Sweet Retribution (Ruthless Games 2)

Ryland moves to stand beside me, and I jerk a little in shock as he unclenches the fingers of my hand and presses the gun into my palm. The grip is warm from his skin, and the metal is smooth and hard. The whole thing feels so solid that all I can do is blink down at it for a second.

“I wouldn’t care if he was Luca’s fucking brother,” he murmurs quietly, drawing my attention back to his face. His hazel eyes burn with conviction as he gazes down at me. “He deserves to pay for what he did.”

“What the fuck?” Jordan sounds truly furious now, but underneath the anger, I catch a hint of surprise… and fear.

His connection to Luca was his trump card. Luca D’Addario is the one person in this city no one would dare to cross. The consequences for angering him are dire, and Jordan was counting on these three men to know that.

What he didn’t count on is that they do know.

They just don’t care.

My hand tightens on the heavy weapon in my grip, and I brush my finger over the curve of the trigger, my heart thudding heavily in my chest. I can feel Theo and Marcus on my other side, all three men gathered close around me.

A united front.

A family.

My family.

Maybe Jordan finally realizes what’s truly at stake here, because he strains against the thick layers of tape that bind him to the chair, grunting as he struggles to get free. When I look back at him, his light brown eyes are bloodshot and wild.

“I took you in, Ayla.” His voice is ragged, and the sound of my name on his lips sends a shiver of revulsion through me. “I gave you a place to stay, a roof over your head. I took care of you. I gave you everything you could ever need. And all I took was one little thing.”

The fury that pours from each of the men around me is so strong I swear I can taste it in the air. Something hot and unpleasant floods my veins, making it feel like my blood is on fire.

“One little thing?” I whisper. The gun is heavy in my hand, but my arm is steady as I raise it, aiming between his eyes. “That’s what it was to you? My virginity. My innocence. It was one little thing?”

He blinks, his head jerking back as if that could save him from a bullet through the face. His skin pales, then flushes slightly, and when he speaks again, the false bravado has left his voice.

“I’m sorry, okay?” He’s breathing heavily, his gaze bouncing between me and the barrel of the gun. “But I didn’t wreck your life, right? You’re still here, aren’t you? You’re okay. You’ve got these guys on your side.” He shoots a gaze over my shoulder before quickly returning his attention to me. A calculating look flickers in his eyes as he narrows them slightly. “Are you really willing to wreck their lives just to get your revenge on me? Because if you kill me, Luca will make them pay.”

You’re okay.

Does he know he’s repeating the words he said to me so many times I lost count? Does he even remember? Or was it all so fucking inconsequential to him that he’s forgotten?

My finger tightens a little on the trigger as anger and pain and hatred roar through my veins. I want to block out his words, to shut them out of my head, to pretend they’re not true.

If I do this, the three men behind me will pay for it.

My chest rises and falls fast. My hand feels like it’s frozen into a block of ice around the gun’s grip, and I’m staring so hard at Jordan’s forehead that it’s blurring in my vision.

“Angel.” Marcus’s voice is soft. I feel him before I see him in my periphery as he steps up beside me. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do this.”

His hand slides around mine, the warmth of his palm unfreezing my joints as he takes the gun from me. My fingers feel shaky, my arm suddenly so light it might float away without the heaviness of the gun to weigh it down.

Marcus catches my chin with the fingers of his free hand, turning me toward him. Earth and air, the purest shades of brown and blue, gaze back at me as he shakes his head slightly.

“You don’t have to. You shouldn’t have to. This man is a fucking monster, angel, but he never defeated you. No matter what he did to you, he never won. Because you didn’t let yourself become a monster too.”

He smiles at me. There’s so much warmth, so much love in his eyes that my chest aches from it.

He palms the back of my head and kisses me as his other hand raises the gun, aiming it at Jordan’s head.

And then he fires.

Chapter 24

The reverberations of the shot travel through Marcus’s body and into mine through the connection between our lips.