Ryan (Mallick Brothers 2)

But it wasn't the time or place.

"What the fuck are you doing here and where the fuck are my men?" Dom hissed, sitting up straight, but seeming to refuse to leave his makeshift throne.

"Funny story," Lo said, leaning back against the doorway, casual as you please. Who the hell was the woman? "You employ a bunch of street rats with absolutely no training. I mean the first guy to pull a gun on me, he held it out at me on an angle. For fuck's sake. Like a gangster in a movie. Ridiculous. Needless to say, they were easy to disarm and get control over. Mine and Mallick's people have them all corralled into one of the other rooms."

They had them corralled into a room.

So, they essentially... had control over the situation?

I wasn't going to be raped and murdered.

"You're not as pathetic-looking as you sounded on the phone," the other woman, Jstorm, said, directed it seemed to Bry.

"Gee, thanks," Bry said, still sounding winded and I worried about his ribs.

"Why are you here? You want the fucking girl?" Dom asked, waving a hand toward me and it was right about then I thought to pick myself up slightly, getting onto my knees.

"We will be taking the girl," Lo said, a little edge in her voice. "We will also be taking your former dealer with us as well."

"That's where I am going to draw the line," Dom said, voice getting firm. "He is mine. He fucked up. I get to deal with him however the fuck I want."

"It's funny, you're talking like you have any leverage here. You don't."

"I don't know who the fuck..." Dom started, getting up off his chair and reaching into the waistband of his jeans.

I had seen enough movies to know what he kept there.

And I knew enough about odds to know he could probably put a bullet in at least one of the other people in the room before they could get out a gun and put one in him. If they even had guns. I knew Ryan was a loanshark and everything, but I was pretty sure he never had a gun on him when I was around him.

But, as fate would have it, his hand never reached his gun.

Because, in an action that I never could have predicted no matter how many times I could reimagine the situation, Albert stood and raised a hand. I caught a flash of silver before I heard the bang.

Then the entire side of Dom's head exploded.

Exploded.

Red shot out of one side, splattering everywhere as his body wobbled then collapsed.

As much as it hurts my pride to admit it, I screamed.

And I mean... screamed.

And it didn't stop until I felt a hand clamp over my eyes as an arm went around my center and pulled me backward.

I didn't need to see to know.

Ryan.SEVENTEENRyanThe plan Jstorm came up with was surprisingly simple. There wasn't even a hint of flare to it. It was a cut and dry invasion, disarmament, and containment. Really, that was it. We, which meant me, Lo, Jstorm, the guy driving whose name was Malcolm, along with about a dozen or so other people in accompanying SUVs and my entire family who followed behind in their own, my fucking mother included, all climbed out of the cars in unison after one of Lo's men in the SUV behind us got out and picked the lock for the gate so we could all drive in.

Then Lo hopped out and walked right up to the first guy who saw our presence, some kid with a Glock who held it out at an angle which Lo apparently found so amusing that she threw her head back and laughed before her right arm went across her body, grabbing the whole side of the gun then bringing her left fist up in an uppercut to the man's jaw. It was comical how fast he was knocked out and on the ground and Lo in possession of his gun.

From there, everyone else filed out of their respective vehicles and I was handed a gun, looking back to see my parents and brothers had brought their own, something we very rarely, almost never carried.

And then we simply moved in, everyone aware, each taking down a threat before they could scream or get a shot off- alarming the boss to our presence.

Once they were all filed into one room on their knees, Lo's guys and girls and my family there keeping an eye, the three of us moved down the hall to the sound of voices.

Had I not gotten a very stern warning from Lo and then Jstorm, the latter much more filled with piss and vinegar, about staying calm and letting Lo lead, I would have fucking darted across that room to her.

Never, never in my fucking life had I been even as close to worried about something or someone as I had been about her over the past two hours. It was a constant, overwhelming, all-consuming sick feeling. Every God-awful worst case scenario flashed across my mind.