Page 27 of Pretty Ruthless Monsters: Complete Series

QUINN

Nico gives Emmett a look as he reaches us, putting an arm around me and tugging me close against his side.

There’s so much possessiveness in the gesture that it catches me off guard for a moment.

Is he doing this because some members of our gangs are still lingering around us? Or is it purely for Emmett’s benefit?

Is this about the facade of us putting up a united front… or about something else?

“What are you two talking about?” Nico asks coolly.

Emmett opens his mouth, his face defiant, but then Killian comes over as well, backing Nico up. Killian stares down at Emmett with his usual disconcerting intensity, and Emmett’s mouth snaps closed.

He looks annoyed, but he just mutters, “Nothing,” under his breath and slinks away. Clearly, he’s not willing to go toe to toe with both Nico and Killian.

“Don’t do that,” I mutter to Nico, trying to keep my voice down.

“Do what?” he asks, not releasing his hold on me. “Come over to see how my wife is doing?”

“You know exactly what I mean. Just because we’re married on paper, you need to put on these bullshit displays of possessiveness as if you actually give a fuck who I talk to. I’m not yours, any more than you’re mine. So drop it.”

He brings his free hand up to trace my jaw, turning my head so that our gazes meet. “The tattoo on your chest—and the one on mine—beg to differ, mia cara. You certainly felt like you were mine last night when you were taking every inch of my cock.”

My pussy throbs at the reminder of what that felt like, a flash of pain and arousal shooting between my legs.

Jesus . I expected this alliance and marriage to be an inconvenience, upending things a little… but I had no idea just how quickly everything in my life would be turned on its head. It’s messier and so much more confusing than I thought it would be.

And we’ve only been married a day.

Nico’s face is only inches away from mine, his mismatched eyes staring down at me. I can feel Killian watching me from just a couple feet away, standing so close that I can pick up the warm whiskey and leather scent of him.

The combined focus of the two men is more than I can handle right now, so I step smoothly away from Nico, who lets his arm drop from around me.

It hits me suddenly that Atlas is missing from his usual place at Nico’s other side, and my brows furrow.

“Where’s Atlas?” I ask, glancing around.

It doesn’t take long for me to spot him standing several yards away, talking to a beautiful woman.

She’s tall and willowy, built like a dancer or a yoga instructor or something.

Her dark blonde hair is streaked through with lighter chunks, and even though it’s just tied up into a messy bun, she appears effortlessly pretty.

Like she just rolls out of bed looking flawless.

She’s clearly a member of Carnage, but not one of the ones I’ve seen before.

“Who is that? The woman Atlas is talking to?”

Nico follows my gaze and then snorts. “That’s Zoey. His ex.”

“Oh.”

He frowns. “I’m surprised they’re chatting like that, honestly.

Well, surprised Atlas is entertaining it.

Zoey’s been wanting to get back together with Atlas ever since they broke up, but it hasn’t been going well.

She’s even resorted to trying to win over Killian to get back in Atlas’s good graces. ”

Killian grunts in agreement but doesn’t offer up anything else.

A surprising twinge of… something shoots through me as I watch the pair of them talk. To my surprise and disgust, I recognize it as jealousy. As quickly as the emotion welled up, I shove it back down, not understanding where it came from and definitely not wanting to feel it.

Zoey laughs at something Atlas just said and puts her hand on his arm, leaning in close. I turn away before I can see how he reacts to that, swallowing down any other feeling but annoyance.

“We’re out, boss!” someone calls from a little ways away, I look up to see a few of my crew heading for the exit—Emmett among them.

They lift their hands to me, and I nod back. Emmett’s eyes linger on the sight that I must make, standing with Nico and Killian, but he doesn’t say anything. He just nods in my direction and strides out with the rest of them.

That sets off the dispersal of the rest of the gathered members of our two gangs, people leaving in clusters. More than a few of them glance over to see the three of us standing together, and while I can guess what my gang is thinking about all of this, I have no idea what to expect from Carnage.

Nico and Killian don’t seem worried though, so I suppose I’ll just have to trust in that.

Atlas makes his way over to us a few minutes later as Zoey joins a few other Carnage members and leaves, his scowl set firmly in place.

It’s hard to tell if he looks so pissy because of me or because of the conversation he just had with his ex, but I’m not dwelling on that. There’s business to handle.

I take a step away from Nico, putting more distance between us so that I can focus better.

The whole point of this is to keep our people safe, to figure out who’s been behind these attacks and how to stop them.

Everything else is just background noise.

My people are looking to me to lead, and that’s what I’m going to do.

“Alright,” I say, catching the three Princes’ attention just as Nico starts to lean in to say something to Atlas.

“I’ve held up my end of the deal, and now it’s time for us to get to work.

We still have someone out there trying to take us down, and all those people we called here today are counting on us to actually make something of this alliance. So we’ve got to do that.”

Nico nods, for once not arguing. “You’re right.”

“Where do we start?” Atlas asks, and I’m surprised that he’s speaking to me. Even with us all being in this together, I guess I still expected him to only take Nico’s word seriously.

“Let’s go over what we know,” I say. “It’s better to start there than dwelling on what we don’t know yet. How many attacks did you guys deal with?”

“Three,” Nico responds. “That we know of. There are always skirmishes and scrapes, but that’s just the cost of doing business.”

I nod because that’s definitely true. Sometimes other gangs get too close. Sometimes other, unaffiliated criminals try to move in and take money drops thinking they can get away with it. It’s what makes this shit so hard to track when someone else gets involved.

“Were they all in the same location?” I want to know.

Atlas shakes his head. “No. Two were close by, but one was on the edge of our territory. At first, we thought the runner might have just gotten too close to another gang’s turf and got his ass beat in a warning shot, but now we’re not so sure.”

I nod. “When it happened to us, we were definitely within our boundaries. So it had to be sabotage. We also dismissed some little things here and there, but it seems like the attacker is escalating to get our attention.”

“Or to warn us that they’re not above taking our people out,” Atlas adds.

“Whoever is behind this, they’re well trained,” Nico murmurs. “They’re slipping in and out and not leaving much behind. No trail to follow, no evidence. And no one who got jumped saw anything.”

I glance at Killian, but he’s as closed-mouthed as ever, even though his green eyes are intent. He’s listening, even if he’s not saying anything. That’s how he always is, it seems. He pays attention more than anyone I’ve ever met, never missing much.

“Right,” I say. “So the first and most important thing is to make the attacker’s job harder for them.

Don’t give them any openings. I think it would also be a good idea to make sure news of our alliance gets spread around Detroit.

I want it widely known that both Carnage and Enigma are stronger than ever. ”

“She’s right.” To my surprise, Atlas backs me up, nodding grudgingly. “There’s no point in having the extra power if we don’t use it.”

It takes me a second to recover from the shock of him having just agreed with me, and I stare at him for a beat too long before I shake myself and get back to the point.

“Right. Exactly. Outwardly, we need to project strength. But privately, we also need to make sure we don’t have any fucking holes in our defenses.

If our people can’t do their jobs, business will suffer and it won’t take long for everything to collapse. ”

Nico, Atlas, and Killian all seem to weigh that. It’s interesting, watching the three of them brainstorm and being a part of it. Killian is quiet but present, clearly taking in everything that’s being said and considering it thoroughly.

“We’ve got a smuggling drop coming up soon,” Nico tells me. “A big one. Any suggestions for how to keep our runners safe?”

I can’t tell if this is a test of some kind or if he’s genuinely asking, but I decide it doesn’t matter.

“You need to pick a new location for the drop,” I say.

“Maybe even somewhere in Enigma territory, which would be unexpected and outside of your usual patterns. Keeping things unpredictable is our best bet at the moment.” I rattle off a spot I’m fairly familiar with deep in the heart of Enigma territory, then add, “Someone from your crew should go check out the area ahead of time to make sure the spot is secure. Cover all the angles and find any place that someone could lie in wait to ambush your people.”

“ Our people,” he corrects me.

I blink. “Right. Whatever. Anyway, I think that location will be solid, but if you do a sweep ahead of time, you can make sure that there are no blind spots where an attacker could hide. Make sure an ambush won’t be easy.”

Nico nods, not taking his eyes off me. “It’s a good idea. Killian, you can go with Quinn to check out the drop spot.”

Killian inclines his head before glancing at me, and I frown. I didn’t know I was volunteering myself to do it, but there’s something to be said for getting eyes on the designated site myself.

And it’s a good sign that we are actually in this together, so I don’t complain.

“Atlas.” Nico jerks his chin at his other friend. “You and I will go put our ears to the ground.”

“About what?” I ask him.

“I want to see what the chatter on the streets is. Find out if there’s been any suspicious activity in other areas, anything that could possibly be related to our mystery attacker.”

It’s a good idea, and as much as I feel a little strange about being alone with the silent, hulking Killian, I can admit that dividing forces like this makes the most sense.

“Fine,” I say. “We’ll report back once we’re done, and you can do the same.”

Nico nods, ending our impromptu little meeting, and I grimace as I realize I’ll probably have to ride on the back of Killian’s bike. Something about the idea of clinging to him the way I clung to Nico on the way here just feels… odd.

Fuck, I wish I had my car. Then I could get myself to the drop spot and home without worrying about it.

Killian turns to head to his bike, and I huff out an annoyed breath. But before I can say anything, Nico stops me, grinning.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Your new ride, mia cara.”

He nods to a bike that’s parked just a bit away from where the three Princes parked theirs. I didn’t pay much attention to it before, assuming it belonged to one of their crew, but now that everyone’s gone, it’s still there.

“Wait.” I frown. “That’s for me?”

“You’re married to the leader of a motorcycle gang,” he says, smirking. “Seems fitting you should have a bike.”

I can’t even downplay the shock I feel. A gesture like this seems like an actual show of solidarity, something that says we’re in this together.

It’s above and beyond our tenuous truce, especially considering I drew blood from him last night after sneaking into his bedroom with a knife while he was sleeping.

“Are you going to argue about it?” he asks, folding his arms and raising a brow.

“No,” I tell him. “It’s a nice bike.”

“Do you even know how to ride?” Atlas mutters under his breath.

I can hear the irritation in his voice, but I don’t even glance his way. Instead, I walk over to the bike and take up the helmet that’s been left on the seat, pulling it over my head. I throw one leg over the bike, getting settled before revving it up, letting the engine hum under me.

It’s exhilarating, and I just feel it for a while, letting my adrenaline climb. Then I hit the gas, peeling out of the small lot with Killian close on my tail.