Savage Gods (Reign & Ruin Book 2) Page 5

  “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

  “I don’t…no…”

  He laughed lowly. “You know what it feels like because you’re obsessed with me too, principessa.”

  I could’ve rebuffed that but what would be the point?

  It would lead to a moot and senseless argument at best. He wasn’t wrong. Judas lured me in and captivated me like no one else ever had or could. He knew my dirtiest, darkest secrets and never made me feel ashamed of my desires. He knew my greatest weaknesses too. Using both against me did nothing to his conscious and that was one of our many issues.

  By the time he pulled across the street from my house I was more than ready to put some much-needed space distance between us, the kind he couldn’t shorten in a matter of seconds.

  Mom’s car was parked at the top of our long driveway while Dad’s was nowhere to be seen. My Kia remained where it’d been unjustly decommissioned.

  Being back here didn’t alleviate my nerves, if anything they grew worse. It almost felt like somewhere I didn’t belong.

  I hadn’t seen my parents since being told they had a penchant for rounding up girls and doing the unthinkable with them. How did one bring this up? Did I walk in and blurt out, Hey, I heard you guys were into some fucked up shit. Wanna talk about it?

  Somehow that didn’t seem like the best course of action. Mom had been acting weird enough as it was. I reached for my bag unsure how to say goodbye to him. He put a hand on my arm and silently called for my attention. I looked over, the rhythm of my heart falling into an erratic tempo when our eyes met.

  “I won’t hurt her. As long as you do whatever I ask or tell you to, she’s safe.”

  “You didn’t have to involve her at all. I wasn’t ever going to go to the police.”

  “This isn’t about that.”

  “Then tell me why you did it,” I demanded.

  “There’s no point. I’m not going to apologize or change my mind.”

  “I never asked or expected you to do such an absurd thing,” I deadpanned sarcastically.

  He lifted his hand from my arm and cupped the side of my face with a gentleness that was hard not to lean into. “We’ve only got a few months, bella.”

  My brow furrowed. “A few months? What are you talking about?”

  “As soon as some paperwork is finalized, we’re going home.”

  All my anger vanished, rushing away like the air that whizzed out of a popped balloon. I placed my hand over his and leaned away. “You’re leaving?”

  That couldn’t be true. I had to of misheard him.

  Judas and I were a chaotic mess on a road of savagery and ruin. It’d been that way since the beginning.

  Maybe I was a fool for keeping the all-consuming blaze between us fueled. For him, I chose to willingly walk a line that could lead to who knows where.

  The very idea of stepping off that path and never seeing him again… caused something within me to twist and ache. The torment began in my chest and traveled to the tips of my fingers as nausea curdled in my gut.

  Judas swiftly stopped the runaway train carrying my despairing thoughts as soon as he realized how I’d taken his news. He all but growled when he flipped his hand around and grasped mine, causing me to wince.

  “I would love to see exactly what goes through your fucking head, Rhiannon. These illusions of yours are as fascinating as they are fucking irritating. Do you honestly think I would go without you?”

  “Yes! You can’t take me with you.”

  “If I wasn’t planning on doing that, I would have never brought it up. I’d simply be here one day and gone the next.”

  I ripped my hand away from his, smothering a grimace. A tumultuous discord of emotions continued to ricochet inside my head and chest.

  “And where exactly are we going to go?”

  “Home.”

  “My house is right there.” I jabbed my pointer finger at the farmhouse.

  “That shitty shack shouldn’t even be standing.”

  I laughed incredulously. “Not everyone is rolling in cash and luxury. My parents did the best they could.”

  “I don’t give a fuck about any of that. Your life should be more than it is. Either you come with me, or Audrey gets the same treatment Dax did.”

  “I thought you said you wouldn’t hurt her?”

  “If you do as I say Barbie will remain intact. If I lose you, I don’t fucking need her. Once she’s gone the police will get an anonymous tip along with a knife that has your fingerprints and Daxton’s blood on it.”

  “That’s blackmail,” I seethed.

  “Is that what it’s called? I never knew.”

  My mind scrambled. How would he have a knife with my fingerprints on it? I hadn’t hurt Dax. Wait…I’d grabbed one from the kitchen that night. I never used it, though. Had he?

  “You’re bluffing,” I retorted smugly in a vain effort to save myself. “You’ve been telling me not to go to the police, but you would? Furthermore, throwing me in jail won’t keep me with you and as far as I know, Dax isn’t a missing person.”

  He clicked his tongue, shaking his head in a show of faux disappointment. “I think a lack of sleep is really getting to you. You’re smarter than this.”

  “You of all people know I don’t bluff. You’re the one that can’t go to the cops, I can. They’ll do whatever the fuck the Barrons’ tell them to because we line their pockets and make the town look pretty.”

  “You would send me to jail?”

  “Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “I will make you rot in a fucking prison cell before I let them have you.”

  “Them…?”

  He looked beyond me to the house as a way of answering. Of course, that’s what he meant. “What did they do?”

  “Have you ever thought to ask them?” he questioned coldly.

  I shut my mouth and swallowed around a lump in my throat. I knew his sister was a sore subject but didn’t I deserve to know what the hell was going on?

  “Don’t do that,” he ordered softly.

  “Don’t ask?”

  With an indiscernible expression, he held my face in his hands. “Don’t cry.”

  What? I didn’t realize I was crying until he swept away my tears.

  “I know this is hard for you. I promise you’ll have all your answers one day. All I’m asking is that you give me time to do what I need to first. Can you do that, bella?”

  “Are you giving me a choice?”

  “The only choice you have is to choose me. Always.”

  So, no. He wasn’t.

  He leaned closer and planted a gentle kiss on my forehead. “Go inside and try to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

  There were a million things I could say but he’d mentioned the one thing that was vital for me at this point. Maybe sleeping would help me clear my head and alleviate the pressure in my chest.

  I escaped the confines of his car and hurried inside my house, not looking back once.

  The smell of my favorite dessert slapped me in the face the second I stepped into the foyer. I twisted to lock the door, finding my mother in the doorway that sat off the dining room when I turned around.

  “You came home,” she stated, not bothering to hide her relief.

  “Where else would I go?”

  With Judas, a small voice answered in my head. Mom was thinking the same thing. It was written all over her face.

  “You didn’t reply to any of my calls or texts I was worried about you.”

  I studied her face for some sign of dishonesty unable to find one. She’d genuinely been upset about me going M-I-A? We hadn’t exactly gotten along recently. I’d yet to read any of the messages she sent.

  I tried to regard her from an outsider’s view. Beautiful, willowy, and blonde. Mom didn’t look like someone who would be involved in the things Judas claimed she was.

  Her and Dad being sick, criminal masterminds flying beneath the radar was hard for me to believe. But was it that ludicrous? Wasn’t the beautiful, savage boy I was falling in love with a monster of a different breed? Wasn’t I harboring one inside me?

  The truth and denial waited for me at a crossroads I was not remotely ready to venture down.

  “Well, I’m here,” I stated quietly, adding a silent, for now. Tightening my grip on my satchel, I headed for the stairs.

  “I made your favorite cake,” she blurted out as soon as my dress shoe landed on the first step.

  “I know, I can smell it. I’m not hungry.”

  “Rhiannon.”

  The desperation in which she said my name had me freezing in place. I looked at her over my shoulder and saw an expression of uncertainty on her face. Recalling my whirlwind of a life the past few weeks, I was unmoved.

  “What is it, mom? We both know you don’t want to sit at the table and watch me eat cake and I’m too tired for this charade. Please don’t make me do this right now.”

  She straightened somewhat and ran a hand over the perfectly pressed skirt of her navy pencil dress. “How much has he told you?”

  Something about her question immediately pissed me off. I don’t know if it was the way she asked or the fact that she did, but I wasn’t feeling it. I feigned ignorance. “What has who told me about what?”

  She pursed her lips, a flash of irritation darkening her eyes.

  “Well, you didn’t make a stop at the police station I’m guessing so never mind.”

  “Is there a reason I would need to do that?” I stared, practically glowering. Speak. tell me all the messed-up shit you’ve done! My mind screamed at her.

  She frowned and rearranged her features into a façade of concern. “You look exhausted, sweetie. You should try and get some sleep.”

  Was she f
ucking serious? She knew damn well she didn’t care about how tired I was. What a piss poor attempt to deflect. I found it sad that I had never realized her habit of pretending with me until almost this very moment.

  If I were to reach out right now, I would feel the contempt saturating the air between us. It ruined the aroma of a cake I’d loved half of my life, turning what should’ve been sapid to nauseatingly unpalatable.

  To think I’d just considered the reason for her harrowing state was because I’d been gone all weekend. How naive of me to question if she was stressed or worried about my wellbeing when her livelihood was potentially at risk and more important.

  Mom’s maternal and sentimental side had always been a bit lacking. She fluctuated between being a strict parental figure and treating me like a bestie that often annoyed her. Despite that, I’d always believed she and Dad loved me unconditionally? No one’s parents were perfect, but was it too much to ask for her to genuinely care?

  Daddy did.

  I knew that to be true as sure as I was the sky was blue, the grass was green, and Judas was an asshole. He was who I wanted to see right now, not her.

  “Where’s my dad?”

  “Working. Where else would he be?” she questioned sardonically, throwing my words back at me.

  Knowing what she was doing, I turned and continued up the stairs before I wound up doing something I couldn’t undo, leaving her to worry about what I knew and didn’t know.

  That would make two of us.

  CHAPTER SIX

  She never looked back. I couldn’t decide if that pissed me off or made me proud. It was better for both of us that she hadn’t because I wouldn’t have let her walk into that deteriorating shithole if I would have seen her teary-eyed face again.

  I’d watched as she disappeared inside and now twenty minutes into my solo ride, as illogical as it was, I regretted that I didn’t make her stay by my side.

  When I confessed that I was obsessed with her it wasn’t true. Obsessed was too weak of a word to describe whatever the fuck it was she’d enthralled me with.

  I had been girls half my life but none of them were like her. It had nothing to do with fucking. Anyone who knew me could tell you that I didn’t go around sticking my dick in every piece of ass that came to me practically begging for it. My parents instilled more value in me than that.

  I was a Barron. The name alone held power, commanded respect, and boasted wealth. To use it for something so easy to obtain would be a severe form of disrespect. My famiglia had sacrificed too much to make it what it was. Years before my time, the Barrons were almost wiped from the core families entirely. It was my zio, padre, and two of their only remaining friends that built it back up. Lots of blood was spilled and many lives were broken or lost.

  Padre obtained his nickname the same way he earned his revered reputation that was still a fable on the streets he’d risen from.

  Merciless and bloodthirsty, he was rumored to be a shadow you could never outrun while my beautiful madre was his little death. When you saw her, you saw him even if he wasn’t visible. He watched over her exactly as his name would allude.

  If there was one person on this earth that could relate to what I was feeling right now it would be him. He’d quite brutally stolen the love of his life and warped her into the woman that to this day stood proudly at his side. She’d given him the children he adored—me and my sister.

  There was a drastic difference between my madre and Rhiannon, though. One had been born and raised in our world and the other was torn from it. She didn’t remember anything or anyone.

  I brought the car to a crawl and used my steering wheel to open my call log. Owen’s number sat right at the top.

  I connected to his mobile, turning into the busy shopping plaza we’d agreed to meet in.

  “Boss-man,” he answered on the third ring.

  “Stop calling me that. Where are you?”

  “Come towards the shoe store. I’m in row four. Big silver van by the cart rack.”

  I braked to let a mother and her daughter cross. “You rented a fucking minivan?”

  “Hey, man, you said get the least suspicious vehicle they had. It was either the Town and Country or a Cruze. Only baby mammas drive minis.”

  “Don’t be sexist, Owen. Men drive them too,” Bri protested in the background.

  I disconnected the call as soon as I spotted the van. I didn’t want to hear the debate they were about to get into while I searched for somewhere to park.

  Marcus Clermont.

  He was the man Rhiannon knew as her father and another necessary pawn. The best part? He didn’t have a fucking clue. His slut of a wife had a better grasp of the situation than him, unsurprising considering where Evie originated from. I wasn’t one to sex-shame but in this case the bitch owned the title. Seeing Marcus running around all over town like her personal bitch boy further proved he was the bottom in their marriage.

  When I got the tip to keep a closer eye on him and had Bri re-hack into his personal devices, I’d been expecting something more than him running errands.

  Marcus hadn’t talked to a single person aside from a quick polite greeting here and there. Not one call or text had been sent or received.

  That I found strange.

  Unless you were fucking no one your cellphone would go off with some kind of social interaction within a two-hour timeframe. His line was as dead as his wife’s pussy.

  “He made another transfer,” Brianna announced from the backseat.

  I had to admit the van was spacious and comfortable, but you wouldn’t catch me at the local dealership trying to purchase one. There were more on the road than I’d cared to notice before, which made it a good choice for what we were doing with it now. We couldn’t tail Marcus in any of our cars because they all stood out too much.

  “Evie has this man so hard by the balls he’s lost brain cells,” Gavin remarked.

  “This isn’t her first rodeo,” Owen replied, carefully edging the Chrysler forward to keep up with Marcus as he exited the bank and walked down the sidewalk.

  “I can’t wait to see the look on her face when everything is over. Speaking of, check this out.” Briana nudged my arm with her tablet.

  Taking the iPad, I kept my personal opinions to myself. It was best if she didn’t get her hopes up. We’d been studying Evie Clermont so long that it was a well-known fact she would sacrifice those around her in a heartbeat to keep herself afloat.

  I studied the margins pulled up on the screen noting the slight differences in each one. “He’s putting more and more into the offshore account.”

  “You think they know we’re about to make a move?” Owen asked.

  I scrolled through the transactions we had tracked thus far.

  Something wasn’t right about them either. Marcus was dealing with three accounts stateside plus the hidden one. Each amount he’d moved over the past week was too different to distinguish any kind of pattern. They had no idea we were tapping everything from their phones to their banking history, so it wasn’t a ploy.

  “I don’t think Evie is on all of this.”

  Owen glanced over and peered at the screen. “Whatcha think it is then, boss-man?”

  “I told you not to call me that.” My phone chimed for a third time, prompting me to hand the tablet back to Bri. “It’s just a hunch. I’ll share once I know for sure.”

  “When have your hunches ever been wrong?” Gavin pointed out.

  I checked my text messages, seeing two from Mai and one from Rhiannon. I opened them in the order they came.

  Mai: I miss you

  Mai: When are you coming home?????

  I smiled and text her back soon. I wanted nothing more than to return to where I belonged. It’d been so long since I saw her and the famiglia, but a bout of homesickness couldn’t be the reason I fucked everything up. Everyone in the inner circle was watching us.

  My padre needed to be one hundred percent confident he could trust me to take over for him. If he doubted me even the slightest bit, then so would all the others and that would get me nowhere but an early grave.

  The other families had to know I was capable of handling myself without his help, which is why I volunteered for this job. Gavin, Owen, and Bri were in the same boat. If they wanted to stay by my side, they needed to prove their capabilities and loyalty whenever it was necessary.