by Amy McKinley
That was the thing about assumptions, though. They inevitably came back to bite one in the ass.
Stella
The tension in the cabin was thick. Without understanding what was going on, I kept to myself in a corner of the soft leather couch, sifting through the stack of letters from my Oma. Every once in a while, I glanced at Hawk, but he was busy with Jack and the other guys. That freed up time for me to read.
I twisted my hair into a messy bun and secured it with an elastic band I’d tucked into the pocket of my jeans earlier. Shoving the sleeves of my favorite dark-gray T-shirt up, I made myself comfortable.
Most of the letters were to my Opa when he was away on business or sweet notes from when they were dating. There was even one from her brother. It was very old, so I took extra care in handling the worn paper and set it aside for later. For the time being, I would focus on the ones she addressed to me.
Her penmanship had turned shaky, as was common with the elderly. I wished she was there with me.
She’d written me three letters. I chose to open the one on the top first. After unfolding the letter, the uncomfortable atmosphere in the cabin faded away. I lost myself in what she’d penned, as if she were sitting next to me, telling the tale herself.
It started with why she left Germany, what had happened to her brother, and why that raised the stakes and sped up the timeline they’d set for her family’s immigration to America. Part of her story I already knew, but not all of it.
My Dearest Stella,
I don’t talk about my brother often. Last night, I was thinking of him more than usual, perhaps because of my advancing years and my pending reunion with him when I pass on to the next world.
As you know, my brother was a teenager when Hitler came to power. There were many ordinances that we were to obey as children during that time. I was much younger, but even I wasn’t happy about it. The changes brought so much ugliness in their wake.
Teenagers never like to be told what to do, what to wear, or how to think. No one does, really. My brother had a particularly hard time with it, as did his friends. They’d heard of others their age who’d rebelled against the imposed conformity through music, which later turned into something else.
I’ve already told you what happened, about the beatings and public hanging. What I didn’t tell you was that my parents went to be with Stefan in those last moments. They couldn’t let him go without him seeing their faces as he left this world. He needed the support, loving faces to focus on during the atrocity that was being committed.
My parents would not let me accompany them, and I was made to stay with a family friend until they returned. Watching my brother’s hanging broke my parents. I wasn’t left unaffected, either, but I didn’t witness what they had. We were never the same after that day.
Within the hour of being collected from our friend’s home, my parents frantically packed small inconspicuous bags for us, and we fled the only home I’d ever known. They had received word that soldiers would be coming for us too.
My family was among the aristocracy. Our station protected us to an extent, but not from everything. Not from what mattered most.
Leaving everything and everyone behind was traumatic, but not nearly as horrifying as losing my brother. Hold on to those you love, my dear. Accept them for who they are. Always stand up for what you believe in, but be mindful—life is precious.
All my love,
Oma
Tears streaked down my cheeks unchecked. I knew the story—she’d told it to me before—but it broke my heart every time. The couch dipped, and Hawk sat beside me and pulled me to him. I buried my face in his chest, balled his shirt in my hands, and sobbed. I missed her so much.
He rubbed his hand up and down my back in a slow caress. Someone handed me a few Kleenexes, and I used them to wipe my face. My eyelids closed as his hand moved to the back of my head, holding me close. The comfort he offered reinforced how much I cared for him. Scars and all, he’d slipped into my heart, and I didn’t want to let him go.
I knew he was hurting. The thing about internal scars was that the damage wasn’t always easy to see. It was a minefield I would have to walk if I wanted to remain by his side. I did, and I would.
“Stella?” Hawk’s deep voice rumbled through his chest and vibrated along my body. “Hayden is heading out. Did you want to put any of the letters in there, or are you keeping them with you?”
I sighed as I disentangled myself from him. “The one I read can go in there. I haven’t had a chance to go through the rest yet.” I handed it to Hayden, who tucked it into the jewelry box. He pulled me to my feet and hugged me before saying goodbye to everyone.
“This will be over soon, Red, and then we can binge watch the next season of The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones.”
I grinned. Hayden was so much fun. I was looking forward to hanging out with him again. All of them, even Jack, although he was dealing with something I didn’t understand, were there for the other guys—and for me. Jack, Chris, and Mike had dropped whatever they had been doing to be there for Hawk. Through Hawk, they were there for my brother and me. They were incredible men, though Keegan was a bit of a mystery.
“Come on.” Hawk tugged me behind him. “Let’s get something to drink. Do you want coffee or something stronger?”
“That whiskey Jack has been steadily making his way through looks good.”
“Whiskey it is.” Hawk snatched it out of Jack’s hand when we found him in the kitchen. After he handed the bottle to me, Hawk gripped Jack’s shoulder. A look passed between them that I couldn’t decipher. “If you don’t pull your shit together, Hannah threatened to come here and do it for you.”
Well, hell. Jack laughed at that one, and some of the tension seemed to fall away. “Can you imagine?”
“No, I’m a little afraid to. That woman is frightening. Makes sense she’s with you.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her that.” Jack grinned, his tired eyes looking a little more alive than before.
I leaned against the counter with two fingers of whiskey in a glass and smiled at their interaction. They were all lucky to have each other. It made me long for my family even more. The ring of a cell phone pierced the semi-quiet, and Jack’s grin grew as he glanced at the screen. “Speaking of Hannah…” He went into one of the bedrooms just as mine rang.
Hawk held my gaze, and I sucked in a breath.
“I’m sorry!” Shit. I was supposed to keep it in that signal-blocking bag. It wasn’t a normal thing for me to do, and it didn’t fit in the pocket of my jeans.
Hawk shook his head. “I should be a helluva lot madder than I am. But if they come to us now, we’ll handle it.”
I bit my lip and nodded. The only person other than the guys who had my new burner phone number was my brother.
“Go ahead and answer it,” Hawk said with a sigh.
Fear licked my body as I pulled the cell from my pocket.
Max’s name flashed across the screen, and I pressed the button to answer as I raised it to my ear.
“Stel?”
Shit. His voice is weak. “It’s me. What’s wrong?”
There was a small rustling, and Max swore under his breath. His breathing sounded labored. Then I heard the steady beep in the background, and my alarm tripled. “Where are you?”
“I’m at Mercy.”
“The hospital? What happened? Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine, but I can’t talk long. Goddamn pain pills make it hard to think. Had to warn you. They know.”
“What?” Adrenaline laced my blood, and my fingers went numb. Hawk grabbed the phone and hit the speaker button. “What are you talking about? They know what?”
“I fucked up, Stel. Told ’em about you.” His speech slurred, and the beeping in the background sounded erratic.
My hands shook as I held the phone. “I already know, Max. Did something else happen?”
“Oma’s legacy—” A horrible rattling c
ough stole his words. Several seconds passed before he delivered the next bomb. “They know you have it and are coming to take the treasure from you.” Then the line went dead.
Chapter 22
Hawk
Red was beside herself about her worthless brother. I kept her close, absently running my fingers along her arm, while the guys and I planned what to do next. Hayden was already in the air and on his way to Maine with her family heirlooms. That was one thing we didn’t need to worry about any longer, but the brother remained a concern. Max needed protection.
The sky lightened as the miles melted beneath our SUVs. Mike and Keegan followed in the other Range Rover. We would be in San Francisco within the hour, just in time for breakfast.
“I called in a favor, and guards will be stationed at Max’s hospital door,” Mike told Stella on speakerphone. “No one will get to him while he’s there.”
“Thank you. I want to see him.”
Bad idea. “You will, just not yet. He’s probably resting, anyway, and having you there will increase the danger he’s in.”
“Because they’re after me?”
“Yes.” What I didn’t tell her was that they were keeping her brother alive so she would stay close and lead them to her family’s treasure. Once they had what they wanted, both Max and Stella would be loose ends that needed to be taken care of. I had a feeling she already knew that. She was smart and processed things quickly.
I tucked her closer to me, so damned impressed with how she was handling everything. After talking to her brother, she had been in a panic, but she quickly reined that in and wanted to work with us on a solution. There was strength in her response, which assured all of us that she wasn’t going to fall apart. None of us wanted to deal with that. Tears from a woman sucked because we weren’t the best at knowing what to do beyond attempting to fix whatever had hurt them.
The compulsive drive I had to keep her safe and happy punched me in the gut. When the hell did I start to think of her as mine? And when did I start to think of her as part of my family? Shit, I don’t have time to psychoanalyze myself right now. I caught Chris’s gaze. “We’re sure Rex isn’t in play?”
“Of course not, but we don’t have a lead on any of the other guys from the gang yet. Mole got out a few years ago but isn’t turning up around here.”
“That doesn’t mean he isn’t in contact with Rex,” Jack said.
“No, but it’s something,” Mike interjected before addressing Chris. “Were you able to get the visitor records for Rex?”
Chris nodded. “Mole’s name isn’t on there, but that doesn’t mean much.”
True. Getting an alias wasn’t hard. And while Rex’s right-hand man wasn’t exactly smart, I would have thought he had enough sense to lay low or use his criminal connections to start over.
Red fidgeted next to me.
“When Hayden lands, I want him to go ahead with selling the ring. The faster we get the money, the safer my brother will be.” She held up a hand to silence our protests. “I know that’s not the end of it, but that will buy us some time to get out of the country. We could start over wherever their reach isn’t strong. Maybe Canada?”
“It won’t help. These people will take the money but then decide they want more, and neither of you will ever be free.” I shifted. I was looking directly at her, so she could see the truth behind my words. “They won’t stop. It’s not their MO. They’ll bleed you dry until there isn’t any more. Then they’ll put a bullet through your head—if you’re lucky.”
“Like how your parents weren’t as fortunate?” Her hands gripped mine, and she gave me a gentle squeeze. “I hear you. I do. But maybe this situation is different.”
“It is, and it isn’t.” I didn’t know how I could tell her without sending Jack into another tailspin. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him watching me. He gave me a sharp nod, telling me to talk about it. She needed to know. At least some of what we had been worried about was coming full circle.
“I’ve told you a little about my past”—I caught Chris’s attention too—“and our history. You already know that the same organization that’s after you and your brother killed my mom and her husband. What else is in play is that I’m a loose end they’ve just been made aware of.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip. “So you’re involved on a whole other level. I’m so sorry for dragging you into this and turning their focus to you too, Hawk.”
I gave her a crooked grin. “I’m not. I got to meet you, and that’s worth dealing with them ten times over. Besides, it’s long overdue.”
When she smiled, she chased the shadows away, and I was grateful to her for that. “There is more going on here, and we’re trying to figure out exactly how much, who, and what we’re going to face next.”
“Okay, but I don’t quite see what that has to do with clearing my brother’s debt. Aside from the greedy, corrupt bastards part.”
Jack barked out a laugh. “You’ve got that right.”
She had no idea how right. I needed to give her a glimpse into our struggles when we’d banded together in the warehouse so many years ago. “When we were in high school, our neighborhood had an aggressive drug gang that harassed a lot of the kids.”
“And several months after we’d graduated, too,” Jack interjected.
That’s right. Jack, Mike, and I had finished up our last year when things got bad. “Rex was the leader of the gang and had a major problem with Jack, as he was dating Rex’s younger sister.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Chris cut in, and Stella’s eyes rounded, the pieces probably falling into place around Jack’s reaction to the ring.
“We took it on ourselves to police our neighborhood when it came to Rex and his followers. When Rex began talks with a larger drug lord or maybe a cartel—we’re not sure about that—his personality took a turn for the worse.”
“The guy had never been good, but the drugs he was sampling made him unpredictable,” Jack said.
“Things went from bad to nightmarish before we all got out of that hellhole and into the military. We’ve never forgotten, and I’m sure he hasn’t either, considering we’re the reason he went to jail.”
I paused as we entered a parking garage for the hotel we had decided to stay in. It was a strategic move, as we were sure it was being watched. After all, it was a casino owned by the Tridel Corp. We’d planned to take Malone, Tridel’s owner, out from the inside if he showed up. Things were going to escalate, and soon. We would cut the head off the snake, so to speak. I needed to wrap this story up for her so we weren’t talking about anything personal when we got out.
Stella’s brows furrowed. “You think Rex is involved too?”
“We’re not sure. There isn’t proof that he is, but the ring posed the possibility. We’re going to need to find out where your brother got that.”
Chapter 23
Stella
Hawk and I were in the room we were sharing in the casino’s hotel… The same freaking casino owned by the people who were after my brother. I couldn’t believe it. I got that they planned to take them down and thought this was the right place to capture the boss, but no. I was tired of worrying about those guys. My brother had been hurt. He was my priority.
And I finally had the means to get Max out of the hot mess he’d created.
Hawk leaned against the door, all broody and sexy like he always was. I couldn’t let him distract me. He and his teammates had other priorities. Yeah, to keep me safe. But what about Max? It seemed as though he was last on their agenda, right behind taking down Tridel. Well, I’d made up my mind. If they weren’t going to get my brother out of harm’s way, then I was.
The guards in front of Max’s hospital room helped to ease my mind. I pivoted and paced to the other end of the room. Hawk followed my movements.
My thoughts churned with how to handle what I had to do. I needed to test the waters.
Maybe appealing to Hawk would work.
&nbs
p; I halted in my tracks and faced him. I pulled out the necklace I’d pocketed from Oma’s heirlooms instead of sending it to Maine with Hayden. “I want to sell this and pay off those men.”
A nerve jumped at the edge of Hawk’s jawline. “No. It won’t do any good. They know you have access to more, and they’ll continue to use your brother as bait to get it.”
“I have to do this. You’re probably right, but what if you’re not? There’s a chance this could work. Shouldn’t we try before going in with guns blazing?” I held out my hand, stopping his argument. “Max is my priority, even if he isn’t yours.” I had to take a deep breath and stop myself from saying something I couldn’t take back.
Between us, the large emerald dangled on the end of a chain. “I’m selling this and taking the money to him now. I won’t wait for those men to hurt him again.” I choked on the last few words. Worry ate at me.
All the times I’d screwed up and taken my phone from the signal-blocking sleeve was because I loved my brother. I couldn’t abandon him. It put us at risk, but I had to be there for him if he needed me. The guys he was mixed up with were serious. What if I’d missed his last call? I could never live with myself if that happened.
Hawk shook his head and took a step closer. I withdrew the necklace and put it back in my pocket.
“That won’t help. No matter how much it seems like selling your family’s jewelry is the answer, it’s not.”
“You don’t know that!” I yelled. “We’ve been in situations like this before.” I pressed my lips together and inhaled through my nose. I had to calm down. “Not exactly like this, but he’s gotten into tight spots where Oma and I had to bail him out quick. After we paid, there was no fallout.”
“No,” Hawk snapped.
Shit. I could tell his worry was transforming to anger. I had to defuse him so I could do what was necessary.