The Tin Man (Inner Circle #1) : Enemies to Lovers Dark Romance Thriller

by Kailin Gow

  Ace nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “But when you’ve lost everything,” I went on, my mind racing back to that time in my life. “When you’re asked to make a hit on a beautiful and sweet girl, but you end up falling in love with your target. When the Circle realizes that you’ve backed out of your mission and that you’ve betrayed them, and they want to ruin you… Kill you. When the woman you love doesn’t even know who you are… When your father quite literally sacrifices his own life to…”

  I took a gulp of wine, not even enjoying the flavor.

  “Well he fucking dies so that he can fucking save your sorry ass…” I said, almost gagging on the words.

  I sat back and tried to cool off. I sipped my wine as I reviewed the harshest times of my life and the scars they’d left.

  My father had taught me the importance of having a cold heart… heartless. But what good had it really done me.

  “I see what you mean,” Ace said quietly. “I don’t envy you, man.”

  “And I hope that you never have to experience it firsthand,” I said, looking up into his boyish face. “Because it’s a shitty way to live.”

  He looked at me then looked at the expensive bottle of wine I’d opened. “I guess it’s true what they say… money doesn’t fix everything.”

  I took in a deep breath and looked at him. Every day he was more and more like the kid brother I’d never had. He was maturing, growing and becoming wiser.

  “Not everything,” I said with a sardonic grin.

  I looked around at the church basement. “This place was cool when my father first established it as a safe place to hide out. I came here once after a hit…. My father was the best of the best…” My words just hung there.

  “You miss him?”

  “My dad?” I said. Shrugging, I thought about the man who’d taught me to be so heartless and methodical. The one who had even encouraged me be as cold and calculating as possible. “I’m not sure. I guess I miss a part of who he was… but… I don’t know.”

  “Well, at least you know who your old man is,” Ace said. “I had to make up an imaginary vision of what my father was.”

  “Did you make him out to be a superhero?” I said with a smirk. “You know, a fire fighter or soldier or shit?”

  “Sometimes,” he said with a childish shrug. “I imagined that he was the bravest firefighter, going up into the mountains to put out those massive fires… all by himself. He died a hero, having saved everyone.

  “Other times he was the villain who was mean and selfish and self-indulgent. The man who never wanted to be a part of my life.” He looked around. “He never brought me to his own private hideout. He didn’t even want to know what I looked like. I mean, I could have maybe understood if I’d been some brat of a kid and he got fed up and left, but he didn’t even give me a chance to be nice or bratty. He just checked out before I could do anything.”

  I raised my glass of wine to him. “So, here’s to shitty fathers. It looks they they’re the ones who brought us together.”

  “Right,” he said with a sad grin.

  “Yeah, well,” I said as I took another look around the well thought out space. “This place is cool, and if we’re ever in a bind… keep it in mind. But I think this hideout isn’t going to be adequate for our needs.” I gestured to the computer. “Can you go on some realtor website or whatever, and try to find something suitable? You know, two to three bedrooms, large space for entertaining… something a bit remote… acreage.”

  “Entertaining?” he said, confused.

  “Yeah,” I said with a wicked grin. “I think it’s time Parker James threw a housewarming party for his friends. I think it’s time we all met, face to face.”

  “You want to invite the Inner Circle?”

  Nodding, I glanced at him. “Why go around the world chasing them down when I can, as the CEO of TechUp, simply invite them to a fancy shindig, get them liquored up a bit, then have at them?”

  I looked at his immobile fingers. “Get going. I want to move out of here as quickly as possible.”

  “Sure thing, boss,” he said with a grin. “I’ll get right on it.”

  Chapter 13

  Dante Black/Parker James

  “Found anything?” I said. I’d taken a long hot shower and changed into some casual jeans and clean shirt.

  “I have three places to go check out,” Ace said.

  “Cool,” I said. “Let’s go have a look.”

  We headed out to my car and Ace entered the first address into the GPS.

  “They’re asking a little over seven million. It has four bedrooms, four baths, a huge entertainment area, a pool, patio, chef’s kitchen.”

  As I followed the directions the GPS was giving me, I realized we were heading to the beach.

  “Is this a waterfront property, Ace?” I said.

  “Yeah,” he said enthusiastically. “Right on the ocean.”

  I glanced at him, reluctant to pop his optimistic bubble. I didn’t really want a waterfront property. Chances are the lot would be too small, especially at seven million dollars. There was no way to get acreage on the water for that price.

  But I played along, and we headed to the house all the same.

  “Do you have the realtor’s code,” I said as we arrived at the door.

  “Yeah,” he said. “2-9-6-6.”

  I entered the code into the lockbox, popped it open and got the key to unlock the door.

  As soon as I opened the door, the smell of something awful struck us.

  “Damn,” Ace said as he took a step back. “What the hell is that smell.”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I think something died in here.”

  We’d barely entered the living room when we looked at each other and knew.

  “I don’t think this is going to work out, is it?” he said.

  I shook my head.

  The place was in a sorry state. The people who’d previously owned the house had clearly abandoned it a while ago. There were clear signs of neglect with water stains on the ceiling and walls, and we didn’t even want to go have a look at the kitchen, never mind the rest of the house.

  “So much for house number one,” Ace said.

  “Had you looked at the photos?” I said.

  “Yeah, but I’m guessing they took the photos of better days.” He looked around, clearly disappointed. “Too bad. Man, did you see that view.”

  I looked past the kitchen to the balcony that looked over the Pacific. “Unfortunately, that’s the only good thing about this house.”

  “Okay,” I said. “No need to look at any more at this crap. Let’s get out of here.”

  As we walked out and left the key, Ace smirked and looked at me.

  “Shit, I don’t even know why they need to lock the place. The smell alone is enough to keep people out.”

  “You never know,” I said as we headed back to the car. “Where to next?”

  After he entered the address, I looked closely at where the GPS was leading up. Up into the mountains. Perfect.

  We drove up Encinal Canyon Road and I glanced at all the great houses around us. With many of them, we could just barely see the house, only the gate that guarded their privacy.

  It was exactly what I was hoping for.

  “So, the next one is a Tuscan style home, once owned by the great Annette Fitzgibbons who had become somewhat of a recluse in her older days.”

  “Thanks for the history,” I said with a hint of sarcasm.

  “It’s a three bedroom house, two full baths plus two powder rooms. They’re asking just under eleven million and for that hefty price tag, you get a hot tub, pool and a lot more.”

  I knew as soon as we arrived that it wouldn’t suit my needs. The house was nice enough and there was a gate, but it was more decorative than functional, and the house was right there, clearly visible from the main road.

  “You don’t like it?” Ace said.

  “I reall
y want a lot more privacy, Ace.”

  “Okay, then. Skip this one and head over to the last one. It’s a biggy though. They’re asking for twenty-three million, but… it’s fully furnished.”

  I laughed at that added detail. “Good. Let’s go have a look.”

  As we turned off the main road and took a secondary side street, I became more and more enthusiastic. This was more like it. Far away, secluded, isolated.

  Private.

  We finally reached the beautifully ornate gate.

  “I like what I see so far,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” Ace said. “We can’t even see the house from here.”

  “That’s what I like about it.” I pulled the car up to the gate and got out to enter the code.

  Once beyond the gate we drove for a quarter mile before finally seeing the silhouette of the house.

  “I think this is going to be the one, Ace.”

  “You haven’t even seen the interior.”

  “I don’t need to. This is great.”

  As it turned out, Ace had really come through and had found us the perfect place. Tucked away in the canyons of Malibu, it was a large sprawling ranch style home on a few scenic acres. The long driveway was blocked off to intruders with that solid wrought iron gate, and the house was far enough away from peering eyes.

  “Good work,” I said to Ace a week later as we moved in.

  The place turned out to be only partially furnished. All that was missing were the beds and dressers, some occasional tables here and there, television sets and a larger desk for the computer equipment we brought in.

  But the existing furniture was perfect for our needs. Beautifully worn in tan leather sofas with a massive coffee table. The built-in shelving units on either side of the majestic fireplace were well built and were great for storing a lot of our stuff.

  The living space was massive, and it opened to the informal dining area which opened to the immense kitchen. The kitchen boasted two large islands topped with dark marble countertops that contrasted with the white marble of the remaining counters. The white marble climbed up the wall giving the kitchen a cool atmosphere.

  Since Ace had done such a good job of finding the place, I offered him his choice of bedroom. The large master bedroom had a bay of windows that looked over the desert canyons and the distant Pacific. The bathroom had a sweet hammock style bathtub that I was dying to try and a huge tiled in shower with multiple showerheads.

  The second bedroom was reasonably large, had a view of the desert sprawling out towards the east and a bathroom with a sunken tub, double sinks and a tiled shower.

  The third bedroom was just as large but being at the far end of the house and with an unimpressive northern view, we both decided that would be the computer room.

  “You take the big room, boss,” Ace had said. “I like the smaller room. It’s nice and cozy.”

  “Right,” I’d said with a laugh.

  It had taken only a week to find that new house and finalize the transaction. Within days of that, we had settled in and I was looking forward to entertaining some special guests.

  But I was also happy to have a home to call my own. For a while I’d been going around from place to place, renting hotel rooms for a while, only to move into a rental for a month or so.

  Now, I finally felt like I had really settled into the place where I belonged.

  The house was near Hidden Falls where I’d moved to for a year to target Summer. Maybe that was also part of the appeal of being back in California. There was something strange and nostalgic about being back there. It was the closest thing to time travel.

  Memories of my time with Summer would flash through my mind at the most unexpected times. Driving up the canyon, I could hear her laugh and remembered when we would find a new trail to discover and explore.

  In town, I remembered every single restaurant that we went to, remembered the conversations we had, talking about nothing in particular, talking about our future together, talking about our friends and studies. It was a magical time for us both.

  “You okay, man?” Ace said as he came into the great room.

  I turned to him. “Yeah. Sure. What’s up?”

  “It’s only the third time I call your name and you’re like… way out there. What’s got you so caught up that you don’t even hear your name.”

  I shrugged and looked at him. Would he understand what I was going through? “I’m just thinking of old times out here. I’ve always loved Malibu. It’ a cool place with so many cool things to do. Most people only think of the beach and the ocean, but there’s so much more. I just love it out here… and, well… it’s a special place.”

  “Because of that girl?”

  Nodding, I smiled sheepishly. “Yeah,” I said. “Okay. The girl has something to do with it, too.”

  “You had a lot of good times with her, didn’t you?”

  “I sure did. Best times of my life.” My mind wandered off to another time. To a much happier time. “Every so often we would go to the Malibu Pier to watch the sun go down. She always loved doing that… especially when the weather wasn’t too great. There were usually less people then and she liked that sense of being out there all alone… Well, with me, of course.”

  “Hey, but this is sunny California. When does the weather ever get bad?”

  I laughed. “You’d be surprised. I don’t know what it is about the area, but you can have sun everywhere, and yet, if you head down to the coast you can suddenly find yourself in this really thick fog. It’s actually pretty cool… and Summer loved it. I think there was something about the obscurity of it all that she liked.”

  Ace smiled, caught up in my reverie.

  “One time, we drove up to Deer Creek. Man. You’ve never seen anything like it. The fog was low, and there we were, above it all. We could actually see waves in the clouds… kind of like what you would see on the ocean below it. It was mesmerizing.”

  “Sounds kind of mystical.”

  “It was. But the ultimate view, the ultimate hike, the ultimate summit was Sandstone Peak. Think about it. It’s over three thousand feet high, the highest around here. After a short hike of just over a mile and a gain of just over a thousand feet, you are awestruck for life.”

  “A thousand feet. I bet you’re pretty breathless, too” Ace said.

  I grinned. “Yeah, but it’s worth it. Summer talked about that one for days. The mountains all around us, the Channel Islands in the distance. It’s the most perfect all around view.”

  “That must have been some view,” Ace said.

  “Sometimes I’d take her down to El Matador Beach. It has these cool sea caves. You can just wander around, explode… hide.” I looked at him. “Well, I won’t go into too much detail about what Summer and I did down there. Suffice it to say that we had a great time… every time.”

  “I don’t doubt it.”

  “We went everywhere together,” I went on. “We visited Adamson House, Topanga… everywhere.” I let out a laugh. “This one morning, really, really early, before school started, we headed to the Santa Monica mountains. There’s this old fire tower and it’s the absolutely most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen.”

  “Don’t you mean sunset?” Ace argued. “Like to the west on the ocean?”

  “No,” I insisted. “You’re up on this mountain. You look to the east, over the mountains and you see the sun creep up, then you just turn your head to the west, and you have the ocean just lighting up under those first faint rays of the distant sun. It’s the coolest thing ever. Then you take the PCH and enjoy the ride as the world comes alive.”

  “PCH?”

  “The Pacific Coast Highway.”

  I looked out the window of the house I’d just purchased. It was a nice view, but it was nothing compared to that morning.

  “Summer always wanted to go back to that place.” My eyes suddenly filled with frustrated tears. “Before the explosion we had talked about going back there so
metime. We were supposed to go back. Damn, there were so many places we were supposed to go back to.”

  “Sorry, man.”

  I shrugged, refusing to let myself get caught up in the emotional turmoil of that year. I blinked the tears away and wanted to bring my focus back on the present, but I was stuck there. Stuck three years earlier when my life was fun in the sun with Summer.

  “We’d go down to Zuma beach,” I said, bringing a cheery tone back to my voice. “And we could literally sit there for hours watching the dolphins play. Sometimes it was as if they were putting on a show especially for us.”

  “Cool,” Ace said. “I’ve never seen a dolphin before… not even at one of those marine parks.”

  “Well,” I said with a grin. “We’ll have to fix that. Pick a day this week and we’ll head out there and hope to see some.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Me, too.”

  Ace let out a loud laugh. “Yeah. Only you would dump me in a heartbeat if you could go with that girl again instead of me.”

  I laughed along with him. “I can’t argue with you there, buddy. I love you and all, but… Hell, if I ever have the chance to bring Summer to any of those places, you can bet I’m going to jump at that chance.”

  “Can’t say I blame you.”

  “Damn,” I let out beneath my breath. “I miss those days. Damn, how I miss her.”

  Ace was quiet for a long moment, giving me time to recover from my trip down memory lane.

  “Sorry about all that,” I finally said. “It’s all been a little overwhelming ever since we settled in here. Every time I go into town, it’s like… Well… I just go back to that time again.”

  “No problem,” Ace said. “I understand. I mean, I don’t know from experience, but I can understand.”

  I smiled at him. “What were you coming to see me about?”

  “Oh. Yeah. Right,” Ace said, bringing forth a sheet of paper with scribbles on it. “So, here’s the final guest list.”

  I put aside my residual thoughts of Summer and tried to concentrate on the task at hand.