by Lane Hart
Nodding her head, she chews on her thumbnail for a second before she says, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but the medical examiner seems convinced that Kelly didn’t likely die of the bruises or the concussion, but for the failure to receive medical care after the injuries.”
“Then how can you hold my client responsible for murder?” my attorney asks, indignant on my behalf and gaining a few points with me.
“Because I needed him to sit down and tell me what the fuck happened so I can find out who did kill him,” Detective Horton says honestly. “Now keep talking, from the beginning.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Gabby
“You wanted to see me?” I stick my head in Mario’s office the first night I’m back after a bouncer told me he was asking for me. The sweet, kind man that he is, he gave me two whole days off after Robbie’s funeral before he required me to dance naked for him.
“Gabby, come on in and shut the door,” he looks up from the papers on his desk and says with a smirk.
Shit, that’s not good.
I do as he asked, otherwise he would have one of his two guards standing just inside the room with us shut the door anyway.
“Everything okay?” I ask him.
Pushing his chair back from the desk, he stands up and starts for me, eyeing the pink lingerie I was forced to wear tonight. Thankfully, I had only been on stage once before he asked to see me and haven’t had to do any private dances.
“No, everything is not okay,” Mario answers. “I had to shut down my fucking fights.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” I tell him.
“You should be,” he says. “It is your fault, after all, for going to the police.”
“I was just worried about Robbie,” I tell him, swallowing around the knot of fear clogging up my throat. “I had no idea his body would wash up and they would figure out he was a fighter.”
Mario chuckles before he tells me what’s so funny. “You know, I once told your boyfriend that if either of you mentioned your brother’s name to me again, I would shove my cock so far down your throat that you would both choke. Or something to that effect.”
“I’m sorry,” I reply, my chin trembling from trying to keep from crying. “I just, I know Cain didn’t kill my brother, and I really want to know who did.”
“You’re a smart girl; I’m sure you’ve figured it out. What happens to fighters when they fall and don’t wake up? I can’t very well take them to the ER, can I?” he asks, practically admitting he killed Robbie.
But I need more.
“So you…you killed him?” I ask as he comes closer.
“No harm in telling you now, I guess, is there?” he asks. “I highly doubt you’ll leave the club alive tonight, so yes, when Robbie remained unconscious for more than an hour, I smothered him with a stack of towels myself because nobody else had the balls to do it. And then I had him thrown in the river.”
“Why…why wouldn’t you just take him to the hospital?” I ask as the first tear slips down my cheek.
“Because I didn’t give a shit about your brother or you! I’m only worried about earning a nice, plump living, and you made me lose a lot of money when I had to close down the fights.”
“I’m sorry,” I say again, even if it’s a lie.
“Oh, you’re going to be sorry. I’m gonna fuck you until I forget how many thousands of dollars I’m out because of your goddamn brother and boyfriend, and you running your mouth to the police. And then, to make up some of that money, I’m going to let every man in the club who has a few dollars in his pocket take turns fucking you. Some like it rough, so I really will be surprised if you survive the night.”
He waits for my reaction after making that ominous threat. When I don’t give him one, he exhales and says, “Hold her down.”
The two guards at the door come forward and start hauling me over to the desk. I don’t even try to fight them. There’s no reason to. They’re both twice as big as me.
One of them slams my face against the stacks of papers, and then I hear it…
The sweet sound of justice.
Women scream, gunshots go off, and it’s complete chaos out in the club.
“What the fuck?” Mario says. “Go see what the hell is –” He stops in mid-sentence, and then he flips me over on the desk and rips my satin lingerie down the middle.
“Goddamn it!” Mario yells. “She’s wearing a fucking wire! Put a bullet in this cunt’s head before they–”
The door bursts open just in time. Hearing Detective Horton say, “Mario Guerra you’re under arrest for the murder of Robert Kelly” is a fucking relief.
I watch as the detective wrenches Mario’s hands behind his back, just the way they took Cain away a few days ago. Then, she reaches out a hand to help me up.
“Good job,” she says, face paler than usual and eyes wide. “You’re pretty damn brave, Gabrielle. If we had been a second later…”
“You weren’t,” I tell her, because I can tell her nerves are frayed, worried that I could’ve died. And yeah, it was a possibility. I knew that when I went to her and agreed to wear a wire tonight. But I also knew it was worth it to try and save Cain.
“When can I see him?” I ask her.
“I’ll set something up when we get back tonight,” she tells me.
“Thanks.”
“The DA has agreed to drop the arson and manslaughter charges since he was an abused minor, but he’s gonna have to do some time for obstruction of justice and his involvement in a racketeering scheme.”
“How much time?” I ask, holding my breath.
“Since he’s a first offender and a confidential informant, I think that, if we can get his case in front of the right judge within the next few weeks, then he’ll get out for time served.”
“Oh, thank God,” I say on an exhale.
…
Cain
“In you go,” the guard says when he opens the heavy door leading to an attorney conference room at the jail. I don’t know what my attorney needs to see me for this late tonight, but the escape from the stink of the small, claustrophobic cell is fine with me.
“You can take his cuffs off,” the voice I recognize as Detective Horton says from inside the room.
“You sure?” the guard asks.
“He’s not gonna hurt her.”
The guard is unlocking my cuffs before I realize that she just said “her.”
As soon as my hands are free, I rush into the room and pull Gabby into my arms. Holding her, inhaling her sweet, flowery scent, I still can’t believe she’s here. I didn’t think I would ever see her again, even if by some miracle I was released. How could she ever forgive me for what I did? Yet here she is.
“I’m so glad to see you, angel,” I say into her hair before I kiss my way down her face and to her lips.
“I’ll give you two a few minutes. Just keep it rated PG,” the detective says before I hear the heavy door shut.
“How are you? Are you okay?” Gabby asks, clinging to the front of my navy-blue jumpsuit. “Has anyone hurt you?”
“No, angel. Nobody’s hurt me. I’m fine, but how are you holding up? I’m so damn sorry you had to find out that way, but I swear I didn’t know how bad off he was…”
“I know,” Gabby says, looking up at me with shimmering blue eyes. “You wouldn’t kill anyone on purpose, especially not my brother. Mario did that, and now he’s rotting in a cell.”
Good mood quickly receding, my shoulders slump as I tell her, “I’m glad they arrested Mario and all, but you know that’s not exactly true about me. The night of the fight I cheated…and then there’s the fire...”
“You were just a kid when you set the fire after that man had hurt you,” she says. “And Ivan and Knox told me about the Plaster of Paris, and that my brother had cheated too. I get that you feel guilty, but eventually you need to let all of that regret and self-blame go.”
“I’m not sure it’s that easy. Robbie, yeah
, in my heart I know that was a horrible accident because Mario didn’t get him to a hospital, but the fire? That’s all on me.”
“You were probably living in hell and did the only thing you thought would let you escape,” Gabby replies, letting me off too easy. “The police aren’t charging you, so they apparently understand that too.”
“I could’ve tried to save him. There was time to get out the back when the fire first started,” I admit. “But I left him and didn’t call for help.”
“You were young and had just lost your mother. You did what you had to do to survive,” she says. “Don’t even think about it again. He’s not worth it. Let’s just start focusing on the future, and forget the past.”
“So, we’re okay?” I ask, needing to hear her say it.
“Yeah, we’re better than okay,” she says with a smile. “And Detective Horton said you may be able to get out in a few weeks.”
“Weeks?” I repeat, my eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
“Ugh, I know it seems like a long time, but hopefully time will go by fast. I’m sorry it’s not sooner.”
“Angel, I thought I was looking at years. Decades! Not weeks. I’m…fucking relieved.”
“Good, but it still seems like too long to me,” she says with a pout. “I miss you, and I can’t sleep without you in my bed.”
“I miss you too,” I assure her, pulling her to my chest and holding her tightly. “So much. Of all the times you needed me and I can’t even be there for you,” I tell her through gritted teeth.
“It’s not your fault,” she says. “Cain, I don’t blame you for what happened, okay? So don’t waste another second blaming yourself or feeling guilty about anything.”
“Okay, I’ll try,” I agree with a heavy exhale. “I love you, angel. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“I love you too,” she replies before leaning up to kiss me.
And until the door opens again, that’s what I plan to do, hold my girl and kiss her, thankful that she forgave me and thankful we’ll have a second chance.
Chapter Forty
Gabby
A few weeks later…
“Mmm,” Cain murmurs into my neck as his busy mouth moves its way up to my lips again. “One more time. I’ll make it fast,” he says making me smile.
“One more time,” I agree. “But make it slow.”
My leg is thrown over his hip, and we’re a tangle of limbs facing each other in bed.
I can’t say I’ve missed Cain fighting or the stupid abstinence rule. The guys have all been trying to find work after Mario was arrested, but it hasn’t been easy. No one really needs guys who beat each other up in their day-to-day business.
The good news is that I started working part-time for The Flower Pot, a local florist, helping the owner, Beatrice, create beautiful arrangements. Sometimes, when we’re caught up in the afternoons, she lets me ride shotgun on delivery runs, which is the best part, seeing the joy and surprise on the recipient’s face when they realize someone cared enough to send them flowers.
We also do the hard part of the flower business too, delivering arrangements to the funeral homes. Not a day goes by that I don’t miss my brother, despite all of his mistakes, he was still my family so I take fresh roses from work to his grave at least once a week.
Cain reaches down between us, bringing my thoughts back to the bedroom when he lines up his cock to enter me, just as there’s a booming knock on the bedroom door.
“Go away!” Cain yells before his mouth finds mine again.
“I’ve got news! It’s important,” Knox says from the other side of the wooden door.
“This is too!” Cain yells back.
“Fine! Just hurry up!” Knox replies.
“Can’t do that either,” Cain says as his cock sinks inside and stretches me in the best possible way, making me moan into his mouth.
“God, I love the way you feel,” I tell him as I shift my hips to take him deeper, needing more of him.
“And I love the way you love me,” he says as he starts pumping his hips forward.
The sideways sex is great and all, but from this angle, I can’t feel him hitting that spot deep inside me that drives me crazy.
“Climb on top of me,” I tell him. “Need you to fuck me harder.”
“Hell yes,” Cain says as he rolls me to my back without our bodies separating.
On the first thrust, he gives me exactly what I need.
“Yes!” I cry out when the tension starts to gather and tighten my legs. “Right there! So good,” I tell him.
“How do you expect me to take my time when you’re screaming like that while your pussy squeezes my cock?” Cain asks with a grin from above me, showing off those dimples I love. I’ve gotten to see a lot more of them lately, telling me he’s definitely happier.
But the time for conversation ends as both of us move together and eventually find pleasure in each other’s bodies.
“Wow,” I mutter between pants. “That never gets old, does it?”
“No, definitely not,” Cain says, chuckling from where his face is buried in my neck, his scruffy beard tickling me.
I tilt my head to the side so I can kiss the red rose tattooed on his upper arm. What was once black and white flowers have recently been colored in.
Ever since Cain was released from jail, he’s been like a different person, happier, freer. He said that there was finally color in his bleak world now that all of his secrets are out in the open.
“Guess we better get cleaned up and dressed to see what Knox wants,” I suggest, even if I could stay here, underneath Cain’s hard sculpted body forever.
“Yeah, otherwise he’ll use that as a reason to bust in here,” Cain agrees with a chuckle.
…
Cain
Once Gabby and I are both dressed, we open the bedroom door and join the guys where they’re sitting at the kitchen table. I take one of the chairs, and Gabby sits down on my lap, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“What’s up?” I ask the guys.
“Glad you two could finally join us,” Knox mutters with a smirk. “So, I just heard some good news.”
“Tell us already,” Ivan says.
“There’s been a change in management, if you know what I mean…”
“Fuck. There’s a new mafia boss?” I guess.
“Sort of,” Knox says. “After a full out war, the Irish mafia has apparently won, taking over all of Mario’s businesses, but the boss seems like a decent guy. Get this, he wants to start up the fights again and do it legit!”
“Legit?” Ivan says, not sounding convinced.
“Yeah, he’s gonna have real contracts between fighters and pay taxes, the whole deal,” Knox says excitedly. “And no one will be forced to fight or dance because of some debt owed bullshit.”
“Sounds like somebody’s blowing smoke up your ass,” Ivan remarks.
“It’s true. We’ve all got a clean slate. They’re even doing renovations at the gym. It’s supposed to open again next week.”
“Next week?” I ask. “And when would the fights start?”
“They’re working on fixing up a decent cage in an arena, but maybe a month or so. Between the three of us, we’ve got enough saved to get by until then, right?”
“What about me, Knox?” Gabby asks. She’s been silent this whole time, and I get why she would be concerned. “Do you think this new person is gonna be okay with us after Cain snitched and I helped the cops bring down Mario?”
“Ooh, good question. Guess you’ll have to talk to the dude and see,” Knox replies. “His name is Liam O’Donnell.
“That name sounds familiar,” Gabby says. “I think that’s Maylin’s dad. Do you think her father could be the Irish mafia boss?”
“Possible,” Knox agrees.
“Good, I bet she’ll talk to him for us.”
“Yeah, that’ll be awesome if she can clear everything up,” I tell Gabby, giving her waist a
squeeze. “Hell, he’s probably glad we got Mario out of the way so he could take over his territory.”
“God, I hope so. I’ll go call Maylin now,” Gabby says before she jumps off my lap and goes to get her phone.
“So, we’re really gonna get back into fighting?” I ask the guys.
“Looks that way,” Knox replies with a grin.
“Guess there’s no way around it,” Ivan agrees.
“You’re gonna fight?” I ask him in surprise.
“Fuck, yeah. If it’s my choice, then I’m gonna finally kick some ass,” he says with a smile.
“I don’t doubt it, man,” I tell him.
“But you’re not,” Ivan says.
“Why the hell not?” I ask indignantly.
“Because it’s time for you to move on to bigger and better things like you were supposed to,” Ivan replies.
Looking down at my hands, I flex them, trying to decide how swollen my knuckles are after taking a few months off. “I may be able to draw, but I can’t tattoo…”
“You’re gonna try!” Knox declares.
Could I really pick back up with the applications and training to be a tattoo artist like I wanted? We’re free now, so I guess anything’s possible.
“Fine,” I agree. “I’ll talk to Domino and see if he’ll let me give it a try.”
“Good,” Knox and Ivan both say.
“So, to the next episode?” Knox asks when he offers a fist bump that Ivan and I both hit.
“Here’s hoping it’s better than the last,” I mutter.
Shaking his head, Ivan says, “Fuck, it can’t be any worse.”
Or so we thought…
The End
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Lane Hart was born and raised in North Carolina. She continues to live in the south with her husband, two daughters, and several pets named after Star Wars characters.