Page 36 of Pretty Ruthless Monsters: Complete Series

“No, you should have fucking called me, and I would have handled it,” I snap.

He looks upset, but he doesn’t argue back. That’s something, at least.

“Fabian, you’re cleaning the shop for the rest of the month. And I saw Alyssa and Dominic in the heat of that shit too, so you two can help him. If anyone else decides to step out of line, I’ll find a worse job for you. Am I understood?”

There’s a chorus of mumbled agreement, and I’ll take that. The goal is to get the point across that we’re not going to let this sort of bullshit slide.

Nico nods approvingly at me and then sighs. “Alright, get the fuck out of here,” he says to his people. “It’s too early in the goddamned morning for this shit.”

I jerk my head at the Enigma members, dismissing them as well.

They all start to file out, the two groups keeping their distance as they go to their vehicles and start to peel out.

Once they’re all gone, I sigh, rubbing my face tiredly. “Jesus fucking Christ,” I mutter under my breath. I hear Atlas snort, but when I look at him, he doesn’t look like he’s mocking me, just maybe agreeing with the sentiment.

Nico walks over, and he looks the way I feel. Tired, disappointed, still a little angry.

“I swear to fuck,” he mutters under his breath. “Some of these people.”

It’s interesting, seeing glimpses of his leadership up close like this. He’s been the leader of Carnage for a good while longer than I’ve been leading Enigma, but it’s clear that sometimes he struggles too.

“I know my dad had to deal with this kind of shit too,” I mutter. “But somehow, I don’t think he was screaming at his people outside a dive bar at five in the fucking morning.”

Nico snorts, running a hand through his dark hair. “You never know. This kind of shit happens more often than anyone would like it to.”

“I know we’re asking a lot of them with this, but…” I trail off with a shrug.

“But they should be able to see why we’re doing it,” he says, picking up the thread of my thought more easily than I would’ve expected him to, as if he can read my mind.

“It’s not for our fucking health. Or because we just woke up one day and decided to play house.

We’re trying to keep them alive and keep our territories from being overrun by an outside threat. ”

“Right.” I nod, surprised to find myself in total agreement with Nico for once. “But I guess it was wishful thinking to assume they’d fall in line right away. Some grudges run deep.”

“They’ll think twice before jumping into a brawl again, at least.”

I nod. “You handled them well.” It feels weird, giving him a compliment, but it’s true.

“Sometimes you’ve gotta make an example out of some people to keep others from doing the same dumb shit. If they think they can get away with it, they will.”

“What’s toilet duty?”

He grins, just a touch savage. “Some of our smaller smuggling deals happen in some shitty places. Pun intended.”

I make a face when I realize what he means. “Ew. Bathrooms? Really?”

“The disgusting ones always are the safest for that kind of thing. Everyone hates that job, so they’ll be on their best behavior for a while.”

I can see why.

“Sometimes—” I stop, but then keep talking in a rush, my voice dropping low as the truth spills out. “Sometimes I don’t think I’m good at this. I can’t help but wonder if they would have rebelled against my dad that way. Maybe they just don’t respect me.”

“Nah.” Nico fixes me with a look, stepping a bit closer. “They do. As soon as they saw you go wading in, your people backed off. They listen to you, and they should. You’re doing well.”

“I hope that’s true.”

He chuckles, a wry smile softening his harsh features for a moment.

“Listen, there are still days where I second guess the decisions I make. Where I wonder if I’m being too harsh or not harsh enough.

If I should be trying to expand more or worrying about keeping the territory we have safe.

I’ve been doing this shit for years, and it still happens. It’s just part of the job.”

I purse my lips, hiding a smirk. “That’s not exactly reassuring.”

This time, he outright laughs. “Yeah, I guess not. But you know what I mean.”

Honestly, I do know what he means, and knowing that he struggles with the same pressures of leadership that weigh so heavily on me sometimes eases something in my chest. For the first time since our tenuous alliance formed, I start to wonder what it might be like if the two of us became true partners.

If this thing between us became more… real.

It’s a heady thought and a terrifying one, all at once.

“So, what are we going to do about this?” Shifting back to the problem at hand, I jerk a chin at our surroundings, indicating the remnants of the fight and Cabby’s broken-down car, which Killian and Atlas are now inspecting.

“We can’t focus on finding out who’s been attacking us if we’re too busy trying to keep our gangs from killing each other. ”

“We’ve bought ourselves some peace for the moment,” Nico says. “Our people aren’t gonna start any more shit for a little while, at least. We just need a plan to keep it that way.”

I bite my lip, turning the issue over in my head. I’d been hoping that even though our two gangs don’t like each other, they’d be motivated enough to keep the mystery attacker from destroying us to at least try to work together. But maybe that’s not enough.

“We need to focus their energies away from each other, I think,” I say after a while.

“How do you mean?”

“I mean… right now, we’re united in name.

But we’re still thinking of our territories as separate, in a way.

We’re still going about our business, and yeah, we’re helping each other, but that still makes it easy for them to think of each other as enemies.

They need to focus that anger on the real threat. ”

“The attacker,” Nico says.

“Right.” I chew my lip thoughtfully. “Maybe we need to start having our people team up for jobs. It would force them to work together—give them a chance to have each other’s backs.

And it would be an added level of protection against whoever’s been coming after us.

There’s safety in numbers. You said your last drop went okay after Killian and I scouted out the new location for it, but we can’t count on that as our only defense. ”

He chuckles humorlessly. “As long as you think we can pair our people up without them killing each other, I’m all for it.”

“We got married , and we haven’t killed each other,” I point out.

The sun is just starting to rise, and Nico’s mismatched eyes glint in the golden light as he cocks an eyebrow. “No. We haven’t. Yet.”

His pointed addition of that last word actually makes me grin, despite the stress of the early morning brawl and the lack of sleep.

I give him a faux-sweet smile as I say, “If you’re lucky, maybe we’ll find a way to neutralize this threat before it comes to that.

Then we can end this whole thing and each go on our way. ”

“Hm. I don’t know.” His eyes sweep over me, something shifting in his expression. “Maybe I’m not in a hurry to end it. I think I’m starting to like being married to you, mia cara.”

There’s a note of sincerity in his tone that I wasn’t expecting, and my stomach does a little somersault. But instead of giving any outward sign that his declaration caught me off guard, I just roll my eyes and snort derisively.

“Let’s deal with one problem at a time,” I say as Atlas and Killian stride back over to rejoin us.

I don’t know why Nico would like being married to someone who’s supposed to be his enemy.

Someone he probably hated up until we had to form an alliance.

Maybe it’s just the sex. The sex we’re definitely not supposed to be having.

Or maybe he just likes being this close so he can throw me off balance with comments like those, just to try to get a reaction out of me.

Either way, it doesn’t really matter.

We may be husband and wife, but it’s in name only. It doesn’t mean I can trust him or let my guard down, and the very last fucking thing I should do is allow myself to develop any feelings for him. That would be a massive mistake.

He’s a good fuck, I can’t deny that, and his two friends have somehow managed to get under my skin, but that’s all it is.

That’s all it can be.