Clattering of metal on wood stops. I jump over the table. I might not have a gun but the chair in my hands makes a sickening crack when I break it over Jacob’s back.
He drops his gun and Ares is on him before I can palm the gun at my feet.
Ares rears back and levels Jacob to his knees with one blow to the face.
And then the raging bull is gunning for me. Ares turns, grips my hips, and hoists me until our gazes are level. A rush of Russian hits my ears before he breaks off in words I can understand.
“Are you okay? Are you hit? Are you fucking crazy?”
“No. I don’t think so.” I pat myself to make sure. The way he’s looking at me makes me feel I should have at least a dozen holes in my body.
A rough hand on my chin jerks my attention back on him. “Your life is in my care,malyshka. Do you understand me? Why do you keep risking it for this piece of trash?” He turns his eyes on Jacob for a moment.
“I have to. I have to do everything I can to protect what’s mine,” I say frankly.
He dashes away my answer. “Never put yourself at this level of risk, any level of risk again and…” His words drop off, he puts me back on the ground. With everyone either subdued or bleeding out on the wood floor, he spouts orders off to Devil, Rage, and Riot before he takes my arm roughly. “The Genesis men will be here in a minute; when they arrive, make sure this looks like inner warring. And him,” Ares presses the muzzle of his gun to a trembling Jacob’s head. “Bring him out back.”
I’m dragged out the back. No sooner do we step out of the door does a white car pull up. Three men step out and everything about them and their ride screams money and power. The shadowed smug looks on their faces send another message. One of death. They must be BFFs with my captor.
All three pin me with dark gazes that yep look just like Ares’. They look like the type of men who end problems and make sure they stay buried. “This the hacker who kicked the hornet’s nest?”
“Me? You want to blame me for this?”
Metal hits brick behind me. Riot and Rage shoulder through the back door. The pressure shifts from me to the sack of shit they are carrying.
They toss the bleeding asshole on the cracked cement at Ares’ feet. Jacob pushes to his knees his expression void. I’ve heard rumblings along the dark web of the Savages being ruthless assholes. Men who keep their territory clean. I never thought anything of it until tonight. I mean, really considered the hushed reputation no one ever spoke about in normal tones. I always thought men like them would never cross my path and now I’m surrounded by them and my life is in their hands. In one particular Russian’s hands to be exact.
And if it were not for Jacob I wouldn’t have had a million bullets aiming my way tonight. My sister would be getting ready for her finals.
I don’t think, I act. Which is half the reason I’m in this situation, but I can’t let this moment pass. I ignore the pain radiating up my wrist to my shoulder when I bury my fist in his face. I welcome it, rear back, and do it again.
“How could you?” I seethe. “How Jacob?”
Blood drips into his eyes from gashes over his eyebrows and a few other nicks along the side of his face. Good, he deserves those and much more.
“For the money,” I continue when he does nothing but spits blood. I can feel Ares come up behind me. He’s still as are the other men, but all serve as a force of strength.
“Did the time I held your head out of the toilet while you puked your guts out after a drunken binger when your sister died mean nothing? Or how you crashed on my couch because you couldn’t face going home and being alone that first week?”
“You fared better than she did. What the hell is your problem?”
I stumble back. “What did you say?” I swing my gaze to Ares’ and then back to Jacob in disbelief. His dead eyes look at me but I’m not sure he’s seeing me. His face is void of any emotion like he’s waiting for the reaper to appear for his soul any second.
I clamp a hand over my mouth, gutted and sickened to my core by his admission. “You sold your sister?” I whisper harshly.
“Half-sister.”
“Blood is blood.”
Jacob’s breathing is labored and the bubbles in the blood dripping from his lip says a lot about the state of his ribs. I can’t find it in me to care.
“You know what those Russian brothers wanted and you let them take me. And you were in on it? How much did they pay you and your crew of trash?” My chest tightens. Wailing alarms go off in my head. The problem I’m standing in the middle of goes deeper than just me and my sister. And Jacob is feeding the underground economy with innocent souls.
Blood bubbles through swollen lips and a sheen of red across otherwise white teeth is evident in the low light. “What are you going to do about it? Nothing. You’re just another bitch. These pricks kill me and the Volkovs will retaliate. I doubt these fuckers want war.” Jacob spits a mouthful of blood at Ares’ feet.
“I trusted you!” I can’t see the bloody face in front of me for the angry tears swimming behind my lashes.
He shrugs. “We all need money. You think you are the only one who can do under-the-table shit and get paid for it? It worked out for you. You think you’re all high and mighty, Reina?” He slurs my hacker name, sneering it with disgust.