Page 48 of Royally Ruined

Screaming as loud as I could, I dropped the phone in the elevator and tried to grab at the person holding me. Their hands were thick and firm, but they yelped like a tiny puppy when I jammed my heel into the inside of their knee. “Fucking bitch!” the stranger grunted, releasing me.

Spinning to survey the room, I saw Costello’s main floor was all hardwood and white rugs under squared couches by the floor-to-ceiling windows. There was a giant granite island and a kitchen that would make most chefs jealous. No lights were on, but the city was glinting for the holidays, illuminating the men with their guns aimed at me ... and aimed at Costello in the elevator. “Don’t move!” someone shouted. I looked away from Costello long enough to see the speaker had a red Mohawk—and a gold ring with a bullet casing.

The Deep Shots.

“Scotch, get down!”Costello growled. I did as he asked, dropping hard on my knees and rolling behind the nearest object, a couch by the windows. When I sat up to watch, I saw fragments of the wall explode behind where his head had been.

“Stop!” another voice cried out. “Don’t shoot him, you idiots! That’s Costello Badd! You’ll get us all fucking killed!”

“Shut up, Rush,” Red Mohawk said with a sneer. He cocked his gun, but he never got another shot off; sparks flared as a bullet skidded along the weapon. It fell to the floor as blood dripped down the man’s sleeve. Costello was making it severely clear that he wasn’t about to surrender.

My blue-eyed hero ran deeper into the condo, dodging as the men—I counted seven in total—fired on him again. I screamed his name but couldn’t hear it over the noise. I doubted he could. What was going on, how had we been ambushed?

Another voice screamed—Gina’s. “Leave them both alone! You’re all fucking nuts!”

Peeking over the couch, I saw that she was being held by a thick man in a brown coat and torn jeans. Rush, one of the guys had called him. I recognized him from that night in the club, when he’d been chatting with Thorne at the bar.

He squeezed Gina closer, motioning with his gun. “Step down! Darien wants that girl alive!”

“If she’s dead,” Red Mohawk said, “he’ll be just as happy.”

“I swear to fuck, Donnie, if you shoot her ...,” Rush started.

“What?” the guy countered, throwing his head back with a laugh. “You’llwhat?You think you lead us, Rush, but you don’t. You’re a nobody.”

The bigger man scowled, training his pistol on Donnie uncertainly. Gina’s fingers gripped his forearm where it circled her chest. “I don’t need to be the boss to know we should be trying to work with both the Baddsandthe Valentines.”

My eyes darted around the condo. Where had Costello gone? Most of the men were fixedly watching Rush and Donnie argue.

Wincing, Donnie shook blood from his hand. “Why bother? We should be going all in with Darien and his family. What have the Badds done for us besides give us scraps? We deserve more, and if you won’t help us get that ... I will.” He scanned the floor for his gun, but before he got it, Costello was on him. The man had slipped through the room with such ease I hadn’t seen him until he was holding the other man by his throat.

In one sharp motion he slammed Donnie against the granite countertop. Pandemonium began, the others frantically torn between aiming at Costello and aiming at Rush; one even aimed at me. My poor heart was in overdrive.

“Don’t,” Costello said, so simple and emotionless. His icy eyes jabbed toward the men with their guns. “Rush is correct. You shoot me, and you go to war. Have the Valentines promised you anything yet that would make dying so worth it? Any money set aside for you, your families? Anything at all but Darien’s word?”

A shift went through the room. The tension wasn’t any less thick, but doubt was creeping in. Costello pushed the tip of his pistol hard into Donnie’s cheek. The man’s eyes were stretching to try to see Costello’s face, his mouth in a snarl.

“I’m taking her,” Costello said, pointing at me. “And her.” He nodded at Gina. “Then we’re leaving. If you try to follow us, I promise I’ll kill each and every one of you. And unlike Darien Valentine’s, my promises have meaning.”

Several men lowered their weapons. “Don’t listen to this shit!” Donnie shouted, trying to push Costello off him. “Shoot the bastard! Shoot all of them! Stop letting the Badds crush us under their heels!”

The tide shifted again. I watched the muscles in Costello’s jaw stretch; he sensed the mounting danger, too. At this rate more blood was going to be shed.

I drew them all to me with a simple phrase. “Darien Valentine is a damn liar.”

Costello snapped his eyes my way. They glistened with fear for me. I forced my feet to move me forward; Gina hadn’t stopped watching me. I thought about all the things I’d learned from my father and uncle.

Unlike these men, I didn’t have any weapons.

Bravery was all I had.

I said, “He told you guys that I shot him. That’s not how it went down. Darien tried to kill me, kill my friend.” I pointed at her. “And when I fought back the idiotshot himself.”

Rush snorted. “He what?”

Some of the guys looked from side to side, one of them whispering, “Is she serious?”

“Is that the kind of man you want to follow?” I asked, now within touching distance of Costello. He watched my approach without blinking. “A guy who doesn’t know which end of the gun the bullet comes out of?”

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