All Hail - J. Bree Page 0,16

party when the margaritas were still strong in my blood. He’d looked so happy.

The meeting is being held at is one of the Bear’s now ruined businesses. Illi drives up to the warehouse and waits for a second before the roller doors slide up and then he drives through. There’s enough tools and scrap metal lying around that it’s obvious this was once a chop shop for cars but it’s been gutted by the raids.

Illi catches me taking everything in and chuckles under his breath. “It used to be a big money maker… lots of big rigs went through here but this is the shit that happens when you side with a dickhead like the Jackal. He’s lucky he only lost his business and not something irreplaceable.”

I nod slowly. Lips has never told me the full story of what happened between the Butcher and the Jackal but I know enough. I know enough that I’m once again glad that the psychotic asshole is dead.

“What ended up happening to his body? I’m usually more… careful about knowing the details but after everything that happened, I just left it to Ash and Lips that he was definitely taken care of.”

Illi pulls the car beside Aodhan’s Impala and I keep my face carefully blank at the sight of it. Illi doesn’t pry into my life but you don’t get to be a man of his statue in the Bay without keen observation skills.

He doesn’t move to get out for a second and he grunts a little under his breath before he finally answers me. “I know you’re not cool with gory shit but I took D’Ardo’s head off just to be sure the little fuck couldn’t have some sort of Jesus-resurrection moment and fuck our lives up. If anyone could pull that shit off, it’d be him. The body was cleaned up by the Crow, you’ll probably find him stuffed somewhere in his basement like a fucking trophy.”

Thinking about the Jackal’s head being cut off doesn’t make me feel sick at all.

If anything, it makes me feel sick to know that I wasn’t there to see it for myself, to know for sure that he’s definitely gone because sometimes when I shut my eyes, I can still see him standing over me with a knife.

I can still feel his lips pressing against mine.

I shake my head to clear those thoughts away, it’ll never be the right time or place to think through that stuff but now definitely isn’t it, and then I open my car door only to find Aodhan there waiting for me.

I smile at him and take the hand he’s holding out to me to help me up. “You’re early.”

He grins at me and keeps a hold of my hand as he shuts the car door for me. “I didn’t want you facing the Crow’s bullshit by yourself.”

Illi stalks around the car and even when his eyes dip down to our hands, he doesn’t comment about it. “He showed up to her place today to get that shit out of the way so there weren’t witnesses. Queenie can hold her own.”

I blow out a breath and roll my shoulders back a little, shifting them in the blazer. It’s stunning and fits me perfectly but that doesn’t mean it’s the most comfortable thing I own.

Beauty is pain.

“I can deal with him better than you can, your face looks terrible.”

His grin doesn’t falter, if anything it gets wider. His jaw is bruised and his knuckles are scuffed up on both of his hands. His dark hair is tied back and instead of the roguish look he usually has he looks like some kind of tortured artist.

It’s not a bad look.

The butterflies in my stomach are ridiculous, I should not be getting weak in the knees over him, but the moment Illi turns his back on us to lead the way Aodhan lifts my hand up to kiss my palm and I just about melt into the disgustingly dirty warehouse floor.

“I’m sorry the Crow ruined our night, Queenie. You were supposed to be getting a night to let loose and instead you got more fucking politics.”

I shrug as we walk, leaning in close to him to murmur back, “Politics is all I know. Don’t worry about it, Stag, maybe we can go out again sometime?”

We step into a large room covered in posters with naked women on them and dirty rags left everywhere that you couldn’t ever force me to touch. My skin crawls