Montana Falls (Red Diamonds #5)

Chapter One

A s the gunshot still echoed in my ears, long after Widow hung up the phone, I was running back into the house. Hell, it was before I even thought about the potential danger that I could face. It was just a reaction.

It didn’t seem to matter to me that there was death or monsters lying in wait - that it was more than likely a trap, the worst sort of trap, just waiting to capture me. The only thing that occurred to me was that I had to go first. To push through the front door of the little English home that had been perfectly safe and fine until I’d come along and ruined it, and make sure I was in front of my men.

The guys were following me; I knew that. One or two of them had grabbed Ares’ friend - Beni - and brought him inside too. I presumed it was Logan, seeing as he was the smartest with first aid. That, and Kody, Price and Lincoln all crowded around me a second later as I watched Misha stride past me, making a beeline for the sobbing, blood-soaked little girl, standing beside the kitchen door, big blue eyes wide with terror.

And worse. The worst thing of all because I knew how it felt even if I wasn’t personally invested in the current death that stained the air… I just felt my old grief and fresh guilt.

Shannon O’Malley wasn’t my friend. She was a stranger who’d been polite and not a monster like the rest of her bloodline. I wasn’t going to shed a single tear for her specifically because… because she was nothing to me. As nasty as it sounded. Yet my eyes burned with sadness and pain and all manner of things that I had no time to let out for one undeniable reason.

It was my fault she was dead.

I didn’t know how. I didn’t know why. But it was my fault. She might have pulled the trigger - of the shotgun on the ground that Kody quickly snatched up and made safe - but it was no doubt something to do with me. I was the reason she was lying there, missing half of her damn face.

I was the reason that her children had no mama. The reason why Hades was inconsolable as Misha did his best to mutter words that, whilst kind, would do nothing to calm her.

I knew they would do nothing. It didn’t matter what he said, or how soft he said it, I was aware it made no difference. Losing someone you loved was one of the worst things in the universe, but to watch it? To see their head explode, and feel their blood splatter your face? That was indescribable agony, and it would never go away. It would stick in the back of your brain, and that was how you would picture them each time you dared to remember a fond memory. That was all you would think about until the day you died, no matter how many times you tried to push the thoughts away.

Hades was covered in blood. Her clothes, her pale skin, even her hair. I could see how the redness of her curls was tainted with the deeper hue of her mother’s insides and fuck … I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. I couldn’t even see her.

I saw me. Me. Me. Me.

It wasn’t Shannon on the floor, missing half her head. It wasn’t her brains splattered on the walls of her family home, dripping down to the floor in clumps of ickiness with hair attached.

It was my mama.

Mine.

Then it was my daddy. Malone. All the people I’d ruined and slaughtered even if I hadn’t always been the one to pull the trigger.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. And once more, it was all my fault.

“Something’s going on outside.” Price’s voice reached my ears, but I didn’t fully register it. I was too busy dancing the line between freaking out, reliving my trauma, and trying to be the sensible boss I was supposed to be.

Luckily for me, I wasn’t alone. I would never be alone again when I had people who cared enough about me to register the signs of my panicking long before my own brain did.

“Sapphire Rain Montana, get your shit together and take some deep breaths.” Logan’s sharp order almost made me flinch, even if it was from a few feet away. “We need to figure things out, pretty girl. You need to be strong and stay with us. You can’t panic, you know that.”

He was right. Logan was always right to be fair. And though I wanted to break down and melt into a tiny puddle of trauma-filled memories, I couldn’t. I had to shake away the thoughts and concentrate. Not only on dealing with the mess, but handling the children and the trauma of people who I had inadvertently helped ruin.

I coughed to clear my throat, picking the obvious starting point as I tried not to think about how odd it was that Logan had full named and snapped at me and yet I hadn’t resorted to being a brat about it. I’d listened and accepted that he was sensible and right, and I needed to do as he said. Fuck, maybe I’d matured a little since I’d met him. I couldn’t think of another reason why else it would have worked.

If Lincoln had full named me, I would have kicked him. Just in the shin or something. But still.

“Hades.” My voice was soft but firm as I actively looked anywhere but Shannon’s corpse. “Are you injured, mami ? Is any of the blood yours?” I doubted it was; if the shotgun pellets had touched her when they obliterated her mama’s brain, she would not have been standing. But it was worth an ask anyway, even if she was too busy freaking out to answer me.

I stepped closer, shoes sticking in the rapidly growing pool of blood that seeped across the ground that could never be removed. But Maddox was by her side before I could reach her; both he and Ares having come downstairs without me even realizing. Not that it was a good thing. The latter of the two was unable to say anything other than mum. Over and over again. Mum. Mum. Mum.

Ares was trapped at the bottom of the stairs, doing nothing but taking in the scene. Staring and staring at the mess and the pain and the worst sorts of things for a child to see, no matter how much he liked to play gangster.

The scene that I had created because I was a stupid fucking spoiled brat. One who refused to let anything go. Or to leave anyone in peace.

I was so desperate to avenge my family that I was ruining other people’s families, and I knew for a fact it didn’t matter how many other people paid the price. So long as it wasn’t one of my loved ones in danger, I would never stop hunting my stalker. I knew that probably made me a monster. That if Henley didn’t come for me first, that one day the little red-haired English girl was probably going to grow up and hate me just as much as her biological aunt did. Or the boy claimed to be her twin brother would figure out that I was a monster in his story and come back with his machete when he was bigger and badder than me… But I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t care about the what ifs.

I was at the finish line of my hunt, and I wouldn’t be stopping for anyone. Even if it killed me.

Maddox grabbed Hades, hauling her into his arms as she shook. He was crying fiercely, but it made no difference to his current concern, and I was touched by it. It was such a brave thing to do, to care about other’s pain over your own. Especially for what was still basically a child.

“Are you injured?” He wrapped his hands on either side of her cheeks, dark eyes wide and running as he forced her to look at him and hear his words. “Dee, please answer me. We need to know if you’re hurt. I need to make sure that none of this blood is yours.”

She managed to shake her head. A single shake that bobbed her curls around her tear-streaked face. It was enough, though. For Maddox to sigh in relief before he held her tight against his chest, stroking his hand down her spine and whispering words I presumed were kind. He wasn’t speaking English, and based on what Hades had said about him earlier, I presumed he was muttering things in Romanian, so I left them to it.

Blinking away the stress burning behind my eyes, no doubt sinking its way into a killer migraine later on, I glanced around the room again, done with my checking of the little girl. “Okay, we need to call Shannon’s husband and figure out-”

“Saph!” My head snapped up at Price’s tone, as he called for my attention again from his spot beside the window. “There are a bunch of cars outside - at least half a dozen. They don’t have English license plates.”

“Fuck.” I wiped my hand over my face, blowing out a deep breath and doing my best to push away every ounce of worry and confusion so I could figure out what we were supposed to do next. “What the hell is going on?!”

Maddox had Hades. Ares was still by the stairs. Beni was on the couch, woken up and grumbling a little as Logan checked over his no doubt nasty bump, and the little boy did his best not to look at the chunks of his best friend’s mother on the ground. Kody and Lincoln were near me, both with guns, both hovering as they waited for commands. Matching tense jaws and stern expressions. Misha had gone to grab a sheet from somewhere and hurried to place it over the worst parts of Shannon, his sweetness still shining strong, even when in stressful situations. And finally, Price.

Price who stood peering outside, with his other hand clenching into fists as he watched whatever new danger had come our way.

He was who I had to focus on first.

“Cars?” I repeated as I hurried to his side, Lincoln following. “Is it my stalker or did we happen to interrupt someone else being a dick today?”

Before any of us could answer my semi-rhetorical question, our remaining car was ruined. A storm of bullets, shot from the hands of the gangsters that were apparently in the new cars, quickly peppered the metal and ruined all chances of us using the vehicle to make a run for it.

On the bright side, I figured out who was here rather quickly. It made things nice and easy, knowing I didn’t have another enemy or a new danger. It wasn’t my stalker either. Though I didn’t know if that was better or worse.

John O’Malley’s voice echoed throughout the air, deep and unrelenting with its power. He’d always had power. Too much of it. It didn’t matter how crazy he was - how ridiculous and evil and unfit for gang life. He hoarded power like I hoarded mechanics from Leroux’s, and he would never unleash it from his claws.

I couldn’t wait much longer before I stole that power and turned him into worm food.

“Little Montana, what a nice surprise seein’ you here.” He sang my surname with a laugh, and I watched him and his cronies continue to pile out of the cars and stand just shy of Shannon’s front lawn. Thirteen men in total. Each one with an SMG of some kind. “Though I am in a bit of a rush. So if you don’t come outside, then I’ll huff and puff and blow this house down before taking what I want, and we won’t get to continue our epic gang war that ends with your decapitated head as my new lawn ornament.”

The subtle nod to his wife’s death was not lost on me. Even though I was more concerned that John was here. He was here, he somehow knew I was inside, and he was ready to fight and…

“I don’t think he’s here for me.” My voice was soft, careful of the audience in the room as I spoke to my boys. “Even with the weird timing coincidence and his stupid fucking speech.”

Both men beside me turned their heads, questioning me as Price lowered the blinds, not wanting to give John a full view inside the house and the places we could hide.

“Why?” Lincoln whispered; eyes narrowed.

“Did you not hear him, pendejo ? He is surprised I’m here, and he is after something. If not a sneak attack on me, then why else would he be after in this house?” I darted my eyes to the kids. “He must have been after his sister, or his… or one of them. Finding out I was here too was lucky for him.”

Did it make Hades my sister? Stepsister? My egg donor had been married to her potential daddy. Did that mean she was part of my family? Or did I disown her and think she was someone else’s problem? Fuck . Was I even right with my thoughts that she was John’s daughter, or was I just seeing ghosts in the shadows? Maybe she truly was a twin.

Maybe the fact she looked nothing like the rest of Shannon’s family, but a lot like John’s dead first wife, had the same level of smartness as that same woman, and was the right age to be his presumed dead child was simply coincidence.

Yeah. Coincidence.

“We need to get the kids to safety.” I knew the answer to my thoughts before I spoke. “If we can get them out of here, then we don’t have to worry about protecting them.”

I would look out for her and the others because, despite everything inside of me screaming that I was helping O’Malley blood, I wasn’t a complete piece of shit. Innocent people were not who I went after. If I did, then I would be no better than John, and my mama would have rolled in the grave I put her in.

“So what do we do?” Price narrowed his big blue eyes that were filled with nothing but confidence in me, that I hoped not to disappoint. “How do we get them out of here?”

My brain raced with a dozen different ideas, only one seeming slightly feasible even if it wasn’t a pleasant one. It would hurt just a little. Mostly my ego. Maybe my actual soul if things were being controlled by Cassie O’Malley, and not just a fluke.

I whistled loud enough to grab everyone’s attention before I shot off my list of orders.

“Lincoln, call the police. Report the guns and gangsters and pretend to be a passerby or something.”

“The cops?” He wasn’t questioning me, just curious.

I nodded. “I have no power here, but neither does John. The best case situation is he gets shot by an armed officer and we get to watch him die before we get out of here. Worst case, he is distracted and we all end up arrested. Either option is fine with me.” I would have a tantrum about the handcuffs, but with my surname and bank account, I wouldn’t be in them for long.

Sometimes I enjoyed being a billionaire mafia boss with a surname that everyone feared. It was exceptionally useful.

“Sure thing, princess.” Lincoln had his phone out instantly, dialling 999 and kicking off the start of what was either going to be a mass funeral or a cunning escape. Or a handful of hours in an English jail before I found the best lawyers nearby to free me and my men.

I turned to Kody and Price, words coming fast. “We all need weapons. Give the children knives if they don’t have any, and see if there are more shotgun pellets lying around.”

Maddox coughed a little and waved to the sideboard. “They’re kept in there.”

“Okay, good.” Price moved to the sideboard, Kody heading into the kitchen to supply knives as I carried on my demands. “Logan, find some stuff to blow things up. We don’t have grenades, but we need something flammable that’s like-”

“I have some petrol upstairs.” Hades’ soft voice danced in the air, her sniffles softer but by no means gone. “In my chest of drawers. I have a bunch of stuff to start fires, including a can of petrol and matches. Plus, a little bottle of ethanol and there’s a box of firecrackers I stole from… from mum’s bedside table. She took them from Ares a couple days ago but hadn’t got rid of them yet.”

Though I could see the benefits of some gas, I had no idea what ethanol was good for. Logan did. And he thanked the girl for her help and scurried upstairs two at a time, fetching whatever he needed as I turned to the last of my men.

“Mish, I need you to follow me.”

He was ready instantly. “Where?”

“Outside.”

“Are you fucking insane?” Lincoln hissed as he slid his phone back in his pocket and grabbed the shotgun. “You’re not going outside. Either of you.”

“It’s the only way I can distract long enough for us to do something.” I snapped back. “John wants me dead, but his sister wants me more. And she also won’t hurt Misha, so neither would he. I can use that for a moment to give you all the time to shoot.”

“What do you mean?” Misha frowned as he came beside me, happy enough to listen to my orders even if he would be in the slightest bit of danger.

“Cassie won’t hurt you. She said… she said as much when she had me, okay? She kept saying over and over that you were innocent. You were a good boy and she wouldn’t hurt you.”

Never Misha. Not Misha. Misha is good. Misha is innocent .

Over and over again I had heard the same thing and though it hadn’t meant much to me at the time, now it meant a lot.

Cassie didn’t like hurting good people. Innocent people. And whilst I didn’t think any of the people she had killed had been guilty, technically, they were all killers. All had violent streaks and souls with darkness and light. When she shot at Price, he was a killer, too. Even if he was just a teddy bear to me.

But not Misha. Misha was just light. Just goodness. The only people he’d killed had been in my club, and Cassie clearly didn’t know about it.

He was innocent, and she wouldn’t hurt him. I was sure of it.

I ran my hand over my face, trying not to worry too much about the fact that a single thought of my captivity was enough to make me sweat. I didn’t have time to think about it all when it stopped me from doing things now, though. So I shoved that shit down and carried on faking that I was fine.

“I don’t know why, I don’t care why either. But if you are with me, then you won’t be hurt. At least not by John or Cassie.” I glanced up at Misha as I tucked a lock of my shorter silver hair behind my ear. “You don’t have to come. You can stay here, but I wanted to use you for a handful of seconds to help me distract John, so we could light his ass on fire and shoot him.”

“No.” Lincoln stormed over to me, getting right up in my face like the little dickhead he truly was in his soul. A dickhead who cared and was worried, but a dickhead none the less.

“Okay.” Misha frowned at his brother. “Its fine, Linc. She knows what she’s doing. I trust her.”

“We’re not testing this shit out like a fucking game. If either of you dare to take a step outside, then I will follow. And I sure as fuck don’t think your stalker cares about killing me .”

I glared up at Lincoln, wishing more than anything I had a tank to hit him with until he learned to be more pliable. I fucking loved his stupid ass, but he really needed to learn how to be more of a yes man for me.

“Don’t be a pendejo .” I huffed.

“Don’t be self-sacrificing and a brat.” He grabbed my throat and squeezed his tattooed hand hard enough to make me gasp. “End of fucking discussion, boss .” He sneered the last word just enough to annoy me. “Pick something else.”

For what felt like the longest moment, we were in a glare off. But then Price came slinking back over to us, wrapping his arm around my waist as he cut his eyes at Misha.

“Linc is right, baby. You’re not risking yourselves on a hunch. We can do something else,” he said. “Both of you are staying put.”

Misha tried to speak, “But-”

Price cut him off. “But nothing. I’m on Linc’s side with this; if you try to walk out, then we will follow and then I will beat both your asses for being stupid as fuck.” He sighed as Logan came back downstairs with a bag full of things he started tinkering with. “Let’s just chuck a bunch of fire out the front door and hope we kill everyone; it’s the best thing to do.”

“Fine.” My jaw ticked a little, but in all honesty, they were right. It was dumb as fuck to walk outside, even if I was sure my plan would work. So, though I wished I could get my own way, I relented. “Set some fires, mi sol . We need to blow things up and hopefully make an O’Malley kebab. If this works, then I will not be a brat about anything. If it doesn’t, then we try my plan.”

Shrugging out of the hold of two of my guys, I strode towards the stairs, needing to get the rest of my plan into action before John gave up waiting for me to come outside, and simply stormed into the damn house. Or shot us. Through the glass.

Fucking hell .

This was ridiculous. Too much. I didn’t have the mental energy for another shoot out right now, least of all when two of my people were missing, with one of them apparently betraying me. It was a fucking nightmare, and I was tired and a tiny part of me regretted ever deciding that being a leader was something I wanted, when it only led me to being shot at or tortured, more than being sane and at peace.

“ Papi , I need you to listen to me for a moment.” With only a little attitude, I moved so I could place my hands on either of Ares’ tanned cheeks; the ones stained with tears I knew he would forever shed. Thanks to me . Always me. “You need to be brave and concentrate so we can make sure your family is safe. Do you understand?”

He glanced at me, lip wobbling but voice firm. “Okay.”

“That man outside… he is evil. He is rotten to his core, and he is not going to care that you are children, or innocent or even… even his blood.” My throat was tight. “He will kill us all, so we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Ares swallowed hard, wiping away the tears in his eyes and forcing himself to calm down. He did it with effort, but he made it look easy as a mask of indifference fell across his face.

If you didn’t know better, you would have thought he was perfectly fine.

“That guy is our family?” His eyes narrowed. “Mum’s brother, I guess?”

“Yes.” I swallowed hard. “Your uncle; John O’Malley. An evil, evil man. Trust me. So I need you to grab your machete, put shoes on, and take your family to somewhere safe. You need to be a grownup for a few minutes and make sure that you don’t die today, then after that, you can be sad and angry until you are ready to stop.”

“I can do that.” He licked his lips, eyes only narrowing slightly. But I had no time for more explanations or questions. We were in a rush, and in a handful of seconds, he had his machete in his hand, and his sneakers on his feet, the other kids doing the same when he ordered them.

Did it hurt me to protect an O’Malley? To glance down at the silent girl a few feet away, wrapped in her friend’s arms as she did nothing but stare at the sheet that covered her mama’s corpse. As I wondered once more if she was why John was here today.

If it was her, he was after, not me.

Did it piss me off just a little that I was at risk, that my men were at risk, for what was the blood of the very family I vowed to slaughter entirely? I wasn’t sure if I could answer that. I didn’t know if it would make me horrid to admit that a petty part of me was resentful… The tiniest part of me wanted to leave them to die because they were O’Malley’s and I knew that was a vile thing but it was true.

It was just the other ninety-nine percent of me who wouldn’t let children pay for the sins of their ancestors.

Who wouldn’t let innocent people pay for anything at all.

“What are you doing?” Maddox asked, his hand firmly locked with Hades, who was now wearing his hoody to hide most of her bloodstains as she kept quiet and her eyes mostly shut to keep away the sight of the mess.

Not that I blamed her. What with the bits of her mother, still splattered on her face, despite how much Maddox had quickly tried to wipe her clean with a damp cloth.

I was glad she’d helped us with her fire things, but was also glad she was quiet.

If she was quiet, I could push off the inevitable blame she would no doubt place on me for her mama’s death.

“We are going to fight. You are going to go out the back door and run far away. When you get somewhere safe, then you call me and that’s it. We will get you. And you don’t speak to anyone else until you talk to me; not even your other family.” I ordered as I checked how many bullets were in my gun and made my way towards their backdoor, the kids following as Ares saved my phone number. “Do you have a place in mind that you can get to quickly?”

Beni nodded first, only a little shaky on his feet but otherwise seeming fine with his bumped head. I had a bunch of questions for him about what happened with Widow and Delilah, but that would have to wait until we weren’t all about to die. It was yet another thing added to my list of infuriating occurrences in London.

I was never coming back to this stupid city. Ever. I hoped the entire fucking place got set on fire like it was 1666 again and everybody left it for far better places to be.

Like a beach. Or a mountain or a damn desert.

“The mosque my family goes to is less than two miles away - the imam will let us in regardless of all the blood and stuff, and we’ll be safe there until you can get us,” Beni said.

“Okay.” I ushered them all outside, faking the most confident smile I could. “Run and don’t stop - we’ll sort this. All of it. You worry for nothing but getting safe.”

Two seconds later, all four children were gone; hopped over the fence, running through gardens and the rain without a care for their openly displayed weapons.

They were gone, and the rest of us?

The rest of us were stuck.

Stuck like little pigs, waiting for the big bad wolf to blow down the walls and slaughter us all.

It was just a shame for him that I had decided to pull on my imaginary red cloak and prepare to cut him to pieces instead.