I watched the members of Holloway slowly filter into the meeting room that night from where I stood at the head of the table. Stood because the boss’s chair was gone. I refused to sit in it.
Some of the members leaned toward others to murmur things they thought I couldn’t hear.
Others looked at me with pride and excitement, as though they’d been waiting for this day for a long time.
I had too, but for reasons they didn’t understand yet.
The men were usually loud while waiting for meetings to take place, but the atmosphere in the room was tense and heavy. The few who spoke kept their voices low. Emergency meetings were almost never called.
The few that had happened during my lifetime were for Mickey’s children’s deaths and when we’d all thought Lily had been kidnapped.
Before that, the last had been when Mickey killed the previous boss.
And once the last member arrived, this would be our final meeting.
We’d spent the day disposing of Tommy’s and Mickey’s bodies and taking Beck’s to the morgue between trips to town. Everything was done quickly to keep word from spreading to the rest of Holloway. For members who didn’t work for Mickey during the day, odds were they were out of town spending time with their families since the boss was too busy to notice. Seeing as we’d worked through the middle of the day and Mickey was dead, there was no one to spread the word of their deaths.
Until now.
It made it easier to clean up what we needed kept silent for a few hours.
Easier to do everything else we needed done by tonight without being seen.
Conor helped with my gunshot wound, since hospitals were last-resort-only for our kind. And when he and Jessica crashed from their exhaustion and grief, I’d tracked down Jessica’s brother and his wife. Both were safe, and oblivious to any danger as they went about their days.
Once I’d arrived at the estate, I’d gathered everything I’d needed for this meeting and what would follow after and sent out the emergency message.
I dipped my head in Conor’s direction when the last member was seated and waited for him to close and lock the doors before hitting the send button on my phone.
Mickey liked to perform. He drew things out and kept them wondering. I wasn’t going to do that.
As soon as all the phones in the room went off, I said, “Mickey’s dead.”
Every member scrambled for their phone, looking at the message containing the picture of Mickey I’d taken before we’d gotten rid of him.
There were more murmurs and woops of excitement.
But they all died down when I called out over them, “I’m not your new boss.” As soon as I had their attention, I continued. “I won’t rule over a life I’ve always hated. And I won’t let Holloway continue.”
It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room before everyone erupted, shouting curses and questions.
I let them yell for a minute before I started talking, letting them quiet while I did. “Most of you are only here because you’ve been trapped here by Mickey. Even more of you have families that live in different cities because you’re afraid for their lives. That’s not a life.”
“Some of us chose this,” one of the guys in the back yelled.
I shrugged unapologetically. “From what I’ve heard, some Borello members found new gangs up north after they disbanded. I’m sure you can too. But I promise you don’t want to stay here.”
There were a few huffs of displeasure.
I kept my hardened glare on the men they came from.
“I know this has been a lifestyle and source of income for years, if not all of your adult lives. I know you’ve been secure in the money that Holloway and O’Sullivan Financial produces. But it’s about to be seized. Hopefully you can gather some of what’s yours before it is. You’ll have to find real jobs apart from Holloway and the firm, or again, find other gangs up north. You’ll have one hour after the meeting ends to take what you can and disappear before Holloway and the truth of O’Sullivan Financial goes public.”
Dare might have kept all the information we’d gathered of Mickey’s plans for the human trafficking ring, but I still had what I needed to destroy his name and his company.
His ties with Holloway, dating back to the beginning. Every time he blackmailed the government to do his bidding or sweep something under the rug. Every piece of proof needed to show his broker-dealer firm was a front and money source for the cocaine he bought, moved, and supplied.
All of it.
And everything would soon be sent to news stations and government officials.
The collective shock from all the men in the room except for Conor hit me hard and fast, and I knew it wasn’t long before they exploded again.
I brushed my hands across my legs, pulling two knives out of my pockets as I did. A cruel grin pulled at my mouth as my fingers curled and flexed around the handles.
“Anyone have a problem?”
When a minute passed and no one said anything or moved, I nodded to Conor to unlock the doors.
“Meeting’s over.”
One of the lifers immediately shoved from the table and stormed out, the door smacking against the wall and slamming shut behind him.
After a few seconds, a handful of others followed.
One of the members who had picked up Jessica’s mom that afternoon hurried over to me and threw his arms around me, despite the knives still in my hands or the way I was seconds from pushing him away.
“Thank you,” he said, then clapped my back and hurried out.
A line had formed behind him of men who had been loyal to Aric and me, and even some who had stayed loyal to Mickey. None of them tried to hug me again, but every one of them shook my hand, thanking me for setting them free.
One of Mickey’s followers cleared his throat and said, “You would’ve made a good boss.” When I started to disagree, he continued over me, “They followed you even though you never wanted to lead. And I see why. Mickey wouldn’t have given us the warning you just did, he would’ve fed us to the dogs.”
I tilted my head in appreciation and watched him go.
When the last of them was gone, Conor and I left the meeting room and walked out of the Holloway mansion for the last time. We slid into my car and drove to town without so much as a glance back as we headed to where Jessica waited in the apartments.
Beck and I had rented them when we’d been sure we were so close to this moment and would need a place to escape to before we made bigger plans. And then everything had gone south with Dare.
We’d kept them mostly empty, only going to them when absolutely necessary. Like when I’d needed to track someone or hack into Mickey’s servers at his office.
Today we’d worked on pure adrenaline, clearing out the guesthouse and our three rooms at the mansion so there wasn’t a trace of us, filling the apartments with everything until we figured out what we were going to do.
We had time and we had money, thanks to Mickey.
Thanks to Beck.
The smell of Chinese food hit me as soon as I opened the door to my apartment. A second later, Jessica was in my arms, her legs curling around my waist as she buried her head in my neck.
I wrapped my arms around her tighter, savoring the feel of her against me. Savoring this moment that felt so surreal and so normal.
I wanted a lifetime of moments like this.
Pressing my mouth to the top of her head, I walked deeper into the apartment and over to the kitchen table where she had the food laid out next to my computer.
Conor followed us in without a word, his shoulders and head hanging low.
Other than telling Jessica how the meeting had gone, none of us spoke. It’d been that way the entire day. Our grief was too fresh and too heavy for conversation. But I kept her in my lap, needing her close to me as we ate and sat in our mournful silence.
When the alarm sounded on Conor’s phone, signaling an hour had passed since the meeting ended, I looked at his pained expression and asked, “Are you ready?”
He nodded, his eyes flicking up to mine. “Do it.”
I shifted Jessica to the side and leaned forward to wake up my computer. And with a few brushes of the keys, the anonymous e-mail was sent.
I’d thought this moment would feel different. More liberating.
But the heaviness pressing down on the room robbed us of the gratification that came with finally being free.
I looked at the two empty chairs, wishing more than anything that Aric and Beck were filling them. That we could celebrate this moment that had been years in the making. That we could spend the night imagining futures that consisted of freedom we’d only dreamt of.
But the freedom was lacking.
Those chairs would remain empty.
And nothing would ever fill that void.
I choked back the emotion tightening my throat and said, “It’s done.”