All around us, guns were drawn and pointed in her direction, several with those red laser beam dots aimed directly at center mass. She ignored the threat, eyes wide and manic. She was looking for a way out when there didn’t seem to be one. Like a caged rat caught in a maze, she was trapped. For their protection, the other bosses were hustled behind a slew of bodyguards. The seconds in command stood ready to defend alongside them if needed. Bella’s lieutenant was being held around the throat in a chokehold while he struggled to find purchase against the massive arm of the guy who restrained him.
One asshole down.
Now, on to queen bitch.
I gave her kudos for ingenuity while questioning her logic, then again, her brainless crony had exposed her as a conniving hag to the whole of the Irish mob. Given that revelation, she really didn’t have much of a choice but to go balls to the wall.
“The fuck you doing, Bella?” Mac snarled. “Put the fucking blade down.”
“You should’ve stayed in Remington, Darragh. Your whore would’ve been dead by now if you hadn’t interfered. Now everything’s ruined!” she alleged.
Mac used a stiff arm to shield me behind his back. Now that my hands were free, I didn’t need his help to protect myself. The minute she stepped off that stage, I’d serve that bitch a two piece with an extra side a gravy. After the shit she put me through on top of fucking up my romantic moment with Mac, I had no problem with punching her lights out. She deserved that and more, but from the looks of things, I had to stand in the slap-a-hoe line and take a number.
“Use your head, woman. You’re surrounded. This is OVER!” Mac yelled.
“Back the fuck off, Darragh, unless you want me to shank the shit out of your father here.” She pressed the tip in deeper. What was previously a trickle was now a geyser of flowing blood.
Mac raised both of his hands as a sign of surrender. “What happened to you, Bella? You used to be someone worth possessing, worth cherishing. Now, I don’t know what you are.”
“Oh, I’m still all of that, Darragh. Soon as I get out of here, I’d be happy to show you.”
My fingers clenched, itching to pounce on her.
She’d have to pry him from my cold, dead hands.
“Why don’t you put the knife down now, Bella. I’m sure whatever this is, we can work it out amongst the council. You have my word,” Connor cajoled.
“FUCK THAT!” she screeched. “Do you think I’m stupid? This blade is the only thing keeping me alive, Connor, and I plan on staying that way.”
Bella’s hand shook, causing another nick to the side of his neck. Connor hadn’t moved a muscle. If he was afraid, he certainly wasn’t showing it.
“Think about your husband, Bella. Kellan wouldn’t want any harm to come to his widow.” Connor tried again to make her see reason.
“If Kellan cared so much about me, then he should’ve taken the lion’s share of the organization instead of settling for scraps. He could’ve been a major player with enough power to take you all out instead of a simpering do-nothing with glass balls.”
“Proud he was, lass. I won’t have ye speaking ill of him,” the portly man spoke from behind his guards.
“I’m in control here, Niall, not you,” Bella snapped.
He wasn’t happy about being told what to do, but he remained quiet enough for her to continue.
“I maneuvered my spineless husband towards the underground fight circuit knowing in advance that Darragh controlled the East. I needed an in, a way to get closer. Oh, he rejected me at first, the night of the party in your home, Connor. All he needed was a little push, so I went to him with pussy in hand, and guess what? He took it. He fucked me on his desk, long and hard. We were so good together, …” She cut her eyes over to Mac, whose face had reddened with wrath. “We couldn’t get enough of each other, isn’t that right, Darragh? You were supposed to come for me afterwards, but you never did.” Bella removed the knife from Connors neck and pointed it at me for a split second before jabbing it back in. “She got in my fucking way.”
I held on to Mac’s broad shoulders for support. His naked chest glistened with sweat, and I could feel his taut muscles flexing beneath my fingertips. The rapid thump, thump of his heartbeat was a tell-tale sign that he was pissed at the threat to his father’s life.
“Wrong,” he growled, folding his arms over his chest. “Call it what it was, Bella. A fuck, nothing more, and trust me when I say, I intend to be a lot more selective about who gets to ride my cock in the future.”
“No, Darragh, it was love. Admit it,” she cried.
“It was nostalgia, Bella. Stupid, selfish nostalgia and the biggest mistake of my entire life. It was a dick move that I regretted the second it was over. I’ve had better pussy prior to and afterward, if we’re talking truth here.”
Mac was provoking her, and I couldn’t understand why. It was one thing to air your dirty laundry in front of a bunch of dangerous men, quite another to do it with such callousness. Bella already looked on the verge of hysteria, and this was so not helping. That’s not to say it didn’t hurt like hell listening to Mac confirm their intimate affair. I felt compelled to speak for the one person who wasn’t there to speak for himself. My partner in broken promises and lost love had a voice, and it needed to be heard. I could give him that.
“Cut the shit, Bella. You don’t know the meaning of the word love.” I peeked around Mac’s shoulder. “Love is what you had with Kellan, but you were too stupid to realize it. He moved to Remington for you, started the fighting ring for you, took on Mac for you, and it still wasn’t enough! Power is the only thing you care about. The love Kellan had for you, you sullied it the second you spread your legs for another man. How could you not see that he was devoted to you in every way, that you were the love of his life?”
I recalled the conversation we’d had at his fights the night Mac and I attended. Either Kellan didn’t know or didn’t realize the depths of his wife’s depravity as it pertained to her need for power. He told me he would’ve done anything for her. Surely, he meant it. The look in his eyes had said what his mouth wouldn’t. She was his one great adventure.
The strangest thing happened next.
She started to laugh.
And by laugh, I mean cackle like a Halloween witch, on a full moon, riding through the sky on a fucking broom. I heard Mac utter, “What the fuck” before he shook his head in disbelief. I cosigned with him on that one. She’d finally flipped her fucking lid.
“I can’t even do it.” She sobered, wiping the fake tears from her eyes. “You should see your faces, all sentimental and shit, falling for that lovey-dovey tenderhearted performance. I must say I’m really surprised. And here I thought I was surrounded by supreme badasses. Instead, you’re nothing but a bunch of pussies.”
“Watch ye mouth, lass,” Niall growled.
She regarded him coldly before laughing a second time. “Kellan had too much respect for the likes of you washed-up old bastards. What a fucking joke.”
“He showed loyalty to a way of life, bitch. Something you know nothing about,” Mac hissed. “Maybe if you weren’t such a deceitful cunt, you might’ve taken your husband’s back instead of kneeing him in it. All these years, and you never learned the one thing a man desires from his woman first and foremost. Allegiance.”