by Ella Miles
Sullivan looks at me, and he immediately knows what I’ve done. He pays off the police chief to ignore what he does. Of course, the police chief just thinks he runs an illegal gambling ring for high rollers. He has no idea the criminal things that actually happen. Until now.
Sullivan thought he was safe from the police. But I have more money and power than he ever will. The police aren’t going to be able to get every man here. But if they capture one, it will be enough to ruin Sullivan’s reputation. It will be enough to take this club down.
I wait, knowing this place is about to erupt, and it will be the perfect time to make my move.
Seconds later, Sullivan loses his cool, knowing I just cost him everything.
He pulls out his gun, but I fire faster. I don’t kill him, that would be too easy for this bastard. But I hit him hard enough in the core to do serious damage to his liver.
Chaos erupts. Men start firing in every direction as they scramble to get out the secret exit at the back reserved for this exact situation. None of the men know who is the enemy or their ally. So they attack everyone as their foe.
I spot Felix trying to move through the crowd of men out the exit.
I follow, moving quickly toward my single mission. I press the gun to the base of his head.
“Leaving already? We haven’t even had a chance to talk privately yet,” I say.
He chuckles. “I don’t think this is the place to have a private conversation.”
“Really? With all the terrified women getting in the way and guns firing?”
“What do you want, Enzo?”
“I want you dead.”
He laughs. “You won’t kill me.”
I press the gun harder as I walk him out the back door and into an alleyway. There were too many stray bullets flying in the club. I don’t want to chance a stray bullet being what ends Felix’s life. I want to be the one to do it.
When we are alone, I hit him in the face as hard as I can with the end of the gun. Blood spews from his mouth.
“Was that really necessary?” he asks, spitting more blood.
“I don’t get to torture you slowly, as was my original plan. So I’m going to make you suffer as much as I can tonight.”
He shakes his head with a devious grin. “You won’t kill me tonight.”
“Yes, I will.”
“You would have already killed me if you were going to tonight. You might be the death of me one day, Enzo. I don’t doubt that. I have respect for you enough to remember you were the one who killed both of my brothers. You killed our father. That’s all you do—kill. Most likely, I will die at your hands. But not tonight.”
I press the gun against his temple. He holds his hands up with a chuckle when I don’t immediately pull the trigger.
What the hell is stopping me?
I don’t care that he’s my brother. I think at one point that stopped me, but not anymore. What’s stopping me from pulling the trigger now?
“Hope,” he says.
I still. “What?”
“You have hope. Hope that your friends survived. Hope that I have answers. Hope that Kai is alive.”
He’s right; I do have hope. I was wrong about Langston. Wrong about Liesel. Am I wrong about Kai too?
I grab his throat as I pocket my gun. This is personal. He will die at my hands, but not my weapon.
“What do you know?” I ask as I strangle his throat with my hands.
His face brightens. He’s won. He knows it. This is who Felix is. A snake that plays games with my head. I should know by now not to trust him.
Which is why when he said Kai was dead, I needed to see for myself. The same with Langston and Liesel. The evidence was there, pointing to their demises. But I was wrong about Langston and Liesel.
“What are you asking, Enzo?” Felix asks, so fucking calm even though I literally hold his life in my hands.
We’ve fought before. We are an equal match. But right now, I have the upper hand. Right now, with the anger and pain flowing through me, there is nothing that could stop me from killing him if I wanted to.
“Did you lie?”
Felix’s lips curl into an evil grin. “I lie about a lot of things Enzo. Which lie are you referring to?”
I can’t believe I’m going to say these words. I know the evidence. And I can’t trust Felix. If I want to search for myself to see if Kai is alive, I need to do it. But not because of anything Felix says. I won’t ask. I don’t need to hear more lies from Felix.
Just kill him.
Felix sees the fight within me. He sees the turmoil and of course, he takes advantage.
“Kai is alive,” he says.
My heart stops.
My world stops.
Everything stops.
I’m good at reading people. Good at determining when they are telling the truth or a lie. But with Felix, it’s impossible to tell. He only shows what he wants you to see.
And right now, I know this is about survival for him. He’s giving me hope that he is the only person in the world who will be able to find Kai. He knows that will keep him alive.
Kill him.
I squeeze tighter around his neck so that he can’t breathe.
But he’s calm. Too calm. He raises an eyebrow as if to say, why am I still alive if you want me dead?
Because he fucking gave me hope. He dangled the one thing I want more than anything in the world in front of me. And now I don’t know what to do with that.
“Where is she?” I ask, showing no restraint—playing all of my cards at once.
Felix laughs. “Safe. Alive. And mine.”
I shove him hard against the brick wall behind him. “Where. Is. She?”
“Safe, with the man I planted in her life. She has no idea he’s the enemy. No idea the man she’s falling in love with is also the man who will snuff out her life with one phone call from me.”
“Liar.” I slam him against the wall harder. There is no way Kai is falling in love with another man. Not so soon. Not while still pregnant. Not possible.
“Pull out my phone,” Felix says, taunting me.
Don’t listen to him. He’s a liar.
But my hope that Kai is alive overrules any common sense I have when it comes to Felix.
I release him, pull out my gun, and aim it at his head again as I reach into his pocket and pull out his cell phone.
“Look at the text messages from Beckett,” he says.
I open his text messages. And find the messages. Hundreds of messages. All pictures of Kai.
These could be fake. He could have manipulated old photos of Kai to make it look like she’s still alive somewhere else.
But it doesn’t stop my heart from speeding rapidly at the thought that Kai is alive.
She’s alive.
For the first time in weeks, I have hope. I have a reason to live that doesn’t involve killing other people.
“How?” I ask.
“If that is the question you are asking, it’s, as usual, the wrong one. Kai is strong, fearless, and unstoppable. Do you really think she was going to let me kill her with a little explosion? She fought harder for her life, for her child’s life.”
I frown.
“You should have had more faith in her than that. The fact that you believed she was dead so easily is ridiculous.”
He’s right. I should have fought harder for her. I should have searched the end of the earth for her.
I scroll through more pictures of her. Still not fully believing that she is alive, even though I have pictures in my hand. Felix is a liar. This could all be a lie, to torture me with.
But then I see the clearest image out of the bunch. Most of the pictures are blurry or half shots of her taken quickly so that she won’t notice that a picture is being taken. But the last image is the clearest.
It’s a full-on shot of Kai, her belly has doubled in size since the last time I saw her, there is a fresh pain in her eyes, and there is another man with
his hand on her shoulder.
I told Kai when she ran, to really run. To not look back. That I would find her. And she hid in the last place I or anyone else would ever look for her.
But it wasn’t enough, Felix found her. And now I have too.
I will keep her safe.
“So you see, you won’t kill me,” Felix says.
I growl. “You underestimate my need to keep Kai safe.”
He shakes his head. “That’s exactly why you won’t kill me.”
“What did you do?”
“I tied my life to hers.”
I hold up his cell phone. “But I have the key to ensuring your man doesn’t kill Kai before I get there. He texts you regularly, and you respond. All I have to do is keep up the charade until I’ve reached Alaska and killed him.”
He smirks. “So you’ve figured out where Kai is. Good for you. I always knew you were the smart one in the family,” he says sarcastically.
“You should choose your last words more carefully.”
“The text exchange isn’t what is keeping Kai alive.”
I frown.
“What then?”
“Kill me and find out.”
He won’t tell me. He could be bluffing. This whole thing could be an elaborate lie. But my hope is too strong.
And my fear of losing Kai stronger.
I won’t risk her life to get my revenge.
I growl and then knock him out with my gun.
Felix is right—I can’t kill him. Not until I figure out how his life is tied to Kai. Is Beckett the only man who will be ready to kill her if Felix is reported dead? Are there others? Did he hook up some explosives? What?
I don’t know.
I just know I need Felix contained until I can figure out if Kai is alive. And how to keep her safe.
I pull out my own cell and dial the direct line to detective Perry.
“Hello?” he answers.
“I have another one for you. In the back alley behind the club. He was trying to make an escape, but I knocked him out.”
“Good work, I’ll be right there.”
I hang up as I wait for the police to apprehend Felix. It’s a temporary solution at best. Felix will escape prison easily. He has too much money and resources not to. But it will give me a head start.
Felix starts coming to as the footsteps approach. It doesn’t take him long to register what’s happening as the police officers lift him off the ground and put handcuffs on his wrists.
Felix looks right at me with a smug smirk. “Tick-tock,” he says as the police drag him away.
I don’t have to ask what the meaning is behind his words. Kai’s life is on the line. I have no idea how long I have to get to her. I don’t know what danger and traps Felix may have set. Or if this is all a mind game he’s playing with me.
All I know is I need to get to Alaska as soon as possible and pray that Kai is still alive by the time I get there.
10
Kai
“We need to get you into bed,” my father says.
“The doctor said I need to rest and take it easy for a couple of days, not that I need bedrest. All I’ve done is lay in a hospital bed for the last couple of days. Let’s go sit out on the back porch and have some tea or something,” I say.
My father frowns.
Beckett looks like I’ve just told him I want to go to a strip club and drink shots.
I sigh. “Fine, I’ll rest for a little bit.”
I shouldn’t complain that I have two men that care so much about me. Even if they aren’t the men I would prefer to have by my side. I’m beginning to trust them both. I’m beginning to think that either man would take a bullet for me or my baby.
I feel safe. If only Enzo…
No.
I won’t let myself go there anymore. I don’t get to look back, only forward.
All the people I loved are gone. These two men are my future. My baby is my future. I can’t think about anything else.
“I’ll make you some tea though that you can drink in bed,” my father says, kissing me on the forehead before heading to his kitchen.
Beckett holds out his arm to me.
I tilt my head to the side as I raise an eyebrow, but can’t hide the light smile on my lips. “I can walk on my own, you know.”
“What would Enzo do?”
I bite my lip as my full smile covers my lips. “He’d carry me to bed.”
Beckett holds out his arms.
And my heart warms. Not in the flipping, beating kind of way it does for Enzo. More in the calm comfort way when Zeke or Langston would do something for me.
I take Beckett’s hand, and he pulls me gently to him. A moment flashes, where I think I see a moment of reluctance from him. But as quickly as it comes, it’s gone.
He wiggles his eyebrows, then scoops me up in his arms.
I giggle as he does. I haven’t laughed much in the few weeks since I’ve been here, but he makes me laugh.
His phone buzzes as he carries me to the bedroom. And I see that slight frown again.
“Girlfriend problems?” I tease.
He slowly shakes his head as he carries me into my bedroom, “Kai, I need to tell you—”
“Put her down, now.” The boom of the voice knocks us both back. I close my eyes as I feel the impact of those words. I don’t trust my eyes. My eyes have imagined Enzo a thousand times. I don’t trust my ears. My ears have sung his voice to me too many times. The only thing I trust is my heart. It can’t be fooled. I focus in on my heart.
It beats, faster and faster. Skipping a beat in anticipation of being wrapped in his arms.
“Put the gun down. We don’t need you getting trigger happy and shooting her. She’s pregnant for goodness sakes,” Beckett says.
Beckett is talking to the man. The man has a gun. Is the man Enzo, though?
My heart says, yes.
I open my eyes and see Enzo standing on the edge of the shadows of the room with a gun in his hand pointed at Beckett, who is still holding me in his arms.
“Enzo,” I breathe.
He found me.
He came for me.
He should have stayed away.
Only one of us can live…
“Stingray,” he says back.
“It’s really you,” I say, fighting to get out of Beckett’s arms. But Beckett doesn’t realize Enzo isn’t a threat yet.
“Kai, when I put you down, I need you to get behind me. And make a run for the door if you get the chance,” Beckett says calmly into my hair.
That’s when I realize Enzo still has a gun pointed at us.
“Enzo, put the gun away,” I say calmly, not sure why he’s drawn his gun in the first place.
“No, Beckett is dangerous.”
I look up at Beckett, who is holding me tightly.
“No, he’s not. My father hired him as security. To protect me. Now, put the gun away.”
Enzo doesn’t drop the gun. “Put Kai down.”
Beckett nods. “You’re right. She shouldn’t be involved in this.”
Beckett walks us back to the door instead of toward Enzo.
“No!” I want to go to Enzo, not away.
Beckett turns his back to Enzo, shocking the hell out of me as he puts me on the ground at the door. “Run,” he says.
I do run, just not in the direction he wants me to run.
I run right into Enzo’s arms.
The gun lowers as Enzo wraps his arms around me.
We both exhale all of our pain at the same time as we hold each other. Everything we’ve been dealing with for the last few weeks is gone the second I hit his arms.
The fear.
The pain.
The ache.
All gone.
“I thought…I thought you were dead,” Enzo says, tears flowing freely down his cheeks.
His hand brushes against my cheek as he runs his hand through my hair messily brushing it away from my face so he can look int
o my eyes—that are tear-stained and red.
We both forget about Beckett. All we see is each other.
Enzo grabs my neck and pulls me into the deepest kiss. A kiss that brings me back from the dead. A kiss that reminds me what love is and what I almost lost. A kiss that is more than a kiss, it’s hope.
When Enzo pulls away, he’s quickly brought back to reality. He grabs me and shoves me behind his body as he once again aims his gun at Beckett.
“Don’t! He’s on our side! He was just trying to protect me. He didn’t realize who you were,” I say, grabbing onto Enzo’s arm, trying to get him to lower the gun.
Enzo narrows his gaze in Beckett’s direction. “It was a brilliant plan. You fooled a woman who can spot a fraud from a mile away. But I know the truth. Tell her, so I can kill you.”
Kill him? “No, you can’t kill him,” I cry.
Enzo looks at me like I’m breaking his heart for defending a man like Beckett. But I have no idea why Enzo is so insistent about Beckett. I’m rarely wrong about the character of a man. I can tell when I’m being lied to. I suspected Felix before anyone else did. And Beckett is a good man. He’s saved me. Protected me. Even now, he won’t draw his gun that I know he has because he’s afraid of hitting me instead of Enzo.
“Beckett? Why does Enzo want to kill you?” I ask, when I see the reluctance in his eyes.
“Because he works for Felix,” Enzo answers for him.
My jaw falls. “He doesn’t. He can’t…” but when I look into Beckett’s eyes, I know it’s true. He does.
“I’m so sorry, Kai. I wanted to tell you. I was going to and then—”
“And then nothing. We don’t need to hear any more of your lies. Toss me your phone,” Enzo says.
Beckett slowly reaches into his pocket and tosses Enzo his phone. Enzo pockets it.
“What was Felix’s plan? How many others are here? How many people know Kai is here?”
Beckett stands tall and unafraid as he answers. Like he’s willing to face whatever punishment awaits him. “Felix and I are the only ones who know. There is no one else here. He didn’t trust anyone else with the information. He knew you could torture them into telling you where Kai was.”