“Where’s your partner? Or did you two break up?”
I smirked and steadily tapped the hard edge of the file against the table. “Aw, good to see you two too.”
“Wipe the smile off your face, you piece of shit.”
“Deon, I’d like to remind you that I’m not the one shackled to a table right now.”
“I’m surprised you’re even able to smile,” Luke said, and attempted to cross his arms through the cuffs. “What was it I heard recently? Your wife was kidnapped?” He clucked his tongue and shook his head slowly. “Tragic. Just tragic. Isn’t it, Deon?”
“Absolutely. I figured you’d be more torn up about something like that. She must not be a very good lay.”
At any other time, I couldn’t imagine not lunging over the table and beating the shit out of them. But I knew this meeting was crucial, and if I let them see any emotion, if I hinted at the grief that was tearing at me, this would all be for nothing. So I kept my smile in place and continued tapping the file on the table.
I’d tried hardening myself to what was happening, and as far as everyone knew, I was too far gone to be helped. Not being able to handle the guilt and heartache, I’d stopped looking at the evidence coming in of Rachel’s torture. Now all I wanted to know every two days was if she was still alive. Anything more than that, and this facade I’d worked so hard at creating would crack. I’d lose it, and if I let myself give in to the pain and grief . . . I would be gone.
“Any luck on that case, Kash-man? Or maybe she’s dead? Maybe that’s what’s happening? Did you ever find the bastards who took her?”
“Enough of the bullshit”—I cut Luke off and set the file down—“you and I all know who took her. What I find funny is that the two of you—well, and I’m guessing the rest of the crew—still think she’s gone. She escaped, we got her back a couple days ago.”
Both men went silent, but their faces gave nothing away.
“I’d love to tell you the department’s plans, but that would just give you time to warn the men that took her. So I’ll keep that information to myself. Funny that they haven’t told you she slipped through their fingers yet. They must just be too scared because they don’t have a backup plan to get any of you out of prison yet. Oh well.”
Silence continued to greet me, so I opened the file and pulled out the large photographs, keeping them facing me.
“You know what else I find funny? That Serena and Nadia finally got over their hate for each other. Good to see they became friends and are living together.” I put down the photograph of the girls’ house on the table, facing up. “Even better, they are helping each other raise the kids.” I slapped down the picture of Serena, Nadia, and all seven kids playing out front on the table. “Jesus Christ, can you imagine having to go from not working, to supporting seven kids combined?”
Deon’s and Luke’s eyes were wide, and their breathing had deepened, but still they weren’t saying anything.
“Oh, but don’t worry about that either. Because Nadia and Serena were getting along so well, they got a job together.” I laid down three pictures of the girls in next to nothing, standing on a corner, and leaning into car windows.
Deon’s hands fisted on top of the tables, and the chains tightened when he tried to pull them into his lap to hide them.
“But, as we all know, your whores had meth habits. And from what their new supplier is telling me, they’re spending a lot on it. When they’re not fucking other guys to get it, that is. So, of course, this has been happening quite a bit.” I smacked down a picture of both girls unconscious on the couch of their home, with glass pipes on the table. “Which obviously means this happened.” I laid down a series of pictures of child protective services taking the children from the home, and both Nadia and Serena being arrested. I clicked my tongue and huffed a laugh. “Ah, man, good times.”
“I’ll kill you,” Luke growled.
“What is it you want?” Deon asked.
“Oh, no, no. I’m not done. So before the children were taken so they could have a chance at a normal life, and before your women were arrested so we could take some more of the filth off the streets, and before my girl escaped . . . yours talked. And they talked a lot. Even if Rachel hadn’t escaped, your girls gave up the rest.” I grabbed the second-to-last picture and my expression darkened when I looked back up at the guys sitting across the table from me. “But not without a little persuasion first.” Setting down the picture, I waited for the reaction I knew was coming.
Both men tried to lunge over the table, but being shackled to the ground and table didn’t let them get far. I turned and held up a hand to the guards who had begun making their way over to us, and with reluctant nods, they backed off. I’d gotten the pictures of the women and the kids, while sitting in my car, across the street from wherever they were at the time. The ones of them doing drugs and sexual favors to get more drugs: Sunny and his crew had helped out with those. How he got RJ to get back with Serena for that time, I didn’t know, and didn’t give a shit. That last one, though; Mason and I had paid the girls a visit for that.
They remembered us and knew we were the reason their men were in prison. We’d cuffed them to chairs and had shown them some of the pictures I was showing Deon and Luke now, in order to get them to stop screaming that they would tell the boys that we’d threatened them. When asked where they were keeping Rachel, both immediately shut up.
The picture Deon and Luke were looking at was of two of my guns pointed at their heads as they cried and kept rambling about “the house,” how “she’s at the house.” Neither of the girls had been hurt that night, we’d gone there to scare them, and that’s exactly what we’d done. But when Mason and I broke into the house where we’d lived with Juarez and his crew two days later . . . we’d come up empty. By that time, we’d already anonymously called child protective services and given copies of some of the pictures as evidence, and the women had already been arrested.
And because of our last visit to them, visiting them in jail wasn’t exactly an option right now.
I focused back on Luke and Deon. Both had their eyes narrowed into slits and glued to me, both were breathing so hard their nostrils were flaring, and both had gone back to not speaking.
“So you see”—I said darkly and leaned close—“you played this game with me, took what’s mine, and tried to ruin my life. I can’t be positive, but I’m pretty sure I just won. And now I’ve started my own game . . . now I’ve taken what’s yours. Only difference between your game and mine is, you’ll never get yours back.”
Luke growled, and I smiled.
I began gathering all the pictures together and put them in the file. Just as I started to stand from the bench, I waved the last picture in the air, facing away from them. “Oh, I must have missed this one. Did you want to see the picture where their new suppliers are fucking them while someone else shoots meth in their arms for them? No? No, didn’t think so. Have a good life in prison, gentlemen.”
Deceiving people was natural . . . it had been my job for so long that lying to protect myself, or those I loved, was as easy as breathing. I’d promised Rachel that there would be no more lies, forgiving or not. When it came to her, there hadn’t been, and there wouldn’t be when she came back. But all bets were off until I found her. I would deceive anyone, lie about everything, and do anything to get her back.
The wicked grin I’d been forcing myself to wear to continue taunting them fell as soon as I turned and began walking from the room. I thanked the guards gruffly as they let me out of the secured doors.
As soon as I was in my truck, I called Mason and told him I was on my way to his apartment.
Once I was there, I went over the meeting with him before we destroyed all the pictures I’d taken and received from Sunny. Just as we were planning out what he was going to say when he went in to meet with Deon and Luke tomorrow, my phone rang. Glancing down at it, I stared at the name for long seconds before I finally hit the
green CALL button and brought the phone to my ear.
“Hey.”
Sniffling met me on the other end for a bit before her shaky voice choked out, “She’s going to be okay, right? You are going to find her, aren’t you, Kash?”
My eyes hit Mason’s, and I put the call on speakerphone before responding. “Yeah, Candice, we’re gonna find her. We’re looking for her right now, I swear to you we’re doing everything we can.”
“I’ve, uh, I’ve been thinking. Maybe I should still come to Florida, help you look for her. Eli, Mom, and Dad want to come too.”
“No.” Mason and I both responded at the same time.
“Candi, babe, that’s not the best idea.”
“Mase? But, but maybe we could help, you know?”
“Candice we’re doing everything we can to find her, we have a lot of really good people looking for her,” he said. “And being here might end up just being too hard for you guys because you’ll be faced with it every day. It’s constantly on the news, in the newspaper . . . it’s everywhere here.”
“But it can’t hurt to have more people looking,” she argued.
“Candice,” I said softly, “we’re not searching for her body. If we were, we would need more people. Right now, they’re hiding with her, so we’re looking for them. It’s different, and I agree with Mason, it would probably be harder for you all to be here.”
Her quiet sniffling turned into sobs and she cried out, “I just feel like I can’t do anything, and I’ve never been there for her when she needed me!”
Candice called me every day and we had this exact same conversation. I got calls from her parents just as often. Eli was the only one who called solely to get the details of everything that was happening before he hung up on me. To be honest, I think he blamed me for all of this too. At least I wasn’t the only one.
I looked up at Mason helplessly as Candice continued crying, and he grabbed the phone from my hand, took it off speakerphone, and walked away, talking quietly to her.
As much as I hated to say it, I couldn’t handle talking to them right now. I knew they were devastated, I knew they felt lost and helpless, but I was trying not to feel anything at all . . . and I had to stay focused on finding her. If I went back to making sure that they were all constantly taken care of throughout this, then I would go back to feeling like I couldn’t make it another day . . . another hour . . . another minute without her. The second I let myself feel all of the pain I knew was waiting just below this robotic mask I was wearing, I’d crumble, and I couldn’t afford to crumble right now.
I already had to see my parents, and they were doing worse than Candice and her family was. Because not only were they mourning Rachel’s loss every day, but they also had to see what I was turning into as a result of all this.
I waited on the couch until Mason came back into the room and handed me the phone.
“What’d she say?”
“They’re not going to come right now, and I made her put her dad on the phone. I advised him that even if—when . . . I’m sorry—when we find her, it wouldn’t be a good idea for them to come immediately, or possibly anytime soon. I told him that although they’d want to see her, she might not be ready to see anyone, and we’d have to be careful with her. I think he understood. I’m not sure if Candice and her mom will though.”
“Yeah. Thanks, Mason, I appreciate it.”
“No need for thanks, you know I’m here for you. And I know you don’t want to, but both our parents are waiting for us at my parents’ house. So let’s take my truck. We can go pick up Trip, and on the way there we’ll talk about what I’m going to say to Luke and Deon tomorrow.”
I ground my jaw, and Mason began pushing me toward the door.
“You can’t do anything more today, Kash. You’re waiting on word from Sunny, I’m gonna talk to the guys tomorrow, and you have been working nonstop since you saw Sunny over two weeks ago. You need to relax for a night. Just relax, maybe get some sleep, recharge, and go back to it tomorrow.”
“It’s not like this is just some job that I’m devoting my life to. I’m trying to find Rachel!”
He locked his door and shook his head slowly as he turned to look back at me. “I know, Kash. But with the way you’re going, if you find her, I don’t know what kind of guy she’ll be coming back to. I’ve never seen you like this, not even undercover. You’re changing, you can’t lose yourself in the process.”
“I’m doing what’s necessary. I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
12
Taylor
“DID YOU GET FOOD FOR EVERYONE?”
I stopped walking and held back a curse before turning to face Dominic and Marco. “You were all eating when I left, why would I bring you food?”
“Why would you bring her food?” Marco asked, his tone challenging.
“She needs to eat too.”
“No, what she needs to do, is get that fucking jackbooted thug boyfriend of hers to release our brothers. We need her to get some more evidence put together. Bring her to the lab later.”
Shaking my head, I took a step back and turned to head down the hall. “No.”
“You’re crossing a line, brother.” Dominic spat the last word out, and I turned to face them again.
“This whole fucking thing is crossing a line. Besides, I’m following orders from Romero. Take the girl, but don’t harm her. Yours is to get the brothers out by using her. From what I’ve seen, them thinking she’s the girl in all your videos and recordings is using her. You just haven’t succeeded in getting them free. I’m doing my job, you’re the ones who are failing at yours.”
“If we don’t get them out, then we all fail. There’s been no response from anyone in the police department in weeks. We’re watching them, everyone including the boyfriend stopped looking for her a week ago!”
My eyebrows rose at Marco’s words, and he sneered a laugh.
“Exactly. We need more from her. Bring her to the fucking lab.”
Turning again, I called over my shoulder, “If they’ve stopped looking for her, that’s your problem, not mine. You don’t get to touch her.”
“Is this really coming from Romero? Or maybe it’s someone else. Yeah, we’re supposed to use her to get the brothers out, but how the hell are we supposed to use her when you don’t leave her unprotected?”
Freezing, I schooled my features before turning back to him. Dropping my head low, I slowly looked up at him from under my eyelashes, a sadistic smile pulling at my lips. “You want to go question Romero’s orders . . . be my fucking guest. I’ll start counting down the days until he has you killed.”
I had him, and he knew it. No one questioned Romero. Not unless they had a death wish. Just the same, if Romero ever found out I’d changed his orders so I could protect her . . . I would end up with Dre, six feet under.
When Marco’s face acknowledged defeat after our conversation, I turned and blew out the breath I’d been holding.
“Cruz! Cruz! If you know what’s good for you, you’ll bring her. Our brothers need her!”
With my free hand, I threw up a middle finger and continued walking away. I wasn’t worried that the department had stopped looking for her. A sick, twisted part of me was excited. My first thought had been, If they stopped looking for her, was it possible that Rachel would one day stop waiting for them to find her?
As I walked toward the room, I kept trying to force those thoughts away. I stole her. She isn’t mine to keep, I continued to chant to myself, but that fucked-up side of me couldn’t stop smiling. She’d changed since she’d been here. She was comfortable with me . . . that was clear. I knew it was too much to hope that she might ever feel something for me. But was it wasted time imagining that day would come?
Rachel
THE SOFT BEEPS SOUNDED from the opposite side of the door, and in walked Taylor with a mischievous smile on his face. Snapping my journal shut, I set it down beside me. One of my eyebrows rose when
I tried to sit up to see what he’d brought for dinner, and he turned the food away from me.
Sitting back against the wall, I eyed him and hated that I could hear the pout in my voice when I said, “You were gone a long time.”
His full lips tilted up at the corners and he dipped his head. “I went out.”
Must be nice. “Where’d you go?” And when the hell did I turn into the clingy woman?
“Close your eyes.”
“What? No! Why?”
Taylor’s expression went blank, and he prompted me to close mine again.
I shot him a glare before closing my eyes but stayed still as stone and strained to hear every movement he made. Other than a couple heavy footsteps and the telltale sounds of food containers being opened, there was nothing suspicious. But, oh God, the food smelled amazing.
I heard Taylor lower himself to the ground before he said anything again. “Open your eyes, Rachel.”
He didn’t have to tell me twice. My eyes flew open, and I gasped and lunged toward one of the boxes. Not even caring that the expensive-looking chicken pasta dish was sitting in front of me. There was freaking cheesecake, and I’d been deprived of sweets for far too long.
The massive slice had been mere inches from my mouth—and yes, I was about to eat it without utensils—when it was snatched from my hands, and I looked up to see Taylor holding it away.
“That would be dessert, you can wait.”
Not only did Taylor suck at picking out clothes for women, but he also didn’t understand the need to have sugar. And I happened to be one of those women addicted to it.
“If you value your balls and your life, you will hand that back over right now.”
His dark eyes widened and a smile lit up his rugged face. “And I say you’ll wait for it.”
Without warning, I lunged for him, being careful not to land in the actual food sitting in between us. Taylor flew back until he was lying on the ground, and he stretched his arms way above his head to keep the container away from me. But I’d landed on him, which meant I had the advantage here. And that cheesecake was mine.
Deceiving Lies Page 11