Sins of a Bad Boy (The Original Bad Boys Book 1)

by Naomi, Soraya

  Ivy’s full lips tipped up into a sad rendition of a smile. “You have nothing to say now?”

  With that comment, he exploded. William braced both hands beside her head. Then he smashed his fist once, twice, three times into the wall beside her ear, breaking the plaster.

  Ivy winced, turning her head to the side, and tried to push him away. William didn’t waver a beat. Steam came from his ears, and his chest heaved violently.

  “You better shut up now,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Ivy swallowed, rendered silent by his unrestrained and terrifying fury.

  A pregnant silence ensued, and eventually, he spoke. “Come with me.”

  “Where?”

  He cocked his head. “Stop asking questions. I won’t answer them.”

  From the reluctance that flashed behind his silver-grey eyes, she realized he might have been ordered to eliminate her. William had already explained she was a liability to them. And she’d seen how Charles and William easily made people disappear.

  Her courage reappeared in full force. “Where are you taking me?”

  He snagged her wrist and hurled her forward, to the elevator. “Move.”

  Inside, he faced Ivy. Inspecting her in a way he’d never done before. William was torn; he didn’t even try to hide it.

  A sense of foreboding alarmed Ivy. William was on the verge of obeying orders. She feared her life would end within minutes.

  How could he do this to her? Had every kiss, every touch between them meant nothing to him?

  Ivy had possessed the absurd notion for much too long that she could tame William’s wild heart, but she finally got that doing so would be impossible. She’d convinced herself of foolish dreams.

  “You’ll regret this one day. This day will haunt you if you hurt me,” she stated with tears stinging her eyes, adamant not to let them flow freely.

  And then, the inconceivable occurred: he winced. For only a nanosecond, but she’d noted it. William could act all tough, but she’d come to know the man beneath the hard exterior of a fighter. And he’d never understand how killing her would wound him more than it would ever hurt her.

  “Are you sure about that?” he countered viciously, cradling her cheeks to angle her head up. Then he kissed her roughly. “Nothing fazes me. What do you think these months have done to me? You played your game while I played mine, sweet Ivy.”

  “I don’t think you were playing a game anymore. And stop handling me like I’m one of your nitwit whores. You said yourself that I’m crafty. I know you feel something for me. But your damn pride or greed is overruling your mind now. Just stop and think for a goddamn second what you’re doing. What the repercussions would be! I have a brother who’ll never give up on finding me. And he already knows I was kidnapped by you. Furthermore, so many people have seen me in both of your clubs. And there’s also Ben.”

  She used the last card she had. Ivy had always suspected that something highly important had gone down between Ben and William. Something that evidently troubled William, since hearing Ivy mention Ben had made him tighten his fingers in her hair.

  “Ben?” just the one word.

  “Yes, Ben,” she bluffed.

  “What about Ben?”

  “Do I need to spell it out?”

  His eyes narrowed, the silver irises appearing as shards of ice. “Yes, you need to spell it out.”

  She pursed her lips and continued her bluff, “I know.”

  His brow arched insolently.

  The elevator stopped as they glared at one another.

  Then the corner of William’s mouth quirked up into a knowing grin. “I’ve enjoyed your sass. But you know nothing.” Another hard kiss, then he whispered against her lips, “I promise you that I’ll never forget you.”

  This was the end.

  Think, think, Ivy.

  “William, don’t do this,” she pleaded.

  He seized Ivy’s arm and shoved her out of the elevator, refusing to speak any more.

  She scanned the hallway. He’d taken her to the second underground floor that housed his private room and the fight club.

  The passageway in the second underground floor has an exit that leads to the ‘L’ train station.

  She recalled Sean’s words. This was the passageway he was referring to.

  William dragged her along the familiar hall to his private room.

  She needed to get away from him. Once he locked her in his room, it was over for her.

  “William!” Silk came out of the dimness further down the corridor.

  “Silk, not now. I don’t have time,” William said agitatedly.

  Silk still asked his question, “Do you have Jeremy?”

  “What? No. Isn’t he in my room?” William kept his fingers around Ivy’s bicep.

  “Jeremy’s gone,” Silk announced with wide eyes.

  “How’s that possible?” William replied in frustration and unwittingly loosened his grip on her.

  Ivy broke free with all her power and sprinted in the other direction.

  “Motherfucker!” William roared.

  She had a head start since William needed to instruct Silk first.

  “Find Jeremy. Right now!” Ivy heard William yell to Silk as she turned the corner.

  She ran to the end of the hall, rounding corners as fast as she could in this maze of corridors to keep out of William’s clutches.

  “Ivy!”

  William was gaining speed on her, following her effortlessly as the heels of her boots clicked loudly off the concrete and she bumped into the narrow walls of the unending passageways. The further she got, the darker it became, until she was having trouble focusing her vision or seeing anything.

  Then after spinning into another hallway, everything became black.

  Sweat trickled down her nape as her breathing increased and fear trembled her legs. How she despised the dark and being alone in this creepy flight path.

  William had stopped calling her, but she could hear his fast paces closing in on her.

  At last, Ivy slowed and, taking unsteady steps forward, was able to feel her way around. Then, not feeling that the corridor had ended, she banged her face against a cold wall, and a splintering pain shattered through her forehead.

  Dread almost paralyzed her; however, she forced herself to stay calm, inhaling and exhaling. But it didn’t work, and she was in a mindless state of panic. Ivy couldn’t go back. She’d come so far, and now she was stuck!

  Wearily, Ivy felt around with both palms pressing against opposite walls. On her right, she touched a cold railing. Her fingers traced it to the shape of a square. Extending her arm, she sensed another square – it was a ladder. So she looked up, squinting her eyes. She wasn’t sure, but there was a flicker of light at the top. It must be a pipe.

  She stepped onto the ladder and climbed up.

  “Ivy?” William shouted. He was in the dark hall beneath her.

  Her boots slipped off the ladder, and she gripped it to keep from falling. She let out a startled scream as she hung, swinging her feet until she found the rung again.

  Then she continued up hurriedly, without thinking. It seemed like a never-ending pipe, and she felt claustrophobic. She tasted dust and dirt flying into her mouth while she breathed harshly from the fatigue of hiking so many feet up. Ivy’s heartbeat thudded in her eardrums.

  When she was halfway to the top, she detected a tiny ray of light. It was so faint to her, but she was sure that if she had good vision, she’d see that it was the scuttle with a finger hole to open it from the outside of the end of the pipe. Ivy sped up the ladder, and when she came closer to the light, it was indeed a finger hole with sunlight shining through.

  “Oh, thank god,” she whispered with a sigh.

  “Ivy! Fuck! Where are you?” William had discovered the pipe as well.

  Gripping the metal railing of the ladder with one hand, she pressed her palm above her head against the scuttle. It was too heavy for her tired arm.<
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  “Ivy! Don’t go out there. You could get trampled,” William warned.

  She ignored him and pushed up with all her weight, taking another step up when it moved open and more sunshine illuminated the pipe.

  She glanced down and saw William gaining on her, climbing fast now that he had light.

  Ivy threw the scuttle open, and it clanked on the ground.

  She got out, and a slight chill bit into her bones.

  Noises invaded her, but she focused on lifting the lid and pulling it shut again. It worked.

  Ivy lifted her face to the sky, feeling the crisp morning air, inhaling its freshness into her lungs.

  “Move! Watch out!” A vehicle raced right past her, causing her to stumble to the side on the pavement.

  Hoofs clicked, cars drove by, and pedestrians were bustling around.

  Ivy turned and looked up to the massive clock at the entrance of the Loop’s train station.

  No one paid any attention to anyone while people bumped into one another, and there were numerous people waiting in line at the register. The flurry of movement made her mind spin, and it took a while for her eyesight to adjust.

  All of a sudden, her name was being yelled again. “Ivy!”

  William came out of the pipe as she peered back over her shoulder, and then she broke out into a run, dissolving inside the crowds of the station.

  Bounding straight ahead, she kept checking left and right – and behind her. William was furiously pushing people out of his way in a frantic attempt to get to Ivy. In turn, she bumped into men and women until she reached the platform where a train was about to leave.

  “All aboard!” the conductor in a blue uniform announced.

  Steam rose up from the train, and she jumped inside a compartment right before the doors closed.

  Inane laughter and the chattering of children and families traveling to new destinations flowed around her. Cheerfulness so contradictory to her own torment at the moment.

  Quickly, she followed the path along the windows to see where William was. And just then, he sprinted past her window along the length of the train, anxiously screaming her name repeatedly.

  Ivy dropped into the first vacant cushioned seat and observed William, who was still walking onward, inspecting the windows of all the compartments.

  Her heart splintered into a million pieces.

  Did she just imagine she witnessed pain and sorrow in his expression?

  The wheels began to turn, and the train started to move. William stopped, checking the passing windows. His gaze traveled faster than the train, so his head turned slightly, their eyes locked, and he seared her with an incredulous stare.

  The world seemed to slow and then stop when he looked at her. Everything faded, all the frivolous chuckles and prattling drifting into nothingness.

  The tears she’d tried so hard to stall slipped helplessly down her cheeks, scalding her flesh like hot acid.

  Both of them unable to break away from the intensity of their gaze, they beheld each other with a mixture of disbelief and dejection.

  William, the man with the composed and confident manner, stood motionless, yet his emotions were written all over his face as sadness washed over him.

  Perhaps she’d been wrong and he wouldn’t have hurt her?

  Her compartment window passed him. Involuntarily, her fingers touched the glass.

  Would he have killed her? She’d never know.

  Would he have loved her at some point? She’d never know.

  They were both guilty of trying to sustain a relationship based on secrets and lies. They had been doomed from the start.

  Ivy turned her head to watch him. He studied the ground now, and she surveyed him standing at the platform until she could no longer see him.

  She reared back against the seat, breathing soft sighs of freedom, but she wasn’t happy. Ivy had left a piece of herself behind, with him.

  William took her body that first night of her kidnapping, yet she’d given him her heart willingly at one point. And he’d never returned it. She feared it would always be in William’s clutch.

  CHAPTER 37

  William

  At the platform, William frenziedly searched countless windows, certain she’d boarded that train. She was even more conniving than he ever thought possible, but she was also quite courageous. William knew how she hated the dark, yet she’d set off through the darkened corridors like a woman on a mission.

  His eyes scanned the passing train, and before he even saw her, he felt a prickling sense of awareness. Then her disheveled reddish-brown curls came into view, and silver-grey collided with sparkling blue. As if his entire being became paralyzed, he stood with his arms hanging down at his sides to get a last glimpse of the one woman who’d bested him.

  Only later would he acknowledge that she was much more than that.

  In a moment that spanned merely a second but felt like hours, he experienced a melancholic emotion unfamiliar to him. In his life, he’d never been attached to anyone except Charles. But she’d definitely fought her way into his cold soul. William watched her keenly, seeing a similar gloom. As long as he could, he kept his eyes on her until she drifted away.

  Instead of immediately returning to the club, he stood there, staring at the ground, feeling the need to punch something or someone. William swallowed back the brick lodged in his throat and blinked profusely.

  When he regained his composure, he pivoted with infinite slowness, further away from Ivy.

  However, before he stepped off the platform, he craned his neck to read the board information, to check the destination of that train.

  ***

  As William trudged back home, he heard fire alarms and commotion when he was just a few blocks away. He took off in a sprint and rounded the corner to his street.

  An army of people swarmed around the building, blocking his view of the high-rise. He saw firemen running around and smoke billowing up.

  William pushed past people unapologetically and screamed, “That’s my apartment building!”

  When he arrived to the front of the line, he watched people escape the burning front entrance of the gambling club as flames blew from several windows on the first floor.

  “Move back, folks!” a few firemen yelled and guided the swarm backward.

  “That’s my building,” William said to one of the firemen. “Is everyone out?”

  “Not yet, sir,” he answered. “We’re working to get people out.”

  Soaring flames could be felt like a wall of heat, and several firemen were using the hose to extinguish them.

  Suddenly, a loud bang thundered and windows shattered, fragmenting all over the place. Pieces of glass coasted around.

  “Get down!” one fireman shrieked.

  William stooped low and covered his head with both his arms. A rush of heat blew over him, and then it was silent for a twinkling moment before chaos erupted.

  Sweat formed on his brow from the heat of the fire, and he observed the left part of the first floor of the building being engulfed by flames. His gaming club, his empire, burnt to the ground.

  Screams of concern from passers-by, escaped clientele, and residents flew around his ears while William searched for Silk or Charles or any employees of his establishment.

  William began to pace and finally spotted a familiar muscular man with a scruffy beard and his hair in a bun. “Silk! Silk!

  His manager met him halfway.

  “William.” He coughed into his fist and had streaks of ashes on his face and waistcoat.

  “Where’s Charles?” William asked.

  “I haven’t seen him.”

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. I got out quickly since I was in the gambling club looking for Jeremy.”

  William knew Sins was empty this time of day, so the only people inside were Charles and employees of the gambling club, along with the regulars.

  “You didn’t find Jerem
y?”

  “No, flames shot out from nowhere. I ushered as many people out as I could, and then I left. I didn’t see Charles, William. Was he inside?”

  “I don’t know,” William replied and kept scanning the first floor, but the firemen had blocked the crowd further away for safety reasons.

  “Go look for Charles, and we’ll meet back here in thirty,” William said and continued his own search.

  A search that came up with nothing. William, who was already in a despondent mood after losing Ivy, became more miserable with each passing minute.

  After an hour, all the flames were doused. One side of the building’s first floor smoldered. It was purely a black hole with only the beams of the foundation still intact.

  “Mr. Kade,” a police detective who had joined the scene came up to him.

  “Yes.”

  “You’re the owner of the building?”

  “No, my business partner is the owner of the building. I’m the co-owner of the gambling club.”

  “The fire department will start their investigation as soon as possible. I’m sorry, but it seems that there were still people inside.”

  William rubbed the stubble on his jaw nervously. “Can we go into the building? My apartment is on the top floor. Can all the residents return?”

  “Yes. The fire hasn’t affected the entire first floor, the building foundation, or any of the other floors. It’s mostly the interior of the club that’s burned. I’ll contact you as soon as I know more and you can access that part of the first floor.”

  “Yes, please do. Thank you,” William said.

  Silk approached William, so William ordered him, “I need my own law enforcement on this case. I don’t want any other police officers snooping around my clubs. And if Jeremy Dechamps was in there, we definitely don’t want his family to be informed that he didn’t have any fingers. Jeremy’s family can’t be allowed to see the corpse.”