“You’re all fucking crazy!” an inhuman-sounding rasp cuts through our mirth, and we all look over to see the mess that is Adrian Ramsey.
“All the best people are,” I tell him once again, smiling at my collection of dark knights, my monsters.
CHAPTERNINE
ASH
Iglance over at Lilly, taking her in in all her majesty. She’s a fucking goddess walking this Earth, looking over at that cunt with all the disgust a lady would look at the shit that dared to get on her shoe.
Her statement rings true down to my very soul. All the best people I know are in this room, including the Shadows lingering in the corner. And we’re all as mad as hatters, psychos that delight in bloodshed, that thrive when the light leaves our victims’ eyes.
I gesture for everyone to form a semicircle around the waste of space.
“Adrian Ramsey, you have been found guilty of being a murderer, a pervert, and a general waste of oxygen,” I tell him, my voice grave with the edge of a sneer. I look up at the people surrounding me. “What punishment shall we give this monster?”
“Punishment?!” Adrian gasps, his voice that of a broken man, and my blood sings to hear it. It’s been too long since I let my own inner demon out to play. “Haven’t I suffered enough? You said there were two ways this could go! I told you what you wanted to hear,” he babbles as snot, blood, and tears leak down his face. I’m actually kind of impressed that he’s still with us. I guess shock is a great masker of pain.
I turn back to look at him, my face a blank mask of indifference.
“I lied.”
“If I may make a suggestion?” one of the twins—Roman, I think—asks. I nod for him to continue, folding my arms to hear him out. “During the Troubles, in Ireland,” he continues, eyes alight with fevered excitement, “traitors to The Cause were given a six pack. Six shots, one in each ankle, knee, and elbow.”
My lips tilt upwards at the idea, liking the sound of it. Turning to the guys, I raise my brows in silent question.
“Sounds good to me,” Loki answers, hand clasped in Lilly’s.
“Me too,” Kai adds from Loki’s other side, turning back to look at Adrian with dark eyes. Adrian doesn’t know how lucky he really is; if we’d let Kai loose on him, he’d be in much worse shape than he is now.
Jax grunts his approval, his big hand wrapped around Lilly’s, Adrian’s blood coating their hands.
“Princess?” I ask, looking directly at her and seeing that Jax has left a bloodied handprint on her cheek. It makes her look like an angel of death, and my dick stirs in my combat pants just seeing it there.
She gives a sharp nod, her beautiful, hazel eyes boring into mine with her own monster front and center, gazing out with approval.
Hunter steps forward, clicking the safety off of a handgun just asStraitjacketby Bohnes starts to play.
“Y–you can’t do this, you fucking bastards!” Adrian seethes, his voice barely above a whisper and his movements slow and sluggish. “Julian won’t stand for this!”
Hunter hands the gun to me, its weight a comforting familiarity in my hand.
“Ah, I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong,” I tell him, stepping up close and taking aim at his left elbow. “Julian will never know.”
The sound of the shot is loud, no need for silencers when we’re the only ones here. The twins made sure of that. A garbled cry leaves the older man’s ravaged throat as he slumps in his seat. Jax immediately steps up and revives him with ammonia. I pass the gun to Hunter, who’s stepped up on Adrian’s other side. He knows the drill, we all have to have something at stake here. All have to be involved.
Another shot rings out when he shoots the right elbow, Adrian groaning and whining with the pain. Hunter passes the gun to Jax, who steps around and points it at Adrian’s knee. I watch without flinching as another shot rings out, Kai taking Jax’s place and shooting his other knee out. Loki is up next, coming to stand beside me and shooting out the now, almost unconscious man’s ankle.
He goes to pass the gun back to me to finish the job, but a small, dainty hand reaches for it instead.
“Princess? You don’t need to—” I start, but she cuts me off with a fierce look in her eyes.
“He took my mum’s life long before he drove the knife into her body, Ash,” she tells me, staring down at the gun as if it's an inevitability. “So yes, I do need to. Show me?”
The last is said with a thread of uncertainty, her eyes wide and pupils blown with the adrenaline no doubt coursing through her veins. I cannot deny her, now or ever. She owns me, body and pitch-black soul.
Stepping up behind her, I pull her in close until our bodies are flush. I can’t help but nuzzle her hair with my nose, my fingers tightening on her hips.
“Focus, husband,” she chastises, but I can hear the smile, and a small growl sounds in my throat at the term. I fucking love it when she calls me that.