Flawed ~ Kim Karr

by Kim Karr

  Not so fast, asshole.

  You’re not the fucking Godfather.

  Slamming the door shut, I push the lock. “Don’t make another sound.”

  Over the sound of the alarm, he laughs. Actually fucking laughs. “Mr. Holt, I didn’t take you for a stupid person.”

  I clench my jaw. “I’m not.”

  His team of guards start pounding on the door. “Then give me back the necklace, and I’ll let you walk away with your life.”

  This time I laugh. “And I believe in Santa Claus.”

  His nostrils flare and his jaw tenses, but his voice cracks when he speaks. “You won’t make it out of here alive.”

  The sound is a telltale sign that he’s in distress but his anger won’t allow him to crumble.

  I press the gun harder against his head, to let him know I’m serious, dead serious. That I mean business. That this is no joke. “Neither will you unless you do what I tell you. First, tell your dogs to stand down.”

  He says nothing.

  I press harder. “Five,” I count. “Four.”

  “Stand down,” he calls out.

  “Good. Now, turn the alarm off.”

  Again, he does nothing.

  “Three,” I sneer.

  He points to a keypad on the wall. “There’s a series of numbers I have to enter.”

  Taking no chances, I cock the gun. Click. “Move that way. Slowly. If anything else happens besides silence, I’ll shoot you.”

  Tentatively, he walks toward the keypad. When he enters a code, the alarm shuts off. “My guards won’t stand down for long. They’re trained for these types of situations. Then what are you going to do?”

  Glancing at the computer, I try to see if the transfer is complete, but I can’t see the screen from here. “You have a house full of people who know nothing about your cartel affiliations.”

  He stiffens.

  “I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to keep your men in line, so I can leave quietly and the party can go on without disruption.”

  This is going to be a piece of cake. All I have to do is retrieve the flash, activate the beacon Rice gave me, and ghost out without Cruz even realizing anything more than the necklace is gone.

  Click.

  Click.

  Click.

  The soft sound of smooth metal slipping out of place causes me to turn my head.

  I grab Cruz and get ready to pull the fucking trigger.

  The secret door opens and this time Gemma is not alone . . . Smith has his gun shoved into her spine.

  Things just got complicated.

  Chapter 38

  Tip Toe

  Gemma

  SMITH PRESSES THE cool metal to my bare back.

  The light in the room makes it appear so much larger than it did in the dark and Caleb looks so far away.

  He has a choke hold on Enrique and Enrique looks panicked, but not because of the gun pointed at his temple. That hand of his lifts in the commanding way he has about him and that ring of his flashes. “Let her go, Smith,” he demands. “She has nothing to do with this.”

  He’s so clueless.

  He still thinks I’m his possession.

  His thing.

  Smith coughs through a laugh, steadies himself, and tries to smile as he wipes the blood from his nose, the blood I drew from him in my fight for freedom. “I can’t do that, Mr. Cruz. She has to be eliminated.”

  “No,” Enrique calls out. I glance at Caleb. They don’t know about him and I, or that I have the necklace.

  This is about Penelope and it has to stay that way, so as much as I want to tell him he’s been my pawn all along, I keep my mouth shut.

  “No, she doesn’t,” Enrique tells him. “Lower your weapon. She has nothing to do with this.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. You’ve been so caught up in the details of your own fantasies, you can’t see what it’s doing to your business.”

  “Smith,” I say calmly. “I think Penelope has misled you.”

  “Penelope?” Enrique questions.

  Caleb adjusts his stance. “Enough with the bullshit! Let her go or I’ll shoot him.”

  Smith shakes his head.

  Caleb slams the butt of the gun into Enrique’s head and he falls to the ground. “I’m not fucking around.”

  “Neither am I.” I feel Smith shift from behind me and then he strikes me with the gun just as Caleb had done to Enrique.

  Searing pain bleeds through my body. It jolts through my limbs but somehow, I find the power to jab my elbow upward before I fall and catch Smith off-guard, knocking the gun from his grip.

  It misfires in the process and I hear a howl of pain and then the gun falls to the ground just as I do. I watch as the piece of metal slides somewhere behind the big, ornate desk.

  Caleb!

  Oh, God, Caleb.

  Already on the floor, I start to crawl in the direction of the gun. When I glance up to see who was shot, I lose my chance to grab for the weapon, but at least Caleb is still standing despite the fact that blood is gushing from his thigh.

  Oh, God.

  Scrambling on his feet, Smith jumps over the desk, sending the computer and everything else to its destruction. He gets ahold of the gun and without any further discussion, he pulls the trigger.

  “No!” I yell.

  There’s a loud thud as a body tumbles to the ground.

  Caleb!

  My vision goes black.

  Everything seems lost.

  The necklace and keys in my garters seem like artifacts no longer needed. Fear takes over every cell in my body. The room disappears under my knees and I can’t get to my feet.

  Something blue sparkles from the ground. Enrique’s ring? I try to gain my senses. To focus. Then I hear another shot and watch as Smith falls to the ground beside me. That’s when I realize it wasn’t Caleb that Smith shot, it was Enrique.

  Weapons fire from outside the door and sirens wail in the distance.

  Caleb is standing in front of me. “Are you okay? We need to get out of here.”

  The walls seem to be on the ceiling.

  “Goddamn it, Gemma, answer me!”

  The other door into the office starts to open.

  Caleb lifts me and carries me through the hidden passage. It’s only when it’s pitch dark again that I realize we are both alive.

  “I can walk,” I tell him.

  He sets me on the ground. “Good. Now show me the way out of here.”

  Blood is still streaming down his leg. Staring at it, my lungs start to burn with the effort to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. “Your leg,” I point.

  “I’ll be fine,” he tells me, removing his bowtie and tying it around the wounded area. “Just get us out of here.”

  Caleb knows how to flee, how to stay inconspicuous, how to move soundlessly anywhere. I, on the other hand, do not. Still, I manage to lead us down into the kitchen.

  As soon as we get outside though, and the rain pours down on us, I start gasping so desperately Caleb is forced to stop at the guesthouse. He’s breathing a little harder than usual as well, but he has reason.

  He takes my face in his hands and tries to focus my eyes. “I want you to do what I do, okay?”

  I start to choke. “Are they both dead?”

  “It looked that way to me,” he tells me.

  “What if they’re not?”

  He ignores my question. “We need to get out of here, Gemma. Now, focus. Do what I do.” His eyes are determined, patient, fearless.

  Do.

  What.

  He.

  Does.

  I watch, still in a trance.

  He breathes in and then out. In and then out. Without thought, I copy him. He stops. “Good girl, now give me the keys.”

  With trembling hands, I lift my dress and pull them from my garter. “Good girl,” he says again. “Now, wrap your arms around my neck.”

  I do, and then he lifts me like I weigh nothing.
Like he’s not shot.

  Even though the sound of sirens gets louder and the rain seems to be pelting harder, I’ve never felt safer than I do right now.

  In his arms, I close my eyes and press my cheek against his neck. I thought I could do this on my own.

  I was so wrong.

  I put my palms together and pray.

  It’s not that I’m religious, but who knows, maybe it will help. Besides, it’s something I haven’t done in a very long time.

  Although he’s limping, he moves swiftly through the puddles of water and then before I know it, he comes to a halt. I open my eyes to see we made it. We’re on the other side—outside the compound.

  When Caleb sets me down, I take his face in my hands and whisper, “I love you.”

  He smiles that small, panty-dropping smile at me. The one where his lips twitch like he’s trying not to laugh.

  A million butterflies take flight in my belly. “What’s so funny?”

  Pulling open the door, he leans down like he’s going to kiss me but instead he whispers, “Good thing I only had to get shot and not die to get you to admit it.”

  If I’d known he’d smile at me like that . . . I would have told him a long time ago.

  Chapter 39

  Look Alive

  Caleb

  I DRIVE FAST, leaning forward to see the roads.

  Listening to the police scanner, it doesn’t take long to confirm both Cruz and Smith are dead.

  Gemma gasps but really it isn’t a surprise.

  After I’m certain we’re not on the police radar, I turn the scanner off. Tonight was a giant fuck up. I have no idea how I’m going to explain to my team or Meg what happened.

  “Did you get what you needed?” Gemma asks, jolting me from the thoughts humming in my brain.

  I breathe in one quick, sharp, shaky breath. “No, I didn’t. Tell me you still have the necklace?” I ask, knowing how much it means to her. Not because of the value, though, but rather because her parents’ souls live within it.

  “Yes, I have it,” she tells me. “But why didn’t you get what you needed?”

  The sigh I exhale isn’t meant for her. “I had a flash drive in the computer but after Smith crashed into it, I didn’t have time to look around for where it landed. It was either us or the data.”

  “I’m sorry, Caleb. It’s my fault.”

  “No, it isn’t.”

  “Yes, it is. I should have left when you told me, and then none of this would have happened.”

  “Don’t say that,” I tell her. “I’m glad all of this happened. You took back what he took from you, and I mean more than just the diamonds. I’m thankful for that.”

  She sighs. “But what are you going to do?”

  Realization is a pendulum too big to measure. I swallow back the lump in my throat. My life has been my job for so long, thinking about myself seems odd. “I’m going to get my team what I can to help with the case. There’s not much the FBI can do to Cruz now, anyway.”

  She darts her gaze out the window. “FBI? So you do work for the government.”

  She isn’t asking, but I nod anyway.

  “What’s going to happen to me?” she asks, sounding frantic.

  I reach over and slide my hand in hers. “Nothing. They’ll never even know you were involved.”

  “Caleb, I can’t ask you to do that.”

  Squeezing her hand, I pull it to my lips. “You didn’t ask me to. It’s what I’m going to do. I’ve lived with the idea of revenge for so long, I lost sight of who I was. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I can’t be. Once I debrief, I’m going to leave the agency.”

  “Are you sure?” she asks.

  “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  She glances over at me. “I have to disappear for a while. Penelope might be looking for me.”

  “I know,” I tell her. “I know.”

  The rest of the ride is silent except for the sound of the rain pouring down. I park as close as I can to the old cigar factory, and we take the long way around the building to avoid anyone seeing us.

  With the bad weather, most people are inside, which makes us stand out, so we need to take precautions and be certain that none of Cruz’s men are following us.

  Once we’re safely inside the building, I scan for anyone who might be around. It’s quiet.

  “What are you doing?” I ask as Gemma opens a small closet.

  “Getting the key,” she tells me.

  Seriously?

  That’s where she hides it?

  I need to teach her a few things.

  “Not having to break in is a plus,” I smirk instead of making a smart-ass comment because come on, she deserves a break.

  While she’s in there, she also grabs a broom.

  “What’s that for?” I ask, seriously hoping cleaning up isn’t on her mind right now.

  “Air,” she quips.

  I raise a brow in question.

  “I’ll show you. Just move, will you?”

  She’s a pushy little thing.

  As soon as we’re inside the storage unit, I can’t stop the crushing pain from engulfing me and I fall to the cot.

  Gemma uses the broom handle to open a small vented window up high and it allows for some fresh air to rush in.

  She’s obviously done this before.

  Unable to move, I stay where I am but keep my eyes on her as she rummages through the crates. After finding a flashlight, she turns it on and uses it to rummage some more. When she turns around she’s holding a black velvet box. She opens it and carefully sets the necklace in it.

  “What are you going to do with it?” I ask.

  Her sad eyes meet mine. “I don’t know. I’ve never allowed myself to think that far ahead.”

  “You’ll figure it out.” I pat the cot. “Come lay beside me,” I tell her.

  After she lies beside me and rests her head on my chest, she looks up at me. “I’m sorry, Caleb, I’m so sorry.”

  I shake my head. “Shhh . . . no more. Okay?”

  She nods and then wipes away her tears before clearing her throat. “We need to get you to a doctor,” she tells me, and her voice is a whisper against my skin, electricity in my blood.

  For a moment, I don’t even care that I’m bleeding like a motherfucker. Touching her is all I can think about. However, then I shift and the throbbing in my thigh makes me wince. “No doctor,” I tell her. “It’s too risky. Do you have a first aid kit in here?”

  Sitting up, she shines the flashlight around the space. “Yes, give me a minute to find it.”

  “And a knife and a needle and thread.”

  She gasps. “For what?”

  I place my hand on her back. “To cut the bullet out of my thigh and then stitch me up.”

  Even in the darkness, I can see her go pale.

  “Gemma, do you think you can do that?”

  She runs her fingertips down my cheek. “Before I met you, I’d have said no. But now, I feel like I can do anything.”

  Strange. I feel the exact same way.

  Chapter 40

  For You

  Gemma

  THE COOL, DAMP night air is like a balm in this small space. I’m staring at a point in the blackness, my mind spinning.

  I’m free.

  Free.

  Free.

  I have the flawless necklace—the object that put this nightmare of a life I’ve been living into motion. Wanting something so much you’d kill for it now seems like a sin. Yet, after Enrique took my family from me to get it, I was going to take his life to get it back.

  Laying here on Caleb’s chest, I realize how flawed that plan was. An eye for an eye doesn’t make things right.

  Enrique is dead.

  I have the necklace.

  And yet, my mother is still gone. My father will still never return to his full health. And my brother will still never be able to wash the blood from his hands.

  Still, no matter how flawed my plan was, it
led me to Caleb.

  And because of him, I recognize that a part of my mother lives within me. She knew real love and wanted me to know it too. I didn’t think I wanted it. Didn’t think it existed for me. She was right, though, all I had to do was stop being afraid and just feel it.

  Somehow, Caleb did that for me.

  Helped me open myself up.

  Love.

  A four-letter word that makes everything right.

  The shock of what happened tonight is still with me, but the reality that my plan was flawed from the start has set in. Murder isn’t something I could ever commit. I would have never been able to kill Enrique even if I could have stolen the necklace all by myself. And then what would have happened? Nothing good.

  I turn my head. “Does it make me a bad person that I’m glad he’s dead?”

  Caleb has his hands behind his head and he turns so his lips meet the heart tattoo on my shoulder. “No, not all. He caused you a lot of pain and suffering. He got what he deserved.”

  “Someone will just take his place,” I sigh.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. It’s the way of the world. I just hope it will put an end to most of the illegal dealings on the Mona Lisa.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Gemma, I couldn’t tell you before, but Cruz was running that operation.”

  No wonder he knew so much. I gasp in shock. “He was Leonardo?”

  “Yes.”

  Things finally start to make so much more sense. “Is that why you were on his property the night we first met, so many years ago?”

  “Yeah,” he says, “my team has been trying to shut the dark web down for years, but it just keeps growing. Now, though, maybe, just maybe, without all his power and money, the platform that breeds death and destruction will start to collapse.”

  I open my mouth to speak, to ask a dozen more questions, like why, how, when, and when, but Caleb starts kissing me, deep and powerful and unrestrained, and all my thoughts fade.

  It’s just him and me and the big world out there, far from us.

  Soon his hands are gripping my hips from under my tattered dress, and I’m licked by a million flames of desire.

  He’s what I want.

  What I need.

  He’s a hot bath.