by B. B. Reid
“No, and if he ever finds out—”
“He’ll fucking slaughter this motherfucker.”
* * * * *
I promised John I wouldn’t tell Keiran where Mitch was, but what he didn’t know was that I had my own reasons. I’d finally found a way to get my pound of flesh from one Keiran Masters. I, like anyone, knew Mitch was the only demon Keiran had been unable to exorcise, and as long as he remained unfound, Keiran would never be able to lay those demons to rest.
Mitch would die soon anyway, and Keiran would be none the wiser. John would likely never tell Keiran of his part in keeping Mitch hidden for the last three years because Keiran wouldn’t see it as anything less than betrayal.
If I weren’t so set on a course for revenge fueled by hatred, I would have literally skipped from the facility.
After all Mitch had done, it was cancer that would kill him.
Even though the facility’s name indicated it was for cancer survivors, it also serviced patients who essentially came to die after every treatment and medical theory failed.
The ride back was filled with tension and silence. Sheldon and I had retreated into our own thoughts. She could have been a porcelain doll the way she sat all stiff and silent. Her eyes were trained forward as she stared mindlessly out the window.
“You need to stop sulking.”
What the fuck? Even to myself, I sounded like a heartless asshole, but it was too late to take it back. I decided to see where this would go.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re fucking sulking,” I repeated.
“This may be hard for you to grasp, but my three-year-old daughter has been missing for a week, and I just found out the only person who could have been a suspect had nothing to do with it. Mitch was a dream compared to the nightmare I’m living in at the moment.”
“I don’t think anything could possibly be worse than the unscrupulous greed of a man who once sold his own child for gambling money.”
“That didn’t help.”
“It wasn’t meant to.” I took the risk of taking my eyes off the road to face her. Her face was drawn tight and her fingernails dug into her jeans. I’d forgotten how good the pain of her nails digging into my back felt, but I promised myself I would have that feeling again soon.
“Keiran should have never brought you back.” She whispered it so low, had I not been playing close attention to her, I wouldn’t have heard it.
“No, he shouldn’t have, but he did, and I won’t be going anywhere, baby, so get used to me. I’m a different animal now… so don’t fuck with me.”
“What do you want from me?” Her voice had risen so high and unexpectedly that I swerved before quickly righting the car.
“I want you to tell me about her.”
“That’s it?” I could tell she wasn’t expecting my answer, and I didn’t miss the wariness in her voice. She had every need to be suspicious.
“For now.”
She was silent for a few heartbeats before finally asking, “What do you want to know?”
I blew out air in frustration because I really didn’t know. “Anything. What color are her eyes? What kind of food does she like? What’s her favorite color?”
“Well… she has my eyes and your hair. She likes anything that is covered in ice cream… even meat.” I tried to stop it, but I couldn’t fight the smile similar to the one Sheldon currently wore as she spoke about Kennedy.
“Her favorite color is blue. She hates anything to do with pink. She’s obsessed with the Ninja Turtles. Michelangelo is her favorite.”
“Did you teach her that?”
“What?”
“To like Mikey?”
“I know he’s your favorite, but no, I didn’t teach her about any of them. She naturally gravitated to him. I tried to get her into Dora, but she hates it.”
“That’s my girl.”
Sheldon stiffened at my statement, but I shrugged it off. The more she spoke of Kennedy, who I noticed she affectionately called Ken, the more I realized how alike my daughter and I was.
The realization further cemented Sheldon’s future. I could almost taste the pain I would cause her. My fingers gripped the steering wheel, the leather creaking under my hands as I imagined it was her throat.
My cock also stirred to life thinking about the moment I could begin to make her pay. I would make her pay more times than one before I ended it all.
“Keenan?” she called, breaking me from my fantasies.
“Yeah?”
“I have to find her soon. Kennedy’s condition is too delicate. I don’t know what they will do if she—” Sheldon choked on her words, and when she started to cry, my tension kicked into high gear.
“What do you mean? What condition?”
She took a deep breath, which seemed to calm her before continuing. “Since she was two, she’s suffered from seizures. The doctors haven’t been able to find a cause since she’s never suffered a brain injury.”
“Epilepsy?” When she nodded, I brought my fist down on the dash, cracking the surface and pressed down on the gas, speeding all the way back to Six Forks.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
VICK
“BOSS, THE CAR took off.”
“The place is compromised. Move to location two when it’s safe but keep eyes out for them in case they come back before.”
“And if it does?”
“You handle it.”
The line went dead before he could ask for further instructions. The man cursed while silently wishing he’d never agreed to this job. Kidnapping kids was new to him, but it was a job, and one that paid well, though he now wished he’d asked for more.
The day he snatched the kid, she had some sort of episode that scared the hell out of him. He almost dumped the kid off anonymously to the nearest hospital, but his partner convinced him not to by reminding him how much money was at stake. Luckily, whatever it was didn’t seem to last long so they chalked it up to a reaction from being kidnapped, but when it happened a second and third time, we starting drugging her.
He looked over to the monitor where he could watch her sleep off the drugs. She was so still that he wondered if she might actually be dead.
He wanted to stop drugging her, thinking her little body couldn’t handle so much of it, but his partner didn’t think it was worth the trouble.
“What’s the word?” Freddy asked, zipping up his pants as he emerged from the bathroom.
“We have to move, but he also gave the OK to take care of them if they come back.”
“What the fuck does that mean? We can’t kill them.”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Do you think we should go with Plan B? We don’t have much time left before they become suspicious.”
“I told Greg it was a bad idea taking two jobs. We can’t complete them all.”
“No, but they both pay,” Freddy grinned.
“He’s going to get us killed.”
“He’s going to get us paid. This family is as rich as they are fucked up. Just look at this house. All of this and no one even bothers to live here. If they are going to just waste money, why shouldn’t we help ourselves to it?”
“I don’t know, man—”
“Think big, Vick. Besides, with Greg in the hospital, we get a bigger cut.”
“I can’t believe he just bashed his head with a chair.”
The warnings we received about Keiran Masters did nothing to prepare us for seeing him in action. He secretly envied the younger man who was able to invoke so much fear with just his presence. When he spoke, everyone in the room tensed. Even his family and friends feared him. As he recalled the cold, dark eyes from the hospital that promised death, he wondered what it would be like to have that much power.
* * * * *
KEENAN
“Do you have anything on the house?” I asked as soon as we were through the door. Sheldon insisted on returning to her apartment, but I was having none of i
t. I dragged her back to my father’s house. Lake and Quentin were back from searching for Kennedy while Jesse still kept eyes on the house in Camden.
“It was so quick I’m not even sure if it happened, but the curtain there…” Jesse pointed to a window on the lower level of the house, “it moved just after you left. Could have been a draft or—”
“Or the people who took my daughter?”
“You really think it could have been your grandparents?”
“I don’t know, but I now know it wasn’t Mitch.”
“How?” Quentin asked.
“He’s dead,” I blurted. It was the only believable lie. If Q knew about Mitch, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell Keiran because that’s where his loyalty was.
I wanted to silently warn Sheldon from telling just in case, but Q watched me too closely as if trying to read me. “Fuck,” he barked. “Keiran isn’t going to like this.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s all Keiran would have wanted.”
“Only if it had been by his hands.”
I needed to change the subject and fast. I hadn’t had time to concoct a proper story to tell anyone about the impromptu trip. After Sheldon had told me about Kennedy’s condition, it was all I could think about. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s done.”
He hesitated only a second longer than necessary before asking, “So what makes you think your grandparents even know about her, and why would they take her?”
I struggled in my head with a reason for why they could be guilty but couldn’t find one no matter how hard I tried. I ran my fingers to the end of my hair and tugged with frustration.
“Are they even still alive?” Sheldon asked.
“I don’t know. I never suspected them, but I was hoping something or someone in that house could have told me something.”
“It would almost be too easy if it were someone you knew,” Jesse remarked.
A thought popped into my head that I couldn’t shake, and before I realized my feet had even moved, my hands were on Sheldon, pinning her against the wall. “I’m going to ask you this only once so have your brain advise your mouth not to lie to me.”
“Let me go,” she growled. If I weren’t very near to murdering her, I would find her pout cute.
“Keenan, have you lost your mind?” Lake yelled.
“Dude,” Q chimed in.
I blocked them all out. I couldn’t see anything but the fantasy of Sheldon’s life draining from her eyes as my brain began to form images one after the other.
“Have you had another motherfucker around my kid?”
The audible hitch in her breath and the guilt that flashed in her eyes did nothing to stop my growing rage. “What do you mean?” she stammered.
“You bitch.” I released her neck and took a step back. “Who is he?”
“Who is who?” she screamed. “There’s no one!”
“That’s not what your eyes just said.”
“So now you’re a fucking mind reader?”
“No. I’m your fucking mind reader. Shelly, don’t play with me,” I warned.
“You have no right to question my love life.”
Love? Was she in love?
Fuck that. I’d stop her heart with my bare hands before I allowed her give it to anyone else.
I turned to face the other occupants in the room who stood by shell-shocked. Quentin held on tight to Lake’s arm while she continuously tried to tug from his grasp.
“Get the fuck out.”
I watched them all scramble while my heart pounded against my chest. Q shut the door, but not before giving me a warning look, one I wouldn’t be heeding.
When I turned back, Sheldon was gone. My feet moved swiftly around the first floor as I searched high and low for her. I didn’t bother to call after her knowing she wouldn’t answer.
She had many places to hide but nowhere to run.
The thought of the chase made my cock harden until it was practically beating against my jeans with anticipation.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SHELDON
I HID IN Keiran’s old room of all places. I don’t know why I ran. There was nowhere for me to hide, but I thought maybe if I stayed out of sight long enough, it would give him enough time to calm down.
I’d never seen Keenan with a temper like he’d had today.
I was even more surprised at my reaction to him.
I couldn’t, in all conscience believe when my body trembled at the sight and sound of him it was only in fear. My body betrayed me each time he looked at me. His eyes seemed to send me a message that I couldn’t yet decipher, but I knew it held a promise that I wasn’t sure I would want him to keep.
“Shelly, open the door.” The smooth tone of his voice belied the predator he was.
“I can’t do that.” I willed my shaking hands to stop along with the sweat running to the end of my fingertips.
“I would prefer it to breaking down this door, and I know you would too, so be a good girl and let me in. You don’t need to hide.”
“I’m not hiding. I wanted away from you.”
“Because you’re guilty?”
“Because what I do during my spare time is none of your business. Look, these past few days have been stressful. I think we need some time apart.”
“We’ve spent enough time apart, and I promise you won’t live another day without me.” I heard the apparent threat and shivered from the cold promise. I found myself crying despite my promise not to weaken.
“You’re just like him.” It was terrifying how much like Keiran Keenan had become.
“I’m nothing like him. I’m much worse. Now open the fucking door.” A loud bang against the door made me jump clear across the room before I could answer.
“Keenan, stop!” I was delirious as I begged at the top of my lungs. The door splintered and heaved under the force of his blows. “Please, just let me go.”
“You will always be someone I want, Shelly…” I hadn’t realized Keenan gained entry until his hands were in my hair and the other had gripped my chin. “…so what fucking makes you think I will ever let you go again?”
“Because we can’t do this.”
“We can do anything we want when I demand it, and right now, I want you to kiss me.”
“What?”
“Prove to me there is no one else—that there has never been anyone else, or I promise you will not walk out of here alive.
When I continued to hesitate, his arms dropped around my waist to crush me against him. When I tried to back away, he tightened his arms until I cried out from the pain. I felt his cock harden against my stomach and stared at him in disbelief.
“Are you getting off on this?”
“Yeah,” his gravelly voice confirmed. “I am.”
“Keenan, what happened to you?”
“You broke my heart,” he answered matter of factly. Despite his arms binding me to him, I felt my knees weaken. I had to clutch his chest to stop the feeling of falling.
“You broke mine, too.”
He had made a rough sound in his throat before he growled, “Quit stalling, or I’ll find another way to shut you up. I’m not in a forgiving mood, Shelly. You won’t be able to take me.”
The warning in his eyes made me finally lift my lips to his. I was surprised at how much I really wanted to kiss him even if it was for a lie.
The way he watched me, even after my lips touched his, was unnerving, so I closed my eyes and sunk into the sin. I kept the kiss soft and slow so as to not give him any more of myself than needed, but it only lasted three seconds.
His teeth sunk down onto my lip causing me to gasp. He used the opportunity to deepen the kiss, drawing out my tongue, and when he began to suck on me, my body heated to fever pitch.
I could only hope he got what he needed because I was no longer in control.
When he picked me up and wrapped my legs around his waist, I didn’t fight him. I felt him carry me off but was too afraid to look.
> Without warning, he yanked my legs from around his waist and I stumbled back before righting myself. I took a quick look around and realized we were now in the bathroom.
“Shower. I’ll find you something to sleep in.”
“I need to go, Keenan. Lake will wonder where I am.”
“You’re not leaving.” It was all he said before disappearing.
If he thought he could bark orders and I’d obey, he was sorely mistaken. I waited long enough until I was sure he’d be gone and took a step for the door. He’d left it open, and I figured if I were quick enough, I could slip past and out of the house before he returned.
I made a silent dash down the hall, confidence building with each step. I just had to get down the stairs and I’d be home free.
I’d just made it to the landing when I heard it. It was a sound so faint, but I knew he was there.
“Keenan?” I called without turning.
“You don’t listen well, do you?”
Before I could offer a response, his hand was on my elbow, gently tugging as he led me back to the bathroom. I watched his face for a sign—anything but the silent way he moved. When we entered the bathroom, he let go of my elbow and indicated with a nod of his head to sit, and wisely, I did.
I didn’t need his confirmation that I fucked up. His silence ironically said it all. But when he left the bathroom once more, I relaxed.
Maybe I should have just taken the shower and convinced him to take me home afterward. Anything was better than slowly becoming unhinged. My nerves were frazzled, and my confidence had long withered away with his first touch.
Keenan finally returned minutes later carrying a royal blue shirt in his hand, one I instantly recognized as his t-shirt. I slept in that shirt every night, but when he left four years ago, I left it behind. It should have still been in my old room, buried with all the other memories of him I’d left behind, so how did he get it?
“How did you get that?”
“Easy. Your parents are away a lot.”
“You broke into their home?”