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“You will not get traded. We will not let you fall into their hands. Understand?”
I’d understood before, but I was already in their hands. Literally.
“I want my wife before you take Willow,” Dare said just as Detective Higgins took a step away with me.
“That isn’t how this works,” Higgins said with a click of his tongue. “You know better than that.”
“I know Lachlan will kill my wife once he has what he wants.”
Higgins cleared his throat. “Once Ms. Bennett’s delivered, your wife will be returned safe and sound,” he said on that irritable sigh of his. “Besides, Keane doesn’t want a war with you, and a mob princess turned mafia queen isn’t nearly as intriguing as this girl here.”
I jerked away from his hand when his fingers began skating across my cheek and found myself much like before. Head tilted back with his fingers digging into my jaw, only this time, I was facing him.
Facing Diggs.
Looking like he had been frozen in time, mid-step. Rifle aimed directly at me—at Higgins—but I felt those gray eyes searching me. Checking me over. I felt his rage and fear. I felt his determination and unwavering love.
“Interesting that Keane doesn’t want a war considering what happened this morning,” Dare ground out. “What’s been happening.”
“Our executions, not our plans,” Higgins said unapologetically. “You get that though, don’t you?” Looking at me with the blue neon glowing directly in front of my face, he asked, “Do they know? Do you know?”
My breath came out shaky and stilted as I clawed at his chest, trying to escape his hold. Each movement feeling weaker than the one before it as that fire pulsed across my back and the edges of my vision wavered. Blood dripping and soaking through my shirt and the top of my jeans with each twist of my torso.
“Unpredictable gang. Wrong place, wrong time,” Higgins said, a clear smile in his voice. “Just happened to be in the same place as them. Isn’t that what I told you about why your boyfriend was killed that night?”
I closed my eyes against the flashes bursting across my vision, my head shaking against his tight hold as he continued.
“Could’ve been that he dressed weird, or we didn’t like the way his face looked. Maybe his laugh was annoying, or he drove a shitty car.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I yelled and forced my eyelids open to meet the mask in front of me again, shoving at his chest and ignoring the way my back screamed in protest at the action.
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” he seethed. “But that wasn’t the case with your boyfriend, and your new friends are already aware of that.” My hands fell limply against Higgins’ chest at the mocking claim. But as quick as denial burst through me, hesitation rose up to battle against it. “Because we do get a little restless when we’re bored...but we also help clean up messes.”
I forced my stare to Diggs again to see him in a different position than before. Straighter. Rifle mostly lowered. Head somewhat tilted like he’d been about to look over his shoulder at where some of the others stood.
Everything about his stance let me know he had no idea what Detective Higgins was talking about, but he was worried to find out.
“As I said: Our executions, not our plans. It’s how we stay neutral with other families.” Higgins’ voice dropped to a hushed taunt when he continued, keeping his words only for me. “Your boyfriend? Your new friends? They made the order. We were happy to carry it out.”
“No...no, they—they wouldn’t have.” I struggled to look between Diggs’ family before Higgins forced my attention back to him. Seemingly unbothered as I struggled to break free from his grip.
“So, do they know?” Higgins demanded, words increasing in volume and anticipation when he leaned in close and asked, “Do they know your boyfriend’s name, Ms. Bennett? Better question: Do you know why they wanted him dead?”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up,” I screamed over him, shoving and thrashing against him. “You’re lying!”
“Am I?”
“He was nobody,” I cried out. “I was nobody. They wouldn’t have—they didn’t know him!”
The next few seconds’ worth of silence felt unsettling in a chilling way, as if I’d willingly stepped into the detective’s trap.
“Notice how none of your friends are denying it?” Higgins finally asked as he jerked my face enough to see Diggs and the others standing there. Bodies tense and ready. “They can get their own hands dirty—clearly. But they also know when to back down...like when one of their issues settles in our city...”
I saw the moment Higgins’ words resonated with them. The way Kieran’s head snapped toward where Dare waited behind me, and Maverick looked at Diggs just as he stumbled back a step as if he’d been hit in the chest.
“Listen,” Dare began, but Higgins spoke over him.
“Say his name, then tell me again your boyfriend was a nobody.”
