Chapter 36
Alessa
After Ryder apologized for his outburst in the kitchen, he kissed me stupid, and then said he needed to talk to Zane. I didn’t even take what Ryder said personally, even though I should have. We’re all under so much pressure sometimes it comes out in ways we don’t want it to. Ryder’s is anger.
They were in there for a couple of hours, but when Ryder came out, he looked relaxed.
Then he explained to me the relationship between him and Zane.
I was ecstatic for them. Ryder’s whole childhood, just like mine, revolved around being the biggest and the baddest. That’s how Rocco raised him because that’s the only way he knew how.
With Zane, Ryder doesn’t have to be that person.
Zane gives him the freedom to be whoever he wants to be.
I want all my guys to get everything out of this relationship as I am.
I have the love of all six men; now, they have each other too.
We’re on our way to meet Micah, with Holden this time because he wouldn’t take no for an answer, to get the computers. After we meet Micah, we’ll hide out for the other stuff we have planned.
Zane and Ryder are up front, with Zane surprisingly driving, Leo and Gage in the middle, and I’m in the back with Holden and Dex.
I turn to the latter. “How are you feeling about what happened yesterday?” I whisper just for his ears.
I want to make sure he’s okay after what happened between him and Leo.
He smiles, and he does that so much these days. “I’m fine, Baby girl.”
“Did you like it?” I ask, waggling my eyebrows.
“You’re a dirty girl,” he chuckles. “I did.” He leans closer. “But you’re my only good girl.”
God, that always does things to me. “Maybe he can be your good boy.”
Dex barks a laugh, making Gage and Leo turn around. “You okay there, Big fella?” Gage asks. Dex’s cheeks darken, and Gage’s mouth pops open. “Are you blushing?”
Holden leans across me, looking closer. “He sure the hell is.”
“I’m not fucking blushing,” Dex grumbles, his cheeks getting darker.
“I think it’s cute,” I declare, kissing his red cheek. “You thought about it, didn’t you?” I whisper. He playfully pushes my face away. “It’s okay. Ryder asked me to peg him,” I announce loudly.
Ryder’s head whips around. “I didn’t ask you to peg me.”
“You kind of did, Love,” Zane says with a laugh. Ryder’s eyes narrow on me, promising retribution, and I grin.
“This car is full of a bunch of freaks,” Gage says. “I’m ashamed to be seen with you.”
I lean up between the seats, propping my chin on my arms. “I’ll just keep my freak self away from you, then.”
Gage turns to face me. “You wouldn’t. I could have you naked with a wink and a smile. Like that,” He says with a snap of his fingers.
“You wanna bet on that?” I say, sticking my hand out.
“Don’t take that bet,” Ryder chuckles. “You’ll lose.” I’m glad he feels confident about me because I know it doesn’t take much for these guys to have me naked.
“You’re on,” Gage says, shaking my hand with a grin.
“Just remember,” I lean in to whisper in his ear, making sure my lips touch his earlobe, “I play dirty.”
Leo laughs. “You’re so going to lose.”
“Two can play that game, Pretty girl. Remember that.” Gage smiles and then slides out of the car, where Zane pulled over.
“I got you, Bright eyes,” Holden says.
We all slide out of the car to meet Micah at Lookout Point. It’s exactly like the name implies. You can look out and see all of Abbs Valley. It is also a place you brought someone to hook up with.
I hug Micah. “Did you get everything?”
“Yeah.” He looks at Holden, “That’s a lot of shit.”
Holden shrugs. “It’s what I like.”
Micah shakes his head. “Ghost and Caden are on their way.”
We all slide onto the picnic tables. “How deep are they rolling?”
“Deep,” Micah chuckles. “They both did damn good with their crews.”
We all fall into conversation, waiting for Ghost and Caden to go over the plan; their crews would meet us there. When they pull up five minutes later, Alexey and Dmitri get out of the back. I raise an eyebrow at Micah. He shrugs. “I guess they’re friends now.”
“That’s scary as fuck,” Ryder laughs.
We quickly go over the plan then hop back into the cars, straight to Club Catch.
We park down the street and wait for the cue.
Eyes peeled, I finally see everyone run out, covering their noses, smoke billowing out behind them.
I smile. “Let’s go.” We each slide our masks down, grab our automatics, and jump out.
Micah gave the other guys theirs, and Ghost and Caden’s crews had their variations of Halloween masks on.
It looks scary as hell with all of us running toward Club Catch. I love it.
Just like we planned, Ryder, Zane, Dex, Alexey, Dmitri, and I step to the front as soon as we’re inside and open fire, destroying everything in our path. When our clips are empty, we step back, and Micah, Gage, Leo, Ghost, Caden, and Holden step up, doing the same thing.
I tried to keep Holden at home, but he made one of the best arguments I’ve heard. Viktor did this to him; he deserves to have some payback. So Ryder and Zane went over everything with him, made sure he can handle the automatic, and we set him loose.
Everyone with us is lighting it up the other way. I hold up a hand, and the noise stops. There isn’t a thing here that isn’t destroyed. “Viktor!” I yell. “I know you’re here!”
The guys tighten ranks around me when Viktor steps out from the back with four guys walking behind him. I can see the surprise on his face when he sees my guys, plus thirty of Ghost and Caden’s best guys. I wonder if he knows his sons are standing right behind me.
“What is this?” Viktor asks, looking around, surveying the hell I just rained down on his club.
“I came to say hi,” I reply, never removing my mask. He can blame me all he wants, but he’ll never catch me on camera. He narrows his eyes, and I can’t help but laugh. “Where’s Jay?”
I watch his face closely; except for a slight shift of his eyes, his face doesn’t change. That is enough, though. “I don’t know who that is.”
“Cut the shit, Viktor,” Ryder barks. “We already know. Where the fuck is he?” Viktor glares. “Have it your way, asshole.”
“Tell me where my wife is, and I’ll tell you where he is.”
I watch as Alexey slowly raises his mask just enough so Viktor can see him before pulling it back down. “You don’t deserve to know where she is. Where’s Jay?”
“My son!” Viktor yells, a vein throbbing in his temple.
“Sons,” Dmitri answers, not bothering to lift his mask; his voice is enough.
Viktor reaches behind his back. “Hands where I can see them,” Zane barks, pointing his gun at Viktor.
Gage laughs like a maniac. “Such a cop thing to do.” Gage levels his at the other guys. “You know what they say, he who hesitates,” he snaps his fingers, “disintegrates.”
“You did not just quote Supernatural,” I say with a laugh.
“I did, Boss.”
Shaking my head, I look back at Viktor. “What’s your call?”
“Quit being a coward and take your mask off,” Viktor growls. “I might be more apt to tell you.”
“Thanks, but I’ll pass. Let’s go, boys.”
We turn as one and take off toward the cars listening to the sirens wailing in the distance.
Zane gave us the response times if someone called the cops, and our time is up.
We all take off. “Mateo is meeting us at Whispers of Russian,” I say, jerking my mask off and reloading my automatic.
I hear all the clips snapping in, signaling they’re doing the same. I turn to Holden. “You good?”
He raises his mask, and he’s grinning from ear to ear. “That was fucking awesome.”
“Right?” Gage asks, turning and fist bumping him.
“We’ve created a fucking monster,” Ryder groans from the front.
Zane jerks to a stop down from Whispers in Russian. “Response time should be longer since they’re tied up at Club Catch. They can’t ignore a shooting like that, no matter what that slimy bastard says.”
Right on cue, people start running out, smoke billowing. “Come on.”
We go in the same way, destroying everything. Viktor wanted to help that motherfucker take from me? I’m going to take from Viktor until he gives Jay up.
When the noise stops, guards run out from the back, see us, and run back. “Oh, come on!” Gage yells. “We just want to talk!”
“You know,” Zane says dryly, “I was joking when I called you crazy boy. Not anymore.”
“But you love me anyway, Zaney.”
I can practically hear Zane’s eyes roll behind his mask. He might not admit it, but you can’t help but love Gage.
“You have two options!” I yell to the guards. I know they can’t escape because we have the place surrounded. “Come out and answer some questions! Or we come in after you!” I sing the last bit and hear a couple of them chuckle behind me.
“On my count,” Ryder shouts. “One. Two. Three!”
Zane, Dex, and Ryder fall into a single file with Ryder in the lead; when they get to the door that leads to the kitchen, one of the guards steps out with his hands up. Ryder jerks him out of the way; they disappear behind the door, shoving the rest of them out.
“Welcome to the party. Who wants to start talking?” I ask, looking between them. “Where’s Jay?” I don’t know if they’ll even know, but I need to make sure. I’m not taking any chances.
“We don’t know,” the one who held his hands up answers.
“Sucks to be you then,” Leo mutters. This is a message; whether they surrender or not, they still work for Viktor.
I swing my automatic up. “Wait!” another one yells. “We said we don’t know anything!”
“You still work for the Orlovs,” Alexey growls.
“Oh. Nice work on the growl,” Gage comments.
“Thanks. Been working on it,” Alexey laughs.
“I take that back. You’re all fucking crazy,” Zane adds.
“So says the one, also pointing automatic rifles at a bunch of people,” Ryder says dryly.
Zane shrugs. “Fair point.”
“Light ‘em up!” I yell. Zane, Ryder, and Dex open fire, watching them jerk and slump before they lower them.
“Time to bail,” I say. “You know where to go!”
One by one, we storm the city, taking out everything Viktor owns. His clubs, his restaurants, his casinos, his boutiques. Everything. We jump back into the car to meet Micah.
Starting last night, an unknown number has called me nonstop, but I have refused to answer it.
Until now.
“Hello, Jay,” I answer, pushing as much bravado as I can into my voice.
Zane pulled over when I told him I would answer.
Gage’s hand is tucked into mine, Leo’s arm around my waist, Zane and Ryder each have a hand on my thigh, and Holden and Dex have a hand on my shoulders, lending me their strength. I can feel it bleeding into me.
“What are you doing, Precious?” he purrs, each of my guy’s hands tightening.
“Oh, you know. I got bored. I decided to redecorate for Viktor.”
He tsks. “You have no idea what you’ve done.” He pauses. “How’s your hacker?”
“Perfectly fine,” I swallow, forcing my voice not to shake. “Thanks for asking.”
“They have a habit of not dying when I want them to,” Jay chuckles. “I’m going to have to try harder.”
I can hear Holden tapping at lightning speed on his laptop that he hooked to the car’s Wi-Fi, trying to get a trace.
“Or you could eat shit and die,” I say, trying to sound bored. “Aren’t you done with this game yet?”
“This isn’t a game,” he grits out, finally dropping the easy-going tone. “You’re mine. Don’t you get that?”
“I’ll never be yours,” I grind out. “Don’t you get that?”
“Soon, Precious. Soon.” The call disconnects, and I turn to look at Holden. He shakes his head, and all the energy leaves me.
“You did good, Pretty girl,” Gage says, with the others agreeing.
Zane pulls back onto the road to meet Micah at Lookout Point so we can take Holden’s computers home. I can see his hand shake on the steering wheel and watch in amazement as Ryder reaches over and puts his hand on Zane’s thigh. Zane takes a breath, then tucks his hand into Ryder’s.
While we hit the last place of Viktor’s, Micah and Mateo went and loaded up the stuff we bought at the safe house to bring to us.
We’re going to switch vehicles with them and move to a new one.
Now that we pissed off Viktor and Jay, we can’t stay in one place for long.
So, for the foreseeable future, we’ll have to move constantly.
When we switch vehicles and make it to the new safe house that Ghost has, it’s well after midnight, and I’m exhausted. It’s smaller than the other house, much like mine and Gage’s hidden cabin, so the guys pull the mattresses from the beds and pile them in the living room.
We all lay down just like we did in the movie room, letting the calm wash over us. I know Viktor will retaliate and go after my businesses, but he doesn’t know I have a surprise waiting for him when he does.
Game on, assholes.