Joe handed the key over, and Ruby took it. Holding onto his gun at his back, he waited. Oliver wanted to see what she was capable of. He would take over if he needed to.
She unlocked the door, and when the man charged, she was waiting. Using his own weight against him, she shoved him back inside, and he crashed against the cages.
Ruby was trained. The man wasn’t.
“Who were they?” she asked.
“Fuck you!”
She kicked out, slamming her foot against his dick. While he was distracted with his dick, she hit him with her fist. “Try again.”
Oliver was impressed with her skill, and the man, he took a beating, but when she pulled a knife from her sheath around her ankle, and had it pressed to his dick, he gave up the names. They were not professional. Whoever hired them hadn’t cared, or there was a reason for sending them, and from what Joe said, they did their job well. They were supposed to distract Joe, and they’d achieved that.
The Coltons.
All of them had been in the club last night.
Ruby left the cage and locked it. “They didn’t do this alone,” she said. “They knew the codes to the safe. So either, he’s lying.” She pointed at Joe, who looked insulted. “Or your traitor is coming out of hiding along with the Coltons.”
If Oliver had not been watching her closely, he wouldn’t have noticed the slight tremor in her body. She was getting closer to finding out who had killed her brother. Those men were just cogs in a machine.
“Go and have a drink. I’ll call my family. They’ll come and deal with it.” He grabbed her hand, holding her, offering her his strength.
“I’ll do that.”
He put the call through to his father, and after telling them everything, he waited for his family to arrive.
“I swear it wasn’t me.”
“I know.” Joe’s loyalty was absolute. Besides, ten years ago, Joe had been only just working up the ranks. He didn’t know enough to scale the attack and murder of the Santos family. No, someone had to not only have known the Dentons back then, but also be close to Santos, and know security codes now. Even Oliver didn’t know them completely. There were over ten safes, and each of them requiring a code.
He waited for his father and brothers to arrive, giving them an update before heading upstairs to find Ruby sitting at the bar. She looked sad, scarily so.
Climbing into the chair next to her, he leaned on his hand, and stared.
“You kicked ass,” he said.
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” She didn’t smile. She did nothing more than stare at a locket around her neck.
“Lionel give you that?”
“You probably think it’s creepy being this close to my brother.”
“I don’t. I’m not close to my brothers, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand. I do. More than you’ll ever realize.” Jacob, Abel, himself, Gideon, Damian, and even Landon were all close. Sure, they got on each other’s last nerve, but it was part of being brothers. He would fight to the fucking death to keep his brothers alive. “There’s a bond with family, with brothers and sisters. It’s not always there, but I feel it. I’d kill and die for my family, Ruby. I’m not a good man, but when it comes to family, I’ll always do right by them.”
She sighed. “You’re a weird man.”
“I’ve been called a lot worse, believe me.”
“I don’t know what to do to be honest. Sometimes I think I get what my place is in the world, and other times, I really don’t know.”
“What were you doing before you tried to kill me? For cash?”
“Besides training, and doing some of the badass fights, I was actually waitressing at this old-fashioned diner place. It’s a piece of shit place, but it paid, and didn’t ask questions when I turned up with bruises. They probably assumed I got them from some loser boyfriend.” She shrugged. “You just got to do what you’ve got to do.”
“Yeah.”
“How is your dad handling what happened down there?”