Page 13 of Dirty Ruck (Ruck Boys #5)

Chapter Thirteen

Chelsea

The door to the workroom was slightly ajar when we arrived. Storm, once again, carried Milly over his shoulder. She'd tried to leap out of the back of the SUV when he opened it, but he grabbed her before her feet hit the ground.

If he hadn't, the others were arrayed around behind him, ready for her to try exactly that. He tossed her like a sack of potatoes and marched with her sulking, but firmly held in place.

When Ramsey pushed open the door and led us inside, my brother wasn't alone.

He stood beside his worktable, a chair pulled up to it. A man sat in the chair, one arm chained above his head. His opposite hand was on a laptop keyboard. He looked exhausted and scared.

I wrinkled my nose at the tang of blood.

"Whose choice is it?" Ice asked, his tone sweetly venomous. He leaned over the man, looking him right in the face.

The man whispered something.

"Say it again," Ice insisted. "We have visitors and they didn't hear." He gripped the top of the man's head and turned his face towards us.

"Women's," the man said in a whimper. "It's women's choice. Everything, always. It’s their bodies."

"Exactly." Ice patted him on the head like he was a dog. "Be a good boy and tell your followers what you tried to do."

With his one free hand, the man frantically tapped at his keyboard.

Ice turned to us and grinned. "Sometimes I indulge in side projects. Only ones that are deserved."

I had some idea who the man was, and he got no sympathy from me.

"That's what happens when you fuck around," Frost said. "Sometimes, you find out."

"Precisely." Ice nodded. "Now, you have someone for me?"

"Do you have to look so happy about it?" I asked.

"Firstly, yes." He counted it off on one finger. "And secondly, yes. I was getting bored with this asshole, and I'm always happy to see all of you. Who do we have here?" He stepped around Storm, bent over and peered up at Milly.

"Millicent Nelson-Thorne, what have I said about ending up here?" He clicked his tongue.

"It wasn't my idea," she said. "Blame these id— People." She had enough sense not to refer to us as idiots in front of my brother. "I was minding my own business. Can I go now?"

"No," Storm snapped. "You aimed a gun at my woman. You're lucky I haven't snapped your scrawny neck."

She tried to kick his stomach. "My neck is not scrawny. At least I have a neck."

Ice straightened, his expression turning dark. "Care to explain yourself? You should know better than to aim anything at my sister. Except compliments. Those are always acceptable."

"They happened to be there," she said with a sigh. "It was Sierra they wanted. I made sure they saw me and got out of the way."

I glanced at Jay, who shrugged.

"It might be true," he said. "It all happened so fast."

She lifted her head and glared at him. "Of course it's true. I'm not a liar."

I snorted. "Just a killer."

"A girl has to eat," she protested. "Can I go now?"

"Who hired you?" Ice asked. "Why did they want you to kill her?"

"I didn't stick around to ask questions," she insisted. "You know how it works. They wanted it taken care of and I did it. Do you think I wanted to kill her? She was one of the nice ones." She flopped her head back down against Storm's shoulder.

"Who's they?" Frost asked.

"Unless you'd like to enjoy an extended stay here, I'd find the answer to the question," Ice suggested. "Like I said, I was getting bored with this prick." He jerked his thumb at the man who was still frantically typing.

"I don't know, but she was tight with India," Milly said. "And India was tight with that Dominic King guy. He'd been… You know, visiting her, if you get what I mean."

"Fucking her," I said. "It might have been him who wanted Sierra killed. To keep her from telling anyone what India told her."

"I'm not naming names because I don't want to end up dead, but yes," Milly said. She let out a long, defeated sigh. "You might as well kill me. If he knows I’m here, I'm dead already."

"Do you often kill people for Dominic King?" Frost asked.

"Or anyone else?" Dallas added.

"I work for whoever hires me," she said. "I had a bad feeling about this one from the start. I should have listened to my instincts."

"She's mostly harmless," Ice said. "Just a pawn for the higher ups. King wouldn't care if we cut her throat and threw her into the bay. Neither would Reuben Brantley, or Daze."

"Exactly, I'm nobody," Milly said. She looked back up again, a ray of hope in her eyes.

"You could help me disappear. I don't mean kill me; just, I don't know, let me take off out of Dusk Bay.

I promise I'll get the hell out and stay out of your way.

Or I could work for you. I'm good at doing all sorts of shit. "

She looked around at all of us. "I didn't mean it when I said you don't have a neck." She twisted around to look back at Storm. "You totally have a neck. Actually, you kinda smell good." She took a long sniff.

He jerked his shoulder back and forth. "Stop that. You don't get to smell me."

"Not my fault," she said. "You're the one holding me over your shoulder. I have nowhere to go but here. If you put me down, I'll go wherever you want me to go. You never have to see me again if you don't want to."

I glanced over to Ramsey and Ice. I found it hard not to like her, but letting her go wasn't my call to make. It seemed to me like she got in over her head and now all she wanted to do was get out of it. I could relate to that.

"I suppose we can let you go," Ice conceded finally.

"Yes." She fist pumped the air. "I'll stay out of your way, promise."

"And you won't take any jobs to kill anyone in this room," Ramsey added. "Otherwise you're as good as dead."

"Noted," she said. "No killing any of you. Not even that asshole?" She glanced over to the man who stopped typing to stare at us. He started again when he realised we were looking.

"He's all mine," Ice said. "Storm, you can put her down."

"Wait," I said quickly. When everyone's eyes turned to me, I turned mine on Milly. "Do you know who Nile Fox is?"

She stared at me for a moment before she burst into giggles. "Do you mean Nyla Fox? She's one of the Crimson Vipers. She sticks to the shadows, but rumour has it she's trying to position herself to be Carlos Jones' successor. She's a nasty piece of work. If I were you, I'd stay away from her."

"How do you know who she is?" I asked.

"I listen to gossip," she said. "You know people tell us things they wouldn't say to anyone else.

Some of the cartel guys frequent Flirts.

I'm a favourite of some of them." She shrugged modestly.

"But you didn't hear any of this from me.

Be careful, they say she's more ruthless than Carlos Jones.

He's a pussycat in comparison to her. Now, can you put me down? "

Gradually, Storm lowered her to the ground. The moment her feet touched, she bolted for the door.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Frost asked Ice.

"She really is harmless." Ice turned back to his other guest. "Unlike this prick.

He tried to get too handsy with a woman without her consent.

You know how I feel about men like that.

Shame you weren't here an hour ago, you would have been able to watch me redecorate him so he'll never try anything with another woman again.

" He smiled. "He's lucky I'm not the sort of person to give him what he tried to give her. A guy has to have limits."

"It's not worth stooping to his level," I agreed. "Hopefully whatever he's writing will reach other people like him."

"Hopefully," Ice agreed. "Otherwise I'm going to need a bigger workroom."

"That reminds me," Frost said, looking excited. "I wanted to talk to you about a workroom of our own."

While the pair chatted about torture devices, I stepped over to Dallas, who'd retreated to the corner of the room.

"I could have sworn she said Nile," he said when I got close enough to hear him whisper. "If I got it right in the first place…"

"We still wouldn't have known," I said. "I've never heard of her. If she's as bad as Milly said, then I don't want to meet her. Milly might have the right idea about getting out of Dusk Bay." We couldn't leave, we both knew that, but it was tempting.

"You think she's who is behind all of this?" Dallas asked. "She might be the one trying to muscle in on the Brantley's territory."

I thought about that for a minute or two.

"I suspect it's more than that," I said finally. "She might be trying to replace them, and Carlos. If she managed that, she'd be incredibly powerful."

She might not stop at Dusk Bay. That much power would become addictive and she'd want more and more of it. People like that, they didn't care who they stepped on in their quest for power. Whether it was us, or half the city, she wouldn't flinch. Whatever it took to win.

"What do we do?" he asked. His brow was corrugated with a deep frown, eyes more troubled than I'd seen them yet. Blaming himself for mishearing, even though it really wouldn't have made a difference in the long run.

But it mattered to him, so it mattered to me. If it was allowed to fester, like an untreated wound, it would eat him up inside.

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

I had a bad feeling about this from the start. Now, it at least doubled. Possibly tripled.

I felt like we were living that scene in the first Star Wars movie, where the walls of the garbage compactor were pressing in on the characters. Threatening to squash them into nothing. All that was missing was the literal dirty water. And a handy android to turn the compactor off from the outside.

"I won't let anything happen to you," he said quickly. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close, like the embrace would keep me safe from the world.

"I know you won't," I said. "I won't let anything happen to you either.

" Maybe it was time to practice my gun and knife skills.

They were rusty to say the least. Put either weapon in my hand and it would probably come back to me like riding a bike.

What choice did I have? If anyone came for us, I needed to be prepared.

"Ice loves the idea of our own workroom," Frost said, coming up beside us.

"He's going to help us put it together." He was bouncing on the balls of his feet and like he was ready to jump up and down. His smile was like a little boy allowed to go into a toy shop and choose anything he wanted. Or one who found everything he ever dreamt of, sitting under the tree on Christmas morning. When he’d embraced the darker side of himself, he did it with enthusiasm. For him, there was no looking back.

"That's great," I said absently.

Who needed literal dirty water when the figurative kind dragged you under against your will? For so many years, I'd fought against the current, only to have it engulf all of us like a tsunami. The battle I'd fought for so long, was it one I'd never win? Right then, it felt like it.

Whether I wanted to or not, I was a part of the darker side of Dusk Bay. I had two choices: sink or swim.