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“You fucking ki—” Jentry drew in a sharp breath and dragged his hands over his head, jaw twitching as he looked between us. But where most people outside our world would be horrified at what Jentry had walked up on, there was only a depraved understanding that came from living in our world. When Jentry continued, his voice was softer but filled with frustration. “You killed someone.”
“Two people, actually. His brother’s over there.” I pointed in the vague direction I remembered Vinny’s brother being, my tone mocking when I said, “And your reaction and the fact that you walked up to us without your gun drawn makes me think you didn’t just expect it of us, but you’re okay with it. So, we’ll take care of the scene, and you won’t call it in.”
An irritated laugh left Jentry. “Everything I am demands that I do.”
“If you knew what they’d done, you would’ve been right here with us.”
The look on Jentry’s face said it all: He wanted me to be telling the truth. He wanted to believe we weren’t just randomly murdering people. He wanted Jess to be telling the truth when she said we were good people.
“Doesn’t matter what they did; I have to call it in,” he finally said. “You know...you or your brother were just trying to convince Aurora that everything was fine, that everyone was safe, and then all this shit happens.”
“I told your little wifey she was safe if we were staying away from her,” I corrected and finally lowered my bandana so it hung around my neck. “I also asked if she would believe we were protecting the town, and she laughed.” I waved my gun at Vinny. “Protecting the town.”
Disbelief settled over Jentry’s features as he looked between us again. “What, y’all go around playing Batman?”
Kieran sighed as a scoffing laugh burst from me. “Batman wishes he was as cool as us.” I made a shooing motion at Jentry with my gun, dismissing him. “All you need to know is we’re taking care of it; you don’t need to know details. There will be no crime scene. There will be no news story about brothers being murdered—there won’t even be missing person reports. So, you can go and forget you saw anything.”
“That isn’t how—”
“They’ve been kidnapping and savagely killing people,” Kieran confessed, shocking the hell out of me and forcing me to my full height. “People who are connected to the Borellos in any way.”
“Excuse the fuck out of you,” I snapped, forgetting momentarily who Kieran was when I stepped up to him and felt the length of a blade press against my neck.
“Jesus Christ, Kieran,” Jentry yelled, but Kieran continued divulging the facts of all the bullshit we’d been surrounded in recently, all while his murderous glare remained on me, warning me from stopping him again.
“They just killed Dare’s mom,” Kieran said softly. “They’re the ones behind the house explosion—that was Dare’s family home for generations. Right before the explosion, they took Dare’s wife. We don’t know where.”
There was a heavy silence before Jentry asked, “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Kieran finally tore his focus from me to look at his brother-in-law. “Being adopted into your rich family can’t change who you are. You’re a good guy, Jentry, but a part of your soul is just as dark as Jessica’s—just as dark as ours are.”
Fuck if that didn’t hit a nerve with his brother-in-law.
Jentry’s jaw strained as his hardened stare shifted my way before returning to Kieran.
“Everything Jessica has told you is true—we help people. We help them escape shitty situations. But there’s another part of our lives, and this is that part.”
“And what exactly is the name for ‘that part?’” Jentry asked, clearly already knowing but wanting us to say it.
Kieran just slanted his head as if he had no intention of indulging that question. “But this part of our lives? We only do it to protect our family and to help others.”
Jentry looked between us before saying, “There is a legal way to do things. There is a judicial system.”
“Not in our world,” Kieran said simply.
Another aggravated sigh left Jentry before he moved, walking slowly through the tall grass to look for Johnny’s uncle.
“The hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked Kieran while watching Jentry’s every move.
“Solving a problem we’ve avoided too long.”
“Not your call to make,” I hissed, reminding him of his place in our family. “And this? Jentry? Not a discussion he should be part of ever.”
“Which of us was trained to take over an entire mob family?” Kieran asked darkly, forcing my attention to him long enough to see the cold warning he was sending my way. “I know what I’m doing, and I know him. Trust that.”
I’d trust Kieran to have my back in life-and-death situations. But after this conversation, I couldn’t trust him to keep us safe if he was telling civilians the ins and outs of our dark world that were supposed to remain hidden from them.
“Your world,” Jentry said as he started toward us, the words seeming to taste bitter as they fell from him. Slanting a glare at us, he asked, “What exactly is ‘your world?’” The question pure expectation as if he knew he would trick us into answering one of these times.
