Page 28 of Red Retaliation

“Oh, God!” Arianna’s voice jolts me from my spinning mind. She’s not two feet from me, staring at the remains of Steve, her face paler than ever in the harsh glare of the floodlights. “Oh, God!” she repeats, likeHecan help in this.

“Get her the fuck away from me!” Liam rages, his teeth bared. “I swear to God, bitch, if you don’t get the hell out of my face, you’ll join your fucking husband in hell!”

Oscar stops Liam’s advance with one of his meaty hands, and I realize he’s doing the same to me with his other hand.

“You haven’t worked it out yet?” Liam screams at me. “Your head’s too full of that whore to realize that her lot have just killed one of our men!” His eyes narrow to menacing slits. “I hope she’s worth it, Red, because this is onyou!”

I hear an animalistic roar as I surge forward, not realizing the noise is coming from me. I launch myself at Liam, but another pair of hands grabs me from behind.

“Calm it!”

Del’s voice is clear and calm. I didn’t see him arrive. My head pounds, and my veins jerk with adrenaline. “This was the Galvatores?” I hiss - a statement or a question, I do not know or care.

“Them or the Bristonis,” Oscar says. “The only thing the gunman shouted before he opened fire was, ‘You have one of my family and now we take one of yours’.”

I hear Arianna sobbing. She’s saying something too, but I can’t make it out. All I can hear is the jangling in my head.

This wasretaliation? Steve is dead from retaliation for something we didn’t do? Is it because I have Arianna? Or have they discovered we took Roberto’s body? The noise inside my head gets louder.

Except then I realize the noise isn’t in my head - it’s because I’m battering the hell out of the side of one of my Transit vans.

“Please get him inside,” Arianna begs.

“Being as this is your fault, why don’tyou? Part of your plan, was it? Mission fucking accomplished!”

“No point in having a go at the girl, Liam.”

Everyone is talking, but all I hear is myself screaming about what I will do to whoever did this. The Galvatores, the Bristonis - they’re all fucking dead.

I register nothing else Arianna says, but somewhere inside me understands because I move back into my building, leaving my comrade and friend dead on the floor. There’s nothing else I can do because nothing is real.

I stare at Arianna’s small hand on my arm as the door slams behind me.

Liam is right. This woman’s presence is what’s caused one of my men to lie lifeless in the loading bay, so why have I allowed her to steer me away from the aftermath?

I might be inside now; led a way like an obedient little sheep, but that isn’t the best idea anyone’s ever had because there’s only one way I know how to deal with shit. There’s no other way to expel my rage.

Some things never change.

I wait until we draw level with my office door before I stop and turn, my eyes alight with the need to inflict punishment. I throw her grip off my arm.

“Red? Wha...?”

Her question gets cut short as I grab her around the shoulders, pull her into my office and lock the door behind me.

CHAPTER

18

Arianna

MY FINGERS CLAW AGAINST Red’s iron grip. “Get off me!” I yell. I feel bad my actions have brought this situation to the Batemans, but I’m done with being dragged around like a piece of meat.

Red pushes me against the wall. “Am I hurting you?” he snarls, his face twisted in a rage more feral than I’ve seen yet. “You don’t know the meaning of the word!”

My trepidation of being locked in a room with a man displaying the hallmark qualities of a caged beast about to strike, along with the guilt of what I’ve inadvertently brought to his door, diminishes. “You know nothing about me!”

The urge to scream how I knoweverythingabout hurt and pain and so would he if he’d been forced to marry the bastard I had, pushes to leave my mouth but I won’t let him know the level of depravity I was forced to endure.