Keith waited for the obligatory beep before he could speak. “Kristina,” he started uncertainly, wondering if he was crossing a line by calling at all. They had made it clear the night before that they wouldn’t be seeing much of each other. “I was planning to drop you back at campus,” he continued. “I just want to make sure you got there ok. Call me when you get this.”
He hung up and stared at his phone for a while. He had a strange feeling in his gut, one that just preceded panic. “Stop it,” Keith said to himself. “You’re being paranoid.”
He dressed quickly and rode down to Lee and Seton, where most of the boys had gathered already. “Tucker,” Keith called. “I need a word.”
Tucker walked over with his usual carefree strut. “Yeah, man,” he said. “What’s up?”
“I need a favor.”
“Course,” Tucker nodded good-naturedly. “Tell me.”
“I need you to watch Kristina until this whole thing blows over,” Keith said with some difficulty.
Tucker frowned. “I thought you were doing that?”
“I… was,” Keith nodded. “But I’m not anymore.”
Tucker looked at him curiously for a moment and then realization dawned. “Oh… ok man,” he nodded. “I’ll look out for her for you.”
“Thanks, Tucker,” Keith replied gratefully. “It’s nine-twenty now, so she’ll be at a class. But she should be done by eleven o’clock. Carlton Campus, the Joseph Henley Building. If you get lost, ask someone and they’ll point you in the right direction.”
“Carlton Campus, Joseph Henley Building,” Tucker repeated. “Got it; I’ll leave at quarter to eleven.”
Keith nodded and moved into the auto shop to look for Miles. He was in his office, behind the desk. Keith could tell immediately that he was stressed out about something. He walked in and closed the door behind him. “Any news?” Keith asked.
Miles barely looked up. “The Chains hit another charter,” Miles replied. “Last night.”
“How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Miles replied. “Two more of our suppliers have backed out.”
Keith leaned in. “Are you serious?”
“Apparently they have more to fear from the Chains than they do from us.”
“Whatever happened to loyalty?” Keith hissed. “We’ve been doing business with them for years.”
“The Chains don’t fuck around,” Miles said, shaking his head. “Cordon’s house was set on fire last night.”
Keith looked up abruptly. “They set his house on fire?”
“His wife and kid were inside,” Miles replied.
“Are they—?”
“They got out in time,” Miles said. “But the threat is real now. No one wants to cross the Chains.”
“We do,” Keith reminded him.
“But we won’t have any help,” Miles said. He looked like he had aged ten years in the last few days. His face was drawn, his eyes had sunk into the sockets, and he was looking pale and gaunt. “And I don’t know if we can do this alone.”
“Fuck that!” Keith hissed. “We are the Iron Dragons. We don’t have backup, but who cares. We can do this shit alone.”
“The Chains have doubled in number since the last time we dealt with them,” Miles pointed out. “Not to mention they have contacts in all the illegal businesses they run. They have a number of things at their disposal… that we can’t hope to match.”
“You sound defeated,” Keith said immediately, looking closer at Miles’s face. “This is not over Miles.”
Suddenly, Miles slapped his palms against his desk and rose. “I have a fucking family now,” he said in a voice that was far louder than the one that Keith had grown used to hearing. “I have a child. This shit is getting old.”
“What are you saying?” Keith asked, sensing an undercurrent to Miles’s words.
“I’m saying… dad was right. This life is not the be all and end all of our existence.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Keith demanded. “Ezekiel loved this life. He’s the one who taught us everything.”
Miles shook his head. “You think because my father took you in and taught you, you know everything about him? He lost my mother to this life. He lost any chance of a happily ever after because of it. Do you know what he told me before he died?”
Keith stood silently, staring at Miles. “No,” he said softly. “I wasn’t there.”
“He told me never to forget my priorities. He told me that if the day came when I had to choose between this club and my family, I shouldn’t even hesitate,” Miles said softly. “‘The club will never fill that hole in your life, Miles.’ That was what he said to me just before he died.”
“He’s the one who encouraged us to continue to run club,” Keith pointed out. “He’s the one who gave us his blessing for Lee and Seton.”
“He did,” Miles nodded. “And he meant it, but he didn’t want it to be our whole lives, Keith. He never meant for us to give everything we had to this club and leave nothing for ourselves. Don’t you want something that is just yours?”
“I had something that was mine,” Keith reminded him. “And it was taken from me…by Anton Kovic. So if you’re trying to tell me to put all that behind me and forget the past, then you’re sadly mistaken. I will never forget, and I will never forgive.”
“I’m not saying that,” Miles said shaking his head. “I’m just… sick of the fighting.”
“Tough,” Keith hissed. “This is part of the deal, Miles. This is the life you chose, and you’re going to have to see it through now.”
“I know that,” Miles said, biting back with fire. “I know that. All I’m saying is that we have to be smart about how we fight back. We don’t have the same strength or the same connections that Kovic has. We need to think outside the box if we want to beat him.”
Keith nodded. “I don’t care how we beat him… just as long as we do.”
Miles and Keith stared at each other, and Keith could feel the tension build in the room, as the stress started consuming them both. It was Keith who blinked first and turned down his gaze. “I need to call Kristina,” he said at last as he left Miles and made his way outside.
Again he dialed Kristina’s number and prayed that she would pick up. “Come on,” he said to no one in particular. “Come on… pick up.”
There was a click on the other side and Keith heard breathing. He breathed a sigh of relief. “Kristina…”
“This isn’t Kristina,” a deep male voice replied from the other end. Keith froze, as his brain tried to place the voice he was hearing while simultaneously keeping his panic in check. He would need all his faculties to deal with this.
“Kovic?” he said at last.
There was a sinister chuckle on the other line. “I can understand your infatuation with this little spitfire here. She’s got a nice rack on her... and the other parts are not bad either.”
“You motherfucker!” Keith exploded.
“Tsk, tsk,” Kovic’s voice cut through Keith’s rage. “Getting angry now is not going to do your little daisy any favors here, Keith. I suggest you calm down and listen politely… or else Kristina here is going to have to experience some very… unpleasant things.”
Keith felt fear course through his body as he was forced into silence. “Fine,” he said, breathing heavily, as he felt the blood drain from his face. He noticed that Miles was staring at him with concern through his office, but he ignored his questioning gaze and focused on Kovic’s voice. “Fine,” he said again. “I’m calm.”
“Wow,” Kovic said. “That was easy. I should have realized that the only way to train a rabid dog was to get his bitch.”
“Don’t you dare hurt her,” Keith hissed, making sure to keep his tone level.
“I don’t think you’re in any position to be making demands, asshole,” Kovic continued pleasantly. “I am the one who has your little bitch.”
“What do you want?” Keith asked desperately.
“
I told you what I wanted,” Kovic hissed. “But you walked away from me. Now you’re gonna find out what happens when you deny me.”
“I can make it happen,” Keith said desperately, without even thinking about the words that were escaping him. “You want our charters… you can have them.”
“Have them?” Kovic replied sounding interested. “I can have them?”
“Yes.”
He laughed cruelly. “I’ve already taken them, and I’ll take what’s remaining, too. I don’t need anything from you anymore, Keith, which was a big mistake on your part, considering you have nothing to bargain with. Are you catching my drift?”
“She’s done nothing,” Keith said, feeling the shudder in his voice. “She’s an innocent in all of this. She has nothing to do with this… any of this.”
“Oh, I know that,” Kovic replied conversationally. “Of course I know that. But this has nothing to do with her. This has everything to do with you.”
“This is just about revenge for you?”
“It’s only ever been about revenge for me,” Kovic hissed. “You never took me seriously did you, Keith? You thought I was some sort of joke.”
“You were,” Keith said before he could stop himself. “You still are.”
“You’re going to pay for that opinion,” Kovic said, his tone going dark with bitterness. “And once I’m done… you’re never going to cross me again.”
“Kovic—”
“There’s someone here who wants to speak to you,” Kovic interrupted.
There was some static on the other end, and then he heard panicked breathing that he recognized instantly. “Keith,” Kristina’s voice was wrought with fear. “Keith!”
“Kristina,” Keith said hurriedly, every question on his mind tripping over one another in an effort to be answered. “Are you ok? Has he hurt you? Where are you?”
“Keith, I… I don’t know where we are… Keith!” she shouted, as the phone was wrestled away from her and he could hear Kovic’s measured breathing again.
“No,” Keith hissed, his hand was tight around the phone. “No!”
“Heard her precious voice did you, Keith?” Kovic asked quietly. “Well, listen to me carefully because I’m going to make you a promise. I promise that in three days’ time you will be reunited with your sweet love. I will drop her off for you. Those beautiful blue eyes of hers will be wide open and unblinking, her face will be contorted in one fixed expression, and her body will be twisted and mangled and scarred.
“At first you might not even recognize her. You might think it’s someone else, but you won’t be able to deny who it is once you’ve looked into those eyes. You can undress her then and take a look at her body and when you do, you can imagine all the things I did to her. You can imagine the reason behind every single scar and burn and bruise on her body. And while you’re looking at the artwork I’ve created, remember that it was for you. Every single mark on her body was for you. Every single scar and bruise, all the pain she endured… was for you.”
Before Keith’s mind could even process that deplorable thought, the line went dead and he was left with empty sound and endless fear. “No,” he said to his phone. “No, no, no.”
“Keith?” Tucker’s voice was quiet and concerned. “What happened man? Who was that?”
Miles was standing right next to Tucker, and Keith wondered for a moment how they both got there. He hadn’t even noticed that they had approached him.
“Keith?”
“It’s happening again,” Keith whispered, as his knees gave way and he sunk to the floor. “He’s got her.”
“He’s got her?” Tucker repeated, looking between Miles and Keith.
“Kristina,” Keith whispered. “I failed. Kovic has her.”
“He threatened to kill her?” Miles asked.
“It wasn’t a threat,” Keith said shaking his head. “He is going to kill her. But first… he’s going to make her suffer.”
Chapter Twenty Seven
Kristina
Kristina could hear Keith’s voice on the other end of the phone, and for some unknowable reason, she was comforted by it. It wasn’t as if he had any power to save her from her current predicament, and yet, she felt a sense of safety at the sound of his voice. She knew that feeling would dissipate the moment Kovic cut the line, but she clung on to it anyway, trying to find strength by whatever means she could.
Kovic was describing in glaring detail how he was going to return her back to Keith. Somehow his words barely touched her, and Kristina realized that she didn’t truly believe him. It had nothing to do with Kovic himself, and everything to do with her life up until this moment. These kinds of things were not part of the world Kristina had grown up in, and to that end, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the reality of the moment.
There was a thought lodged in the back of her mind, and she couldn’t shake it no matter how hard she tried. She believed whole-heartedly that someone would find her before Kovic could actually set his sadistic plan in motion. She believed that by some twist of fate, either Keith or the police would find them and stop Kovic before he could leave any kind of mark on her body.
Right on cue, the bruise on the side of her head tinged with pain, almost as though to remind Kristina that naiveté would not help her in this case. She raised her hand to the bruise and rubbed it slowly, sparking a jolt of pain that seemed to rush around her head before settling. Kristina blinked twice and realized that Kovic’s eyes were on her, and a smile was playing slowly on his lips. He had that smug look of self-satisfaction that Kristina had seen on many men. This was the first time it sent chills down her spine. She wondered momentarily if the bruise Kovic had left on her head had also left a concussion. She felt curiously different, something her body had not experienced before. She felt as though her movements and words and thoughts were just not coming fast enough.
“What?” she demanded.
“Your boyfriend is well and truly frightened,” Kovic replied, as though he had been waiting for her to ask the question. “I’ve never heard Keith frightened before.”
“He’s not,” Kristina said confidently.
“He’s not what?” Kovic asked stupidly.
“He’s not frightened,” Kristina said with disdain. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”
Kovic seemed amused by that. “He’s not.”
“We’re friends,” Kristina replied automatically.
Kovic laughed. “I don’t give a fuck what you are to each other. What matters is that you mean something to him, and that means it’s going to hurt when I take you away.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Kristina said.
“You realize I have you, right?” Kovic asked conversationally.
“I’m in the back of your shitty car,” Kristina nodded. “In the middle of nowhere… but you don’t have me. You will never have me.”
“Did you think I was joking before?” Kovic asked pleasantly.
“I hope it wasn’t a joke… your comedic timing is a little off.”
Kovic bent his head to the side and regarded her with cold eyes. “I can understand why Keith wanted to fuck you. I can’t understand why he kept you around afterwards though. You are exhausting.”
Kristina rolled her eyes. “Typical… I pegged you for the kind of man that couldn’t deal with a strong woman.”
Kovic’s eyes narrowed. “Strong or weak… it doesn’t matter… I will break you, just like I broke Natalie.”
Kristina felt the hair on her body rise when he mentioned Natalie. It struck her suddenly that he was responsible for Natalie’s death and that realization was more chilling than any other. He was capable of murder, and he was capable of getting away with it. All of a sudden, Kristina’s mind was forced to consider the possibility that this adventure of hers might end in disaster.
“That shut you up, didn’t it?” Kovic asked. “I thought it might. Apparently everyone needs a reminder of who they’re dealing with.”
“What?” Kovic looked at her in surprise.
“What happened with Natalie?” she clarified her question.
Kovic regarded her with interest. “Keith didn’t tell you?”
Kristina felt herself bristle at the unspoken insinuation in his tone. “No,” she said, trying not to sound as though she was bothered by that fact. “He only mentioned that you were the one responsible for her death.”
Kovic bowed his head as though he were accepting a compliment. “I was.”
Tempted: The Numb MC Page 45