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After a stop in the kitchen for freshly perked coffee thanks to his house manager, Tracey, we walk to Ruin’s office in the back of the house. I settle into a chair and hold the hot cup in my chilled hands.
“I’m looking to kill Jimbo.”
“Seems about right. The Rogers family is on edge. Jimbo is bound to snap soon. Gotta kill him before he goes after your woman.”
“Glad you agree. Hobo has an idea about taking down Jimbo quietly.”
“You best be ready for eyes to land on Irina when he goes down. His feelings for her aren’t a secret.”
“I’m ready to go now. Consequences will be later.”
“It’ll be too cold the next few days,” Ruin says, needing to dominate me like usual. “Jimbo won’t take a stroll in this weather. Better for you and Hobo to scout the area and pick where to hide his body. I want it to be like the asshole disappeared into thin air. To do that, you need to be in the right head space. I can see you’re pissed right now.”
“He’s a threat to the woman I love.”
Ruin gives me a weird look before tugging off his knit cap and jacket as the house’s warmth finishes off the last of the chill.
“Irina might be pregnant,” I say when I sense that’s where his head has gone.
“That’s what I heard,” Ruin says and runs a hand through his messy hair. “Irina seems like a nice chick.”
“Seems?”
“She’s intertwined with the Rogers family. I suspect she’ll be secretive and on edge until she’s separated from them.”
“She and Fiona are tight.”
Ruin gives me a bitchy eye roll. “Yeah, I noticed.”
“She won’t cut her loose.”
“Good,” Ruin says and leans back in his chair. “I wasn’t so sure what to think about Fiona until Thanksgiving. Now, I can imagine an ideal future where she’s the heir in charge of the Rogers’s estate. That would be good for the club. Any of Todd’s sons would make our lives difficult.”
“Fiona can’t run anything.”
“No, she can’t. But she can hire people to do all the business. They’ll play things safe, meaning they won’t gun for us. That’s not only good for our future but our kids’ future. I don’t want to be worrying about Jimbo or Larry calling the shots when I’m an old man.”
“Well, soon, Jimbo will no longer be calling anything.”
Ruin yanks out his phone and looks at something. “This cold snap will last two or three days. Once it ends, you should be ready to move.”
“I thought you’d give me more pushback.”
“Not after Marky nearly killed Selene and Yazmin. We got lucky with Glenn and his rifle. I’m not risking anything anymore.”
I don’t speak. My mind is on Irina. She can whip me into a frenzy with just a little smirk. When she unleashes the full power of her smile, I’m the luckiest man alive. Right now, though, I think of her surrounded by vipers.
“What’s the plan if the old man targets Irina after Jimbo goes missing?” I ask since Ruin likes to act as if he knows everything.
“Honestly, I think we’re seeing him wrong. The way Todd backed down after Marky died felt weird, as if he feared a war. Except he could fly away in his jet to the other side of the world while his hired guns burned the Valley to the ground. He had no reason to fear us. I mean, sure, we’d get him eventually, but we’d lose more in the short run.”
“He doesn’t care about his sons. Why be inconvenienced over them?”
“I don’t think he cares about anyone except the asshole in the mirror. However, he likes living in the Valley. If we kill Jimbo quiet, he won’t make a stink. His sons won’t stay on their leashes anymore. Having them dead fixes a problem he made for himself. Still, you should be ready to move Irina out of the guesthouse and into the Pigsty. Even if Todd behaves, Larry could flip out. He’s as high as a kite most days. No way to tell how he’ll react after another brother dies, especially if he blames us.”
My temper hits a new level when I imagine saving Irina from Jimbo, only for Larry to come after her.
“I hate that family.”
