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“Not exactly,” Cian answers easily. He pulls an envelope from his suit jacket pocket and slides it across the table to me. I eye it suspiciously before picking it up and turning it upside down, letting the USB drop into my hand.
“What’s this?” I ask, holding it between my thumb and forefinger.
“A peace offering.”
“What’s on it?” Nikolay asks.
“Someone in your ranks is working for Mayor Augustus.” Ghost’s dad? What the fuck?
“How the fuck did you get it?” Dmitri asks, mirroring my pose.
“It was delivered to me this morning. After I saw what’s on it, I called Nikolay for this meeting,” Cian answers, and I watch him closely for a hint of deception. When I don’t find any, I sit back in the chair. “If you don’t need me for anything else, I’ll leave you to it.” Cian stands up and looks between us.
“We’ll be in touch,” Nikolay says, standing to shake Cian’s hand.
Cian nods and leaves the room. When the door shuts behind him, I turn to Nikolay. “What if this is a trap?” I ask, wiggling the USB.
Nikolay gives me a look. “I’m going to have Holden run it before we plug it into anything of ours. I think he’s telling the truth. Whoever delivered that to Cian knew he needed this alliance. The Irish were strong at one time, but Cian’s father ran it into the ground.”
“When can Holden run it?” Dmitri asks.
“They should be back in town tomorrow.”
I slide it to him across the table, he catches it and shoves it into his pocket. “Who do you think it is?”
Nikolay shrugs. “It could be anyone. After Viktor died, most people were replaced.”
“The sooner we find out, the better,” I say.
No one will live through betraying us.
*****
After our meeting, we head back to Concrete Row for our plan to fuck with the Hellraisers. They fucked with Caden and Ghost’s business. We can’t let this slide.
Becoming friends with these guys was never on our radar, but the more time we spent with them, the more we felt like we belonged. Which didn’t happen very often for me and my brother. People either give us a wide berth because of Viktor or because they’re scared of us. That suits us just fine on most days.
Caden pulls in front of the building at the same time, and we meet at the hood of my car. “I trust Bridget is safe?” I ask.
Caden rolls his eyes. “Yes, she’s safe. Who the fuck do you think I am?”
We walk into the pool hall together, and the place is packed with Vipers. They made a damn good decision to merge the two gangs. The Vipers are strong, but the ones they took from the Disciples made them even stronger. With Caden and Ghost in the lead, they are almost untouchable. Except for this dumbass Tink, that thinks he can fuck with my friends.
“Nice of you to join us,” Ghost says, snapping a clip into a Glock. “Plan still stands. Mercy and his group are going for the garage. Twitch and his will take the bar. Banger, Caden, Lex, and D, you’re with me. Fuck shit up. Make some goddamn noise because this shit ends tonight.” The groups nod and leave to go do what Ghost says. Ghost looks at us when they leave. “We have Tink’s house. It’s time that motherfucker realizes why they call me Ghost.” The shit Ghost can do is mindblowing. He can slip in and out of anywhere, and you’ll never know he’s there. “We got word he’s not home, so it should give us plenty of time to set our plan in motion.”
More than ready, we follow him to the back of Shooter’s and load into a nondescript SUV, where Dmitri and I trade our clothes for the black tactical gear we bought for Ghost, Caden, and their guys. I peel my shirt off and slip another one on that I don’t care if it gets ruined with a little blood, slide my vest on, and then the hoodie.
“Why the hell do you guys cover all that?” Caden asks, gesturing to my tattoos. It’s the same thing Bridget asked the night we slept together. I didn’t answer her that night because it was only supposed to be that one night. Not a good time to divulge how fucked up Viktor really was. Stuff that Mama didn’t even know about that Viktor used to do to us.
“Viktor hated it,” I answer. “It’s just a habit now to keep them covered.” No matter what, Dmitri and I would always wear long sleeves in his presence, but since the night Bridget said she liked them, we started to let them show some. Old habits still die hard, though.
“That back piece is sick,” Banger says from my other side. My whole back is a skull with smoke coming from the eyes and mouth. Dmitri has a matching one.
“Thanks,” I reply. I check my Glocks and then strap my knife sheath to my leg. “Can’t we just kill this asshole?”
Caden laughs. “I wish, but we need to send a different message.”
“Isn’t this going to cause an all out gang war?” Dmitri asks, strapping his own sheath to his thigh.
