Ryan Renewed: New York Ruthless: Book 5

My hands tremble as I knock on the apartment door. Mikey and Liam stand either side of me and I feel anger radiating from their bodies like heat from an open fire. I hope that Hayden’s friend doesn’t come back any time soon.

We wait for a moment and I knock again.

“He’s not going to come to the door,” Mikey says.

“Then let’s go to him,” Liam snarls.

Mikey wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me back from the door while his twin raises his right foot and kicks it open in one swift move.

“You’re so fucking good at that,” Mikey says appreciatively, but I don’t think Liam even hears him as he storms into the apartment. I rush in after him just in time to see Hayden scrambling into what I assume is the bedroom.

Liam and Mikey run in after him, while I try and close the apartment door as best I can given that it’s now hanging by one hinge.

A few seconds later, Hayden’s high pitched shriek pierces the air as he is dragged from the room by Liam, who is holding onto him by his hair.

“Shut the fuck up, or I will shut you up,” Liam snarls as he throws Hayden roughly onto the sofa. “Just give me a reason to rip your throat out right now.”

Hayden holds his hands over his head and pulls his feet up to his chest, curling up in a fetal position as he whimpers.

“For fuck’s sake, kid, I’d have expected more balls from someone in league with the Bratva,” Mikey snarls as he slaps Hayden across the head before pulling him up into a seated position. “Now sit up straight and look my wife in the eye while she asks you some questions. And if you tell the truth, I won’t cut off all your favorite body parts and make you eat them.”

Hayden clamps his thighs together as he looks up at me, tears running down his face and his lip trembling. “I’m sorry, Jessie,” he whimpers.

I sit on the armchair opposite him. “I’m not interested in your apologies, Hayden. I want answers.” I turn to Liam. “Can you watch the door?”

“Why me?” he frowns.

“Because I’m worried you’re going to rip his throat out and I need him to talk first,” I say with a flash of my eyebrows.

“Fine. Mikey…”

“I’ll rip his cock and balls off if he tries anything, bro. Don’t worry,” Mikey interrupts him.

“I’m not in league with the Bratva,” Hayden whispers, drawing my attention back to him.

“I know that, because the head of the Bratva wants you dead as much as my husbands do. But you are working for the brotherhood, right?”

“No.” Hayden shakes his head. “I didn’t know what they were planning until it was too late. She told me that all I had to do was get close to you…” he wails.

“She?” both Mikey and I say at the same time.

“Yeah. The woman who dragged me into all this,” he sniffs, wiping his nose with the back of his hand.

“You’d better start talking, kid,” Mikey snarls.

He nods his head vigorously. “She came into the bar one night. I waited on her and then she started talking to me about my father and who he was. How he was this super-rich businessman who had died and left all this money to my half-sister and how she was living this rich extravagant lifestyle while I was working fifty hours a week to live in a shitty one-bed apartment that stinks of piss.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “So it was all about money?”

“Not just money, Jessie. Do you know how it feels to have to work so hard every damn day and never see an end in sight? Never see a way of paying off your debts and being able to live the life you deserve?”

Mikey slaps him around the back of his head. “You have no idea what it means to struggle, you entitled selfish prick,” he snarls.

“Let him finish,” I say..

“She lied to me, Jessie. She told me I was entitled to this inheritance but that you had stolen it all, and all I had to do to stake my claim on it was to prove we were related. I didn’t know our father was the Russian Mafia until I’d already agreed to do it and by then it was too late to back out. She came up with the story that my mom told me before she died, but I never knew. I saw an easy way to get rid of my debts and finally have some money for once so I went along with her.”

“But Shane offered you the money to pay off your debts.” I frown at him.

“I know, but the deeper I got in with her the more I realized she was never going to let me go. She introduced me to the brotherhood and told me that the way to get my inheritance was to help them take over, and when I refused they threatened to kill me. I was in way over my head, Jessie. But I never thought they’d hurt you, I swear.”

“So, what did you think they were going to do, Hayden?” I snap at him because his sniveling self-pity is starting to annoy me. If he was going to betray me like that, the least he can do is own it.

“She seemed so nice at first. She said she just wanted to talk you into signing over my inheritance to me. What was rightfully mine. By the time I realized she was lying to me it was too late. She had them tie me to a chair and threaten to rape me,” he whispers the word as though it’s an excuse for what he’s done.

Mikey grabs him by the throat and squeezes so hard that Hayden’s eyes bulge out of their sockets. “And just what do you think they would have done to my wife if they had gotten their hands on her, you pathetic piece of shit?” he snarls.

“Mikey!” I snap. I need him to let Hayden go because we still don’t have the most vital piece of information.

Mikey releases Hayden from his grip.

“Who is she?” I direct my question to my half-brother.

“She’s some shit-hot lawyer. Erin McGrath.”