Red Handed (The Gentlemen, #1)

by Kate King

I stood on my toes inspecting it and sighed when there weren’t any alarms hooked up. Not that I couldn’t handle a couple of security guards, but I didn’t want to. I had been hoping for a chill B&E.

What a fucking waste of a good squealer. His skin was pale blue, blood pooling from his mouth. He made gurgling sounds, choking. Fuck, I must have nicked an organ. Rookie fucking mistake. The boys would never let me live this down. “Sorry, man,” I told him. “Actually didn’t mean to kill you. I mean, we would have eventually, but this was a little premature. My bad.” I tossed his body down, pulled out my phone, and texted our clean-up crew. Blood coated my hands and I cringed, wiping them on my shirt.

I smiled wider at that, humming as I cleaned. “He can try.” I dried my hands off on a fresh cloth. “Anyway, I thought you got off on this type of thing.” Rush snorted, crossing his tattooed arms. “Keep fucking dreaming. You are way to chill after ripping someone’s nails out. The screams alone get under my skin.” I laughed. “To be fair, I normally gag them.” He cringed. “Your cheeriness creeps me out sometimes.”

My grin had his face turning purple. “Careful, man. I keep telling you, if you don’t calm down, you’re going to have a stroke. Try yoga.” Nico swung a fist at me, and I barely dodged out of the way. The fucker was fast. “Watch it, the gala’s tonight. Don’t want to bruise this pretty face,” I said. “It’s a fucking masquerade. It’ll be hidden,” he snapped.

I would say he needed to get laid, but I had literally seen two girls leave his room this morning. There was no amount of sex or drinking that could fix rage like that. Dude was just born fucking angry. Probably why he went to business school.

I had only ever seen Nicolai from far away or on TV, but up close I had to admit he was hot. Okay, ‘hot’ didn’t really cover it. Not that I cared because he was the devil incarnate, but from a purely scientific perspective he was possibly the best looking guy I’d ever seen—and I’d seen a few stupid-pretty men in the last twenty-four hours.

My eyebrows shot up. Nico wasn’t known for sharing anything. Ever. Even for me and Beck, getting information out of him was like pulling teeth. Even that small tidbit was…fucking weird is what it was.

I scoffed. “Oh yeah, you worked up such an appetite watching me work, did you?” “The fucking teeth, bro. The squish and pop sound they make when they come out. Does it for me,” he deadpanned. I laughed, sounding almost normal. “That’s fucking gross, man,” I was still coming down from the thrill of torturing Luca. Soon I would be covered in a thick coat of self-hatred over what I’d done…but not yet. That was the cycle: the anticipation, the adrenaline rush, then the comedown and inevitable crash. It was like chasing a heroin high, and shaking for days afterward, sick from withdrawal.

I wasn’t sure what game he was trying to play, but maybe it would be worth it to find out. I straightened my hair and tried to focus. If we were going to do a job, I needed to be completely clear headed. This was why we did fucking prep work…and didn’t ride motorcycles or hang out with murderous assholes who looked like GQ models, but whatever.

“What?” I said with a half-smile. His hand came up and gripped the back of my head, fingers tangling in my hair, hard enough to hurt. “Never do that again,” he growled, inches from my face. “You hear me Raegan? Never fucking again.” A sly grin pulled at my lips as blood pounded in my ears. “No promises.”

Raegan was becoming such a fucking headache. I thought Sophie was going to be the problem. Actually, where the fuck was Sophie? “Raegan, go check on your sister,” I ordered. “She probably heard the gunshots through the wall.” “Sophie!” Raegan yelled at the top of her lungs. “Yeah!” Sophie yelled back from the next room, her voice only slightly muffled by the wall. “You good?” “Yeah! Tell Nico to get a fucking grip.” Beck laughed again. Fucker. I really needed to fix the wall.

Nico closed his eyes and tilted his head up at the ceiling, as though begging for patience. It wasn’t working. He was the least patient person I’d ever met. “Actually…” I grinned. “I got your laptop, so aren’t I free of you now?” Nico literally growled. Like, the sound he made was hard to describe using human terminology and was more akin to a wolf or a bear. “Like hell, Raegan.” “Woah there, Grumpy. You 're about to Hulk out. Reel it in.” He frowned deeply, blinking several times like he had something in his eye.

Rush raised an eyebrow. “Really? You’re leaving the office? But your spreadsheets, you’ll fall behind!” I snorted. “Is that all running a criminal organization is? Spreadsheets.” “Basically,” Rush said. “No,” Nico snapped. I laughed. “I think you’re losing control of your underlings there, Nico,” I said, half kidding. “No one’s listening to you. How does that feel?” Nico’s eyes flashed, and he stared at me for a beat too long until I squirmed under his intense gaze. Was it fucked up that immediately my mind had jumped to all the ways he could force me to obey him? Probably. Judging by the way his lip had curled, though, I wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines.

He was a dangerous combination of unstable and pissed at the best of times, but I was ninety-nine percent sure he was on the verge of a rage blackout. He’d always been like that ever since Dante died, but it was worse since he took over the Gentlemen from his dad. He was either totally methodical and neurotic, or a fucking lunatic. There was virtually no in between. I’d normally try and convince him to go to the gym and fight it out in the ring until he calmed down, but fuck that. I didn’t have time.

No one ever looked out for me like that. She was the heir, and I was the spare of the family.

“And the Boeing BBJ.” “No.” Again, Nico didn’t miss a beat. He didn’t look at all flustered, just resigned. “Yes.” Giovanna smiled her dangerous, all-teeth smile. “You can have the Gulfstream or the Challenger. Take both if you want. I don’t like either of them.” I gaped. I was pretty sure they were talking about trading private planes like baseball cards. What kind of alternate fucking world was this?

“My mother also spent her whole life married to an abusive asshole while running an interstate prostitution and human trafficking ring,” Nico continued calmly. “I’ve seen her shoot one of my father’s mistresses in the face and wipe the blood spatter with a Hermès scarf. I wouldn’t worry too much about her opinion of you.”

Nico’s face hardened. He looked angry, but not that blind rage I’d seen a few times at this point. Still, for the sake of the furniture, I kind of wanted to confiscate his gun. He’d just gotten a new table. I said as much. He gave me another of his weird looks, the ones I couldn’t quite read. Still, he pulled the gun out of his belt and handed it to me. “You are the only person I’ve ever met who wouldn’t be terrified to talk to me like that.”

Beck took my arm again as we ascended the walkway toward the house, following close behind Nico. I couldn’t help but notice the way some of the guests suddenly found somewhere else to be when they saw us coming, or tensed like they were about to be shot.

It was a great plan, and yet no one was happy. Well, except for Beck. Fucker was having the best day of his goddamned life. He won a race this morning. Now he got to be Raegan’s date to the party, and later Nico was probably going to need him to take off some asshole’s fingers with a blowtorch. For Beck, that was like hitting the trifecta. Meanwhile, I was grinding my teeth so hard I was afraid one would crack, just knowing I had to hide in here like the good little employee. Sophie and Nico were forced to spend hours staring at each other in total silence, which was as poetic as it was tragic. They were fucking miserable.

Nico picked them. Who knew he was such a fashionista,” she joked. My eyebrows shot up. No fucking way. Nico had pets, not girlfriends. Jesus Christ, if he was adopting Rae now...no. She had the wrong personality for that kind of arrangement. The pets were always submissive brunettes. Rae wasn’t submissive. And anyway, Nico hated her. Or, so he said. Again, I had no idea why I was even worried about this. I needed to calm the fuck down.

A chill ran down my spine at the rage on his face. He was always the calm one. The peacekeeper. Now, he looked completely unhinged. He moved close to the asshole and didn’t flinch when the bar collided with his side. “You’re a lucky bastard. I'm more worried about my girl than taking my time with you.” Quicker than I could see, he pulled out a blade and sliced deep through the guy’s throat. It wasn’t like they showed in the movies. The blood didn’t trickle down his neck. It sprayed across Rush’s face. He turned to me, my captor’s blood dripping from him. He should’ve been scary as fuck, but all I felt was safe.

His hand cupped the bruised side of my face, his words hard, sliced with sharp edges. “Rabbit, listen to me. You and me are going to hunt every last one of them and make them regret they were ever fucking born.” He made a dark sound in the back of his throat and his dark eyes bore into mine with that promise. A shiver ran through me, and my breath finally calmed. I should’ve been freaked out by the murder written across his face, but I fucking wasn’t. I wanted them to pay. I wanted them to feel the fear that tortured me, and relief filled me knowing not only was I going to get to hunt down the bastards, but Nico, Rush, and Beck were going to help.

I glanced at Nico, wondering if he knew what a mess I would’ve been had he not been here. My skin flushed as his dark gaze shifted over me one last time before striding toward the door. Sophie laughed before he walked out the door. “Nico, you really think you can pretend to be casual? As if, you didn’t spend the last twenty hours hovering over her like a fucking gargoyle.” Nico replied, but my brain was caught on the twenty hours I’d been out. “Has it really been twenty hours?”

like one wrong word would set him off. Fortunately, that was sort of my thing. “And he’s off! Rounding the island for another lap now.” I grabbed the TV remote and used it as a microphone as I pretended to be an announcer at a horse race. “Taking a swift lead around the table toward the bar cart. Crossing the bar cart and coming up the back stretch around the kitchen island. Here he comes up the left side of the island, glaring at me across the living room. Glaring at me, and stomping over with incredible speed.” Beck and Rush laughed as Nico grabbed the remote from my hand and tossed it unceremoniously out the open balcony slider.

Beck’s fingers twirled the ends of my red hair, while Rush drew small circles over my ankle with his thumb. I wondered if he even noticed he’d been doing it. He’d been hovering around me ever since he’d pulled me from that van. Nico, on the other hand, was making an obvious effort not to touch me. It was like since his overprotective malfunction right after I woke up, he was overcompensating by being more of an asshole than usual. One moment he was all Gentlemen, a total psychotic rage machine, and the next moment he was talking me through panic attacks and making promises I had no idea if he had any intention of keeping. His mood swings could give a person whiplash. As if on cue, Nico’s gaze turned sinister. “We’ve got a lead on the person who took her.” A cold, dead expression took over Beck. To anyone else he’d be terrifying in this state, but a sick, hidden part of me started to like it. More and more often it happened whenever my kidnapping was mentioned. I might’ve been a bit sick in the head to get hot over the overprotective, possessive caveman he became in moments like this, but hey, it was hot.

Pushing me back against the glass, he dropped to his knees in front of me, wrapping his hands around my calves, and spread my legs wide. We both groaned as he settled his face between my thighs. He pressed a kiss to my clit, then dragged his tongue up and down in slow, torturous laps, nibbling and biting until I was writhing against him. My legs trembled and my knees gave out. He grabbed the back of my thighs, lifting me until I straddled his shoulders. Holy fucking shit. I moaned, my back arching off the glass. “You’re fucking mine.”

He pulled back, dropping his forehead to mine, and took a strained breath. When his eyes met mine, there was a seriousness I hadn’t seen before. “Fuck the truce… and fuck being enemies.” He rubbed his hand over his face, raking it through his hair, then lifted me gently and carried me over to the bed. I scooted over so he could lay down next to me and he banded an arm around my waist. “You disappeared, and I lost my goddamn mind,” he said into my hair. My breath hitched and my mouth wobbled, saying the words I’d been refusing to let rise to the surface. “What if you didn’t find me?” He lifted on his side, half over me, and his fingers gripped my jaw, eyes pierced mine. “Not finding you was never an option. I would burn down the entire city to get you back.”

They’re back,” Rush announced as he flung the door open. “Bro, what the fuck?” I cracked an eye open, already aware of what he was reacting to. The broken shards of my glass coffee table lay across the floor, several bullet casings lodged in the rug. “I already called the cleaners.” Rush looked down at the former table and sighed. “Regular cleaners or body cleaners?” I frowned at him, annoyed. “Regular. Fuck, does it look like I killed anyone?” “Dunno.” He poked his head into my bedroom like I was hiding a body in there, and my frown deepened. “You need a fucking therapist, dude.” “No, I need to kill The Hatter, put my mother in a home, and spend an entire week shit-faced fucking a revolving door of porn stars.”

“Fuck off. You know you would have thought the same. You didn’t know there were two of them.” “And don’t you think that’s fucking suspicious?” I hissed. “That just goes back to what I was saying. Why would Jimmy hide he had a third kid?” “You’re getting as paranoid as your dad.” Rush shook his head. “Anyway, it’s obvious what your real problem is so if you’re not going to own up to it, at least buy some cheaper furniture.” He had no fucking idea what he was talking about. I had no problems. I was doing fucking outstanding. One hundred percent A1 every fucking day of the year.

I crossed to the bar cart and poured myself a drink, just to have something to do with my hands. Rush looked like he wanted to keep arguing, but wisely kept his mouth shut. It was a rare day when Rush pissed me off as much as Beck. Both of them were basically my only family, but unlike Beck, who never seemed aware of how fucking lucky he was to still be breathing, Rush was more conscious of when he was close to a broken nose. Lately, though, he didn’t seem to give a fuck anymore. I could guess who’s influence that was.

I glanced up sharply. My suite door opened, and Beck and Raegan walked in. He had one hand in the back pocket of her jean shorts and was wearing sunglasses despite the fact that it was past 9:00PM and we were inside. Fucker. Raegan glanced at the broken table and then up at me, her expression unreadable. I could never fucking figure out what she was thinking. I hadn’t stayed alive this long by being bad at reading people. It was just her. She picked up a huge shard of glass with delicate fingers and brandished it at me like a sword. “One of these days you guys are going to have to bring me to this mythical gym you claim to have. I don’t believe it.”

Raegan put her head on his shoulder, and I tried not to roll my eyes. Yet another example of how she was going to ruin us. “Raegan, let’s go,” I snapped. She muttered something to Beck, and he laughed. Both of them could go fuck themselves.

Raegan jogged up beside me on the dark street. “I’m not a fucking pet, Nico, or one of your Gentlemen.” “What?” “Raegan, come! Raegan, put on pants! Raegan, use different guns!” She imitated my voice. “Are you having some sort of nervous breakdown?” That was a good question, actually. Maybe I was losing it. Getting too paranoid or some shit. Sometimes I wished I’d been born stupid, or at least less intense. It was probably much easier to be a fucking moron.

I left the tech guy and slipped out the door after Raegan, my mind racing. Maybe I was being paranoid. I’d been on fucking edge all day. All week actually. Rush was right. I had some sort of problem with this girl. Maybe I could buy bulletproof furniture. For fuck’s sake, I should have just shipped her back to where she came from. I wasn’t even convinced this alliance with Jimmy was going to work, and that aside, it’s not like I needed to keep Raegan here to accomplish that. Maybe I was turning into a masochist. How fucking ironic.

I stared at her, vision coming in and out, barely containing the rage that still wanted to take over. There wasn’t anyone else to kill or even furniture to break, just Raegan, watching me like she knew something. I was going to shake her, scream at her to tell me why she was looking at me like that. “Well, I think we deserve an A for effort on that, don’t you think?” she said. “Maybe I should get the higher grade on the group project, though. I did kill two, and you only got one.” I blinked, surprised. The black tunnel receded from my vision slightly. How the fuck did she do that? She always said the most ridiculous shit, and it shocked me back to myself.

“Come on, Grumpy.” She grabbed my hand. I stared down at our joined hands in bewilderment. She either didn’t notice or didn’t care that blood from my hand coated her fingers, marking her with my sins. There was something in that image—our bloody hands dripping onto the pavement as I let her pull me into the dark street. A metaphor, or a phrase I couldn’t quite place right now. It was raining. Distantly, I considered that I’d been right about the rain—that was good. It would wash away the blood trail. I looked down at our hands again. The blood trail was an unnecessary, unplanned complication. What the fuck was I thinking? I couldn’t afford to lose my shit like that. Raegan was threatened when we stole the laptop and I hadn’t felt so… nothing. Nothing was happening. I needed a plan and a drink. Raegan turned back to me as we walked and smiled. I stopped breathing, my heartbeat pounding in my ears. She said something—a question—but I couldn’t hear her over the rushing in my head. My vision tunneled again, blocking out everything but her. I started breathing again. Whatever feeling I’d just had suddenly replaced with nausea. Fuck me.

As I doubled over, gasping for breath, he took full advantage and pinned me down flat with a triumphant grin on his face. “Don’t gloat too much, or you’ll be on your back the next round.” His eyes went dark, full lashes dropping over them, as he pressed his weight against me. “You promise?” Hell yes. The corner of my mouth tipped into a smile. It was all the invitation he needed. He dropped his hips between my spread legs while my hands clawed against his chest. There was nothing gentle when his lips crashed into mine, taking over my mouth, owning my every thought.

My parents sat on the opposite end of the table surrounded by Brian, Patrick, Connor, and two additional guards whose names I couldn’t remember. My father looked the complete opposite of Nico in jeans and his ever-present leather jacket. Meanwhile, my mother was trying out another new lipstick. She was seriously starting to look like Giovanna and it was creeping me the fuck out.

“I know you know where those guns are coming from,” he drawled. “You think I know, or you think my father knows?” I smiled, trying to mimic Giovanna. I probably looked like I was having a stroke. His dark eyes bore into me. “I know you know. You’re a terrible liar, Rabbit.” “Maybe I’m an excellent liar,” I said as my heart beat furiously. I meant it off-hand, but there was some truth to that. He didn’t know my dad had asked me to spy on them. That was a lie by omission. I was pretty good at lying to myself about my fucked up feelings. That counted, right?

That got me up on my feet and moving to the door. I kept my voice light and a wicked grin on my face. “Why didn’t you say so?” Nico’s restraint snapped, but I was already out the door faster than he could pull a gun on me. Laughing, I took the elevator to the basement. Time for a little fun.

Nico glared at me and I huffed. “Late as fucking always.” He pulled out his phone, undoubtedly about to send her his one thousandth text message to hurry the fuck up. When the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing a fully decked out Rae. “I’d say sorry I’m late, but we all know that would be bullshit.” Her lips were twisted up in a sinister smile as she watched the muscle in Nico’s jaw tick. Fuck, it was hot when she pissed him off like that.

Nico should have chewed me out for gawking, but a quick glance told me he was as captured as I was. Both his and Rush's hooded eyes were pinned on her. I patted Nico on the back. Poor guy was never going to get anywhere near her. The gap between him and Rae was too wide, and only getting wider with every day that he didn’t tell her the truth. I, on the other hand, was determined to make it work. That is, if she didn’t kill me first.

Rae smiled up at me and looked toward the front. “Jealous asshole is not a good look for you, Nico.” Rush choked out a laugh as he pulled out of the parking lot. If she knew what was going through Nico’s head lately, she’d back off. Instead, it was fucking funny as hell watching him rage out in silence.

It took no time to figure out that Rush and Rae had fooled around the other night. He’d been walking around like a lovesick puppy, all cheerful and shit. Shortly followed by becoming a complete asshole when she had obviously brushed him off. I still wasn’t sure if it pissed me off or excited me.

Rush, you’re in for a treat today.” She didn’t elaborate, smiling to herself with a glint in her eyes. Something told me we were about to see an entirely new side of the thief in our group. I kissed the top of her head. “Can’t wait.” She rewarded me by curling deeper into my chest. It was a forty-minute drive in this kind of traffic, and I was going to enjoy every fucking second of it.

A tinge of unease trickled through me, replacing the heat. I couldn’t imagine Sophie pulling in the same respect. Rae had been trained for this, and Sophie purposely left in the dark. Wasn’t that kind of what Nico had been bitching about for the last couple of weeks? Before I could think too deeply on that, Nico’s voice started barking orders, and our men finally fell into place beside Rae’s perfectly lined up crew. I smirked. It must’ve fucking killed Nico that she’d gotten her crew ready faster than him.

Nico’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Fucking idiots,” he spat. “I told you she wasn’t just tits and ass. I knew Jimmy trained her, and no one fucking listened to me.” Anger boiled in my stomach at that comment. Nico never meant half the shit he said, but still. I glanced at Rush, who glared at Nico. I wondered how pissed Nico would be if he knew just how much more she meant to Rush and me than a piece of ass. “We heard you, man. It just didn’t matter,” Rush said, glaring daggers at him. “Of course, it fucking matters.” Nico was literally turning purple. I kept telling him he was going to have a fucking heart attack. “Now you’ve both crossed the line and who the fuck knows what she learned.” My smile broadened on my face as I followed her to the truck, calling back over my shoulder. “Sure. Only Rush and I crossed that line. Stab anyone lately, bro?”

Which left the front for Nico and Rae. I was fucking pissed that we would be split up, but there was no way I was going to step in and undermine Nico and Rae. They already seemed out to one-up each other. No need to throw gasoline on the fire. If I didn’t know better, I’d think this was some kind of twisted foreplay, but that could never happen. Too bad too. When he wasn’t fucking screaming, Nico was the most fun to share girls with. Fucker was insane.

Rush stepped into me, hand cupping the back of my neck, thumb grazing over the skin there. I shook him off, stepping forward, riveted by what Beck was doing. A dark door opened inside of me, and a thrill trembled through my body. I wanted this man to pay. They’d fucking taken me, planned, God knows what. I wanted to hear him squeal as Beck punished him for everything he’d done.