to look away as they both stretch their arms out to show they have no weapons. “He needs a therapist then, not to die! Aodhan—“
He looks down at me and swallows roughly. “He’s a man and he makes his own choices. I’ve spent fucking months wrapping my head around it, but this is where we’re at. He told me he’d enter and do what he could. If he won, he’d live. If he dies… he wanted to go out with some kind of fucking bravado so his younger brothers don’t hate him for just swallowing his gun. I’m fucking gutted, but what else can I do?”
His voice ends on a ragged note, and I’m about to start screaming.
I should have made Ash come home.
He would have stopped this for me. He would’ve fixed it; he would have helped me.
Atticus pauses for a little too long before he calls the fight to a start, his hesitation like a wound in my chest because he knows what this is about to do to me and my family.
“Illi, shoot the Bear. Let’s just end this now before—“
“Don’t do it, Illi. Jack made his choice.” Aodhan cuts me off.
I want to scream.
I manage to swallow it and choke down the bile creeping up my throat, but no one else around me is freaking the fuck out as we watch Luca very quickly and efficiently murder Jack.
Jack does much better than the last guy, landing a fist to Luca’s jaw that definitely breaks something with how loud the crack is, but Luca has definitely had the sort of training that Lips has and he takes Jack to the ground, snapping his neck with nothing but his hands.
I’m going to pass the fuck out.
“Fuck, fuck, Queenie, breathe. Breathe. If you don’t fucking breathe, I’ll call Ash home right the hell now,” Illi snaps, and I take a single gasping breath.
Aodhan’s hand is clammy in mine, but he’s silent, watching as Luca shoves the man who attempts to take Jack’s body away and grabs him by the armpits himself.
Atticus waits long enough for them to make it outside of the taped circle before he calls out for the next fight. Lucy doesn’t say a word, none of her snarking or bravado, and she drops her jacket to the floor as she steps up. She holds out her arms, but Atticus barely looks at her before starting the fight.
I watch the entire thing but barely see any of it.
She wins.
I don’t know how or why or fucking anything about it, but she wins, and she stalks back over to us to grab her jacket, awkwardly hovering for a second before Illi tells her to get her ass out of here.
I can’t look at her or anyone else.
Aodhan’s hand is cold in mine.
“C’mon, we’re going for a fucking drink. O’Cronin, get moving. We’re finding a bar right the fuck now.” Illi grabs my elbow and starts to drag me out gently, his eyes savage as he clears us a path without so much as a word.
Every man in here is terrified of what he can do.
It still didn’t save Jack.
We get out to the cars and my mind is in a fog. The warm night air does nothing to kick me out of it, not the buzz of my phone in my pocket or the stream of profanity coming out of Illi as he rages about our night.
He doesn’t take casualties well.
Aodhan tries to convince Illi that he’s going home and doing this alone but the Butcher isn’t having any of it, demanding he gets in the BMW right the fuck now so we can find a bar. I don’t really know what the fuck to do, so I throw my purse in the backseat and I’m about to slide in when the warehouse roller doors open and people start pouring out. All of the other members of the Twelve start making their way over to the parking lot, and I wince, but then the yelling and screaming starts up.
It’s the fucking Bear and his men celebrating their win.
I could throw up.
Atticus and Luca make a beeline for us but I have absolutely zero interest in seeing either of them, and Illi steps directly in their paths.
“Not fucking likely, dickhead. Stay the fuck away before you catch a fucking bullet between the motherfucking eyes.”
Atticus glances over at the Bear and Illi’s spine snaps up straight, snapping into high alert as the Bear comes fucking charging toward us.
“Slow your fucking