Red Handed by Jessa Wilder

Several hours later I was still fucking fuming. Who the hell did Connor think he was? I was seriously questioning all the years we’d been friends on the Mount Summer compound. Had he always been an insufferable asshat, or was this new?

The thing about Connor was he didn’t respect me the same way the other guys did. He never had that healthy fear that came with understanding I wasn’t just the boss's daughter, I was also better than him at both guns and hand to hand combat. Maybe I’d let too many things slide over the years due to literally being in diapers together.

If there was anyone I could discuss this with, it would be my sister. Sophie disappeared into her room as soon as we got back from Mount Summer and not come out—at least not that I’d seen. She didn’t seem to hate it here. At least she hadn’t put up a fight when Dad said we needed to come back, but she definitely wasn’t as social as usual over the last few weeks. Until a month ago, Sophie was the queen of the South Side social scene. Now, she was the queen of breakfast in bed.

I showered quickly and changed into shorts and a t-shirt, then took the elevator up to Sophie’s room. I glanced at Nico’s door as I passed, wondering if he was in there. We hadn’t really spoken since the other night when he went all Stabby Mcstab Stab on that guy. I got the feeling he was avoiding me.

Sophie took longer than usual to answer the door when I knocked. She appeared on the other side, blonde hair a mess and clothes rumpled.

“Am I interrupting something?” I joked.

“No. I was asleep.” She stepped aside to let me in.

I gave her a long look. “It’s two in the afternoon.”

“So? It’s not like I have much else to do.”

“You should come hang out with me. I was in the gym.”

“Gross.” She wrinkled her nose. “No offense but working out with you is literally torture. Not everyone is trying to be a Navy Seal.”

“There are no female Navy Seals,” I grumbled.

“Well, that’s sexist. You could totally pass the test, which is my point. Maybe I just want to ride an elliptical or something, not train for the motherfucking Hunger Games.”

“You’re in an awesome mood,” I observed, striding over to sit on her couch.

She sighed. “Sorry. I’m aggravated. It’s not really clear to me why we’re here still, and I’m bored. I didn’t realize until we went home that the entire compound was swarming with Gentlemen. Like, what is that? And if there’s an alliance and all those men on the compound, why wouldn’t we be safe at home?”

I smiled a little. Sophie had been so Zen about everything this whole time, it was refreshing to see her even slightly irritated. She made a good point, though. If most of Nico’s men were at Mount Summer regularly, why wouldn’t we be safer there?

“I know,” I told her. “The whole thing makes no sense.”

“You know what else?” She frowned. “Actually, hang on.” She reached for the TV remote on the coffee table and switched on the giant flat screen on the wall. It was less than half the size of Nico’s movie theater sized TV, but still took up most of the wall. Flipping through the on-demand menu, she clicked on some workout video and turned the volume up full blast.

“What is this shit,” I said loudly as horrible pop music blared through the room, accompanied by the instructor in the video shouting about an encouraging warm up routine.

“Cardio Yogalates.” Sophie shrugged. “You know how thin the walls are. Nico can hear everything. Without Yogalates, I could never have a private conversation.”

“Huh.” I didn’t know what to say to that.

“Anyway,” she said. “I never realized until we got here how little I know about how everything works.”

I narrowed my eyes. “How what works?”

“This!” She made a sweeping gesture with her hands like she was a ring leader welcoming everyone to her circus. “I don’t have any idea how Mount Summer works. I don’t even know what Dad does.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Soph, don’t be dramatic. You know what we do.”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, broadly, but I know about as much about our own business as I do about the Gentlemen. Like, I could tell you that Nico owns a bunch of hotels as a front for his prostitution ring, but I don’t know how it works. I know we have the car dealerships and the other businesses, and I know we move guns…”

I tapped my fingers against the arm of the couch. “I mean, I could explain it to you…”

“You’re going to have to at some point.” She sighed. “I just think it’s weird. Like, I’m supposed to inherit an organization that I don’t understand at all. You get it, why is that?”

“Probably because dad thinks I’m expendable,” I said bitterly.

“I just always assumed I wasn’t told stuff because Marcus was the heir and dad couldn’t deal with training another kid, but now I’ve seen that Nico obviously runs his entire organization.” She paused. “I mean, he wasn’t supposed to be the heir either, it was his brother too, so now I feel like dad just thinks I’m stupid.”

“Oh, Soph.” I moved closer to her on the couch. “No one thinks you 're stupid. Dad’s an asshole. You know what he has me doing now? He wants me spying on Nico.”

Sophie raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? What about the alliance?”

I shrugged. “Who knows?”

“Are you going to do it?”

I furrowed my brow. “I mean, yeah. I have to, right? Fuck the alliance.”

She pursed her lips and looked away. “Okay.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” She made a face that said it was not nothing.

“No really, what?”

She ran a hand through her tangled hair. “I don’t know Rae, I just think if you really think dad is an asshole, and he’s the kind of person who treats you like you’re expendable and me like I’m a moron, maybe you don’t need to do this?”

I set my jaw. “The Gentlemen killed Marcus.”

“To be fair, Alessandro Esposito killed Marcus, and we killed Dante, and it was ten years ago. Nico was like sixteen, and he hasn’t been awful to you.”

I grinned halfheartedly. “Who even are you right now? You hate Nico, and you always listen to Dad.”

“Oh, I still think Nico is a prick,” she said firmly. “But he’s really nice to you. It’s weird, actually.”

I ignored that for now. “And Dad?”

“I don’t know. I need to think. I also need you to explain to me how the hell everything works.”

“Sure.” I smiled. “Not this second, though, okay? I actually came down here to bitch about Connor, but now I just want to order food and chill.”

She grinned. “I can do food. I don’t think I’ve eaten all day.”

Four hours later we’d made it through an entire pizza and the last season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The show was shit, but I was feeling pleasantly full and sleepy. I curled under the throw blanket Sophie had apparently brought from home to make the hotel room more “lived in.”

My eyes had begun to close when I jolted awake, startled by a pounding on the door. Sophie leapt to her feet, eyes wide. “Now what?”

I immediately regretted leaving my gun in my room. When had I gotten comfortable enough to walk around unarmed? Fucking hell, this is what I got for dropping my guard.

Sophie ran to the door, but I stood and intercepted her. “Let me.”

She didn’t protest as I stood on tiptoes to peer through the peephole. I gasped and swung the door open. “Connor, what the fuck?”

Connor stood on the other side, his face a bloody mess. His nose was clearly broken, and he would have two black eyes tomorrow. What little of his face wasn’t swollen was twisted in rage.

“Oh, of course you’re here,” he grunted, pushing past me. His voice came out muffled.

“What happened?”

“Don’t play dumb, Rae.” Dumb sounded like “dumf.”

Sophie looked at me, alarmed, and dashed over to the little kitchen, presumably to get some ice.

“What are you talking about? What happened?” I asked, even as my stomach sank. I had a lurking suspicion I knew what happened, and the venomous look he threw at me confirmed it. Connor didn’t need to say anything.

Anger bubbled up in my stomach. What the fuck? The guys had absolutely no right to do this. I was perfectly fucking capable of taking care of my own men, and they could not treat me like some helpless child or damsel in distress. Connor had said some shit. I could beat him up myself if I wanted.

I was sort of aware of the hypocrisy here. Nico had literally killed someone the other day. I wasn’t mad about that, but that was different. Connor wasn’t physically threatening. Nico was helping me fight a battle I was already halfway done with and starting to lose ground. In this case, it looked like one of the guys took it upon themselves to beat the shit out of someone from my side of the aisle over my fucking “honor.” Yeah, no.

“I’ll be back,” I said shortly, swinging the door open. I glanced back at Connor. “You’re lucky it was him and not me.”

“If you’re going to yell, remember we can hear everything you say,” Sophie called after me.

I stormed up the hall to Nico’s door, only to find it already open. I poked my head inside. Nico leaned against his kitchen counter, clearly having heard everything through the wall. Across the room, Beck was sitting on the living room couch playing a video game on the gigantic TV.

“If you’re going to yell, save it,” Nico said blithely. “I didn’t hurt your precious security guard.” The way he said “security guard,” made it sound like an insult.

“Hey, babe,” Beck called, cheerfully.

“I’m going to fucking kill Rush,” I grumbled. Clearly, he was the culprit. “Where is he?”

Nico looked totally unbothered. “He’s working on the computers.”

“What?” I asked, distracted.

Beck paused his game. “All that stuff we took from the apartment last night had to be hacked into and sorted through.”

I glanced at Nico, the mention of the apartment reminding me of the hallway. He looked away quickly. I stood with my arms hanging at my sides, unsure what to do with myself—go find Rush now and yell, or… what?

“Babe, come sit,” Beck said, making room for me on the couch, “We’re playing DOOM.”

I narrowed my eyes. I could picture Beck playing video games, but Nico seemed like the type who left the gun range and read Tolstoy for fun. I would have thought he considered normal shit like games and movies peasant entertainment. Then again, Beck did mention once that Nico liked The Fast and the Furious, so what the fuck did I know.

“Sit, Raegan. Rush won’t be back for at least an hour.” Nico strode over and shoved a glass into my hand.

I raised the drink and sniffed it. It smelled like Christmas trees and rubbing alcohol. I was on my second Christmas tree cocktail and feeling much better about the whole Connor thing, when Rush skidded into the room. He was breathing heavily, like he’d sprinted up the back stairs rather than taking the elevator. We all looked up in mild surprise, and Beck paused the game. Good thing too, I was losing.

“Guns,” Rush panted.

“Hand grenades.” I took a large sip of my drink. Nico made really potent cocktails.

“What?” Rush gave me an odd look, clearly distracted.

“I don’t know. Are we just naming weapons? Battleship.”

“Pliers,” Beck supplied cheerfully.

“That’s not a weapon,” I argued.

“Yes, it is. Everyone has teeth.”

“Shut the fuck up, both of you,” Nico growled. “Rush, what are you talking about?”

“It’s guns. The Trilogy’s got a massive weapons shipment coming in from across the border this weekend. All the information was on that shitbag’s computer.”

Ice dropped into my stomach, and I was suddenly completely sober. “Across the border from where?” I asked sharply.

Rush looked at Nico for confirmation before answering. I saw the smallest of nods pass between them. “Upper New Forge,” Rush said.

My mind reeled. That could be a coincidence, but likely wasn’t. The upper neighborhood of New Forge was a stop along Mount Summer’s supply line. There were only so many arms dealers in the tri-state area, and even fewer that had access to major shipments of unregistered guns. That meant one of two things. Either our supplier had switched sides, which was possible but unlikely, or The Trilogy was planning to intercept our run.

I closed my eyes, willing myself not to panic. I needed to compartmentalize my fear of an impending gang war from the issue at hand. The major issue. I glanced over at Nico. He was staring at me, his expression unreadable. Unlike the other guys, I could never understand what the hell he was thinking.

I had to handle this delicately. Nico couldn’t realize how much I knew about how Mount Summer worked. He might have guessed that The Trilogy was intercepting our supply line, but I couldn't confirm it for him. I also needed to get out of here and call my dad.

“How many?” Nico asked.

“At least as many as you saw at their warehouse. Looks like they’re doubling their inventory,” Rush replied.

Again, I had to push down my panic. With the guns we’d seen in their warehouse, that was enough to supply a private militia. It didn’t look like they were selling them like we did. They were stockpiling.

“We need to find out what their end game is,” Nico said, echoing what I’d been thinking. He looked over at me again and seemed to steel himself. “Raegan, call your father.”

My eyebrows rose. “Excuse me?”

“Call Jimmy and tell him to get down here now.”

I blinked at him. That was sort of what I was about to do anyway, but now it felt like a trap. Agreeing was alarming. “Why? What should I tell him you want to discuss?”

Nico’s lip curled. “Don’t play dumb, I’m sure you’ll think of something.”

On that ominous note he stood and strode into his bedroom, Rush hot on his heels. Beck and I looked at each other.

“Fuck,” Beck said, downing the rest of his drink.

My thoughts exactly.