“Easy, kid,” I murmur. As much as I’d love to see Briar break the arrogant dick, I can’t have the distraction right now. “What else?”
Ripping out of my hold, he tugs on his hoodie and swings his bag higher up. He pointedly flips the capo off before looking to me.
“Ronan.” He cracks his neck. “Once I figured out it was him, I used the cameras in the city to follow him.”
“And you found…?” I drawl.
He rolls his eyes. “Not much. But considering you blew up his entire plan, he’s going to run back to his masters for help. So, follow the rat?—”
“And he’ll lead us to the Board.”
Gesturing to Hayes, I toss him the pack. “Upload it and send me his last location. I’ll track him down while Maeve handles Tag.”
Briar curls his lips. “Let me guess, interviews?”
Patting him on the shoulder, I say, “Not all of us got the fucked genes in the family, kid.”
“Just because I don’t use guns doesn’t mean I’m not fucked up.” Adjusting his bag, he pulls up his hood, hiding in the shadows. “I’m just fucked up in different ways.”
He fist bumps Hayes on his way to the door, ignoring Alessio. With a hand to the edge, he glares back at me, green eyes glowing through the darkness.
“You promised to keep her safe.”
Nodding, I lick my lip. “With my life.”
“I don’t care about your life,” he mutters. “I care about hers. She’s the only one who saved?—”
“I know,” I interrupt. “But if she finds out you’re here?—”
“So, don’t tell.” He tilts his head, looking to the guards. “We’ll keep this our secret.”
The bastard knows I can’t keep a secret to save my life from his sister. He’s asking for trouble by requesting it.
With a final salute, he slinks through the front door and back into the shadows.
The three of us stand still, left to our thoughts. Before I forget, I pull out my knives, tossing one into the left guard’s heart with deadly accuracy. Surging behind the guard on the right, I lift my blade to his throat and cut deeply.
Fresh blood spills, soaking his front and the floor underneath. He drops, neither of them making a noise.
Peering at the two others, I see the color in the capo’s face drain, replaced with something green. Hayes looks on, annoyed.
“Are you shitting me?” he growls. “Do you know how late it is? Getting new guards here at this time is going to be a bitch. Not to mention having the maids clean this up.”
Plucking the knife out of the corpse’s chest, I roll my eyes. “Poor Prince, having to clean up messes.”
“Yourmesses, Reaper. I’ve been cleaning upyourmesses.”
“Are we going to gloss over the fact he just killed two of your men?” Alessio interrupts, hands waving around. “In front of you. Killed. For what reason?”
Shrugging, I lick the edge of my blade before putting it back in my pants. “It’s not like I knew them.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“He had to,” Hayes offers, clicking away at his phone. “No one can know Briar is in town.”
The capo looks between us, confused. “Why?”
“Because Ferguson put a hit out on Briar’s head when he was fifteen,” I explain. Kind of a dick move, but I’ve already killed him for one—I don’t want to weigh the morality of an old mobster’s parenting choices this late at night. “And it’s still active.”
