ears. “Every fucking soldier we have. Get them ready for war. Because we’re going in tonight to get these cunts. This coward-laced empire falls tonight.” I flicked through the file, then stopped when I saw something on one of the later pages. I read the information—text messages, transcripts, emails with no IP addresses … and my blood turned to tar as it tried to push through my fucking demonic heart.
I lifted my eyes. Ronnie was already watching me, waiting for me to see one crucial piece of information. She nodded in confirmation, and as I read it again, just to let the fucking words sink in, a cool blast of calm trickled down my spine.
Deadly, chilling fucking calm.
My family were looking at me, frowning, waiting for me to relay what I’d just seen that made all this worse. Made my reason for killing Lawson deeper.
Even more deserved.
So I fucking told them. I told them every detail of the fucked-up thing Lawson had done.
Cheska.
Fuck, when she found out …
That motherfucking betrayal only made my darkness sink deeper into my already evil-tarnished soul. They fucked with my queen. They fucked with my family. Now they were going to drown in their own blood.
I rolled the file in my fist, finger bones cracking. My family members’ livid expressions were all staring back at me, thirsting for revenge. “Get your fucking weapons ready. They’ve got Cheska and Gene. They killed my fucking dad.” I lit a cig and let the smoke billow around me. “They killed my mum and Pearl.” The rage simmered, reserving its full wrath for Lawson, Freddie and their men, and I let the devil inside me completely take the reins. “Tonight, they all fucking die.”
I met each of my brothers’ and sisters’ eyes. They were nodding their heads. Vinnie smiled broadly at me, hyped for blood and death.
First, I needed to make some calls. Because it wasn’t just me that these fuckers had messed with. The file in my hand was all the proof I needed to get the other families and syndicates on board. Lawson’s network was big, brutal, effective. But so was the rest of the London fucking underworld. Separately, we were lethal. Together … we were fucking death incarnate.
Tonight we needed all of the Lawson syndicate taken out. Not one of those fuckers would be alive when the sun started to rise tomorrow. But we—my family—we were getting the snakes at the top. We were going to destroy the nest.
“Call Royal, Seamus and Vano. Tell them we’ve got something they want to see. The Italians, Chechens, Chinese and Jews too. Lawson has fucked with too many of us. For far too long. Tonight, we all pay him back in kind.” My family’s gazes lit with excitement—vengeful excitement. “But Freddie’s mine,” I said. “Out of every one of those cunts, Freddie Williams is mine.”
I pushed past my family to change and wait for my soldiers to rally.
Then I was going to get my fucking girl.
Chapter Sixteen
CHESKA
Gene woke in the dark van, groaning as he tried to sit up. They had tied his hands with tape too. He managed to sit, and in the hazy low light—the lampposts outside our only source of illumination—his hazel eyes found me. Confusion glittered in their depths, but it soon cleared and his mouth parted when he saw me, my hands bound and my mouth gagged.
“Cheska,” he whispered and searched around us, getting his bearings. Then his shy face, the timid and closed expression he always wore, morphed into determination, and for the first time since I’d met him, I saw a flicker of “Adley” looking back at me. A steely and ruthless resolve in his stare.
“They’ll find us,” he said, making sure to keep his voice low, even though an opaque partition separated us from the driver. He shifted closer to me. “They’ll find out what happened and get us out of here.” He frowned, then paled. “Arthur?”
“He’s alive,” I said from behind the tape. I had managed to get its seal off my lips with my tongue, a gap forming at the top that helped me breathe, let me speak to Gene. “He’s in another van.”
Gene nodded, and I could see him thinking. “He’ll tell us what to do,” Gene said, confidently. “When we get out of here to wherever they’re taking us. He’ll get us out.”
My eyes fell to the bracelet on my wrist. Arthur and I hadn’t told anyone that I was wearing it. If only we had told