Montana Falls (Red Diamonds #5)

Chapter Twenty Two

T he neon lights of my nightclub flashed and pulsed in time with the music, bathing everything in shades of electric blue, magenta, and green. My stomach churned, the nervous energy sitting heavy in my chest as I stood just inside the entrance, watching the party unfold in front of me. People danced in the sea of light, their bodies moving in sync with the music that vibrated up through the floor beneath my favorite heels.

A killer pair of stilettos, a shade of blue so light they were almost white. With a silver floral heel, and covered in various gems and vines wrapping around my feet, up my leg a little. But the best part of all had been the delicate wings on the ankle that shone under the lights. I felt like a fairy princess. Even more so considering I wore a long silver dress made of such a soft silk that it looked like water clinging to my skin, with a split on each side to my hips, showing off my legs and shoes each time I walked.

My mama had worn this dress to her engagement party. My daddy had gotten it altered to fit me a year or so ago. He’d bought me the shoes for my eighteenth birthday.

They were the only things I wanted to wear tonight. The only thing that felt right.

This was supposed to be my engagement party—a celebration of everything I had with the men I loved. But that wasn’t the only reason we were here and so I had to make do with just my outfit as the way to feel like I was celebrating such an important thing.

To help me pretend that I was here for something other than luring out Cassie O’Malley.

Her name alone made my skin crawl, and I had half a mind to not bother with my ruse anymore. The need to lure her out, make her think she had the upper hand, and then take her down was entirely pointless. She was a dozen steps ahead of me and she always had been. She’d had her claws in everything, and I had been far too blind to see that before. But now that I knew her true identity—now that I knew she was much more than the enemy we thought we were dealing with—I had to adjust my approach.

I wasn’t entirely sure it would work anymore. In fact, it wasn’t even a guess. I was positive my original plan to simply bait her into coming was ruined. I was going to have to change tactics, and I was going to have to do the one thing she couldn’t predict.

It was time to channel my daddy and do something he would have done to win against our enemies.

I took a breath, trying to calm the racing of my heart as I looked around the club and stepped inside for real, taking everything in. The walls were drenched in neon light, the hum of the bass making the air thrum around me and the tension down my spine get worse.

The stage loomed ahead, the centerpiece of the night where I’d be making my speech soon enough.

The place my daddy had died.

But before I could even think about that trauma, I knew I had to be the boss and pretend to be fine. My new plan was rapidly getting closer, and as I caught sight of Rika hovering off to the side of the room, I knew I could start with her and tick one thing off my checklist.

She was lingering near one of the neon-lit pillars as she drank a cocktail and made small talk with a pretty hostess. She looked nervous, her fingers fidgeting with the hem of her short black dress. I couldn’t blame her—I’d put her in a position that could change the outcome of the entire night. But she was strong, and I knew she’d pull through.

The same way Beau had from his surgery, to stitch him back together and make sure he wasn’t going to be leaving me, either. He was just stuck at home on bedrest, with Aiden and Ruby at his beck and call. But he was going to be fine. And he was one less person for me to worry about tonight. One less person I had to lie to and hide the rest of my new plan from.

After taking another glass of Champagne from one of the dozens of servers offering them out, I made my way over to Rika, weaving through the crowd, smiling when people greeted me, and going through the motions as though everything was fine.

I was fine.

“You okay?” I asked as I reached her, leaning in close so she could hear me over the music. Her eyes darted around the room before settling on me, and she nodded, though I could see the unease in her expression.

“I’m good,” she said, though her voice wavered slightly. “The drinks help me feel calm and taste like rich people things.”

I squeezed her arm gently. “You’ll be fine.” I promised. “You can handle things. You are just like Kody.”

Music drifted through the speakers as I downed my third glass of Champagne of the night, eager to have it take away the taste of nerves from my tongue before I stopped drinking entirely. As fun as it would have been to get smashed, it didn’t seem sensible. Try as I might, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Sure, I was a bit of a pessimist lately. I had been since my kidnapping and captivity. It was hard to stay confident, even in yourself, when you had experienced something that had quite literally made you want to die.

It might have been months, but I knew I wasn’t the same girl I had been before then. A part of me was still damaged and terrified, and I needed to make sure she felt like she was in control.

Sober. Calm. In command. A real Montana.

That was who Cassie would be meeting soon enough. She wasn’t going to meet the girl she locked in a horror room and tortured for her sadistic entertainment.

She wasn’t going to meet the girl with the broken heart, who couldn’t believe she’d ever been worthy of having her life ruined for something that had happened decades before she was even born.

Rika leaned over, putting her empty glass on the counter next to me, as she whispered in my ear.

“Everything is good to go now. I’ll be ready.”

“And nobody else knows?” I checked. “You definitely didn’t say things to Kody that he could find suspicious?”

She shook her head. “Koko knows nothing. I promise.” She turned and lifted her bag from behind a couch near the wall, smile turning stern. “If this whole thing goes wrong then he will kill me.”

“I know.” I replied. “Which is why I’m extra grateful.”

With another firm smile she vanished one way, I went the other, seeking out someone sweet and good and easy enough to distract myself with for a second before everything descended into chaos.

A soft hand touched my arm as I glanced around the room for my men, startling me.

“You okay, sweetheart, you seem off?” Misha was beside me, his face pulled into a frown.

I realized as he asked me, that he had no idea. Lincoln had told me what he knew. He’d told Kody. At some point in the hospital I knew he’d spoken to Logan, when Logan had wanted to know why I’d been sobbing in a supply cupboard, unable to function.

I’d begged Lincoln not to tell Misha. Not to ruin things for him when his mental health was still so… so fragile. I hadn’t wanted to put anymore of the burden of this life on him when he deserved better.

Price hadn’t been told because he couldn’t keep a secret for shit, and I hadn’t wanted him to feel bad about keeping things from Misha.

“Mish.” My voice was practically a whimper. “I… things are bad.” I said. “I’m not okay.”

He stared at my face, then grabbed my hand, leading me through the partygoers until we found an empty bathroom that he hurried to lock behind us.

“Talk to me.” He ordered as I moved toward the sinks. “Let me help.”

I shook my head, all thoughts leading me to the same path that I would not share just yet. “Theres no time now. Later.”

“Promise?” He kissed my cheek, his voice so sincere, so soft, that I almost felt my heart break for him.

“Yeah. Right now, I want you – I want you to distract me.” I pulled him closer and leaned against the counter, letting him lift me up so I could wrap my legs around his waist.

It took less than thirty seconds for Misha to hoist my dress up, his trousers down, and slide his cock inside of me.

It took less than ten minutes for me to memorize the innocence in his face as he fucked me in a bathroom, with a wild frenzy and lust that I craved more than air.

It took less than fifteen minutes for us both to finish, straighten our clothes, and head back into the party like nothing was wrong, or different, or messy…

The club was packed, the lights flashing in rhythm with the music, but as I walked toward the steps leading up to the stage, everything seemed to blur. The energy of the room felt electric, buzzing with excitement, but beneath it all was the steady thrum of danger as I kissed Misha goodbye and stepped up onto the stage, the mic in front of me gleaming under the neon lights.

With steady steps and a confidence that was wholly real thanks to the buzz of my Misha orgasm, I turned toward the crowd, a wave of emotion crashing over me as I realized just how far I’d come. This party was supposed to be a celebration, and in a way, it still was. But it was also something much bigger. Something more dangerous.

It was a full circle moment that I could never have predicted or asked for, but one I would willingly take the same way my daddy had done before me.

I took a deep breath, my fingers trembling slightly as I reached for the mic. As the lights dimmed and the crowd quieted, I glanced up at the mezzanine level one last time, hoping the only other person in the room who knew my plan was ready in the shadows up there.

Deep breaths, bitch. You can do this.

You can win .

“I wanted to welcome everyone here,” I raised my glass, pretending not to notice the red light flickering in my eyeline or what it meant. “Not just to celebrate my engagement, but for something even more important than that.”

My men stood closest to the stage, each one just out of reach. They’d offered to stand on the stage with me, but I hadn’t been able to tell them yes. I’d had to order them not to.

To stay right there, out of harm’s way.

The same way my daddy had done for me when he’d pushed me back from him and taken the brunt of the pain for himself.

My eyes roamed the crowd, finding Retta where she stood beside Misha. Her dress was beautiful; a sleek black gown that clung to her petite frame and pooled like shadows around her feet. Her blonde hair had been curled perfectly in waves down her back, and her makeup looked flawless.

You couldn’t even tell how much pain she carried in her heart.

You couldn’t see a lick of the darkness that clung to her skin that I had played a part in without ever meaning to.

“I’m here to celebrate the end of a game I never wanted to play.” I raised my glass to Retta, grinning bright enough to blind as I counted down the seconds. “So before the party truly starts, please join me to raise a glass to the O’Malley family, as we are wishing them all to burn in hell!”

A red light lined up, and I stayed right where I was, not even bothering to brace myself for the inevitable, as I downed my Champagne and let the glass slip out of my fingers and shatter on the floor.

I still stayed calm as a single shot rang through the air.

Calmer still as pain exploded in my flesh. Screams erupted in the room, and everything went dark.

The bullet from a rifle pierced my body and I smiled like the fucking villain I always told Lincoln I could be.

As I looked exactly like my father and died like him too.

The End .