Children of Vice (Children of Vice #1)(35)

“TOBY, GET HER HOME!” I hollered to the men behind me, pointing at Dona before pulling out my gun. I saw Greyson and three other men in the corner of my eye, nodding for them to go first. He pushed them out of the way, clearing a path for me to get through the rubble all over the cracked floors, the bodies just lying there, unmoving.

“Who came out?” I asked him, using my handkerchief to cover my mouth from the smoke. They stalled. “WHO THE FUCK IS IN HERE?”

“Ethan? Uugh.”

Spinning around and stumbling through the rubble, with only one shoe on, her hair a mess and blood coming out of her left ear, coughing…was Ivy. Rushing to her, I lifted her up, her arms wrapping around my neck.

“I’m…fine…” She tried to say.

“Don’t speak.” I dropped the handkerchief over her mouth, holding on to her tightly as we made it toward the exit. Luckily it wasn’t far. She gripped on tightly, turning her head from the sun once we made it outside. Rushing to one of the Range Rovers, I put her inside.

“ETHAN!” Dona, who should have been gone, struggled in Toby’s arms, screaming until he picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder. “NANA! ETHAN! NANA!”

The sheer horror in her eyes was only matched with mine as I turned back to the church…everyone had come out…except her. She always stayed back to speak with the deacon. Fuck! All the men were inside. Toby was already speeding out. There was no one else left I could trust to take her. FUCK!

“Go.” Ivy coughed, sitting up in the backseat. “Go…I’m fine.”

Clenching my teeth in rage, I slammed the door on her and moved toward the driver’s seat when thankfully, Greyson came holding on to…my…a woman who wore my grandmother’s clothes, but the burns on her arms…left me stunned. The paramedics came just as they made it within distance of me.

They rushed her inside the ambulance.

“She’s breathing!” Was the last thing I heard before the red and white doors closed on her.

“Sir!” Greyson rushed to me.

“Everyone’s out?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes, sir.”

Greyson got into the front along with one of my men as I opened the door, sitting in the back with Ivy, whose eyes were glued to the burning church.

“I want f*cking names!” I sneered. “Theirs, their families’. Everyone!”

“Already on it, sir.” Lex, who usually drove my grandmother, sat in the passenger seat.

Ivy turned to me, her face covered in dust and dried blood. She stared at me wide-eyed, in shock. “This was about you.”

“Us.” I snapped, reminding her once a-f*cking-gain. “You asked me if I was a gangster. This is f*cking why! So people won’t f*cking try this shit! But apparently some people have forgotten the definition, so it’s now my job to rebrand it into their skulls!”

Yanking off my tie, I grabbed the brandy from the back, pouring it over my tie before turning to her. She watched me, confused. Gripping onto her chin gently, I turned her head so I could see her ear. Taking it, I dabbed her ear, causing her to flinch as I wiped her blood. I did my very best to bite back the rage I was feeling…for now, at least.

“Sammy Shannon and a few friends of his, they’re currently heading out of the city,” Lex replied.

Freezing, I closed my eyes, inhaling through my nose. “Who helped them?”

“Sir?”

Taking the wet tie, I threw it away. “You want me to f*cking believe a few twenty-year-olds who don’t even know how to cut coke properly did this?”

Even from a few miles you could still see the damn smoke.

“They had help. Call Helen to hack every damn camera in the country if she needs to and retrace their f*cking steps from last night to this bloody morning.”

“Yes—”

“SHUT UP AND CALL!”

Sitting back in my seat, I stared out the window. You’d think losing his uncle would be enough for him to stay low. I should have known the damn twat was too stupid to be scared.

He’s going to—

I glanced down at my fist, to see a small scraped hand over mine. Glancing at her, she didn’t say anything, just rested her head on the window.

“How much farther?” I asked Greyson, calmer.

“Ten minutes. Traffic, sir.”

The image of my grandmother appearing in my mind, I swallowed the lump in my throat…

God, you can’t have my grandmother too.

“Boston, sir,” Lex said, and even though I already had a feeling hearing that it had gotten to this level…it got under my skin.

He handed me the tablet, allowing me to see the private messages between Sammy and the Finnegan brothers…just after I’d spared his f*cking life.

“She’s really out? She’s with the Callahans?”

“Yea, everyone’s talking about the wedding.”

“We’ll see about that—”

“It was about me,” she whispered, and I hadn’t realized she was reading over my shoulder.

Turning off the tablet, I dropped it onto the seat.

“They did this…that.” She pointed at the smoke coming from the distance. “Because of me.”

She still wasn’t getting it.