CROW (Boston Underworld Book 1) (36 page)

Alexei meets my eyes briefly before he turns his head away. He’s aware this wasn’t my doing. It’s out of my control, as is whatever happens next.

“I want a word with Niall,” Viktor says. “In private.”

Sean and I both step forward, but Viktor holds up his hand.

“Only him.” He points at Alexei.

The lot of them walk down the hall towards my office to seal my fate. There’s no question what they’ll be discussing in that room. Everything I’ve ever wanted is being torn from my hands right in front of me. None of it matters. The burn of uncertainty is only made worse by the fact I still haven’t a clue where Mack is.

Ronan took her against my knowledge. I’m going to murder him the first chance I get.

Ten minutes pass. Then twenty. When thirty have come and gone, the agitation is getting to me. Something about this isn’t right.

A gunshot goes off, and a moment later, we’re all holding our weapons at each other. Franco tells his men to stand down in Russian as he eyes me off.

“We’ll check it out together,” he says.

Him and I both walk down the hall in silence. The office door is cracked, and all three men have their guns pointed at the door in confusion.

“That wasn’t in here?”

“No,” Niall curses.

My eyes move to the floor beneath as Viktor speaks.

“Ivan’s downstairs, yes?”

Niall must’ve told Viktor we captured him. If they’ve got one of their men down there, this is not going to end well.

“He’s a traitor.”

“Lachlan,” Niall’s voice is thin with warning, but I can’t look at him. My eyes are locked onto Viktor, waiting for his next move.

“He will be handled accordingly,” Viktor says.

“Aye, he will,” I say. “By our lads.”

“He isn’t the only one downstairs,” Conor says from the doorway.

His eyes are wide, and he doesn’t need to say anything else. I’m legging it downstairs before I’ve even fully processed what’s happening. The lads are following me, but Ronan must be down there already.

All of us come to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. As I anticipated, Ivan is shot and laying in a pool of blood on the floor. But it isn’t by one of the Russians.

Above him, Mandy and Donny both have a grip on Mack, each of them holding a gun to her head as they lead her towards the back door. My first instinct is to go to her, and my body obeys.

“Don’t come any closer!” Mandy yells.

The gun in her hand flies in my direction, and Mack starts pleading with her. Mandy’s eyes are crazed, her hair wild, and there’s blood smeared all over her shirt. I can’t wrap my head around what’s happening here.

“Mandy, what in the bleeding hell are ye doing?”

“She’s coming with us,” she says. “Don’t come any closer, Lachlan, or I will shoot you.”

They inch further away, and I follow.

Niall and Viktor descend the stairs, along with the rest of the Russians, and fear like I’ve never known grips me. They’ve all got their guns drawn, and they’re all pointing in the direction of my girl.

“Mack.”

She holds up her hand and her big blue eyes are glassy when they fall upon me.

“Sweetheart, I need you to listen to me.”

Her lip trembles, and she glances between Mandy and Donny. He’s smiling, his teeth bloody and his eyes crazed. She must have hit him in the face already.

“What is this?” Viktor demands from behind me, his voice escalating to fury. “This was not the plan.”

Niall tries to calm him while I keep my eyes trained on Mack, looking for a way out of this. But Mandy keeps dragging her further away while Donny looks for any excuse to unload his weapon.

“Everybody stay back!” Mandy orders again.

I glance at Niall and he and Viktor both order the lot of us to stand down. There’s no clear shot. Mandy’s taller than Mack, but she’s crouching down and using her body for protection. She’s almost to the door, and I can’t let her go.

She shot Ivan. Something I never would’ve guessed she’d be capable of. I’m afraid she could easily do it to Mack too. With Donny, there isn’t even a question. His sadistic smile tells me exactly what he plans to do.

I bolt forward, and Mandy pauses to thrust the gun towards me.

“Lach, no,” Mack pleads. “I’m sorry for everything, but this was the plan all along. We’re working together.”

I freeze on the spot, staring at her in confusion. There’s no way that could be true. But Mack’s expression is flat and cold. And Mandy’s smiling like she’s just pulled off her best performance yet.

I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. I move forward again when Niall and Ronan both grab me from behind. I’m fighting them off, but it’s too late. Mandy and Donny have slipped out the door, taking Mack with them.

Niall moves to my side. He’s holding his phone towards me, speaking, but I can barely hear him. I’m still looking at the door. Was Mack really lying to me about that too?

“It’s a message from her friend Scarlett,” he says.

Finally, I glance down, and realize I was wrong. It wasn’t Mandy. Mack was the one who gave her grandest performance yet.

To save me.

Ronan rips the phone out of my hand and gives me a shake to get myself together. Niall and Alexei hand us some extra ammunition, and then we disappear out the door behind them.

Chapter Forty

Mackenzie

M
andy opens the driver’s side door and shoves me inside before she climbs into the back seat. Donny is in the passenger seat, leering at me with all of the sick shit he obviously has in store. They both keep their guns on me the entire time Mandy barks out her instructions.

“Drive,” she snarls.

I turn the key in the ignition and fumble with it. I’ve only ever driven a car twice, but I’m not about to tell her that.

“Hurry the fuck up!”

I get the key turned and put the car in drive. I press the gas too hard and we burn rubber out of the parking lot. In the rear-view mirror, I can just see Lachlan and his men filing out of the building and running towards the lot.

Great. A car chase.

There’s no doubt he’s going to kill me now. But I don’t regret it. I had to protect him. I did and said what I had to.

Mandy directs me onto the interstate, and it isn’t long before a black SUV is right behind us. Ronan’s at the wheel, Lachlan in the passenger seat beside him. They are keeping a distance, and they aren’t shooting at us. I don’t know what’s going on, but I guess they figure we have to stop sometime.

I have no clue what Mandy’s endgame is here, but I know it can’t be good.

I glance in the mirror at her, and her crazy is on display for all the world to see. Her hair is a tangled mess, and she keeps looking at me with that same familiar hatred I can’t understand. Cars are whizzing by us, and my hands are so tight on the steering wheel my knuckles are white and my fingers numb.

“Faster!” she barks.

I press down on the accelerator, and the car surges forward. Donny’s free hand creeps over to my thigh and grips me so hard I cringe.

“I told you I’d have my way with you,” he says. “When this is all over, I’ll have fucked you six ways from Sunday.”

I’m fighting the urge to backhand the shit out of him when I hear the cocking of a gun. I glance over, and Mandy’s got her gun pressed against his head.

“Hand me your weapons,” she says. “Or so help me, I’ll blow your fucking brains out right here in the middle of the interstate.”

“What the fuck?” Donny snarls.

Mandy whips him in the face with the butt of her gun and his nose starts gushing blood.

“Fucking do it!” she screams.

Donny hands her the gun and holds his other hand up to stem the bleeding.

“The knife strapped to your leg too,” she orders.

He reaches down and pulls out the knife and hands it back to her. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him speechless. I’ve got no clue what’s going on here, but it’s obvious I was wrong about Mandy. She wasn’t the one being played in this situation at all.

After she stashes his weapons somewhere safe, she holds the gun between us, ready to shoot either one of us who tries to make a move. The car is silent for a long time, and the wheels are turning in my brain as I try to figure out what to do.

“You don’t remember me,” Mandy says out the blue. “Do you?”

I glance at her in the mirror again, and I can’t hide my confusion.

“Should I?”

She laughs and shakes her head. “I knew you wouldn’t. Donny didn’t either.”

Donny and I both look at each other, and we’re wearing matching expressions of confusion.

“It’s not surprising I guess,” Mandy says. “Considering she didn’t either. That’s three for three.”

“Who?” I demand.

“Who do you fucking think?”

“Talia?” I whisper.

“Yes, your precious fucking Talia,” she snarls. “And I’ve got news for you guys. I remember all of you just fine.”

I don’t know what Mandy’s talking about, but I know one thing for certain. The porch light is on, but nobody’s home. She’s fucking delusional and clearly in the middle of a psychotic break. Donny isn’t saying anything at all, which is nice for a change. So I try to ignore her and formulate a plan in my mind to get out of this, but Mandy just keeps talking.

“Would you get a load of yourselves?” she laughs. “Even now, you’re so fucking self-involved you don’t believe me. I didn’t exist to you back then, and I still don’t now.”

“Okay, Mandy.” I keep my voice calm and steady. She wants to talk, we’ll talk. It’s a good distraction while I think. “Tell me where you think you know me from.”

“I must have passed you a thousand times on the street. You never even looked at me. I even slept in the same stairwells, the abandoned warehouses…”

She jams a finger into her chest as her voice wavers. “That was me.”

“You’re from Southie?” I ask.

Again, I’m surprised. There were a lot of runaways on the street back in those days. We all had our own little groups. But I genuinely don’t recognize Mandy. I wasn’t looking to make any other friends back then, I was simply looking to survive.

“I’ll give you a little refresher,” she says. “You know that deli over on M Street? The one by the park?”

Donny stiffens beside me, and my own stomach rolls as the pieces of the puzzle start to fall together.

“And I know you know the alley behind that deli.” She points the gun towards me and that bitterness is back again.

“How do you know that?” I croak.

“Because I was there that night!” she screams. “I was fucking there, hiding in the shadows. And your friend Scarlett came to rescue you and Talia, but you left me behind. You left me there…”

I’m shaking my head, denying it. “That isn’t true, I would have known. She cut him… she cut his face.”

“Yes, she cut him,” Mandy answers. “She cut Donny’s face.”

Oh my God. I think I’m going to be sick. I glance at him again. The scar. The one I thought was from fighting. There’s no way. I would have known…

“Did that little cut stop you and your friend Donny?” Mandy shoves the gun against his head again. “Well did it?”

He doesn’t answer, but the guilt is written all over his face.

“No…” I choke out.

I don’t want to believe it. Believe that this sadistic bastard was right in front of me all along. And he not only hurt Mandy and God knows how many other girls, but Sasha too.

“Yes,” Mandy sighs. “I told you he ran with a different crew back then.”

“Mandy…”

“Don’t.” She jams the gun in my direction. “I don’t want to hear your empty words.”

Silence falls between us, and I try to digest everything she’s just said. It was Donny that pushed me into that dark alley all those years ago. I didn’t recognize him because I was too focused on fighting off both of them. Scarlett showed up and cut him, and then she grabbed my hand and we ran. I didn’t look back. I didn’t see the other guy’s face either. I was only thinking about getting out of there.

“Now you both have to pay for your sins,” Mandy’s low voice cuts through the silence.

I think back to the photos of Mandy that the PI sent me. How I thought they were using her. And something even more sickening occurs to me.

“You were having sex with him.”

I know it’s not the right thing to say, but I feel like I’m going to vomit. He must have really done a number on her, and I can only imagine what kind of anger could fuel that sort of determination.

She glares at me and shakes the gun at me again. “It was part of the bigger picture. He’d already violated me once, so what did it matter if he did it again. This time, I was in control. Isn’t that right, Donny?”

He doesn’t answer, so she clocks him in the head again.

“Yes,” he says finally. His voice is quiet, barely a whisper, but he can’t hide his anger.

“And Ivan,” I add. “You were using him and Donny to start a war between the Russians and the Irish?”

“Not trying.” She smiles. “I did start a war. Did you not see what happened tonight? It’s over. They’re all going to rip each other to shreds now. The whole organization will fall to the ground.”

“But why?” I ask. “Why not just go after Donny?”