Lawless Kingdom (Reign & Ruin 1)

“You’re wrong, and for you even to say that means that beautiful brain of yours is failing. You are mine. Not just for today or tomorrow, but until I decide I’m done.”

“I am not yours. I was essentially told to stay away from you, Judas. And this—” I twirled a finger between the two of us “—This is toxic.”

He cupped the side of my face. “Even toxic things can be beautiful.”

I didn’t know what to say to that.

“We don’t know anything about each other, other than that we’re both screwed up individuals,” I pointed out.

He clucked his tongue at me and stepped away. “Why are you so hellbent on denying the inevitable? You don’t have to answer, it won’t change anything that’s going to happen between us. Like I said, we haven’t even begun yet.”

Without bothering to wait for a response, he glanced down and took a minute to rebutton my shirt.

I couldn’t comment on any of that without giving away the fact that I wanted him. He was everything wrong for me, which made him even more perfect.

I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. “Don’t do anything on my behalf, okay?”

“Can’t promise you that,” he replied. “I’m very peculiar about the things I own. I always make sure they’re in perfect condition. If or when I want to break my possessions, I never leave a mark when I do it.”

“I remember the way my body looked after our little incident,” I retorted.

“That wasn’t me breaking you. That was me leaving you with a reminder of how it felt to be thoroughly fucked.”

That confession was disturbing, but I liked it. Way too much.

So much that I felt touched by it. He peered down at me through his dense lashes, and my body began to warm for another reason. My emotions were giving me whiplash.

“Are you going to replace my key-fob?” I blurted out to break apart whatever the hell this was.

“Of course.”

“Really?” I dragged out the word.

He kissed my forehead, surprising me for the hundredth time but not answering my question.

“That’s cute.”

“What’s cute?”

“It’s cute because it’s almost like you thought I’d be returning your car to you in working condition.” He teased a strand of my hair and then walked away.

“Judas,” I called after him in a voice still suitable for a library.

“You better not have done anything to my car. I will seriously kick your ass.”

His responding laughter was a good indicator that he had definitely done something I wouldn’t approve of.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

JUDAS

The body was nearly burned beyond recognition.

Not so much that I was unable to tell it was female, even if her tits had been partially sliced from her body and the space between her legs more mutilated than usual.

“This was messy and rushed. They didn’t pull out her teeth,” Gavin noted, poking the crisp jaw with a stick.

“What message was this supposed to send?” Brianna questioned, popping her hip out. “It’s not Maisie…right?” She stood tall again, frowning at the body.

I didn’t answer that. To be fucking frank, I could have seen my sister’s corpse a dozen times by now and I wouldn’t know it. When they were taken apart or burned like this it was a pain in the ass to identify them.

That’s why we all did it.

My famiglia didn’t do it as much anymore. We only burned or mutilated a body if we needed to send someone a clear message, clearer than what had been done here.

We’d moved to feeding them to the swine, which involved shaved heads and pulled teeth, as those things were hard on their stomachs.

“It was a poorly executed warning. Marcus or Evie’s way of telling me to stay away from Rhiannon.”

“Girl’s fam is almost as fucked-up as ours,” Owen moaned. “You really think she got no idea what they do for a living?”

“She doesn’t.” I turned away from the burnt flesh prison and walked back to the car we’d ridden in. “They’re too careful, too normal. Living well below their means.”

“And they’re not her real family,” Brianna corrected him.

“What do we do with this?” Gavin asked. I could picture him nudging the burnt body with the toe of his Ferragamo shoe.

“Send one of the mules up here for it. They can knock out two of our problems at once.”

I opened the trunk and stared down at Erin Moore. He’d been hogtied, and his left wrist was broken, the bone sitting at an odd angle. I reached past his sweaty face for the extra rope and left him there for the moment.

“No one saw anything when you took him?”

“Nope. He followed Bri into her car like a kid going for candy. Dad’s got the cameras handled,” Gavin replied.

“People are going to miss that one,” Owen commented.

“Good thing we won’t be around to pretend we give a fuck then.”

I wrapped the rope around the base of a tree twice and tossed Gavin the excess length.