed. "I guess I'll go and meet the decorators. They're coming to make the place pretty for tomorrow's party.”
"I’ll help you," Chelsea said.
After a moment, Lila added, "Me too, if you'll have me"
Kennedy smiled at them both. "Let's get this done."
With any luck, it would take us a while to find Tony and we'd miss the party altogether.
A guy could hope. Right?