“Good evening, Kelly.” Nikolai Kalasnikov fiddled with his cuff link. “You’ll have to forgive this rather unorthodox meeting place, but I didn’t think your brothers would appreciate me darkening their door.”
He shifted for a better look at the reputed mob boss. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“Are you enjoying Alexei’s brand of training?” Nikolai deftly avoided his question.
“That’s one word for it.” Though it felt awkward, he added, “Thank you for helping me. I appreciate it.”
Nikolai sent one of those cold glances his way. “You should thank Vivian.”
The Russian’s unspoken words were the ones that left Kelly uneasy. Dimitri’s comment from a few days earlier circled in his head. Tread carefully. “I will.”
When Nikolai reached inside the jacket of his suit, Kelly instinctively tensed. He relaxed when the mob boss withdrew a folded slip of paper and held it out to him. Kelly didn’t take it. “What is this?”
“Yuri told me about your little problem.”
He blinked. “You mean Trevor Cohen?” When Nikolai nodded, he asked, “How did Yuri—”
“Lena,” Nikolai answered. With a surprising smile, he added, “She’ll use every asset at her disposal to help a client.”
He stared at the paper, unwilling to take it just yet. “How did you find him?”
Nikolai actually chuckled. “Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
“He likes strippers. One of my men owns a club that he frequents. He’s there now.” Nikolai waved the paper. “I’ve got my man keeping him…busy.”
Ready to put an end to one of Bee’s problems, he took the paper. “Thank you.”
Nikolai shrugged. “One of these days, I’m sure you’ll find a way to return this favor.”
Of that, Kelly had no doubt. Hoping he hadn’t just made a deal with the devil, Kelly reached for the door handle. A hand on his arm stopped him. Glancing back at Nikolai, he was surprised by the concern in the other man’s eyes.
“Kelly, I won’t try to stop you from fighting. I understand why you’re doing it, and I respect that.”
“But?”
“But you need to know that my aid to you ends with Alexei,” Nikolai said, drawing back his hand. “I arranged that because Vee asked me to help you, but that’s as far as I will go.”
“I understand.”
Nikolai considered him for a moment. “Good luck, Kelly.”
Understanding that he had been dismissed, Kelly slipped out of the backseat and closed the door. Sergei had already turned his back and was heading back to the driver’s seat. The coldness of the fighter he would soon face took Kelly aback. They had interacted on a social level a handful of times, especially when Sergei acted as Vivian’s bodyguard, but it was clear that Sergei had labeled him the enemy.
He rejoined his brothers and unfolded the strip of paper. Seeing the name of the club, he waved the note. Grinning, he asked, “Either of you have some spare dollar bills?”
Chapter Twelve
Like most men in their late twenties, Kelly had spent many nights drinking and watching half-naked woman shake their asses. Between deployments, there hadn’t been much else to do with his fellow Marines. Without a girlfriend or a wife, he’d sought out visual stimulation to appease his pent-up frustration.
Those long nights of dropping tens and twenties on mirrored stages weren’t nights he was particularly proud of or nights he ever wanted to talk about with Bee. The fact that Jeb had usually been right beside him would probably keep her from asking those sorts of questions. He doubted she wanted to talk about her brother’s sex life any more than he did. Not that Jeb had ever gotten any action with strippers…
“This place isn’t nearly as seedy as most clubs,” Jack remarked as they stood just inside the main door. “I think you could actually sit on these chairs without having to whip out a wet wipe first.”
Kelly snorted his agreement as Finn laughed. For a strip club, it was awfully nice inside. Nikolai’s man clearly hadn’t wasted any money on this place. Judging by the packed crowd, the investment was probably paying nice profits.
“What’s this guy look like?” Finn asked.
Kelly dug out his phone and brought up the image. He showed the screen to his brothers. “This is Trevor Cohen.”
Always an officer, Jack took control. “Fan out. Find him. Take him out to the parking lot.”
Once they had Trevor in the parking lot, Kelly would depend on his brothers to keep him in line. Trevor might not be the sicko making disgusting phone calls and sending Bee filthy photos, but he was trying to ruin everything she had worked so hard to build. Kelly refused to let that happen. He wanted this Trevor situation wrapped up neatly so he could focus on the real threat to Bee’s safety.
A man Kelly recognized as one of Nikolai’s inner circle caught his eye. Kostya, the purported mob cleaner, made a gesture before finishing his drink and weaving his way through the crowd to join Kelly. Without saying a word, he pointed to a closed-off corner where lap dances occurred and held up three fingers. Kelly understood and followed close on Kostya’s heels.
Inside the lap dance section, Kelly tried not to pick up on the inappropriate sounds emanating from behind the curtains shielding each booth. While it was totally illegal for any sort of sexual activity to occur, the sight of high-heeled feet sticking out from under the drapes told him most of these men were on the receiving end of blowjobs.
At the third booth, Kelly listened more intently. He heard the murmur of a man’s voice before a woman heaved an irritated sigh. “Look, honey, I can’t make this work if you can’t stay hard.”
Kelly allowed a juvenile smirk to curve his mouth as Kostya stepped forward and rapped his knuckles against the frame of the booth. “Tasha, you’re finished here. Get back out on the floor please.”
Clothing rustled amid a man’s frustrated grumbling. The curtain flicked back and a pretty redhead sauntered out of the booth. Kostya held out a handful of hundred dollar bills that the woman happily accepted for keeping Trevor occupied.
When the man in question stepped out of the booth, he took one look at Kelly and immediately retreated. Kelly reached in and grasped him by the front of the shirt. “You’re coming with me.”
“The hell I am!” The paunchy man slapped at Kelly’s hand. “Security! Help!”
Kostya laughed and grabbed Trevor’s arm. “Yell all you want. No one is coming.”
Trevor’s expression slackened with horror. He tried to fight, but Kelly and Kostya manhandled him out of the lap dance area and through a back exit. Jack and Finn were already waiting for them. No doubt one of Kostya’s employees had send them.
“I’ll leave this to you, Kelly.” Kostya backed away from them. “I would appreciate it if you’d keep the blood spatter to a minimum. We’re trying to maintain a certain atmosphere here.”
Kelly grinned evilly. “We’ll do our best.”
Kostya shared a secret smile with him before returning to his club. The three Connolly brothers surrounded the weasel who had been threatening Bee and attacking her company. Kelly’s hands fisted at his sides as he considered how best to get the point across that Bee was off-limits.
Trevor held up his hands and glared at them. “If you touch me, I swear to God I’ll unleash every single picture I have. I’ll fucking ruin her.”
The mention of pictures stopped Kelly cold. His brothers shot concerned glances his way. Stepping toward Trevor, he demanded, “What pictures?”
Trevor’s malicious smiled chilled his blood. “She didn’t tell you.”
A stabbing pain speared Kelly’s chest. What was Bee hiding from him? The realization that she hadn’t trusted him with something this serious hurt badly.
What in the world had she done that would make her too afraid to come clean with him? Trevor said he had photographs. Had she taken nude selfies, or was it even worse? Had she been tricked by a former boyfriend into snapping p
rovocative shots?
“Show me.”
Trevor’s smile faded at Kelly’s growled command. He tried to back away but knocked right into Finn’s chest. Recognizing that he was cornered, Trevor fished his phone from his pocket and tapped at the screen. He turned it toward Kelly who moved even closer for a better look.
At first, his brain refused to accept the image before him. It wasn’t Bee. It was Jeb—but he was wearing women’s lingerie and a leather collar and handcuffs and…
No. No.
“This is fake.” Kelly batted away the phone. He knew Jeb. They’d been friends since preschool. If Jeb had been into that sort of thing, he would have known. “You’ve doctored these.”
Trevor’s acid laugh grated on his nerves. He swiped his screen before flashing it toward Kelly. “You think I doctored this one?”
He didn’t even want to look but he couldn’t stop himself. The sight of Jeb straddling some sort of leather and steel contraption twisted his gut. On closer inspection, Kelly realized the masked man beating Jeb’s bare backside with a belt was also a Marine. The eagle, ball, and anchor tattoo marked him as a member of their brethren.
Swallowing hard, Kelly tried to make sense of it all. “Where did you get these?”
“That’s none of your business.” Trevor tried to pocket his phone, but Kelly snatched his wrist. Trevor yanked hard and warned, “I have copies of these stashed everywhere. Take my phone, and they’ll be all over the internet by midnight.”
Gritting his teeth, Kelly released the slimy bastard’s wrist. “What do you want? Money?”
“Not from you,” Trevor remarked. “I doubt you could scrape together enough change to buy me a cup of coffee.”
The reminder of his relative poverty compared to Bee wasn’t a welcome one, but he let that dig slide. Refusing to let this asshole hurt Bee, he insisted, “She won’t give in over a couple of pictures. She’s tougher than that.”
“I have more than pictures.” Trevor’s self-satisfied grin gnawed at Kelly. “I have names.”
Something told Kelly that the names of the men Jeb had done those things with were worth a lot of money. “Why are you doing this?”
Trevor shrugged. “She shouldn’t have killed my baby.”
Kelly’s eyes widened fractionally. “Your baby? Oh. You mean that stupid program that never even worked?”
Trevor’s nostrils flared. “It worked beautifully before she got her hands on it. That bitch doesn’t know the first damn thing about coding.”
“Watch your mouth,” Kelly ground out between clenched jaws. “You’ll need a bigger set of balls to call Bee names in front of me.”
“Oh, I see how it is. You know, when I first found those pictures of her pervert brother, I thought for sure you’d be right there next to him, on your knees and sucking some other guy’s dick. I wondered if there wasn’t some special Marine brigade of fag—”
That was all that disgusting asshole got out before Kelly punched him square in the nose. The impact knocked Trevor right off his feet. He fell to the pavement hard and grunted. Kelly’s fighter instincts kicked in, and he leapt atop the downed man. Seeing red, he planted his fist right into Trevor’s jaw and reared back for a third blow that never happened.
“Kelly! Stop!” Jack wrapped both arms around Kelly’s chest and hauled him off Trevor. “You’ll kill him.”
“Maybe I should,” Kelly spat out angrily. Jerking out of Jack’s grasp, he kicked at Trevor’s leg. “If you publish one fucking picture or one word about my best friend, I’ll hunt you down and slit your fucking throat myself. He was a hero who died for his country, you cowardly fucking prick.”
Spotting Trevor’s phone on the ground, Kelly stomped it three times, delighting in the crunching snap of plastic and metal cracking under the weight and force of his shoe. Overwhelmed by a jumble of emotions, Kelly stormed out of the alley and headed right for his truck.
Finn raced after him. “Kelly! Kelly! Stop.”
Fumbling in his pocket for his keys, he refused to turn around and look at his brother. Finn caught up to him, grasped his shoulder, and whirled him around. “What are you going to do?”
Kelly didn’t know. Waves of betrayal and anger and pain crashed over him, threatening to suffocate him. “How the fuck could he keep something like that from me?”
Finn shrugged one shoulder. “Kelly, bro, it was a different time. Even now that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone, you know how hard it is for men to come out.” He shifted his glance to the ground as if uncomfortable. “To come out as a man who likes to do those things?”
The images he had seen of his best friend allowing himself to be degraded and humiliated confused Kelly. Who the hell was that man? Did he ever even know the real Jeb?
There was only one person who could answer those questions.
And she had a hell of a lot to explain.
***
Primping in front of the mirror and trembling with anticipation for Kelly’s return, I heard my phone ringing in the master bedroom. I hurried in to answer but didn’t recognize the number. Wary after the onslaught of weird phone calls I’d been receiving, I hesitantly answered, “Hello?”
“Bee, it’s Finn.”
“Oh.” Surprised that Kelly’s brother would call me, I instantly went into panic mode. “Oh my God. What’s happened? Did Kelly get hurt at training?”
“No, sweetheart. He’s fine. Look—we had a run-in with Trevor Cohen.”
My heart skipped a few beats. “What?”
“Kelly will explain. Listen, Bee, he’s pretty pissed off but not with you. He’s mad at Jeb.”
“Jeb? Why would he…?” My voice trailed off as the horrid realization hit. He knows. “How long until he reaches the penthouse?”
“Ten minutes?” Finn guessed. “Maybe fifteen if he hits bad traffic.”
“Thanks for the heads-up.” I dropped my phone on the bed and rushed to get dressed. The argument we were about to have wasn’t one I wanted to have stark naked.
Dressed in yoga pants and a camisole, I rushed out of the master suite and into the living room, where I hoped to intercept Kelly. Winn leveled a curious stare at me and switched off the television. “Everything all right?”
I started to lie and say yes, but then I decided I’d had just about enough of keeping secrets. “Kelly is on his way, and we’re going to have an argument over my brother.”
“I see.” Winn pushed off the sofa. “I suppose I’ll make myself busy in the kitchen then.” As he passed, he gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Whatever it is, you two will work it out.”
I wished I had a tenth of Winn’s confidence in us right now. I honestly didn’t know how Kelly would react once it was all out. I cringed at the thought of what Trevor must have told him or showed him. To see Jeb in those sordid photos? It sickened and saddened me to think Kelly’s memories of my brother and his best friend were now tainted with doubt and confusion.
When Kelly stepped through the front door a few minutes later, he froze and simply stared at me. The pained expression on his face made me ache. Regret twisted my gut. I thought of all the times I could have come clean about Jeb. If I’d only been brave enough to say something, we could have avoided this.
Squeezing my hands together, I whispered, “I’m so sorry, Kelly.”
His tense expression went lax. “You’re sorry?”
Holding my breath, I watched him cross the distance between us. His unreadable face left my stomach in knots. Was he upset with me for lying?
He tossed his gym bag onto the couch before cupping my face in his big hands. He gazed down into my eyes and brushed his thumbs across my cheeks. “Don’t apologize for protecting your brother.”
I gulped nervously at his unexpectedly gentle voice. “You’re not mad at me?”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m angry at the situation, and I’m pissed off at Jeb for keeping something like that from me.” He nuzzled his mouth against mine, rubbing our noses together as he sou
ght a sweet kiss. “But I’m not mad at you, Bee.”
Closing my eyes, I murmured, “We need to talk but not here. Let’s go to the master suite. There’s a lot that I need to explain.”
“Yes, there is,” he agreed. “I need to—”
The shrill ring of the main penthouse phone interrupted us. Someone picked it up in another room. I assumed it was Winn.
“It’s probably just maintenance,” Kelly guessed. He made a face and rubbed at his knuckles. The movement drew my gaze and I gasped. Grabbing his hand, I tugged it closer for a better look. Blood stained his skin. Because I’d seen him wearing sparring gloves when training, I knew this wasn’t from the gym. “Kelly, did you hit someone?”
Before he could answer, Winn came into the living room with a stormy expression on his handsome face. “The police are on their way up.”
“The police?” I repeated, shocked. “Why are the police here?”
“They’ve come to arrest Kelly.”
“What?” I jerked on Kelly’s hand and forced him to meet my questioning gaze. “What did you do?”
Somewhat reluctantly, he admitted, “I hit Trevor. Twice.”
Aghast, I dropped his hand and backed up a few steps. “Why would you do that?”
“He said awful things about—”
“So what?” I hated that my voice had climbed an octave as panic gripped me. “People say awful things all the time. That doesn’t mean you hit them, Kelly. You sure as hell don’t hit them when they’re threatening to unleash photos and video of your brother and his married lover who is now a high-ranking officer in the damn Marine Corps!”
Kelly’s head snapped back as if I’d struck him. “The man in the photos is an officer?”
“Yes.”
“And he’s married?”
“Yes.” I didn’t want to get into the specifics of the arrangement Peter had with his wife right now, not with Winn watching us. “It’s not just that man either. There are other men in those photos that could be identified.”
“Why didn’t you destroy them?” Kelly demanded angrily. “We could have avoided this entire mess if you’d just been more careful!”
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