Unravel (Unbound Trilogy Book 1)

by Kathy Coopmans

  “Shit; damn it.” He pants, coughing and sputtering — eyes bulging out of his ugly mug.

  “I’m just getting started, buddy.”

  “What the hell does that mean? Are you going to kill me?” Sweat beads across his forehead, his face turning white as snow, stark against his bloodstained Cajun speaking lips.

  “What do you think it means? You messed with something that’s mine.”

  Even if Ellie weren’t on my radar, I’d hope someone would find a way to nail his balls to the wall. Can’t stomach a man putting his hands on a woman with intent to cause her harm.

  God, this is going to set rage a filthy shade of red in Rocco like nothing else. If I see red, he’s going to bleed it until whoever did this dies.

  Releasing my hold on his throat, I begin punching his face, nearly pummeling it in. My hands burn with every punch I throw as he tries fighting me off. The blood from his face splatters onto my clothes. My knuckles split and sting, and still, I don’t stop, not until I’ve released enough pent-up anger searing through me out on him.

  Blood drips like the current of the Mississippi from this fucker’s broken nose and his split lip and if he doesn’t tell me the truth next time I ask, I’ll make him mentally suffer until he shits his goddamn pants.

  I flip open his wallet, lift it toward the dashboard to catch his name on his ID. Marty Sutter. Dumb name for a foolish fuck who got caught.

  “I’m telling you, I met a woman with long blonde hair at Slackers on 8th and Weston. We got to talking and she asked me to rough the woman up a bit, so I did.”

  A blonde? If he’s telling the truth that rules out most of the women I know because I hate fucking blondes. Haven’t touched one in years. The only blonde I care about is my niece who barely comes up to my knees, and if anyone laid a hand on her the way this punk did Ellie, he’d be living his last minutes the same way as this guy.

  He isn’t a professional killer. If he were, he wouldn’t have gotten caught. I lived with one for several years, know how the mind of an assassin works. This one’s an amateur. He’s a piece of trash. A desperate one that whoever convinced him to do this picked him up at a seedy bar or off the streets.

  I’ve seen enough evil in my life to know if Seth wouldn’t have gotten there in time, Ellie would have gotten hurt in ways she might never have recovered from.

  My stomach roils in outrage of what could have happened.

  “Bullshit.” I plow my fist into his jaw, his head jerking sideways before slamming back into the headrest. “You give me a name, or you’re going in the river, and I’ll let the leeches and snakes kill you instead of me. Pussies like you going around physically hurting women don’t deserve to live.”

  I chuck a thumb behind me to where Seth is standing at the back of the car ready to push the guy’s vehicle over an old unused railroad track into the river. Won’t be a few minutes before the deep muddy, toxic water sucks it under.

  Hot burning anger seethes and seeks to harm. I’ve killed and dumped a few bodies in The Mississippi before, and I’ll do it again and again if need be. I wasn’t born to be a natural killer; some things just have to be done to survive.

  “The only name she gave me was yours. Sure hope my threat for your beautiful little piece of ass to stay away digs deep.”

  I snarl as my fury roils with enough anger I could explode, and my head goes to battle with my heart. If Ellie runs from me because of this, there’s no telling what I’ll do. Shut every damn club down so this crazy shit doesn’t happen to anyone else who might want out.

  Fucking Christ.

  “Looks to me like the woman you attacked didn’t take all that kindly to your threat.” I can’t help the chuckle that escapes my mouth. Ellie dug the hell out of his face.

  Good for her.

  I had no sooner boarded our small jet, a man on a mission to get back to Ellie after hearing her voicemail asking when I’d be getting back to town when Seth called to tell me someone attacked her. I tried calming him down and ended up calling Lane because guilt was dripping from every word Seth spoke.

  He had followed Ellie home and started to drive by when he saw a vehicle half-assed parked by her door. It took him a minute to turn around and get to her. A minute is a long damn time when you have nowhere to run. I can’t even begin to imagine how frightened she was.

  Her family’s hodge-podge store is an everyday mother’s dream. One that says I love my family more than anything except I need a break and I know the perfect spot to go. Crime doesn’t happen in her small little neck of New Orleans. The idea of her living there alone even when it’s busy has driven me mad. The thing is, it seems like it’s Ellie, a simple life filled with commotion and now someone has tainted it.

  My mind had tumbled into a violent rage by the time I made the rest of the short flight from Atlanta.

  For the first time in my life, I’d begun to decompress my mind and not let some of the things I’ve done get to me. I was going to tell her everything and then get on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness. Rage blistered my muscles when I thought of someone else so much as touching her. I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Ellie is my obsession and it’s not in a sick and twisted way like some would think. She’s like sweet venom seeping into my brain and taking over, and I need to get to her. First, I need to kill this asshole who dared to touch her.

  A moving, emotional image of Ellie’s face caught up in worry and fear, and the pounding of her heart, loop around my spine, sending needle-like pricks across my back. Her desperate screams Seth said he’d heard switch into horrifying cries of terror and blast so damn loud in my ears that I need her in my arms to quiet the racket.

  It’s all kinds of fucked when I don’t understand how I can feel this way about her in such a short amount of time. Maybe it’s because through the years I worried about her. Fuck all if I know. What I sure as hell am sure of is I’m not letting Ellie slip through my fingers.

  “I’ve dealt with men like you — the ones with no one around to give a fuck whether you die. There won’t be a soul out there who will miss you. Consider yourself lucky I don’t snap your goddamn fingers off and shove them up your ass. How much were you paid?”

  It doesn’t matter if he received a million; he isn’t going to live to spend it.

  Money rules out Whitney because the bitch doesn’t have any. It has to be some jealous bitch from the club.

  I angle in farther, grab the guy by the collar and pull him into me. Sweat drips down his face, his temples pulsing at the side of his neck. His small brown eyes twitch as he glances briefly from me to Seth and back again.

  “Yeah, asshole, you are so deep in the woods, so far out of the city, even the smoky colored moon doesn’t give off much light. There’s nothing out here but wild animals and carnivores. Crocodiles and gators, no bright light to lessen the darkness on your soul.”

  “Five hundred and her mouth wrapped around my dick.” He grins, spits a wad of blood onto the ground and swallows. “You want the truth; I’ll lay it out for you. Killing me won’t be the end of this. Think about it, man, any woman seeking out and hiring someone to rough someone up isn’t going to stop there. Bitches are catty and jealous. Whatever you did to piss the woman off, you must have done it well.”

  Might be true, it doesn’t stop the repulsion, the self-hatred seeping through my skin.

  They grow. Sinking into my body with a stinging bite of reality and flinging me into the dark depths of my past.

  Whoever hired him could be anyone. I used to fuck more women in a month than there are days. Makes me sick this was done by a woman scorned by me. If and I mean, if, he’s telling the truth about it being a woman.

  I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure what happened to Sofia doesn’t happen to Ellie. Shit’s sake, how can someone become twisted and obsessed this way? Why not open up and tell me how they feel instead of doing wrong?

  Goes to show how deranged some people can be over sex, money, and power.


  My blood runs cold. I need this man taken care of, so I clean the blood off my hands and check on Ellie.

  “I’ve met men like you too, asshole. You think you are so much better than the rest of us. Tossing money around, women dropping like flies at your feet. I know who you are. The rich bastard, fucking women that pay thousands for. You are nothing but a male whore. Ask me, that woman is too damn good for you.”

  “I didn’t ask.”

  I’ll figure it out and whoever hired him will soon know not even their pitiful attempt won’t keep me away from her. The second I sunk inside that tight little body, Ellie became mine.

  “That’s right, motherfucker; I’m a man. An invisible one who is saving this city from someone like you. A limp dick who gets off by roughing up a woman.”

  Cocking the gun I found on him, I place it against his temple and start the car. The man turns and takes a swing at me, clocking me in the jaw and causing me to stumble.

  Fuck that stings.

  “I’ll find out who hired you. That, you can count on.” I pull the trigger nailing him between his eyes, slam the door, pull off my leather gloves and help Seth push the car into the water.

  Right there I vow whoever hired him will die an even harsher death.

  Chapter 9

  Ellie

  Rolling over, I bury myself a little more under the covers and take a few calming breaths in hopes the pain throbbing around my skull would listen as I will it to go away. Lifting a hand, I press my palm against my face. It’s slightly swollen and warm, but I’m in one piece, and thankfully someone stopped the man from taking a part of me I don’t think I’d be able to come back from like I did before.

  Blinking against the sunlight, I open my eyes and glance at the clock to check how long I’ve been out and wonder how the hell I got out of my clothes, into my sleep shirt and my bed. With an abundance of gratitude, I let out a contented sigh to whoever the man was that showed up and saved me.

  If only someone like him would have been around to save me before.

  The sky is a pale blue, wisps of white clouds unmoving and notched with the promise of life in a world of darkness, a sense of warmth as I shift my gaze to the terrace window. They do nothing to calm the cold, brutal lashing of my heart, especially when I take another deep breath and smell him.

  Every muscle in my body seizes up, and it’s not from struggling to get rid of my headache. It’s because Logan is in bed with me. I can feel the heat radiating off of his arms as they curl around my stomach. I can feel his eyes on the back of my head, his restraint not to grind the thick bulge between his legs that’s pressed against my ass.

  He sets me on fire, giving me an instant fever that shoots to a risky level. I hate the way my body is reacting when inside I should be angry; it’s a thrill that ticks me off and makes me consider calling my old therapist to have my head examined.

  My mind is screaming asking why is this happening to me. While my heart is enjoying the safety of his arms. It’s fleeing away from me when everything else is commanding me to run. My nerves are drawn tight; I’m edgy and angry that I like Logan when a part of me screams I shouldn’t. I’m frightened I’ll have that cry. I hold my breath until I feel dizzy, then let it out and grab onto the strength I have, all the while wondering how much more can I take before I break?

  I can picture Logan now. Apprehension is filling his mind as he tries to capture my thoughts. I wish he could because then I could lie here in the safety of his arms and forget that someone wanted to hurt me.

  A rile of aggravation swells inside of me as his breathing hitches, and silence lingers. I want to tell him to start talking or get the hell away from me, but the part of me drawn so profoundly to him finds comfort in him being here.

  “What happened to you is my fault. I’m sorry. It seems those two words keep coming out when it comes to you. My brother Seth was keeping an eye on you while I was out of town. It has nothing to do with Shadow, it has to do with me. Seth overheard the threat, knocked out the guy who attacked you and found Norah’s number in your bag. He called her, then called me. She checked you over and put you to bed. You have a slight bruise on the side of your face and a small cut below your eye. I promise you I’ll find whoever is responsible and it won’t happen again. No man’s hands but mine will ever touch you again, Ellie.”

  I hear the fear in his voice, not at all like the controlling man he is.

  A smile tugs on my lips. Equally fragile as it is thankful. For the reason that there’s sorrow in the way Logan says his brother’s name. A story is there. One of heartache and sadness. I can sense Logan carries the heaviness of it on his shoulders as clear as the sky is blue.

  “Tell him thank you.”

  I wait in silence. I might be grateful, but he’s the one who owes me words.

  “I need you to hear me; feel me for just a minute, Ellie.”

  His words nearly become my breaking point because there, in his plea, is a man on the edge of his.

  Logan nips the nape of my neck, his hot breath fogging my level of logic. I moan just as he scrapes his teeth across the sensitive flesh. “I’m sorry. A thousand apologies will never be enough.”

  Tears slide down my temples; I swipe them away. I should bolt out of this bed and make him leave. I’m sure he either hurt or killed the man who attacked me. I’m sure Logan is far more dangerous than I thought and yet here I stay, pushing my ass into his erection and emitting a growl from his mouth and several swipes of his tongue across my neck.

  I don’t think this is what Renita meant by giving in to my body’s needs, but God does it ever feel good.

  “Are you alright?”

  I nod, a lump stuck in my throat.

  “You’re mine, Ellie. Don’t try pushing me away, don’t try escaping, I won’t allow it. You want me as bad as I do you. You smell so good, so edible that all I can think of is how good you’re going to taste. How that mouth of yours that wants to tell me to go is going to sound when I sink my teeth into your smooth flesh.”

  Goosebumps race along my skin as I slowly shift to face him. None of what happened to me seems real anymore. At least not with him here. I might not know this man, but the one thing I’m positive about is Logan is a man who protects.

  And at this moment as I stare into his tired eyes, I know he’s right. I want to be his, this man who keeps showing up — the only one who has ever consumed my mind.

  Regardless of any of that, he’s going to respect me at the moment, or he’ll be high tailing his ass right out of here.

  He sucks in air, and I whimper when my hands touch his bare chest. My fingers are trembling as I run my palms up and down his smooth skin.

  Colorful tattoos I didn’t have the opportunity to study the night we met cover parts of his chest and arms.

  “You’re shaking. Are you frightened of me?”

  I should pull away, but I find myself moving closer to him, unable to break the lock of our stares. Logan has the most beautiful shade of eyes I’ve seen. A forest I wouldn’t mind being lost in.

  “I’m not afraid of you; I’m afraid of what you’ll do to my heart. I’m afraid of Shadow finding me. I’m afraid you want me to kneel at your feet, Logan. I’m afraid you want control of me, and I don’t want someone to control me. I want an equal. I’ve always told myself a man wouldn’t own me unless I want to be, but somehow you make me want to be. We’re alone now; there’s no excuse for you not to tell me everything.”

  A heaviness settles over him. Watchful eyes emotionless, mouth set firm, jaw stiff as if he were choking down what he wants to say.

  Maybe I should be scared.

  “I want to know who sent someone to attack me; I won’t give in to anyone trying to scare me. I’ve lived in fear most of my life; I won’t live there again. I want to know why you want me so badly. I won’t fall for you and have you talk me into sleeping with others. I won’t share you either. I suggest you start talking or you can go. Someone sent me a warning, and you owe me the
truth as to why.” I decide to throw all my concerns at him at once to study his expression and gather it all in my mind.

  His chest heaves and his features crack wide open to expose the man hidden underneath — a man who isn’t used to someone telling him what to do. I see a vulnerable side to Logan too, and it’s me. The weighty sounds of his breathing and the sight of his pulse fluttering desperately in his throat remind me to breathe.

  I battle to steady my breathing while I try to ignore the magnetism of the man before me, his struggle to remain under control, the slight twitch at the corners of his mouth, and his expression is a picture of uncertainty.

  It should be. This crazy chemistry is not enough to keep me bound to him.

  A sudden blaze of regret flashes in his eyes as he leans in until our lips are almost touching. If I weren’t breathing hard and fast, I’d swear he’d steal the breath from my lungs.

  What on God’s green earth is wrong with me? Because the only thing I want at this moment is to climb inside of him and cling to safety.

  “Shadow doesn’t belong in this bed with you and me. Understand this; he will never be talked of when I have you in bed again. First, you need to be set straight when it comes to my intentions with you. Never fear me.”

  His fingers trail through my hair, and he watches his movement as if he can’t believe I’d even speak to him after this.

  Quite honestly, I can’t either.

  “Listen close because I won’t repeat myself when it comes to this subject again. What I’ve done isn’t as wrong as it is illegal, it’s a lifestyle I’ve enjoyed. It’s exhilarating, and there’s so much more to what happens inside Behind Closed Doors than what most people know, but only if a person wants it. I won’t ask for forgiveness when the things I’ve done were before I met you. I will ask you to forgive me for bringing you into a complicated lifestyle; you should have known before I brought you to my bed. That I won’t apologize for anymore.”

  I say nothing as I watch the rise and fall of his chest. I want this man, need him even though I’m afraid he’ll hurt me.