AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I glanced over to see Finn holding his breath, his gun beside him. He released it as his fingers enclosed over the steel, ready and waiting just in case this shit resulted in a shootout.
In stepped three triplets who were known as the Bling brothers, Bane, Benny, and Banjo. They each stood over six feet tall, were grotesquely more physically fit than Phantom, and they bizarrely wore the same outfit every single day. The only way to tell them apart was from their tattoos. Bane had two full sleeves of ink covering his arms. Benny too, except he had a wicked looking skull canvased on his throat. And Banjo—that was a weird fucker. He had the same inked sleeves as Bane, the exact same skull on his throat as Benny,anda fresh tattoo of a king’s crown painted across his forehead.
And did I forget to mention he actually plays the fucking banjo, too?
Being in their company shot fretful goosebumps down my spine and had my fingers silently inching toward the gun strapped to my hip. This was the team of Outlaws Father liked to call in when desperate times called for desperate measures. The other Outlaws had failed, but when it came to the Bling brothers, they were a force to be reckoned with. Theyalwaysdelivered. For them to show up like this wasn’t a good sign for me and Finn.
“Hello, boys,” my father greeted them, a wicked smile on his face. “Care for a drink?”
Banjo clapped like an excited toddler and helped himself to whatever he could get his hands on. As he twisted off the top, he gorged down several large gulps of gin. He licked the liquor from his lips then heaved out a content sigh.
“Benny and I are good,” Bane said, grudgingly rolling his eyes as Banjo chugged down more booze like it was a bottle of fucking soda. Banjo then proceeded to pull out a baggy of coke and snort the shit straight out the bag.
“Alright, then, out with it,” Father demanded. “What news do you have for me?”
“It took us longer than we anticipated, but my brothers and I were able to safely cross over into Crane, Alesi, and Sinclair’s territory.”
“And?” he pushed, raising a furrowed brow at him.
“We carefully searched their safehouses and went through all of their inventory. The girls aren’t there.”
“I see,” Father replied, a muscle thrumming along his jaw. “So, they didn’t double cross me like I suspected.”
Bane shook his head. “No, Boss, they didn’t. However, we did make quite a remarkable discovery.”
Finn and I shared a look then. I swallowed; my heart pounding so hard I could hear it through my ears.
“Banjo,” Benny addressed him. “Why don’t you go fetch our little…artist?”
Dread ran over me like a freight train when Banjo raced out the door and returned with a young woman whose presence had my mouth dropping and Finn expelling a choked gasp beside me. I recognized her immediately.
Young. Uniquely gorgeous. Black and green hair and covered in tattoos. It was the woman who’d helped us that night.
“Cindy,” Finn whispered under his breath, tears filling his eyes. “No.”
She was on her knees, her arms restrained behind her. She’d been beaten. Her right eye was swollen shut, and a patch of dried blood claimed residence under her swollen nose. Her black blouse was torn, exposing equal halves of her bare tits. Fresh fingerprint bruises were peppered along her neckline.
Cindy’s jaw trembled as she met Damien’s dark gaze. Then crocodile tears spilled out of her good eye when it slid away from him and landed on me and Finn sitting side by side on the couch, frozen and pale.
“And what do we have here?” Father asked, licking his lips at her in a way that made me want to puke.
Don’t hurt her! Fuck, God, please don’t let him hurt her!
“We got lucky with this one, Boss,” said Banjo, whose eyes were wild, blitzed in a frenzied rush from the cocaine. “Got her on a hunch.”
I glared incredulously at him.
A hunch? The fuck did he mean he got her on a hunch?
“Fuck you!” Cindy spat at my father’s feet and held her head high, putting on a brave face. “I’m not telling you shit!”
Father reared his palm back and slapped her. Cindy cried out as her head smacked against the floor. She curled what she could of her knees to her chest and squeezed her eye shut, sobbing to herself.
“Ahunch, you say?”
“Yes,” Bane replied. “After sweeping the valley and coming up empty, we concluded that it was possible the girls may have received aid from an outside source. Someone they know and trust. We suspect they might’ve fled the country, Boss.”
“Go on,” Father commanded, his cheeks burned crimson.
