by Maris Black
My mouth dropped open, and I stared at him. “Why me? I’m not my uncle. Far from it, in fact.”
“True,” he said. “But you are the official owner of everything Theo holds dear, and you are his last connection to his best friend, Peter Santori. And…” Aaron scrubbed his fingers through his baby beard. “You look an awful lot like Peter.”
“Well, there was definitely a family resemblance, but I’m hardly his doppelganger.”
Aaron chuckled. “Have you never seen any old pictures of your uncle?”
“He didn’t exactly keep framed photos of himself on the fireplace mantel.”
“No, but there are some tucked away in the folder flaps at the backs of those journals.” He cocked his head at me. “You’re really not very observant, are you?”
That pissed me off.
“I’m extremely observant. Just not where my uncle is concerned. I spent too many years wishing he’d disappear.”
“And you finally got your wish. Unfortunately, as it turns out, your uncle was the only thing keeping you safe. He kept you sheltered from the harsh realities of his business, presumably until the time was right to initiate you properly. He just died before that could happen. The man was clearly deluded about his own mortality.”
“But in the end, he was going to kill me,” I said.
Aaron shook his head. “It was all a ruse. I happen to have the inside track on that situation, remember? That man never intended to kill you, Kage. You were his heir, and he took that very seriously. I doubt he gave you the entire contents of that syringe.”
“But I think I remember seeing him empty it into me.”
Aaron raised a brow. “You don’t think he could have squirted some of it out before he gave you the shot?”
“Oh. That never occurred to me. I guess he could have.”
“I’m sure he wouldn’t have risked killing you. I know for a fact he was only stalling until he could get you under control. Things just got out of hand.”
“But… Jamie.” My mind was frantically trying to hang onto the crumbs of truth he was feeding me.
“Oh, he fully intended to hurt Jamie if it came to that. He was certainly no humanitarian. But the original plan was for us to talk Jamie into leaving. The drugs were just to scare you. If you hadn’t come barging into his apartment that day, things would likely have played out very differently.”
“But why did he have such a vendetta against Jamie?”
Aaron shook his head. “Love was never supposed to be in the cards for you, Kage. At least not like that. Santori was convinced that your proclivities toward men were going to be your downfall, and then when you actually developed feelings for one of them… Well, he couldn’t abide that. Not when your affection for Jamie had you rebelling in earnest. For the first time, your uncle felt like his control on you was slipping. He needed to rein you back in.”
“So he never even planned to kill me?”
Aaron scoffed. “Not even a little bit. He just wanted to scare you. To scare you both. He had Aldo and me keeping tabs on the two of you all the time, looking for anything to drive a wedge between you. When that didn’t work, he resorted to hardcore scare tactics. In the end, it was just too much for him, losing control that way. He flipped out, and I had to step in. Especially when Aldo started waving that gun around. He would have put bullets in us all if he’d thought it was what Santori wanted.”
“And you saved us.”
Aaron chuckled humorlessly. “Make no mistake, kid. I like you and Jamie, but I would never have compromised my mission or my safety to save you. This thing is bigger than us. Bigger than me. So I had to make a judgment call: back up a dead-end lead by helping to murder an innocent young man, or salvage what I had left.”
“And that was?” I thought I knew the answer, and it made me sick to my stomach.
“You,” he said simply.
And then all of it made sense. My part in this twisted drama. My destiny. The truth sank deep into my guts like a rusty hook, and I wanted to jump out of the car and run until I couldn’t run anymore—until my insides burned and my muscles gave out. But I couldn’t, because I didn’t want a fucking bullet in my back. I was caught, and all I could do was allow Aaron to reel me in by that rusty hook.
I took a deep breath, suddenly much closer to sober than I had been moments before. “What do I have to do?”
Aaron told the driver to head back to the doctor’s office, then leaned casually against the car door. “It’s pretty simple, really. Make friends with Theo and get me a list of everyone he’s working with.”
“Ummm… make friends with the man who trusts no one? How the fuck am I supposed to do that?”
Aaron shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll figure out a way.”
“And if I refuse?”
“I’m sure you can imagine. This is an important operation, Kage. We have the opportunity to take down some really big drug and arms dealers. After all of the time and money we’ve invested, we can’t afford to fail.”
I didn’t have anything to say after that. My words dried up, and I was left with nothing but images of what might happen if I didn’t go along with Aaron’s plan.
As I climbed silently out of the car at the back of the doctor’s office, Aaron leaned across the seat and called after me.
“Remember, Kage. No one can know about this. Not even Jamie. I’d hate for anything to happen to him because you can’t keep your mouth shut.”
I swallowed hard. “Are you threatening him?”
Aaron’s gaze didn’t waver when he said, “I hope I don’t have to. He’s a sweet kid.”
CHAPTER 4
KAGE
When I stepped into the Scepter Hotel on the following morning, you could have knocked Theodore Brown over with a feather. His brown eyes widened, and he excused himself from talking to the girl behind the check-in desk.
“Little Santori.” Theo’s voice was purposely casual, but the fine edge of wariness was unmistakable. “I didn’t expect to see you here today.”
Somehow I managed a smile. “I would have come sooner, but I was a little under the weather.” I touched a hand discreetly to my rib cage, my smile never faltering. “Can we talk, or did you have other plans?”
“No, it’s fine.” He gestured for me to follow him to his office, and we had to sidestep a ladder and paint supplies in the hallway. “You’ll have to excuse our progress. We’re doing a little touching up. You know how old buildings are.”
“As a matter of fact, I do. Since I’ve taken over the Alcazar, I’ve made some improvements myself. Our spa is nearly finished.”
“Spa?” he asked with a laugh. “Sounds like you’re getting fancy over there.”
“We are. As I explained before, I plan on making the Alcazar a destination rather than a place to sleep off a Vegas drunk.”
As we entered Theo’s office, he offered me the same chair I’d sat in during our previous meeting. I lowered myself into the cushioned seat with a shudder. This felt too much like déjà vu, and I wasn’t itching to have a replay of what happened last time. I did glance at the liquor cabinet, though, because that part of the memory wasn’t too damn bad.
“You’re thinking about that forty-year-old Macallen we shared last time, aren’t you?” Theo asked with a tentative smile.
I nodded. “Yeah. Might take the edge off of these bruises your goons kicked into me.”
Theo paused as he reached for the bottle and shot me an astonished look over his shoulder.
I shrugged. “The elephant’s in the room whether we like it or not. No sense trying to tiptoe around it.”
After a tense few seconds, the astonishment cleared from Theo’s features, and he smiled. He took his time pouring up a couple of glasses of Macallen on the rocks, handed one over to me, and took his seat behind the desk.
“You surprise me, Michael. I had no idea you would be so straightforward. Most men who had received a beating like that would have stayed far away.”
/> “I’m not most men. I make a hell of a punching bag, and I learn from my mistakes. I also know how to admit when I’ve been beaten.”
His eyes glittered. “So I’ve beaten you then? Is that what you’re saying?”
“You won this round,” I admitted, nearly choking on the words. “But if you ever get the urge to hurt me again, I do hope you’ll do it yourself. Getting a smackdown from your hired men is so impersonal. I’d much rather go hand-to-hand with you.”
Theo laughed and took a swallow of his drink. “You kill me, Little Santori. So damn ballsy. I like that.”
I downed my drink and shifted forward to set the glass on the desk, wincing slightly at the sting in my ribs. Damn my body for betraying me. I had hoped I could keep the pain hidden.
Theo noticed and leaned forward reflexively, his shrewd gaze scanning my body and lingering on my side where the pain was the worst.
“May I—” He cleared his throat and took another swallow of whiskey. “May I see?”
I couldn’t check myself before my mouth fell open, revealing my shock. “You want to see the damage your goons did to me? How they wrecked my body with their boots?”
The way his eyes lit up at my description was downright disturbing. “Yes. I would very much like to see it. If you don’t mind showing me, that is.”
So he got a kick out of seeing his handiwork. I could work with that. I was always looking for any chink in my adversary’s armor, anything that would indicate a weakness I could exploit. After I found that chink, I was damn good at using it to bait them in.
Real life wasn’t so different from being in the cage, I supposed. Weakness was weakness. I wasn’t sure how I could use this particular bit of knowledge to get the upper hand with Theo, but I needed to latch onto anything I could.
As much as I hated it, I was now the government’s pawn, and my one mission was to gain Theo’s trust and get him to reveal his secrets. It sounded like a fool’s errand to me, but Aaron hadn’t given me any other choice. He’d thrown me into the lion’s den, and now I had to figure out how to survive.
Following my instincts, I looked Theo in the eyes… and pushed.
“Come over here and get a close-up, Mr. Brown. It’s pretty gruesome. I don’t think you can get the full picture from all the way over there.”
He chuckled. Hesitated. Then he was on his feet and moving around the desk, looming over me with his superior height.
“Get on your knees,” I said. I was being cocky, but I couldn’t help it. I had him now. The knowledge echoed through my entire body like the resounding click of a deadbolt sliding into place, and I succumbed to the urge to keep the upper hand if only just a little bit. It was in my nature. And besides, if I seemed too much of a pushover, Theo would never buy my performance.
The incredulity in his eyes when he met mine was priceless, but I could see in the twitch of his long fingers and the slight sway of his body that he wanted to do it.
“Are you planning to club me over the head when I get down there?” he asked, dissembling with humor in a weak effort to camouflage the magnitude of his need.
“Only one way to find out,” I said. “But I’m not showing you unless you get on your knees. You made this mess, and I had to lie there and take it. If you really want to see, I figure it’s a fair trade. Your dignity for mine.”
Theo nodded. “Alright, Michael. My dignity for yours. And then we’re even.”
I repressed the urge to shudder as I lifted the front of my T-shirt and tucked the tail into the neck like a teenage girl’s improvised halter top, channeling a young Britney Spears. Not my best look, but I wasn’t trying to win any fashion awards. I was trying to bait Theo Brown, and at the moment, his bloodlust was all I had to work with.
He pushed his lion’s mane of hair back from one shoulder and dropped to his knees, settling back onto his calves as if he planned to stay a while. The pose was incongruous with his regal demeanor. He was a prideful man, and his willingness to debase himself for such a cheap thrill was as exhilarating as it was unsettling.
You have him on his knees, my own pride whispered. Adrenaline surged through my veins at the thought, and it occurred to me to wonder who the real animal was here—him or me.
My torso was on display now, the purpled flesh mottled with patches of sickly yellow and a deceptively pretty shade of pink. Theo’s eyes grew wider, his pupils expanding to take in the sight, and his lips stretched into a languorous grin. He didn’t even try to hide his reaction from me.
When his eyes raked over my exposed skin with a savage hunger, my sense of self-preservation tried to kick in. Power was a pendulum between us, swinging first one way and then the other. When he’d hit his knees, the pendulum had swung my way, but now I found myself wanting to cower from the gaze that was stripping me down to nothing. I wondered if he felt it, too.
I let the animal have his fill of looking. Then, when looking was no longer enough for him, he reached out and gently clasped both of my flanks. There was a sting of nerves where his fingers grazed the surface of my skin, and I gritted my teeth.
This is easy, I told myself. And it will all be over soon.
But then he pressed in with his thumbs just enough to make me suck in a breath.
“Still tender,” he said, not bothering to feign concern. “They really worked you over, didn’t they?”
“I thought that was the point.”
“Of course. What good is a message you don’t understand?” He studied my face closely for a moment, biting his bottom lip before he continued. “You did understand it, yeah? My message was clear?”
He pressed his thumbs into me again for emphasis, a big cat toying with his prey. This time it didn’t catch me off guard, and I was able to mask my reaction. So he tightened his grip on me until I squirmed and let out an involuntary whimper.
Then he let go, satisfied.
“Are you finished playing yet?” I asked, irritable and a little breathless. “We have things to discuss.”
He ignored my comment and looked up at me with softening eyes. There was wonder in his expression, and something akin to affection if I was reading him right.
“So much like your uncle,” he mused. “I’d noticed the resemblance before, but only from afar or in pictures. Now that I have you so close, it’s almost as if a ghost from the past sitting in my office. I can’t get over it.”
First Aaron and now Theo. Did I really look that much like Santori? In my drugged-out stupor, I’d forgotten to look at the photos Aaron had mentioned the day before.
“Of course he was never as fit as you are,” Theo went on. “We were skateboarders—you know, back when it was a social statement—so he was always athletic. But he was never muscled up like this.” His eyes ate up my biceps, following every curve. “The hair is the same, though. And the eyes. Even your face is remarkably like his.”
Before I could think of a response, he stood up and returned to his seat with a dismissive shrug, as if the moment had passed. His expression went blank, and he was all business again.
“So what was it you wanted to discuss with me?” he asked.
I shook my head, struggling to change gears as quickly as he had, and covered myself with my now-wrinkled shirt. “Isn’t it obvious from the fact that I’m sitting here in front of you after you set your goons on me? I’m not backing down, Theo. I want in.”
One corner of his mouth came up as he tried to feign ignorance. “I’m confused. What is it that you want into?”
“My own business,” I said. “Quite frankly, I was pissed that you and some of the others seemed intent on keeping me out of the loop. I figured the best way to control something I couldn’t understand was to shut it down.”
“And now?” Theo steepled his fingers beneath his chin.
“And now I want in. I want to be a part of it. I don’t like being shut out. My uncle kept me that way for my entire life, and I’m sick to death of it.”
I hoped I sounded a little bi
t like a petulant teenager, because that’s exactly how I wanted Theo to see me. As someone he could control. If he perceived me as a threat to his position as king of our dirty empire, he might try to push me out again. Or worse.
“I’m afraid you don’t know what you’re asking, Michael. Do you even have any idea what we do here?”
The question caught me off guard. How could I tell him I knew about the business without saying too much? I certainly couldn’t let on that I’d spoken to Aaron, or I’d be leaving this office in a body bag.
I took a deep breath and decided to tell him about the journals.
“I know a little,” I said. “I’ve been reading my uncle’s journals, and he describes some of what he was into. I haven’t gotten through them all, but I’ve read enough to know it’s not entirely legal, and I’m fine with that. You and my uncle have been running this business for years, and neither one of you ended up in prison. That’s all I was concerned about, and now—” I bit my lip and met his inscrutable gaze, playing to his ego. “I don’t want to be on your bad side, Theo. I want to learn. I want to be your protégé.”
He laughed. “My protégé? I don’t have protégés.”
“Well,” I said in my sincerest voice. “Don’t you think it’s time you did? I’m a fast learner. And I’m strong.” I flexed my bicep and laughed almost shyly, realizing too late I was fucking flirting.
When Theo’s eyes nearly bugged out of his head, I realized I needed to dial it back a bit. I was desperate to gain his trust, but I had to be careful what signals I was throwing.
But he was considering it. I could practically see the gears turning, and my heart skipped a beat when I thought I saw something change. The skepticism seemed to drain from his expression, replaced by genuine interest. I couldn’t push too hard, though. This had to be his decision, and he had to feel secure in it. In me. It was my only hope of slipping past the near-impenetrable security system that had become a part of who he was.
Aaron had warned me that Theo didn’t trust easily, if at all. There was still a chance—would always be a chance—that he’d have me maimed or killed when I walked out the door. His complacency meant nothing and his smile even less.