Rage and Ruin | 2

6 | 2

J A K E

Hundsen's men pulled me into a large room that looked something like an office. If this was where he was conducting Club business out of, it was certainly a step down from the last lair. Then again, he might have simply picked this place to bring us because no one would know where to come in order to rescue us. Not that anyone would have to. I'd come here for a purpose.

I was shoved into a chair before the desk, several of Hundsen's men standing at attention behind me. The Club leader himself leaned over the desk to leer at me. I gave him a flat look. If this was his attempt at scaring me, he'd have to try much harder.

"So," he snarled with glee, mouth turning up in a dark smile, "You're alone, yet again. Your friends have left you."

"You and I both know that I don't need friends to get things done."

"Perhaps." He licked his lips. "But now you're more vulnerable than ever without anyone to protect you but yourself."

"I did that just fine for years."

"Your father protected you," he countered, angry that I'd try to sully his admiration of Nathan Evans.

I nearly laughed in his face. "That wasn't protection."

Hundsen cocked his head in a small shrug, showing me he clearly didn't agree. "He made you into what you are. He gave you all your power."

"The only thing he did for me was teach me how to shoot a gun at the age of seven. I took power myself—even from him when I finally could. He was weak and foolish to think I wouldn't do it. You should know that better than anyone."

"Perhaps he had one weakness," he said, alluding to the events surrounding my father's death. "But I don't. I've gotten farther than he ever had."

"How? By selling yourselves into Imperium's clutches? By using Club money for yourself? I was the one who forced the Needles into submission. I built this gang to the extent it is today. You're living amongst my achievement, not yours."

I glanced over at Dusty, whom I'd spoken with before coming here. As it turned out, he was willing to do almost anything for enough money. Even betray his leader for me.

He gave me a determined nod before tossing his gun into my waiting hand. I stood before any of the others could rise against me and aimed the barrel between Hundsen's eyes—or eye and eye socket. "Even your own men aren't loyal to you anymore. Perhaps that should show you who the true leader is here."

But Hundsen smiled, like I was nothing but a petulant child. "A true leader has full command of his soldiers." He gestured to the room full of his soldiers—all aiming their guns toward me. "I'd say I have enough control to destroy you."

"And I have enough to destroy you." The cool metal end of the gun was now rested on his skin.

"Then kill me. Pull the trigger."

I couldn't. As much as I wanted to, I couldn't. If I killed Hundsen now, all of his men would come to avenge him. First, I needed to completely decimate all the things he held dear in order to have everything I wanted. Then he'd die at the end of my gun's barrel.

So I turned the gun to his lieutenant, Claudia Smith, who stood behind her leader. She was dead before she even hit the floor.

"Now, how many of your lieutenants do I have to kill before you get the picture?" I asked Hundsen, who was turned—like everyone in the room—toward the dead body with a look of insurmountable rage on his face.

That was when I let him know I was aware of his secret. "She was your sister, wasn't she? My condolences."

A few murmurs went around the room. I had no idea who here had known and who hadn't, but the important thing was that I had. Even though I hadn't quite pieced it together solely by their looks—they looked almost nothing alike, sharing only those pitch black eyes—I'd seen that they shared the ownership of a few different companies from the papers I'd stolen from his desk. Without Claudia, both Hundsen's gang and his businesses would be weakened.

Then, slowly, he tore his eyes—or eye—off his dead sister and faced me again. There was that look on his face: the one that I wished I could have seen when he learned about his wife's death. This time, I didn't fight the wicked smirk growing on my lips.

"You've just made a grave mistake." His voice was low, dangerous. "Perhaps you've forgotten that I have control over two important pieces in the game you're playing."

"Well then, if we're playing a game as you suggest, then I'm winning."

Without warning, he passed me by and went to stand in the doorway. "Bring him here," he barked to his men. "I'd drag him myself, but I don't want to dirty my hands with such filth."

Two Club members escorted me back into the large room, their fingers wrapped like steel bands around my arms. I let them lead me before Jaxon and Tesla, both of which were still chained on the floor.

"Their betraying words to you will be their last," Hundsen spoke on my left, a dark, maniacal look in his eyes shining where it hadn't been before. "I hope it rings in your ears until you take your last breath." I didn't think about the steely tone that Delphinium had addressed me in, didn't let myself remember the look on Jaxon's face when I told Hundsen to shoot them both.

In fact, I hardly had time to react to any of it before the shining blade of a sword was swinging toward Jaxon's neck. Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't stop it. Guns all around the room were aimed for me. I'd die before he did.

At the last moment, he jerked back against the soldiers holding him. The blade missed his neck at the odd angle, but hit his arm instead and sliced through his flesh like butter. He made a horrible sound that I was all too familiar with. The sound of a torture victim. The sound of someone who had just lost an arm.

      Hundsen wore a smile akin to the one I'd held earlier after shooting Claudia. "Good. Now, Evans, you get to do the honors for the assassin."

      I ripped my gaze from Jaxon, bleeding out on the floor, to Delphinium, still blindfolded and wondering what had just happened. Something in my chest threatened to unravel when I thought Hundsen purposely blinding her and leaving her in the dark. Suddenly, I got the urge to put an icicle through Hundsen's remaining eye.

      "She spilled as much of my soldiers' blood as you have. Show her what you do to your enemies. Show her your wrath. If you truly don't have a care, put an icicle through her heart."

      I kept my composure, even as I heard Jaxon groaning on the ground. He couldn't die here. Especially not at Hundsen's hand.

      So I stood before Delphinium. She didn't move a muscle, not even when she heard my footsteps approaching. Most likely because she knew it was me.

      Giving in to the cold beneath my skin, an icicle—long and dagger-like—formed in my hand. Her arms were pulled back by the chains that bound them, leaving her chest exposed. I could let the icicle sink into her without a problem.

      I leaned back, the icicle high in my hand as I prepared to swing it down on her. I heard Hundsen chuckle, delighted that he'd forced me to destroy her.

      Instead of piercing her heart, I lunged forward and slit through the cloth that was preventing her from seeing. The bag hit the cement. Her vibrant eyes first landed on Jaxon, unconscious on the ground. I couldn't tell if he was breathing. Then, slowly, she looked up at me. I gave her a nod, knowing the gangsters around us were pulling their triggers back.

      She shot to her feet, faster than I'd ever seen her move before. With a violent scream, she pulled the roof down around us.