Isaiah
The gun washeavy in my hand, and I knew it had nothing to do with the actual piece of metal. My fingers gripped the black handle as my pointer laid over the trigger. “I will blow your fucking head off, Bain. Do not tempt me. Where is she?”
Brantley was holding Bain by the back of his neck, but I knew that Bain could put up a good fight if he really wanted to. He was as large as Brantley and had been raised the same as we had. We all knew how to throw punches.
“I always thought your weakness was your loyalty to your family.” Bain’s smug grin filled my vision, and I swore to God the room dripped in blood. “I thought for sure that Jack would be your downfall. I mean, your father used him to do his bidding, yeah?” The room grew hot as Brantley pushed him further toward me. I didn’t dare look at a single person. I stayed locked on his scheming face, and I felt my muscles tensing like they were preparing for something big. The room was one giant grenade, one exploding after the other. First, Gemma, then my uncle’s revelation—or…Tate’s, since apparently, we weren’t related—and now Bain and his sick fucking game.
“What’s the end game, Bain? Why? Why did you fucking have to drag her into this? What is the purpose? How does this benefit you?” I growled, taking a step closer to him. My uncle stepped over closer, too, but didn’t get in my line of vision.
“I was wrong,” Bain chuckled, glancing around the room at everyone. Even Mrs. Fitz, who I was certain looked as if she had swallowed a bat, stood there with bated breath. “Your weakness was never your family. It was just your inability to shut off those empowering feelings of loyalty and protection.” He clicked his tongue. “Look where that got you.”
I rushed at him, and his eyes sparked to life like the sick fuck he was. He was more fucked up than I thought. The gun was shoved into his chest, and Brantley pulled Bain’s arms back with little to no effort.
“Isaiah.” My uncle’s warning didn’t even come close to penetrating my rage.
“You won’t shoot me, Rebel.” Bain grew more serious. “You aren’t like your father. You aren’t like me.”
“All you had to fucking do was wait one more goddamn day, and you would have had everything without taking down someone innocent like Gemma!” I screamed in his face, ready to blow him to pieces. My humanity was nonexistent when it came to Bain. The only thing that held me in place was the fact that he knew where Gemma had been taken. He was the one behind this. He was part of the reason that I suddenly came to the realization that, deep down, I wasn’t as damaged as I thought. I used to think I didn’t have a working heart, but I did. I did, because it beat for the girl that was taken so suddenly from my hands.
“Where and why?” I asked again, shoving the barrel even farther into his chest. Bain glanced down at it, and I wasn’t sure if it was because he saw the coldness in my gaze or watched as my morals shifted, but he began speaking a second later.
“To secure the deal. That’s why.” Bain licked his lip as my uncle moved in closer. “Your father raised his prices on guns. Did you know that? The greedy fuck just couldn’t help himself.” Bain shrugged, and Brantley pulled his arms again, stretching the white uniformed shirt over his shoulders. “My dad saw it as a great opportunity and reached out to one of your biggest clients.”
I snarled, interrupting him. “Your father is just as greedy as mine. He just can’t fucking stand it that he’s second best.” It sounded as if I was sticking up for my father, but I wasn’t. They were both pieces of shit, both too deep in a scheme of a business that did nothing but feed their egos and fulfilled their sick pleasures of becoming powerful and using killing to do so.
Bain nodded but quickly moved past. “Judge Stallard runs the Covens underneath that pesky little psych hospital. Judge Stallard’s father was the one that started Operation KFS, did you know that? Never mind. That doesn’t matter. Anyway, my father had worked with him in the past, hiring people here and there when need be.”
My uncle tensed, and the room was covered in a blanket of ice. Operation KFS, the real story behind the rooms that laid beneath the psychiatric hospital. The Covens. Where men were created to kill and hired to do so. Kill For Sale—the biggest underground black market for gangsters that were nothing less than murderers and who were praised afterwards.
“So anyway, my father wanted to secure the deal and slowly move in and take all of your father’s clients.” He tipped his head to me, as if we were fucking friends. “You know all of this. That’s why you followed me everywhere like a lost puppy.”
“This has nothing to do with Gemma. I don’t give a fuck about the business. Or the fucking Covens. Or that Richard runs it!” Gemma quickly moved to the top of the plan. The timeline had shifted dramatically. At least Jack was safe.
“Oh.” Bain’s eyebrows raised, and I wanted to punch him right between the fucking eyes. “But it does. She was my meal ticket. She was what secured the deal, Isaiah. Don’t you get that? I knew that Judge Stallard had a niece. I had seen her before. A long, long time ago during a party that my father was invited to. I hardly recognized her, actually. I wouldn’t have even known it was her until my father got to talking with Judge Stallard, and he let it slip that his niece was sent to the same boarding school that I was at. Close to the Covens.Not a coincidence there, ya know?”
My heart began thumping faster and faster, and my other hand almost came up to wrap around Bain’s neck to drown out his smug tone of voice. I could fucking kill him. My bones were nearly shaking to attack.
“He had told my father that if I watched out for Gemma and reported back to him, he may consider switching dealers.” Bain’s lip twitched, and my stomach fell to the floor. “Imagine his concern when I told him that his precious little niece was fucking the Huntsman’s son. Say goodbye to your business relationship with him.” Bain blew out a heavy breath that hit me square in the jaw. I was too fucking shocked to even blink. What the fuck. “Man, he was fucking pissed when I showed him the photos. You better hope he never gets a hold of you.”
I crowded Bain, the gun the only thing separating us as I got in his face. “So that’s it? You have no humanity left, then? You wanted my father’s clients so fucking bad that you gave up an innocent girl that is destined for a life of physical and sexual abuse?”
The pain rocked me so hard that it almost took the anger away. Almost.
Bain’s brows dropped only a fraction, seeming to halt at the despair in my voice.
“Cade,” I barked, knowing that I had to pull the plug now before things moved even further into this. “Go to Bain’s room and cover every fucking inch of it. Grab anything that could lead us to Gemma.”
The door opened and shut quickly, and I pulled back, lowering the gun from Bain’s chest and taking a step back. “It seems my plan is coming a day early, Bain. Sit down and shut the fuck up.”