King of the Cage: A Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Devil’s Own)

Giada left the locker room without another word, and I was behind her.

Declan stood from the chair he’d been waiting on. “Something up?”

“You know Enrico Sepriano was here tonight?” I asked.

He shrugged. “The skid mark from last night? So?”

“So, I think Rico didn’t learn his lesson last night.”

Declan nodded, musing. “Then I think we’ve got to teach him better, right?”

I grinned at my second-in-command and slapped his shoulder.

“Too right. Let’s find the fucker first.”

We took off through the underbelly of The Blue Rabbit. Giada was nowhere in sight. She and her friend, the guy, had disappeared. There had been three of them to start with, so presumably the girl had disappeared with Enrico Sepriano. That wasn’t good news for her, not at all. The guy had a reputation for being an utter shithead to women.

Searching the fight area was quick and simple; neither Enrico nor Giada’s friend from last night was there. Next, we went upstairs.

“You check the floor, I’ll go and get Rafe to let me see the CCTV,” I told Dec and left him by the bar.

I strode through the staff area, scattering servers in my wake. When I rounded the end of the hall and started down the corridor toward Rafe’s office, a tiny little fireball was arguing with the boss himself.

“I can’t just let anyone look at the CCTV. I wouldn’t let the cops without a warrant.” Rafe flashed his patented smooth, tall-dark-and-handsome smile at Giada

It didn’t work. She folded her arms across her chest and scowled at him. “I’m not the cops. I’ll burn this whole place down if you don’t let me see your footage, Raffaele.”

I fought a grin and went closer.

Rafe laughed and tutted. “Giada, darling, you know I respect you, and Renato, of course.”

Giada turned away, dismissing Rafe with a contemptuous look. She reached for the fire extinguisher on the wall.

Rafe was still talking, his eyes lifting to me, underestimating the pint-sized threat at his side.

“O’Connor? Don’t tell me you want to break my balls, too?” Rafe didn’t get any further.

Giada lifted the fire extinguisher and smacked him hard on the jaw. The poor sucker never even saw it coming. He dropped like a bag of rocks.

Giada put down her makeshift weapon and grabbed Rafe’s thumb, pressing it to the scanner on his door.

“Jesus, remind me not to get on your bad side,” I remarked, enjoying the sight of Giada handling business completely, and utterly effortlessly.

“Too late.” She opened the door, pushed Rafe back from the doorway with her boot, and went to shut the door.

I shot out a hand and grabbed it before it shut. “Come on, Santori. Share with the class. Show me how Renato’s hotshot hacker operates.”

She considered me for a while and then shrugged, tossing her head like the queen she was. “Just don’t get in my way,” she warned.

I stepped into Rafe’s inner sanctum and dragged his body in with me. No use in having security discovering him in the hall and making a fuss. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Giada’s fingers were already dancing over the keyboard of the desktop computer. It stirred to life.

“Madonna, this is old,” she muttered critically.

I’d hate for her to see the decrepit old laptop I used to type out one-fingered emails.

“You think you can find your friend on the CCTV? What if they left the building?”

“Not a problem. I just need the internet and a keyboard that fucking works.” She cursed in Italian and banged her hand against the desk.

I sat back and watched her, utterly transfixed, and turned on again. I’d only come in this firecracker’s mouth a little while ago, and yet, I was hard again, watching her. She was so vividly alive. Unapologetically and confidently herself.

“Where was your friend last seen?” I asked.

She sighed. “Near the bathrooms. That fucker gave her something to drink, and she got sick. No, actually, she finished my drink… and got sick.”

I sat forward, bracing my elbows on my knees.

Giada’s smooth forehead creased in a frown.

“Don’t worry, selkie, we’ll find him, and her, and teach him a lesson that sticks.” My voice was as dark as my thoughts. That motherfucker had really tried to even the score with Giada tonight, no doubt because she’d embarrassed him last night. It pissed me off to think of her drinking a spiked drink. The stuff with Quinn was too fresh. Tar-black fury sped through me.

“Talk me through what you’re doing,” I urged Giada.

She looked worried, nibbling on her lip, her mouth tight and shoulders hunched up around her ears.

“Fine, maybe you can learn something, though I doubt it.” Her tone was so dubious, it pulled a reluctant chuckle from me.

“Come on now, I can see that you reckon I can’t keep up… and you’d be right, but still, humor the dunce in the corner, won’t you?”

She sighed and told me how she searched the club CCTV.

“If I can’t find them there, I’ll switch to street sources.”

We both stared at black-and-white footage from inside the club.

“There!” I murmured, and Giada’s hand shot out to pause the video.

We watched Giada’s friend follow Enrico from the club, hand in hand.

Giada paled and shook her head, sitting back and staring. “She wouldn’t just go with him. She didn’t feel well. She wouldn’t.”

A horrible thought tickled the back of my mind, tying together last night and Quinn in the ER, and the sight of Giada’s friend happily leaving the place with a guy who’d been a stone-cold arsehole to her the night before.

“Find them outside… Look for her, I think she’s in serious trouble,” I urged Giada.

I didn’t have to tell her twice. She switched over to some scrolling black screen I’d only seen in movies and typed furiously, cursing the slow keyboard. She pulled up street cameras heading in both directions from the club until she found them. We followed them down the street to a seedy dive bar.

Then we lost them.

“There’s a blind spot — no CCTV that I can access. I have to see for myself,” Giada said and stood.

I already had my phone in my hand, calling Declan. I passed her the phone.

“Give him the address, he’s halfway there,” I told her quickly.

She hesitated for a moment.

“Trust me, selkie, I don’t want to see your wee friend hurt, either. And if that drug is what I think it is, I want to talk to Enrico, tonight.”

Something in my tone or my expression must have convinced her to take a chance on me and my men, because she gave Dec the address.

“Good girl. Now, let’s go.”

The dive bar/lounge where Enrico had taken his stolen date was four blocks over, in a terrible part of town. Unluckily for Enrico, the O’Connors were far worse than anyone we might meet on the way.

Declan was already inside by the time we got there. He had a crowbar and was casually tapping it against the owner’s knees from where he had him pinned against the wall.

“See,” Dec said, pointing the crowbar at me. “Now the boss is here, and you’ve missed your chance to tell me where they went… Now, you’ll not just lose your knees, but maybe your head.”

“Enough, Dec,” I commanded.

Declan pulled back, and the man slid to the floor. He had sweat right through his shiny suit, which, considering he’d only been alone with Declan about ten minutes, was some feat.

I read his name tag. Alan.

“Al, do you mind if I call you Al? Where did they go? Whatever Sepriano has promised to pay you won’t be enough for what I’ll do to you if the girl gets hurt.”

The owner had clearly had enough and immediately stammered, “End of the hall, lower level.”

Giada took off in that direction without a backward glance, and I jerked my head at Declan to follow her. I dropped the man, took the crowbar, and smashed both his hands.

“That’s for costing us time, motherfucker, and protecting a rapist.”

I turned on my heels and went down the stairs to the basement level.

Giada was already fiddling with the door, trying to break in. My woman had skills. It was damn impressive. Seconds later, it swung open. Declan nodded, impressed, as Giada stepped into the room.

I followed, barreling in after her. I had no idea what Enrico was up to, but if he’d used the same drug that had been used on Quinn, nothing was off-limits.

It took a second to take in the sight inside the room.

At the end, Enrico sat with his feet up, smoking a cigarette with all the arrogance and confidence of a man who had no idea he was about to meet his maker.

“Now, what’s going on here? Don’t tell me my invite to the party got lost in the mail? I thought we were closer than that, after last night.” My voice was deceptively calm.

I didn’t see Giada’s friend until I was farther into the room.

As soon as I did, I stilled. She was on the floor, on all fours, staring straight ahead.

My heart stopped for a long, hot second. Enrico had his feet on her back. This fucker had her on the floor, his feet resting casually on her, like she was some piece of fucking furniture. I was sure in that second that he’d dosed Giada’s friend with the same shit someone had given to Quinn. If not for Ion, she might have been some fucker’s furniture to torment and play with last night.

Something snapped inside me, and I stepped forward, murder in my eyes.

“Bran, your da won’t like this,” Declan warned and held me back.

“Fuck him,” I ground out.

“Just think about it,” Dec continued.

I shook his hand off and gave him a look that made him back up a few steps. He slammed his lips shut, seeing my resolve.

Men in black suits pushed into the room. Private security.

They stared at Enrico for guidance. There was only me, Declan and Giada against them.

I chuckled. “Bodyguards to protect yourself against little old us? Don’t tell me last night scared you so bad, you hired someone? Pathetic.”

Giada stood at my side, motionless, staring at her friend. Something about the sight of her friend, vulnerable and helpless, seemed to have frozen her to the spot.

Enrico sneered at both of us. “You’re the pathetic one, O’Connor. I could sink your family, bury you in investigations and audits so brutal, you’ll be at the soup kitchen by the end of the week.”

A real laugh ripped through me. “Did you just threaten me with the taxman? Oh, Enrico, you truly would have made an outstanding mayor.”

Then my smile dropped, and I lunged forward. With my first step, my lethal intent clear, the room exploded into violence. I didn’t care about the chairs that flew or the private security men and their knives. We could more than take them. O’Connors could take on any weapon, with just their fists to protect themselves.

I ducked under flying fists and kicks and barreled toward Enrico.

He went white, jumping to his feet and backing up.

I grabbed him as soon as I got close enough, lifting his entire puny body off the floor, holding him aloft in front of me.

“What did you do to her?” I growled in his face and shook his body like he was a rag doll in my hands.

His head snapped back and forth like a puppet whose strings had been cut, spitting pleas through rattling teeth.

“Nothing she wasn’t asking for,” Sepriano spat at me, fighting fruitlessly at my chest.

“Oh, Enrico. You could have been slightly less dumb and lived a long, ignorant life, but instead, I’m going to kill you. Today, tomorrow, or maybe the next day… you won’t know it’s coming, but one day, your end will come, and I’ll be there,” I murmured to him.

With an almighty shove, I tossed him against the wall, and he hit it hard before crumpling to the floor.

I stepped forward and reached into my back pocket. Giada’s nifty little knife filled my palm perfectly. I knew exactly why I hadn’t given it to her when she’d come asking… I wanted an excuse for this woman to seek me out.

I flicked open the knife and bent over Sepriano, placing my foot on his neck to keep him pinned to the floor. My steel-toed biker boots crushed him against the tile, and he could only wriggle his legs fruitlessly.

I stroked the knife down his cheek and leaned in close to him.

“Don’t piss yourself, Rico. I’m not going to kill you today… I’m just going to kill you generally… one day. You’ll never see me coming. Remember that, when you’re out living your pathetic life. Pain has it limits… but fear doesn’t. Fear is endless. Your end is coming, Enrico, and no cops, rules, or regulations can save you from me.”

I put the edge of the knife at the top of his ear and sawed. “I am going to teach you a very important lesson… Use it or lose it. You don’t listen? Then you don’t need ears.”

His scream echoed around the room.

I chuckled. “Scream all you want, no one can save you from me.”

Blood ran freely down his face and got on my boot, still lodged at his neck. Damn. They were going to need cleaning.

“My brother will make you pay for this, O’Connor,” Enrico wheezed.

Ah, that’s right. Enrico was just the youngest Sepriano to take the political route. His brother, Aldo, was the real deal. I couldn’t have cared less.

I tutted, pushing through the last part of his ear with brute force. The damn gristle was thick at the base.

“No, I don’t think he will, because if you tell him what happened, I’ll tell Elio Santori and Renato De Sanctis what you were trying to do to their little sister… Then I won’t get a chance to kill you. Elio Santori will take you out with a sniper shot, right through your bedroom window.”

I straightened up and inspected my hands. Damn, they were a mess. Enrico whimpered on the floor. I was surprised he was still conscious. I tossed the ear at his head and lifted my foot off his neck.

“Here. A souvenir of your trip to the land of terrible ideas.”

Enrico whimpered again, eyes glazed. He was going into shock, but I knew he’d heard me about the De Sanctis family. The last thing he could afford to do was have them as enemies. I patted him down and found something in his jacket pocket. I pulled the bottle from the pocket, already knowing what I’d find. I held the vial up to the light. There it was, the same logo and everything.

“Actually, scratch that, Rico. You’re coming with me after all.”

The other men around the room lay in various stages of hurt, some groaning, others out cold. Declan lit a cigarette in the aftermath, like he’d had a particularly good fuck.

I grabbed a random security stooge who cowered against the wall.

“Give me your jacket,” I barked at him.

He couldn’t follow my request fast enough, falling over himself to hand it to me. I wiped my hands on it as well as I could. I didn’t want to touch Giada or her friend with Enrico’s blood on me.

Giada sat, holding her friend. The girl lay on her side, her head pillowed on Giada’s lap. She stroked her fingers through her friend’s long hair and hummed something comforting. She looked like an angel, untouched by the carnage around her. A leather-clad vicious-looking angel in blood-red lipstick. Something moved deep in my chest as I stared at her. Her beautiful face was serene but determined as she gazed at me.

“Are you going to finish him, or am I?” she asked in a voice no man would dare fuck with.

“We need to find out where he got his shit from first. That drink was meant for you… you know that, right? He wanted to bring you here. He wanted to make you act like… a doll.”

Giada frowned. She glanced down at her friend. “What do you mean a doll?”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to demonstrate the fucking evil effect of the drug that Enrico had given her friend, but the only way to believe it was to see it.

“Let’s take her back to your place. I’ll call the family doc. He can explain it.”

Giada hesitated. She wasn’t a woman who trusted easily.

“Why are you helping me?” Her tone was hard. Closed off and guarded.

“Bran, what should we do with them?” Declan called, breaking the spell between us. He held a guy ruthlessly by the neck, pinned to the wall.

“Make sure they can’t walk for a week without hurting. We’ll deal with them properly later. Call Doc and get him to Giada’s apartment. We’ll meet him there. Right?”

I looked to Giada for confirmation.

Slowly she nodded.

Taking an arm each, we guided her friend out of the place, into the night.