Vicious Dynasty (Reign & Ruin Book 3) Read online

  COPYRIGHT

  VICIOUS DYNASTY by Natalie Bennett

  © 2022 by Natalie Bennett. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any written, electronic, recording, or photocopying without the written permission of the publisher or author. The exception would be in the case of brief quotations embodied in the critical articles or reviews and pages where permission is specifically granted by the publisher or author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Editing By: Pinpoint Editing

  Cover Designer: Maria Spada

  REIGN & RUIN SERIES

  Reading Order

  Rhia + Judas

  Lawless Kingdom

  Savage Gods

  Vicious Dynasty

  Perilous Legends-2023

  Zacharias + Gemma

  Paint it Black-2023

  Jeremiah Barron

  Grit & Glamour-TBA

  Please note: this series is not contemporary. It contains explicit content/subject matter some may find objective. A full CW can be found in the back of the book here.

  BLURB

  Happy never, ever.

  Hate is said to be disturbingly similar to love. When it comes to him, I’m cursed to harbor both.

  The specious spark that brought us together with an all-consuming obsession quickly became the catalyst of my undoing.

  Shadows and darkness have filled the bittersweet years that saw us take two very different paths.

  Judas Barron has become an intimate stranger.

  He’s older now.

  Unpredictable.

  Heartlessly cruel.

  So much more beautiful.

  He isn’t the only one who changed.

  The girl he once knew is gone, rotting beneath the wreckage of what he destroyed.

  His influence and power have spread like the plague. With his position solidified he’s decided to make good on a promise he made and like the strike of a match, a hellish blaze consumes us once again.

  This time, it's up to me to decide how this will end. I can reign beside him, or make sure his dynasty is scattered among the ashes of our ruin.

  Contents

  COPYRIGHT

  REIGN & RUIN SERIES

  BLURB

  EPIGRAPH

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  EPILOGUE

  THE END

  PLAYLIST

  CONTENT WARNING

  CARMINE EXCERPT

  EPIGRAPH

  I pity the king whom sacrificed his queen and now mourns the loss of his kingdom

  -Sahil Shyam

  CHAPTER ONE

  There was a photo on the mantle that depicted your above-average wealthy family. Four smiling faces were frozen in a timeless pastime. Fast forward to the present and I’m sure that with every beat of their racing hearts, they were wishing they could return to the day this picture was taken.

  The Donahues were once respectable, protected, and highly admired. It was shameful that this would be how their legacy ended. They weren’t the first or the last, unfortunately, to go out this way. Too much money and not enough common sense led to a swift and brutal downfall in our world.

  Tony sat at my feet, hunched over in what I imagined was agonizing pain. I would have given the man some credit for trying to comfort his hysterical wife while he bled all over his plush Tufenkian rug if not for what got us to this point in the first place.

  The eldest of their two children was face down and unmoving, half his body sticking out from behind the couch. The extension cord I’d used to strangle him rested on the coffee table alongside Tony’s severed finger.

  The kid’s death could have been quick and painless. It was nothing to put a single bullet between his eyes or through the back of his skull. Swift execution-style was still in these days. Instead, I graciously went out of my way and left Tony plenty of time to give us the information I needed before his son drew his last breath.

  He'd remained uncooperative for a whole six fucking minutes. I counted just so there could be no discrepancies later.

  It took two for his son to stop struggling, and then after he went still, I kept going for another four to make sure the little fucker didn’t have a chance of coming back.

  And what did Tony do?

  Cry and beg.

  He did anything but give me the information I came here for. If I whipped my dick out and demanded he suck on it, he would’ve jumped to do so but giving me a combination was crossing the line. Therefore, he was the reason his child was dead—not me. I steepled my fingers and stared down at the helpless couple.

  “I hate that had to happen, Tony. I don’t think either of us planned on your son dying today. Well, maybe I considered it a few times on the way here, but you get my meaning. Right?”

  “I’d start talking now,” Gavin advised from where he was watching over me on the far side of the open living room.

  “You’re a fucking monster,” his wife seethed and spat at my feet. Blotchy green eyes full of hatred and fear I was well accustomed to, stared into mine.

  I grinned in response to her weak insult and motioned Theo over. He’d been working with us for the past two years and had a knack for doing all kinds of torture from moderate to outrageous when the situation called for it. The best thing about him, creative kill methods aside, was his loyalty.

  “Get her up and onto the coffee table.”

  “No!” Tony objected, “Leave her--.”

  I grabbed his hand and squeezed the nub where a middle finger once was. Blood squirted out, coating my leather glove and the sleeve of my suit. He bellowed in pain, causing spittle to fly from his mouth.

  Silently following my command, Theo lifted the older woman as if she weighed nothing, and none too gently placed her where I instructed.

  She tried to fight him off. That earned her a heavy backhand across the face.

  She cried out and grabbed her cheek where a nasty bruise was rapidly spreading. The hideous nightgown she was wearing rode up from all her struggling, revealing a pair of lace underwear that somehow looked wrong on this woman.

  Huh. “I took Mrs. Donahue as an all-cotton kinda gal.”

  “No way,” Gavin objected. “She’s been giving it to Dante on the regular.”

  “W, what are they talking about?” Tony stuttered, now staring at his sobbing wife with a mix of bewilderment and pain scrawled across his face.

  I crouched so we were eye-level and patted his ruddy, tear-stained cheek. Thank fuck for my gloves.

  I hated touching these low-level parasites.

  “Listen, my friend. I wouldn’t be pleased if I discovered my wife was getting fucked hard by my accountant either, but you can worry about whose name she’s been screaming
later.”

  “I, I--.”

  I slapped his lips and hushed him. “I need you to tell me the combination to that safe of yours. I’ve been here fifteen minutes already and my max threshold for bullshit is twenty-five. Do you want to know what’s going to happen in the next two if I don’t get what I came for?”

  “My son,” he began.

  “The one still alive? Wait, I’m sorry that was a dumb question. Obviously, the one over there is dead as can be.” I gestured in the general direction of the kid’s still warm corpse.

  “That other one is upstairs with a friend of mine. Safe…for now. Your wife on the other hand is about to be fucked with a Beretta until you tell me what I want to know. Let’s hope Theo doesn’t get too excited and accidentally pull the trigger. Imagine going out like that? Death by a bullet to the pussy. Ouch.”

  He shuffled forward with his bloodied hand cradled to his chest. The action reminded me of a period drama I watched where a peasant did something similar before a king. It was so fitting for this moment that I contemplated making him lick my shoes.

  “Please, please don’t hurt her.”

  The second I saw he was going to cave I stood and regarded him like one would a pile of random dog shit on their lawn. He was willing to give up everything to spare the woman who had betrayed him, but merely whined like a bitch when he had the chance to save his flesh and blood. No pussy on earth was that golden.

  Love really did make fools of us all, I suppose.

  “Sixty seconds,” I reminded him of the clock ticking.

  “One-seven-six-nine-one,” he spoke each digit slowly, closing his eyes as if this physically pained him.

  I looked to Gavin who already had his burner phone on speaker.

  “I got it. Someone bring me the finger to bypass the identification pad and we’ll be out of here in five tops,” Owen chirped from the other line.

  “Theo,” I directed.

  “Yes, sir.”

  He released Tony’s wife and delicately retrieved the severed finger that miraculously hadn’t fallen onto the floor, leaving us to finish this while he went upstairs to where Owen was.

  Mrs. Donahue began sobbing dramatically as if she had gone through a terrible ordeal and survived.

  I double-checked my silencer and then lifted my gun, shooting her point-blank in the center of the head. Before her body could finish falling off the coffee table and onto the floor, I did the same to Tony. His nerve-wracking wail was promptly cut off, plunging the house into silence. This shit was a cakewalk anymore, like flipping a light switch off and on.

  “Were the shipping routes all we came here for?” Gavin asked, still keeping an eye on our surroundings as he approached me.

  “Unfortunately. A bit child’s play, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, well, you did a nice thing for your cousin,” he replied with a grin that stretched the scar that ran down the side of his face.

  “He deserved his honeymoon.”

  Rhys had whisked his beautiful bride off to Greece only two days ago. He was probably balls-deep inside her right now. I couldn’t be the slightest bit mad at him for that. I’d have my turn soon enough.

  “What do you want Bri to do with the other kid?”

  “Is she still trying to keep him like he’s some stray cat?”

  “What do you think?”

  I shook my head, exasperated by her antics. “She’s not keeping it. Have her drug him and then place the kid in the pool shed. Someone will open it eventually.”

  I holstered my gun and began to make my way out of the house. The kid’s age was the only thing that saved him. My age for killing minors was thirteen and up. I started taking lives around then, so it seemed fitting.

  “And this place, the usual?” Gavin asked, shadowing me as he sent my instructions to Brianna.

  I glanced back at the stucco mansion. It wasn’t as nice as my home, not remotely close, but it was still better than anything the average working man could ever hope to possess. Tony, his wife, and their two sons had lived in this nice big house making good use of all the perks our lifestyle afforded for nearly a decade.

  The dumb fuck just had to piss it all away. All he’d been good for in the end were the shipping routes that now belonged to us.

  “Burn it down.”

  We walked out to a chorus of crickets in the shrubbery. Our vehicles were parked in the driveway and maneuvered into a triangular formation facing the opposite direction of the house. Any nearby neighbors were either none the wiser or wisely minding their business.

  My phone buzzed just as I reached the driver’s side door of my Land Rover.

  Like clockwork, my daily update was delivered at half-past nine on the dot. I didn’t look at the report until I was seated and had removed my bloody glove. The pair would be burned as soon as I was home.

  Gavin climbed in on the passenger side and patiently remained silent as he waited for me to finish checking it over. I took my time and diligently read every single word, eager to learn of any changes.

  There were hardly ever any. She lived a boring as fuck life for the most part. I dropped my cell back into the inside pocket of my suit and hit the push-to-start button on the dash. I wouldn’t pull off until Bri and Owen were in their respective car.

  Once they were out Theo would then begin the process of burning this place down. Two others would arrive shortly after to stoke the flames and ensure they devoured every wall stud and piece of grout until there was nothing left.

  “Same old, same old huh?” Gavin asked rhetorically, referencing the update.

  “I think it’s time.”

  He nodded approvingly. “I’ve been waiting to hear that for the past two weeks.”

  Of course, as the man who knew me second best after my famiglia, this decision was no news to him. I had been following a path similar to the one that brought my madre home to make sure I did things the right way. Or should I say, I did things in the way I felt was right.

  It took me longer than I would’ve liked but this wasn’t the kind of process you rushed. You didn’t procure something priceless unless you had the means to ensure it never depreciated. What were a few years when you’d eventually have forever? Just as they say violence is never the answer. Patience is relatively key.

  The only thing left to do was tidy up some loose ends and remind my wayward little bird that she was still mine.

  In fact, I had never let her go.

  I gave her an illusion of space and let her try to spread the wings she was so desperate to hold onto. She hadn’t. I knew she never would because I’d clipped them so that she couldn’t fly too far. At best she would make herself believe she had found a way to soar.

  I was ready to bring her home now.

  My principessa needed to see—to understand--this world is where she’d always belonged. She would learn everything she needed to in the place reserved solely for her, right by my side.

  CHAPTER TWO

  For a while, once the body had been buried and time went on as if that day never happened, I was happy. There were times I thought back to the night I came across something I shouldn’t have, but they weren’t enough to derail my life.

  That came later, after the party that brought me face to face with Judas again. Although, I couldn’t deny that I’d been happier than before despite how it ended with me knocked to the ground like I’d gone round after round for a heavyweight title.

  Years later and I still found myself unable to process how everything went so tragically wrong.

  I did my best to avoid these thoughts, avoiding them like one would the plague. Nothing good ever came from reminiscing about a past that no longer existed. It’s what led me to more often than not take the lengthier route home after a long shift.

  It didn’t matter how bad my feet were killing me from being on them the past eight hours to twelve hours, or how desperately my body craved food, sleep, and a hot shower.

  There was something about a late-nig
ht drive that helped me deal with all the noise inside my head. I could never go too far away from home, though. Audrey and I shared our locations with one another and if she thought anything was the slightest bit amiss, she’d lose her proverbial shit. I found that out the hard way a few weeks ago.

  Turning onto the runoff of our parking garage, I used one hand to reach over and dig my key card out of my purse. There was no way to get through the entry gate without having one of these bad boys. Sometimes it could be a pain in the ass, but it was one feature of the complex I wouldn’t ever get rid of.

  It’d been a unanimous decision to find a spot with security once we got tired of bouncing from place to place and decided to settle somewhere more permanent. I refused to live anywhere anyone, and everyone could freely enter and exit at their discretion.

  This small hoop was one of many you could make a person jump through before they set foot near your door. I didn’t know if it was pitiful to live this way after so long or wise.

  Nonetheless, if someone was coming for me, I would be ready.

  I went through all the motions and parked in my allotted spot which cost way too much money a month. Audrey’s Jeep was in its usual place right beside mine and already running. She’d probably be walking out the door as I was coming through it. Sure enough, after riding the elevator up to the fifth floor and entering our apartment, I saw she was sliding her work shoes on.

  Wearing her scrub top with Elsa plastered on the front of it and her blonde hair pulled into a chic bun, she looked as if she were still eighteen instead of almost twenty-five.

  “How was work, boo?” she called to me from where she was perched on the arm of the sofa.

  “The same as always.” I sighed and kicked off my low-booted heels. My feet immediately rejoiced at their long-awaited freedom.

  Audrey stood and turned to face me. “I don’t know why you’re still working there. We’ll be more than fine if you quit tomorrow and take time to find something else.”

  I waved her off and walked the short distance to the kitchen. This had recently become a weekly debate between us. She didn’t know it yet, but she was close to winning.