Soulless (Lawless #2)(60)

“Chop!” I shouted, but he wasn’t listening.

“You are owed everything you selfish—”

“Chop!” I shouted again, getting his attention. He finally paused long enough for me to get a word in. “Gus. When the shit went down with Isaac here, when he killed Preppy, I knew someone on the inside had to have leaked that information.”

Chop shrugged like what I was telling him wasn’t new information. “It was me. I didn’t want the brothers to know outright that I was taking you out. Thought I’d kill three birds with one stone.” He smiled. “Literally.”

Hearing him admit to what I already knew didn’t make me any less pissed about it. “I already knew it was you because—” I started, with Chop finally cluing in.

“Gus,” he said, sitting straight up as the realization hit him that we’d both been crossed by the same brother.

A voice boomed from the doorway. “It’s so nice that you two are talking about me.” He looked at me, his semi-automatic at my head. “Put your f*cking gun down.” I reluctantly tossed my gun to the floor, half hoping it would go off and kill the motherf*cker, but no such luck.

“Glad to hear you two f*cking idiots finally figured it out.” He looked right at me when he said, “I was kind of hoping you’d kill your old man before you put it all together. But, oh well. That can be fixed.”

“You little shit,” Chop said, standing up from his chair.

Gus gritted his teeth and switched his aim from me to Chop. “I really f*cking hate it when you call me that!” Gus roared, tapping the barrel of his gun on top of his head before pointing it back toward us. “And I’ve been good. So, so good. But I’m done being good. I’m done being your bitch. I can’t wait to take you apart piece by piece, just like she said I could. I can do whatever I want, because you’re mine. You both are. You’re my gifts from her.” Gus said, with a huge manic smile on his face.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I spared your life and took you in, and this is how you f*cking thank me?” I asked my one-time protégé. “I should have pulled the f*cking trigger when I had the chance.”

Gus took another step into the room. “Yeah, but you didn’t.”

“Who the f*ck are you talking about, boy?” Chop chimed in. “Who the f*ck is she?” I already knew who he was talking about and I had a feeling Chop did too.

“He’s talking about me,” said a feminine voice. The clank of heels against the concrete echoed in the hall until she appeared in the doorway.

My mother.

“Sadie,” Chop said, dropping his already broken glass. It shattered on the floor, cutting through the momentary silence as Chop and I both glared at the woman in the doorway. “You evil f*cking bitch.”

She rolled her eyes and waved Chop off dismissively. A curt smile on her once again red lips. “Here,” she said, tossing a pair of handcuffs on the floor and kicking them over to us. “Cuff yourselves together.”

“Fuck you,” I spat.

Her voice was sweet and high, like she was practically singing when she said, “Cuff yourselves together or I will make a call right now that ends with your darling Thia being dumped off the causeway within ten minutes.”

“If you so much as f*cking—” I started, taking a step toward her. Gus held out his gun and Sadie held up a phone.

“Save it, Abel. Cuffs. Now. Or the girl dies.”

I picked the cuffs up off the floor and did as she asked, cuffing my hand to my old man’s whose gaze was still fixed on Sadie.

“Can I kill him now?” Gus asked, shifting from foot to foot. “Is it playtime yet?”

“No, sweetheart,” Sadie said, like he was a toddler that needed to be taught a lesson. She sauntered over to Gus and planted a kiss on his lips. He closed his eyes while she kept hers open, tugging the gun from his hands. “You’ve been a very, very good boy to me all these years. You took very good care of me while I was that pig’s captive, and I thank you for that.” She patted him on the top of his head and raised the gun. Gus opened his eyes just long enough for the shock to register. “But I’ll take it from here, baby.” She pulled the trigger, firing off multiple rounds, sending Gus’s brains splattering against Chop’s old trophy case in a mist of pink and red.

*

“What the f*ck?” I asked as Gus’s brains slid down the glass and fell on top of what was left of his forehead. Sadie pulled her own gun from a holster on her thigh and held one on each of us.

Sadie not only acted very different from the woman who visited me in County, she looked different too. She wore a high-waisted red skirt with a tight black blouse and shiny black pumps. Her long hair was now an auburn color, void of silver streaks. Instead of flowing down her back it had been cut short to her chin. She looked easily fifteen years younger than she did only months before.

“So what? You’re here to seek revenge?” Chop asked, and I wondered if she would really shoot if I took a run at her. I glanced down to Gus’s bloodied corpse and decided that it was highly likely she would.

“Something like that,” she purred, perching herself on the edge of the couch.

“You should be thanking me for not killing you,” Chop said flatly. He hadn’t once taken his eyes from her since she’d stepped into the room. Not even when she blew Gus’s head clean off. He barely even blinked.