Page 59 of Pretty Ruthless Monsters: Complete Series

A man strides forward, and I recognize him as Harlan, the leader of the Young Killers.

He’s tall and lean, with close cropped black hair and pale eyes that snap with anger.

Unlike the guy lying dead at Nico’s feet, Harlan wears his authority well, and he gets in Nico’s face, clearly pissed the hell off.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he snarls. “We invite you here to talk peace , and you start killing our own? I should drop you and your cronies right fucking now.”

Nico doesn’t even flinch in the face of Harlan’s anger.

He keeps his calm, lifting his chin to look the taller man right in the eyes.

I know he won’t back down. That would show weakness.

Killian and Atlas—and me, by extension—would have to back him up, and there’s a lot more of the Young Killers gathered here than there are of us.

Even if we did somehow manage to get out in one piece, that would just be another enemy made.

We already have our hands full trying to deal with Silas, so we don’t need this.

My mind races, trying to come up with some way to get us out of this without it coming down to a fight. When an idea pops into my head, I don’t hesitate or pause to second-guess, I just go with it. It can’t make anything worse, at least.

“You should be grateful he killed that guy, actually,” I say, raising my voice and stepping forward a little.

The Young Killers keep their guns trained on me, but I lift my hands to show that they’re empty, even though I feel fucking naked without a weapon in my grip.

Harlan glances over at me, his eyes narrowed. “And what exactly do you mean by that? Why the fuck should I be grateful.”

I shrug, keeping my stance relaxed and confident, just like Nico is doing. “Because he was a traitor. That was part of what we were going to talk to you about today.”

Silence reigns after I speak, nobody seeming to know what to say. Harlan is still looking at me distrustfully, but at least he’s not staring Nico down anymore.

“Why should I believe you?” he demands, his eyes narrowing. “Why the fuck should I listen to anything you say?”

“Because I can prove it,” I tell him.

A flash of surprise crosses his face, but it’s quickly replaced with a scowl. “Then show me.”

“Alright.”

I nod, keeping my hands raised as I step forward, trying to ignore the rapid, heavy pounding of my heart. I walk quickly over to the body and rummage in his pockets until I find his cell phone. It’s locked, but I pick up one of his limp hands and press a finger to the screen to unlock it.

Working swiftly as I hunch over the body, I tap the screen a few times, then rise to my feet and show the phone to Harlan. The recent call log shows several outgoing calls to Pietro, a well-known member of a gang that the Young Killers consider their enemy.

“Fuck.” Harlan’s eyes widen. “What the fuck? If this is true…” His gaze darts from the phone back up to my face. “You should have brought this information straight to me. It’s not your job to punish members of my gang.”

“He put his hands on my wife,” Nico says, shrugging. “He signed his own death warrant.”

Harlan’s face goes pinched with anger once more, and I shoot Nico a look before trying to smooth things over again. “He grabbed me, yeah. I think he knew we were on to him. He threatened me, and Nico didn’t react well to that.”

“He threatened you?” Harlan repeats.

I nod. “He had beef with my dad before me. He said Enigma was getting too big, and that we needed to be reminded of our place. Said he could help make sure that would happen, since you were slipping as a leader. I guess he meant he’d do it with backup from Pietro.”

I shrug, keeping my face impassive.

My heart is racing, even though my voice comes out even and sure. The best lies, my dad used to say, always have a nugget of the truth in them. He told me to always give away just enough to make sure whoever I was lying to caught the whiff of honesty, even if the rest was pure bullshit.

Harlan seems to be buying it. I knew throwing in that dig against him as a leader would get his hackles up, which made it a big risk.

But fortunately, since he thinks the dead man said it, the majority of his anger is now directed at a corpse and not me or the Princes.

He steps back from Nico, glancing down at the crumpled body of his gang member.

“He didn’t have the authority to be making threats like that,” he mutters, his lip curling. “He was low level. A nobody.”

I lift one shoulder. “Maybe he thought he could get higher with another gang.”

A flash of irritation passes across Harlan’s face, and I know I’ve hit the nail of the head with that guess. I can just imagine this guy pestering his leader, trying to get more than his due.

“We formed our alliance to make sure that we wouldn’t have to bow to threats,” Nico puts in, finally getting with the fucking program. “It felt right to make an example out of this one.”

I can feel Atlas and Killian at our backs, both of them still tense, ready to draw their weapons and turn this into a firefight if necessary.

For a while, Harlan doesn’t say anything. He just stands there, looking down at the body on the floor. Then he sighs and shakes his head.

He makes a hand motion, and we all tense up even more… but then the rest of the Young Killers stand down, putting their guns away.

Relief washes over me like a rush of cool water, and finally my heart rate starts to go down.

“If there’s going to be peace between us, you don’t shoot my people without my say-so,” Harlan declares, his voice hard.

“Sure,” Nico agrees, shoving his hands into his pockets. “As long as they keep their hands to themselves. I don’t know how you all treat your women, but in Carnage, we don’t take kindly to other men touching what’s ours.”

Harlan’s mood has clearly been soured, but he nods grudgingly. Nico definitely managed to strike a nerve with that comment as well, although I know that his dig about how they treat their women wouldn’t mean much if Harlan didn’t already view the dead man as a traitor.

“Should we get down to business?” I suggest, eager to move this along and get the fuck out of here.

“We came here to prove to you that we want peace, and we have every intention of doing that. Neither Carnage nor Enigma has any beef with the Young Killers, and we have no aspirations to expand at all, let alone into your territory.”

Harlan glances between me and Nico once or twice, as if trying to find the lie in our expressions. I keep my expression carefully neutral, projecting as much sincerity as I can.

“Fine.” Harlan nods sharply. “Let’s talk. You have ten minutes to convince me.”

Nico nods. “That’s all we need.”

Harlan steps over the sprawled out body on the floor and gestures for us to follow him. The rest of the Young Killers still watch us warily as we step into the back room with Harlan and several of his enforcers, but no one makes any more violent moves.

It’s a delicate balance, trying to convince Harlan that our joined gangs pose no threat to him and his organization.

Nico and I actually work well together as we lay out our case for him, trying to convince him that we have no designs on his territory.

Although it makes my skin itch to admit weakness to anyone, I tell Harlan a bit about the fact that Enigma has been under attack, and surprisingly, Nico follows my lead, adding his own story about how Carnage has been attacked as well.

“We joined forces to protect ourselves,” Nico adds after we finish. “We’re not trying to expand. Just to survive.”

Harlan nods thoughtfully. “I see. That does make some sense.”

“We know the Young Killers are strong,” I say, opting for a bit of flattery to help smooth things over even more.

“Even if we were looking to expand, we’d pick easier targets for that.

Nico and I may have teamed up, but neither of us are idiots, and we know it would be a mistake to go after you and yours.

We don’t want a fight. We have no bad blood with you. ”

Nico chimes in again, the two of us trading off as we make our case. It takes longer than the ten minutes Harlan promised us to convince him, but the fact that he lets us keep speaking is a good sign.

Half an hour later, he finally gives a grudging nod.

“Alright. I believe you. If you don’t fuck with us, we’ve got no issue with you or your alliance. Just make sure it stays that way.”

“We will,” I tell him sincerely. Nico nods in agreement.

We all shake hands, and the Princes and I walk out of the Young Killers’ meeting spot with a truce in place and no more bloodshed.