by CR Robertson
He settled himself beside me, lifting my legs over his.
“How did he get a copy of it?”
His eyes wouldn’t meet mine, which meant I didn’t want to know the answer.
“Is she okay?”
Nausea crept up my throat in a burning path when his head rested back on the sofa to glare at the ceiling. I’d only met her once or twice, but she’d been a nice woman who was always smiling and chatting away in the background.
“Xavier?”
His eyes were blazing with suppressed emotion when he finally turned them to me. “He left a clear message that I’d rather not repeat.”
“Who is he?” I whispered, terror rising into my chest.
“He’s a fucking dead man walking,” Xavier hissed. “One that will wish his mother had swallowed instead of conceiving him.”
His tone made a shiver ripple down my spine. He rarely brought this side of him home, the last time I witnessed this barely controlled rage was when he rescued me from Malcolm.
Jordan slumped into a seat opposite us, tugging Megan onto his knee. She’d been hovering in the background, her wide eyes watching their constant pacing. I’d seen Jordan lose his shit and kill men, but it was something she’d never witnessed. She didn’t relax into his arms like she usually did, sitting with her back straight while she chewed the side of her mouth.
“When are you meeting Uncle Dan?” I asked, breaking Xavier from his silent contemplations by poking his tummy with my toe.
“Six tonight,” he replied absently. “I texted him the location of one of our offices.”
I didn’t push the point about going. There were a thousand questions I wanted to ask my uncle, a million things I wanted to know about my parents that he would be able to answer. Now wasn’t the time to push Xavier, since he was so close to breaking point.
“You need anything?”
“No, baby, everything is under control.”
The buzzer indicated the concierge was ringing up from the foyer. Xavier groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose before getting to his feet and stomping to the door.
“Yeah?” Silence followed and I watched as his back tensed. “Put him on the phone, thanks… What the fuck do you think you’re playing at, coming to my home? I don’t give a fuck that she’s your niece. We had an arrangement for six tonight.”
Jordan pushed Megan off his knee. “Downstairs, now!” he commanded. “Lock the door and don’t leave for anyone.”
“Jay?” Megan queried, her face pinched with worry.
“We’ll step into our bedroom,” I intervened. “The hidden exit is there. Xavier has it programmed with my details, and the same with the safe room.”
Jordan glared at me, finally nodding once.
“Lift all the cushions and throws,” I told the men. That photograph didn’t have them in it. They lifted armfuls of my precious cushions and took them into the bedroom. I removed our wedding photographs and anything else personal that was on display on my way behind them.
Xavier threw me a grateful look as he continued to argue on the phone. “Thanks, Sam. You better send him up. Families are such assholes.”
I reached up and kissed Xavier’s cheek as he disconnected the call. “Be careful.”
His arms snaked around my waist to haul me into his embrace. “Always am. You remember all the codes?”
“Yep.”
He pressed a quick kiss to my lips and swatted my ass. “Stay in there until I say otherwise.”
Without a word, I did as he asked. My uncle had done this to throw the guys off balance, only he didn’t know that they thrived on situations like this. I’d seen Xavier and Jordan when a trap had been sprung on them, and there were no survivors on the other side at the end of it.
My bedroom door closed and I slid the lock into place. Trepidation rippled through my stomach until I felt like I was going to be sick. That was my husband and my uncle out there. Two men who, at different times of my life, were important to me. Megan and I crawled onto the bed and held hands like we did when we were young in the group foster home.
“What’s happening?” she whispered, her grip tightening on my hand.
“I don’t know where to start, Megan,” I replied. “Xavier and Jordan belong to an underground organisation that have far-reaching hands.”
“Like the mafia?” Megan’s eyes were huge.
“Something like that. The Council is an old network that spans generations. Xavier will take his father’s seat, and Jordan and Ash their family positions. The man who hurt me, Malcolm, was on the Council as well…” Even to my own ears it sounded preposterous.
“Then why did he hurt you?”
I never told Megan the full story of what happened to me when I ran. Partly because it would reveal secrets that weren’t mine to share. We’d gone past that stage.
“Turns out my father was on that Council. You know the section about my family and how I was put into care. Malcolm had been watching my family home for years and knew either me or Kimberley had survived. I fell into his trap that night, only Xavier saved me.”
“You said you fell down the stairs.”
I met Megan’s eyes. “Would you have believed me before all this happened the past few weeks?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I always knew Jordan contained darkness, but never suspected it was this dark. I’m not sure how that makes me feel. How can you share your bed with a man who’s killed people?”
“I killed Marco…”
“That’s different, Cas. It was self-defence.”
“My life wasn’t in danger. I could have shot a warning or screamed for help. Instead, I aimed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.”
She clamped her lips shut and scowled at me.
“He didn’t have to come for me. I’d run from him, ignored his messages and calls. Yet, when I was scared and phoned him in the middle of the night, he came for me. The only place I feel safe is in his arms. He’s the home I dreamed of when we were afraid and cowering in the dark. That’s how I can sleep beside him at night.”
The fact that she didn’t reply made me worry about her and Jordan’s future.
Voices rose outside the door that kept us safe.
My heart rate escalated, and panic raced through my veins. Xavier was tough as nails, but even metal was damaged by a bullet. My hand covered my stomach and I said a silent prayer to anyone who may be listening to keep my husband safe. I would never survive if anything happened to him.
***
Chapter Fourteen
Xavier
I wanted to wipe the smug smile off his face when he sauntered into my apartment. He was cocky enough to arrive without a security detail and a bottle of wine in his hand.
“I came to visit my niece,” Dante said as he stepped inside, his dark-grey gaze skimming around the room. “Where is she?”
“Busy,” I snapped. Would anyone notice if I tossed him off the balcony?
“Protective,” he commented, nodding as if he approved.
“Was there a problem with my office?” I demanded, blocking his path from getting any further into my apartment and my life.
“Yes, this is a personal visit. I can’t do that in an office.” He gave me a shit-eating grin that made my fingers form a fist at my side.
“As far as Cassandra is concerned, her uncle died over twenty years ago. She doesn’t need ghosts from her past reappearing to haunt her.”
Dante’s gaze moved around, studying Ash before settling on Jordan. “Sometimes we have to do what is best for our families.” His attention snapped back to me. “You’ll find that when your child arrives. Your priorities change in a heartbeat.”
“My priorities already put my family first, hence the reason why my wife isn’t here to greet you.” I didn’t care what he wanted, my only concern was Cassandra. “Why are you here?”
“You told my men that you’d only deal with the person in charge of my organisation, so here I am.” He gave
a theatrical bow and sauntered past me into the main living area.
Jordan moved imperceptibly in front of the doorway leading to the bedrooms. His gaze never left Dante, every aspect of him screamed that he was ready to launch himself at this man. We’d killed but we’d never added the sin of human trafficking to our souls.
We were villains, but honest ones with a moral compass.
“I don’t deal in the skin trade,” I commented dryly, tracking his movements.
It was a stroke of genius that Cassandra removed the cushions and throws. The apartment looked as it did before her arrival. All her colourful utensils were in drawers, and she’d lifted anything with a personal photograph in it. Her years watching over her shoulder had given her survival instincts.
“In a way you do,” he replied conversationally. “You allow people to delve into their deepest fantasises in the same way I do.”
A dark laugh emerged from me. “Everything I allow in my clubs is consensual and everyone is vetted to ensure they’re over the age of consent.”
He waved his arm at me. “Everyone is so worried about consent nowadays.”
“That’s because it’s the law,” Jordan snapped, his inner barrister appearing.
Dante stopped and turned to stare at him. “That depends on the country you live in.”
“They’re fucking children we’re talking about.” The air temperature dropped with every word Jordan spoke.
Dante never moved, in fact, there was something about the way he held himself that felt familiar, as if I’d met him somewhere in the past. “I have never touched a child in my life, so back the fuck off. In my world, you’d be dead right now for speaking to me in that tone.”
“No, you just hand them over to whatever sick fucks are waiting for them,” Jordan persisted. “People like you make me sick.”
Jordan was pinned to the wall before I had a chance to even register what happened. “I’ve warned you once, it won’t happen again. I’m not here to discuss the politics of my world with you or anyone else. I made peace with my situation a long time ago.”
“Get the fuck off me!” Jordan brought his knee up at the same time he grabbed the wrist of the hand at his neck, dragging it to Dante’s back.
The older man twisted before Jordan could bring him to his knees, bringing the base of his palm up to jolt Jordan’s head back.
“That’s enough!” I shouted, the slide of my gun being cocked making both men freeze immediately. “I really don’t want any brains on my wall, but feel free to try me.”
Dante’s head tilted to the side slightly. “I misjudged you, thinking you were not the type of man who kept a gun in his home.”
“I didn’t used to,” I replied tightly. “But then all these assholes kept turning up to threaten my pregnant wife. I protect what is mine, and even though you claim to be her uncle, believe me when I say that Cassandra is mine.”
Dante turned slowly to face me, his hands held up in front of him. “Perhaps we should start again.”
“Perhaps you should have met me at the arranged time and place.” The gun was steady in my hand and pointed directly at his head. Every instinct in me said to pull the trigger and be damned, but there was no doubt in my head that he came here today with insurance in case anything happened to him.
His sardonic grin told me that he realised we were at an impasse. He shrugged and turned away to wander to the window. “This suited me better.”
I cast a quick look at Jordan, who was having a problem controlling his emotions. I raised an eyebrow in silent question, and he shook his head.
“What is it you want?” I demanded, my temper starting to grow to that cold, dangerous level.
He spun to face me. “I want my family back. I want to go back thirty years and change all the lives that the Council destroyed in their hunger for power and money. But since we can’t do any of that, let’s discuss what can be achieved.”
There was a story here that none of the rest of us saw, a deep hurt in his eyes that I didn’t understand. My arms folded across my chest, but I kept hold of the gun.
“I don’t want Malcolm’s place in your sick enterprise.” I wanted nothing to do with any of his business.
He handed me a piece of paper from his pocket without a word.
I read it and handed it to Ash, who stood beside me. He left the room, dragging Jordan behind him.
Dante returned to his place at the window, his hip braced on the frame. “There are times when I miss the English weather. It is always hot and dry where I live, unless it’s storm season.”
He didn’t seem to require a reply, so I went to the fridge and lifted out two bottles of beer, handing him one.
“Frank was my only brother. We were always close during our lives until a few months before he died. Malcolm was my eyes in the Council who kept me informed about my family. According to him, Frank and Elise were well, their girls all grown up and married. It was a shock to me that they were dead along with Kimberley. Money appeared in our business accounts, so I never suspected that anything was wrong.”
I’d seen the accounts, they only went to one account, so Dante had access to the same accounts as Cassandra.
“His business partner found the car on the road that night and took Cassandra to the hospital. Her family was buried when she got out, and he put her into a children’s home with a different name.”
“Clive seems to have gone missing,” Dante replied. “I was trying to find him to have a chat.”
“Has he?” I replied nonchalantly. “I was planning on having a chat with him myself. What a shame.”
He was currently in a cell in one of our units until I had time to visit him for that chat. Jordan had a way of storing people until we were ready for them. Clive was currently attached to a machine in a coma with tubes keeping him alive. It was less messy, and they didn’t scream or hurt themselves.
“Indeed.” Dante’s lips twitched in a barely-there smile. “If you find him, tell him I’m looking for him.”
Jordan and Ash re-entered the room, and Jordan used a device to scan him for hidden transmission bugs. He then gave the bottle of wine the same treatment.
“Talk,” Jordan spat out, his dark gaze locked on our visitor.
“I don’t have a lot of time and I owe no explanation to any of you here. I need to speak to Cassandra immediately.”
My brow furrowed. Something was going on that I didn’t understand.
“Very soon, my people will realise I’m off the grid and then all hell will break loose. My phone is in the car, but it won’t take them long to track it.”
Reluctantly, I went to our bedroom. “He wants to speak to you,” I said to Cassandra, my mind trying to put together all the information currently racing through it.
She nodded once, linking her fingers through mine.
“Uncle Dan?” Cassandra said softly as we entered the living area.
A genuine smile crossed his face. “There you are, poppet.” He opened his arms and engulfed her in a hug.
My instincts went onto red alert, and the need to remove his arms from her burned through me.
“What’s going on?” Cassandra asked.
“Everyone out but her husband,” Dante snapped.
Jordan and Ash threw confused looks at each other.
“It’s fine,” I said, removing my gun from the back of my belt. “I’ll yell if I need you.”
Dante watched until they left, then sprang into action. “I don’t have much time, Cassandra.” He delved into his pocket and produced a key. “This is the only key that is missing from your mother’s bible. It is the second key that unlocks the deposit box you haven’t been able to access.”
Her gaze darted to mine. “How did you know?”
He gave her the look that only a parent gave an exasperating child. “Every safety deposit box has two keys. Who do you think has the other one?”
I hadn’t considered that. Now it made me very nervous.
; “This opens the last box. It was a failsafe in case either of us was killed. Unfortunately, they got to Frank and kept me out of the loop.” His piercing gaze moved to me. “She needs to be more protected than she is right now. When they thought she was dead, she was safe. Now she has a target on her back.”
“What the fuck is going on?” I demanded.
“I don’t have time to explain. The answers are in that box. Frank and I had our own missions and I often wondered why the Council was still standing when he fucking hated everything it stood for. They must have suspected and had him executed.”
His answers only created more questions as the mystery surrounding what happened to Frank Jenkins increased.
“Every so often, the Council cleans house,” Dante said. “Just make sure they don’t clean you and your friends from their memoires. You’ve been in it a long time. Have you ever heard of Franklin Jenkins?”
“No, I haven’t.” I shook my head. We were supposed to know everything, yet there was a human trafficker in our midst and a murder of a Council member that had been hidden for twenty years. Things were beginning to stink like a ten-day-old corpse in the height of summer. Jordan had only remembered the surname because he was never out of the archives that none of us should technically be in.
“And I’m sure I’m nowhere on their precious files,” he seethed, his fists clenching. “I’ll try and find a time and place to give you answers, but you might need to come to me next time. Travel to this country is difficult. I’ve left you a few gifts in the other deposit boxes.”
The phone beside the door buzzed to let me know someone downstairs was looking for me.
“That’ll be my security patrol searching for me,” Dante replied while rolling his eyes. “Remember what I said. If you love her, keep her safe because they’ll know she’s the only one with access to the files that could take the entire Council down.”
I watched as he hugged Cassandra one last time, whispering something in her ear. My protective instincts went into overdrive as I dragged her against me, resting my chin on top of her head while he walked to the door.