by E. M. Moore
Contents
Also By E. M. Moore
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Pre-Order Beautiful Soldier
Facebook Group & Newsletter
The Ballers of Rockport High
The Rockstars of Hollywood Hill Series
Spring Hill Blues
Safe Haven Academy Series
Safe Haven Academy Series Blurb
About the Author
Arm Candy Warrior
The Heights Crew
Book Two
By
E. M. Moore
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2020 by E. M. Moore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact E. M. Moore at [email protected].
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition April 2020
Edited by Heather Long
Cover by 2nd Life Designs
Huge thanks to my beta readers: Bibi, Ashton, Lisa, Jorden, Summer, Jennifer, and Angie!
Also By E. M. Moore
The Heights Crew Series
Uppercut Princess
Arm Candy Warrior
Beautiful Soldier
The Ballers of Rockport High Series
Game On
Foul Line
At the Buzzer
Rockstars of Hollywood Hill
Rock On
Spring Hill Blue Series
Free Fall
Catch Me
Ravana Clan Vampires Series
Chosen By Darkness
Into the Darkness
Falling For Darkness
Surrender To Darkness
Ravana Clan Legacy Series
A New Genesis
Tracking Fate
Cursed Gift
Veiled History
Fractured Vision
Chosen Destiny
Order of the Akasha Series
Stripped (Prequel)
Summoned By Magic
Tempted By Magic
Ravished By Magic
Indulged By Magic
Enraged By Magic
Her Alien Scouts Series
Kain Encounters
Kain Seduction
Rise of the Morphings Series
Of Blood and Twisted Roots
Safe Haven Academy Series
A Sky So Dark
A Dawn So Quiet
Chronicles of Cas Series
Reawakened
Hidden
Power
Severed
Rogue
The Adams’ Witch Series
Bound In Blood
Cursed In Love
Witchy Librarian Cozy Mystery Series
Wicked Witchcraft
One Wicked Sister
Wicked Cool
Wicked Wiccans
1
I squeeze my eyes closed. One Kyle and An-na. Two Kyle and An-na.
“Babe. Oh my God, babe.”
No, no, no. Three Kyle and An-na.
A heavy hand skates around my back, grips my waist, and pulls me back into a hard body. I cower away from it. He knew. He knew this was all going down. The rest of us were like sitting ducks.
“Shh,” he whispers, trying to comfort me. My life is coming apart at the seams. It’s done this once before. I had to sew the pieces back together with a shitty cob job, but this might be the time when the stitches rip out fully, unable to be tied back up in a neat little revenge-ridden bow. “Are you okay?” When I don’t say anything, Johnny shouts, “Is she fucking hurt? What the fuck, Magnum? I told you to watch out for her!”
“She’s injured from the fight and the escape. Not badly though.” Magnum hisses in a breath after answering, and I peek at him to see if there’s still blood dripping down his arm from the bullet that grazed him. “We were followed. Roza’s guys were shooting at us, but she hasn’t been hit.”
He’s not lying. I’m not hurt physically, but there are a million and one ways to hurt someone.
“Thank fuck.” Johnny nuzzles me again, and I squeeze my eyes shut harder. Two different parts of my brain war with one another. The one that’s thankful he’s here trying to comfort me, and the other that wishes the hands holding me belonged to someone else. Two someone elses. Guilt forces its way into my conscience like a nail being driven in with a hammer. I didn’t want Johnny to die. Hell, I didn’t want anyone to die but Big Daddy K.
“Johnny.”
My stomach heaves. I forgot he was here. In my head, I play back Big Daddy K shooting Roza in the head. The chaos that ensued afterward. The screams. The loud crack of gunshots. Because why? Why the fuck would he do that? I won the fight. Goddammit. I fought for nothing. Nothing.
“Take her to your place,” Big Daddy K’s calm voice says. “We have things to discuss.” He’s acting like it’s any other day. Those words slipped from his lips just as if he was asking someone to change the channel on the TV. But this isn’t TV. This is real fucking life.
Johnny pats my shoulder, squeezing me there. He lowers his voice. “Come on, babe. Let me get you settled.” He moves his hands around me and starts to pull me up.
I step away from him. The fuck if I need his help. “Don’t,” I say.
I walk toward the still open door no one else has come through. My feet are like lead weights, and my shin hurts enough that I want to fall right back down again, but I don’t let that stop me. I put as much distance between me and Johnny Rocket—the whole fucking Heights Crew—as I can.
There’s still so much roaring in my ears that I don’t hear anyone behind me until a hand slowly wraps around my bicep right before I hit the button for the elevator. “What are you doing, babe?”
I spin toward him. My body weighs a million pounds, measured in fear and guilt and anger, and I almost trip over my feet.
When he sees me look at him for the first time, he grimaces, eyes fluttering like he can’t stand to see the look on my face.
“What am I doing?” Anger rises to the surface, burying the other emotions for the time being. “I’m leaving, Rocket.”
His jaw tightens, his face like stone. “You can’t go anywhere. What’s left of Roza’s crew will be looking for you. For any of us.”
The world tilts. It’s as if I’ve been thrown off my axis again. Even if Oscar and Brawler are okay, they’ll be hunted down just like me if I were to leave this building. Roza’s gang is probably staking out the place. Whoever
’s left, as Johnny put it, probably has a laser sight aimed at the exit of this place.
Leaving would be a death trap. Staying could be the same.
Rocket reaches for me, but I step out of the way again. I’ve reverted to a petulant child, but he doesn’t deserve to touch me. He never did. Maybe I was just a fool to think he could change. That he was just a victim of his circumstances. There has to be a line somewhere, right? One that says, yes, this is how he grew up, and the other that says he knows better and he doesn’t give a fuck.
“Don’t pull away from me. Please,” Johnny pleads. His pale blue eyes melt like ice chips. Whatever kind of fucked up heart Johnny has inside of him, it’s clear my actions are bothering him.
Fucking good. “Your dad killed her. He walked right up to her and pulled the trigger.” As I’m saying this, it dawns on me I shouldn’t be shocked. Isn’t that what he did to my parents? The only difference being my parents were innocent bystanders. They weren’t trying to take away Big Daddy K’s fighting ring. “What was the point in having me fight if he was just going to kill her ass, anyway?”
“You’re the one who begged to fight,” Johnny growls. The devil who waits on his shoulder takes over, spearing me with his words. There’s no more concern in his eyes. It’s replaced with hard steel. Stubbornness. Holier-than-thou, Godlike bullshit.
I lift my hand and slap him. The crack of my palm against his cheek rings through the hallway. It cuts through the buzzing in my ears until the sting of my palm radiates outward, acknowledging what I’ve done.
He slowly moves his jaw back and forth before staring at me straight in the eyes. “Again.”
I slap him a second time—harder—rage fusing my thoughts together. “I fought because I thought it was going to make a difference. I thought it meant something. I didn’t volunteer for the fucking fun of it, Asshole.”
“Again,” Johnny growls, steeling himself for another outburst.
I haul off and slap him a third time, the cracking sound ricocheting once more through the empty hall. “And you knew about it. You knew what was going to happen. You knew my life was in danger, and you told me nothing.” I pull my hand back again, clenched into a fist this time, and aim right for his perfect nose.
He dodges me, parrying my punch and then pulling me toward him. He’s all hard muscles at first. It’s like being hugged by a mannequin made of sharp rocks. Little by little, he melts into me though. “Mag had you,” he whispers into my ear. “He had you. If you think for one second I would risk you, you don’t understand me at all.”
Such pretty words. My heart splinters. I want these words. I want them so desperately, but I can’t help but think the person saying them is a cold, hard, calculating wolf. He talks a pretty game. Sometimes he even acts like a gentleman. Heavy on the sometimes. But then there’s always the devil inside him waiting to claw itself to the surface.
“I’ve got you, Kyla,” he continues. “Nothing was ever going to happen to you. I can promise you that. I would never allow that to happen.”
I swallow. His words lodge in my throat and coat my mouth in bitterness. “You can’t say the same for everyone. Did everyone else know? Were any of them blindsided like me? What about them? Johnny—”
A throat clears behind us. “Rocket, your dad’s asking for you.”
I peer over his shoulder to find Magnum. His arm is properly bandaged now. He’s standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, his usual security pose.
Johnny pulls away until I’m at arm’s length. “This is what it’s like in the Heights,” he says, cupping my cheek. “If you’re from here, you know how things go down. It shouldn’t have been a shock to anyone.” He holds my gaze, and I get the distinct feeling he’s telling me I should’ve known what was really going to happen.
The back of my neck burns. I have a problem with that, and I have a hard time believing Brawler knew what was going to happen either.
Then again, he didn’t want me to fight. No one did.
Except Big Daddy K.
Johnny’s cheek is a splotchy red color. I eye the crimson stains while he calls over his shoulder, “Magnum, can you take Kyla into my suite? She’s had a rough day.” He turns and traces his thumb just under my eyes. His striking blue gaze glints while he looks at me, and little-by-little, a soft smile curves the corners of his lips. It’s a gesture I wasn’t sure he’d be capable of after what happened tonight.
There are two sides to Johnny Rocket. One that can woo me. One that I can see a sense of humanity in. But then there’s the other. It’s like his opposite. His enemy, but they’re both living in the same body. He touches his forehead to mine. “I’ll be in as soon as I can. Dad and I just need to talk strategy going forward. We know what you did for us out there. Trust me. It won’t be forgotten, and you’re safe for now.”
He walks away, taking my humanity with him. I close my eyes and try to center myself. I’m either the most naïve person alive or there’s just…something about him.
Magnum moves forward. I sense his domineering presence before I even pry my eyes open. His stature rivals Johnny’s, but it isn’t terrifying, it’s comforting.
But why do I think that? Magnum knew what Big Daddy K was going to do, too. That’s why he came for me right away. They’d pre-planned for Magnum to get me out of there as soon as I won.
I stare at his copper scruff. Dust coats one side with brown smears edging up his cheekbones. I wonder what I look like. A quick inspection tells me I also look a little worse for wear. My fight outfit is ripped. Pebbles are stuck in my arms, surrounded by scrapes and smudges of dirt. I probably have glass in my hair from the car and God knows what else.
“Let’s get you into the suite,” Mag says, gesturing toward the door on the opposite side of the hall.
His voice is pitched low, and his eyes are greedy as he watches me. I’ve always felt like I’ve been on display for him. I chalked it up to it being part of his job to watch things, but his gaze is always trained on me when I’m around.
I follow him into Johnny’s suite and make my way to the black leather sofa. At first, I want to dive into it, let the cushions cocoon me, so I can close my eyes and forget any of this ever happened, but that won’t do. Other things are priority. I need to know what happened to Oscar and Brawler, first and foremost.
I skew my face into a hard line. “I need to know what’s being done to find the others who were there.”
Magnum strokes his beard. It’s like a tic at first, but then he pulls his hand away, glancing at his fingers briefly before combing his copper stubble more fully as if grooming himself. “Whoever made it will meet back here. They might have to wait awhile. Until they think it’s safe.”
“What about the ones who aren’t in the Crew?” I keep my voice flat and only slightly interested. “Where will they go?”
“Is this about Brawler?”
Fuck. I grind my teeth together, keeping my face impassive. How much do I want to give away? Will he go running to Johnny if I tell him I’m worried about where Brawler is?
Mag swallows, his eyes never wavering away from me. His stare is something else. The way he looks at me is like he wants to rip the truth from my body.
Fuck me. I’ll probably die for this.
I nod.
Magnum blows out a breath. “I imagine he’ll hide somewhere. He won’t go home because he wouldn’t want to lead anyone to his mom. He’ll go underground for a while until it’s safe. You need to remember that they—we—all grew up like this, Kyla. They know what they’re doing.”
I nod again, not able to find the words to thank him, and I don’t want to say anything to give my true feelings away either. Underneath the calm surface I’m trying to portray, I’m still reeling from the night’s events. A woman got gunned down three feet from where I stood. A shootout combusted around me in a flurry of bullets and blood. I don’t know where Brawler is. Or Oscar. Hell, I don’t even know if I can trust my own feelings. My own self.
Magnum steps toward me. In a flash, he’s the same guy who rescued me from the parking lot and brought me back here. So much has happened since then that it feels like a lifetime ago, but Magnum touched me. His hand cradled my face. The same guy who did that is now standing a foot away from me, hazel eyes staring me down. “You can trust me, you know. I’ll try to find out what happened to Brawler and Oscar. For you.”
My face pales. Now that the hype of the shootout isn’t scorching through my veins, I realize I’ve given too much away. “I—”
Magnum shakes his head. “I get it. Don’t say another word. It’s between us.”
He leaves, and I stand in the middle of Johnny’s living room in shock. I reach out to make sure the couch is behind me and then sit down heavily. I thought this world would have lies, deceit, anger, and death. And it does. It has all of that. But it has more than that, too. People like Brawler come from here. People like Oscar and Magnum. They’ve all stepped up to help me, not understanding I’m here for a greater—if not sinister—purpose. A desire that’s overwhelmed my life for so long that I don’t even know what it’s like to have people who care about me anymore. I live in the dark side of my self. I live in the depths of revenge and vengeance and my calm hand pulling the trigger to a bullet that will end the life of the guy who took everything from me. If anything, I thought I’d fit in here.