All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,80

everything. If you touch her, you’ll have half of the most dangerous crime lords in the state after you.”

Randall glances up at me as well, and I keep my face blank. I’m shocked that she even noticed the diamonds tucked into my dress but from the moment Aodhan gave it back to me there’s no way I’m taking them off again.

“The Wolf… so you know the Butcher too, then? Was it because of you that he took out your father? I should’ve known, you were always too good at corrupting the men around you.” Holden sneers at me, all of the joking wiped away from him now he knows where my protection comes from.

I’m intensely curious about how they know about Lips and which one of her jobs made them so cautious of her. Was it Amanda’s military sniper or something else? I know she doesn’t know any of the Crawfords, her reaction to finding out about Atticus’ link to me was genuine and she would have told me if she’d met any of the other men, but there are plenty of people she could have taken out that would impress these men.

Also, I find it hilarious that they’ve assumed the Butcher took Senior out.

Nate is a very useful ally to keep a secret from anyone, especially this family if they’re going to become a problem.

“What are you doing down here, Beaumont? Come to see my collection? Joseph wasn’t one to keep trinkets but I’m more sentimental than he ever was,” Randall says, and then he bends down to put his cigar out on the exposed skin on Lauren’s shoulder.

Still, she doesn’t react.

I step up until I’m standing at Atticus’ side again and raise an eyebrow at him. “I’m here because your little friend thought this would scare me enough to stay out of your parties. I don’t think she likes the reputation I have, petty jealousies of poor breeding, and she thought this would scare me off.”

I ignore her entirely and look back over to Holden. “I watched the Butcher carve a man to pieces last week. I watched the best shooter in the Bay lose his fingers thanks to my family, and I took delivery of the Wolf’s enemies’ heads during the warfare of the Jackal’s lost campaign to be the biggest name in the Bay. If you think some naked women will scare me… well that just speaks to just how little you really know, Crawford.”

Holden straightens abruptly and I mentally give myself a point for that jab hitting the mark. It might be a teeny-weeny lie but he doesn’t need to know that I’ve done everything in my power not to watch any of the gruesome shit that my family is involved in.

Amanda watches the reactions on each and every one of the men, including Atticus and Luca. I wonder if that’s what I look like to everyone around me, robotic and assessing as I take in all of the data and run calculations on the risks.

The door into this sadist’s playground opens again and a slew of men walk in, all of them holding cigars and whiskey glasses as they laugh and joke amongst themselves. None of them are worried about the girls, not the one crying at the door or the others who have already been hollowed out to nothing but pretty, broken shells.

I memorize each and every one of their faces, searing the names I do know into my memory forever because even if they don’t fall in whatever warfare is about to break out, I’ll be coming after them and leaving nothing behind.

The Butcher doesn’t let rapists live.

Neither does the Wolf or Ash Beaumont, hell, the entire family has a ’no forgiveness’ policy.

Randall flicks a hand at us both. “I don’t care for speaking to children who don’t know their place. Show them out, Amanda.”

She smiles and waves a hand at us. I’m about to tell her exactly what she can do with that hand because I’m done with this farce when Atticus gets ahold of my elbow again and steers me out.

When we get back into the elevator Amanda turns to me and says, “How close are you to the Wolf? I’ve been meaning to arrange a meeting with her but she’s notoriously difficult to see.”

I would rather throw myself into a vat of rotting corpses than make that introduction. No, I’d rather arrange for Lips to climb through this bitch’s window and slit her throat while she slept but I