A Real Bad Boy(62)

But first, I had to make sure she didn't get killed.

We sat in the 1969 Chevelle and stared out at the farmhouse. It was a  little thing, so unsuspecting that I would've overlooked it. And it sat  back about half a mile off the road. Isolated. The perfect place.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked Greyson. I didn't want to go in there and have it be a trap.

Just like my girl warned. Kathryn was smart and I'm sure that little tip  cost us, but we could handle anything they had to throw at us.                       
       
           



       

"I'm not sure about anything, but I know that we need to do what we can  to save her and kill him. That fucking piece of shit deserves to die,"  Greyson answered. The man was half feral as he gnashed his teeth.

I definitely echoed that statement, and if I could, I would kill him  myself for this. I thought about all the agonizing ways I wished I could  inflict pain on him, but I knew none of that would be enough. It  brought out the monster in me, the one I fought so hard to be able to  control.

"We don't have much of a choice, then, do we?" I asked. I considered  exactly what was about to happen. Worst case scenario, we'd walk out of  there with Kat and only David would be dead. But that was unlikely. All  those men would probably die because of orders. Stupid fucking orders.

Because James Fitzgerald didn't have enough faith in his son to be his legacy.

We were armed to the hilt, and we had everything we needed as we sat in  the muscle car. Greyson drove up, and I double checked everything. Guns,  knives, fuck. It was all there.

"You ready to go?" I asked him. I wanted her out of there, and I wanted  her out of there now. She was carrying my goddamn baby. It was too much  for me to be able to tolerate. I wanted to hang David and skin him  alive. Listening to him scream in torment would be the only thing that  made up for this.

We had to enter through the front doors, but it was a part of our plan.  We were going to take them from the inside out. If we died, we would do  it in a blaze of fucking gun fire.

We didn't waste any time. As soon as we were out of the car, we rushed  the house and slammed down the door, watching it come right off its  hinges. It was a weak piece of shit, and we would've had better  security. Hell, we did have better security.

It came down in a feeble flop, and I saw her. She was tied against a chair in the fucking living room, a gag in her mouth.

God dammit.

I grabbed the first man I could find and put him in a sleeper hold. We  were outmanned, but it wasn't a huge force. Probably six in total. Now  five.

That's when I saw him. David. He was smug at the top of the stairs, just standing there, waiting.

"Now, boys," a voice bellowed. It was a voice I knew, and suddenly, two men turned and cut the throats of the other two.

Kathryn let out a blood-curdling scream. I saw him. The Butcher.

He grabbed David and didn't even think about it. He brought out his  knife and dragged it across the asshole's throat, blood pouring from it  as he fell into a crumpled pile.

Henry had betrayed him.

"You plan to do that?" Greyson asked.

"The entire fucking time," the Butcher said. "I might be a pawn for your  father, but I work for you. I'm not going to choose his side over  yours. You two are the only ones I respect."

Kathryn had gone quiet, and I ran to her, untying her as she shook.  "They just, it's, I can't." The words came out in forced breaths like  she was trying to get past the shock, but I just scooped her up and  walked her right out of the damn house.

I didn't want her to have to witness any more of that. It would be too much of a shock to the system as it was.

"Are you okay?" I asked as she stared at me, her eyes wide.

"Fuck, no, I'm not okay. That was a fucking bloodbath." She paused, then  shook her head. "And not the way I thought it would be."

That lip, it quivered just slightly. I grabbed her and kissed her  softly. "It's going to be okay." I believed it with every fiber of my  being. "We have people who take care of this. I'm okay, you are okay. No  one is ever going to hurt you again."

I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her to me. "Janson, I wasn't thinking. I was scared. I just, I'm, I'm-"

"Pregnant." I finished the sentence for her, my chest swelling with the  idea. I'd wanted this, begged for it. And now, it was here, and all I  could do was relish it.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I saw the test, baby. It's okay. It'll be okay. I'll take care of you." I kissed her again.

"I'll take care of both of you." She was my family and there was nothing that could keep me from protecting her.

"If we can survive all of this," she muttered.

One thing was guaranteed. I was going to make sure that our fathers paid for this act of betrayal. I spotted Greyson and Henry.

"What the hell happened in there?" I asked as I looked them over.

"You saved my skin, I owed you a favor. Plus, those jackasses deserve  what they fucking get," the Butcher said. He grinned wide and threw his  knife down into the dirt, wedging it there, then pulling it up. It was  how he cleaned it. "I should get going, though. Want to head back home,  maybe make a stop or two on the way."                       
       
           



       

"It's probably for the best. If my father realizes what happened, he'll  have your fucking head for sure," Greyson admitted. "Take David's car,  he won't miss it, but be sure to ditch it the first chance you get."

Henry nodded. "What will you do now that you know you are a wanted man?" he asked.

"Oh, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve," Greyson said.





Chapter Nineteen



Kathryn



I fidgeted in the car behind the two of them. I had nothing to do but  grip the leather seating, my hands threading in and out of the grooves  in the stitching. I was nervous. Scared.

And my mind wouldn't stop flashing back to those events. The knife  against David's throat, the blood. He was my brother, but he was an evil  son of a bitch. Still, I wasn't sure if he deserved to die that way or  not.

He had meant to kill Greyson, after all. And possibly Janson, too. So I  shouldn't have been so upset. But I never wanted to see the life drain  from someone, and now I was sure it was a terrible fate. I blinked again  and tried to bite back the tears that were threatening. This was all my  fault. If I hadn't been so stupid, if I hadn't disobeyed Greyson and  tried to run away, none of this would've ever happened.

All because I was scared. It was a longer ride going home than it was  coming out. I swear to god they were thinking all kinds of things about  me and about what happened. It was making me so fucking nervous. I  thought they would say something, but no, nothing. We just fucking sat  there in silence as I looked out the window at the cars passing by.

Greyson was driving slowly and carefully, looking back in the mirror at  me. He wanted to say something, I could tell, but no words came out of  his mouth.

So, I spoke up first.

"How could you?" I asked, my glare very real. "How could you just charge  in there like that? You have a wife, now. A child. You think they want  you risking your life for me? That baby should mean more to you than  that."

I watched in the rearview mirror as his jaw clenched and he looked back  at me. He was angry, I could tell, but he was doing his best to keep it  in check.

"Joanna knew the entire situation and she agreed. You are a part of our  family, too, Kathryn. You are important. You deserved to be rescued."

"They never would have hurt me, you morons. You don't understand? It was  to try and lure you out. To try and kill you." I was so angry. Angry at  them. Angry at everyone around me. I wanted them safe, but I didn't  want anyone dead. No, that was asking far too much. It wasn't fair. I  wanted to rage at them all for putting us in harm's way but hold them  close at the same time. None of this was fair.

"But it didn't work," Janson spoke up now. "Everyone that mattered got  out of there alive. Anyone who wasn't going to betray us."

"What about Dad?" I asked.

"We need to act quickly to neutralize him," Greyson said. "I've already  been in contact with Michael. You got them just the right amount of  information they needed. Those coordinates, those code names. They were  fucking bodies. People that they killed themselves. Ones they didn't  want the family to know about. He's conducting a raid. We just need to  stay away from it all and it will be taken care of."

"When?" I asked.

"Soon." Greyson was sure that everything was going to work out, but this  was the most dangerous move any one of us have ever done in our entire  lives. It was insane. We were going to use the fucking feds to stage a  coup over our own family.