by J. L. Drake
Zay stood in front of me to block the clerk’s view and pulled up my left hand to look at my ring.
“You really going to marry him?”
I snapped my hand away. “What, you think I was going to marry you? I don’t even know you!”
“No. I’m just shocked, that’s all.”
“Wow.” I shook my head in disbelief and tried to walk around him. I wondered what the fuck he was here for. I scanned the room, looking for some kind of nasty-ass weapon to use on him.
“Tess,” he came up behind me and spoke quietly, “can we talk for a moment?”
“Seriously, the last time I saw you, I was told I no longer had my freedom. Why in hell would I give you a moment of my time?” I tried to see if he was alone or if Allen was nearby. I picked up my pace and hoped to hell the light would change so I could walk straight across.
“Tess.” He grabbed my arm and tugged me between two buildings.
“Don’t touch me!” I tried to wiggle, but he was too strong, and my arms were already weighted down with what I had bought.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
“Oh, trust me, I remember.” Sarcasm dripped from my lip as the memory of his fist to my face came rushing back.
“I suppose I deserved that.”
“You think?” I spat. “What the hell are we doing here?” Curiosity soon pushed the fear of being recaptured aside. Memories of all the times he’d watched Allen beat Gus flickered all around me. I knew this man was a dangerous killer. I wasn’t stupid, but something was off here.
He grabbed my wrist and twisted until I stopped trying to fight him, and my groceries fell all over the ground.
“Let me go!” I screamed in his face, but he twisted harder until I cried out and he had my attention.
“Will you fuckin’ listen? I’m trying to stop you from being a part of something bigger.”
“You trying to protect me?” I snarled. “Are you nuts?” I kneed him in the dick, but he only grabbed my neck and slammed my head against the wall. He shut his eyes like he was trying to calm himself while I fought to clear the ringing in my ears. Ouch!
“He has the boy.”
That stopped my fight dead in its tracks, and my body went slack.
“What! Which one?” I choked through the small airway he left me.
“The littlest.”
Fin!
My heart sped up, and my emotions started to ping pong through my rib cage.
“Take me, Zay, trade me for him. He’s just a baby.”
Zay squeezed his eyes shut and muttered, “What I wouldn’t do for that to happen.” He was so close to my face, and his breath smelled gross, like a bad combo of booze and cigarettes.
“Where is he, Zay?” I clawed at his grip, but it tightened as his face grew red. “Please, don’t take Fin.”
“It’s not just about him,” he whispered. “He’s just the decoy.”
“What?” He suddenly let me go, and I had to lock my knees to stand upright.
“A decoy,” he repeated.
I sucked in as many gasps of air as I could muster. My lungs felt like sandpaper, and my head felt light. This was no time for weakness. “Where is Fin?”
“This has gone way too far.” He madly rubbed his face. “He’s out of control.” His phone rang, and he stared down at the screen with a blank look on his face. “The park by the pier.”
He didn’t get to finish. I dropped everything and raced down the street. I wove between cars and used the bike lane when the lights were red.
“What the hell, lady?” a man screamed at me when I cut him off at the corner of an intersection. Horns blew, tires squealed, and every curse word imaginable found my ears, but nothing mattered except to get there. I jumped in front of a truck and felt no fear as my feet pounded the pavement. My arms pumped at my sides, and my hair whipped all around me as my lungs labored to keep up.
“Fin!” I screamed when I saw his small body standing near a tree. His shoulders were slumped over, and his hoodie looked ripped. “Fin! Come to me!”
Somehow, I picked up the pace, but when I was just moments from reaching him, someone stepped out from behind the slide.
I came to a complete stop as fear once again tightened around my chest and held me hostage.
“I didn’t expect you, Tess.” Fox gave me a grin before he shoved Fin’s shoulder. His head rose, and I saw his busted lip and swollen cheek. I could tell he had been crying.
“You’re looking good, Tess.” His sleazy gaze dragged down my front. “I take it someone tipped you off?”
“Fox,” dropped off my tongue in a whisper, “just give me the boy.”
“I can’t do that.” He pulled out a gun and rested it on Fin’s shoulder, the tip pressed into his neck. “I have my instructions.”
I wanted to puke. It was something I would never be able to un-see. Fin’s mouth opened as he cried, his eyes locked on mine.
“What is it you want?”
“The flash drive.”
“Okay.” I nodded a few more times than I needed to. Damn, Zay had been right. I guessed this was their next move—an innocent child. “Give me the boy, and I’ll take you to the flash drive.”
He laughed. “I didn’t say I wanted you to do it.”
The word decoy echoed through my memory.
Shit.
I glanced over my shoulder in the direction of the club. What the hell was going on?
“You have a choice, Tess. Run back to the club to warn whoever’s left that we’re here, or stay here with me and the boy.”
Fin’s bloodshot eyes shifted wildly in a secret plea for me to stay.
I’d never had a maternal instinct, not even with Lilly. I loved her. She was Mags’s little girl, and I would always be there for her, but she had grandparents and didn’t need me. But Fin and Denton were different. They had a father figure, but they needed a strong, stable female. The little beasts had burrowed their way into my life and into my heart. They needed me, and as much as I had trouble admitting it, I needed them. My need to protect the boys like they were my own coursed through me, and I made my decision. Truth be told, I loved them.
“Fine, I’ll stay here.” I straightened my spine. “Just remove the gun from his neck.”
He shifted it, but only slightly, and fifteen painful minutes ticked by. Fin’s eyes were enormous, and he seemed to be in a daze. I stood and stared at Fox, who in turn stared at his phone.
“Are you going to give me the ‘you don’t have to do this’ speech?” He half laughed before he drew his eyes up to mine.
When I moved my weight to my other foot, I caught a glint of something shiny by the sandbox. A shovel someone had left behind, and a decent sized one, at that.
“No, you’re a weak piece of shit. You will do whatever Allen tells you, even to the point of hurting an innocent child.”
“She says to the man holding a gun to the kid’s head.” He laughed.
I dropped my arms and started to step toward the shovel. He made a hissing sound for me to stop, but I pushed my limit and kept moving. I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt Fin.
“You know,” I took a step, “I always wanted to see the Pacific.”
“Stop moving,” he warned.
“Always wanted to dip my toes in every ocean there is.” I moved another three steps and hoped he didn’t see what I was after.
“I said hold still.” He started to approach me slowly, Fin still in his hold.
“I never thought all of this,” I waved at him, “would come with my bucket list.” I was a foot away from the shovel.
“So, my warning wasn’t enough for you.” He gave me a grin, one that I felt hit the center of my core as it triggered a memory I had buried.
“You?” I stepped back, then everything fell into place, and I connected the murky dots and put it all straight in my memory. “It was you, wasn’t it? In the desert. You attacked me up on the ledge!”
&nbs
p; “You smelled so good, your skin was like butter. I just wanted a taste of you.”
Something inside me snapped. One moment I was standing there, and the next I had the shovel and swung it straight at his neck. I saw arterial spray and had the satisfaction of knowing I had put him down.
His eyes bulged, and his gun wobbled, but he didn’t let it go. He was still a threat.
“No!” I grabbed Fin and tackled him to the ground. Then I flew at Fox and kicked the gun from his hand, then jabbed my foot down hard into his throat. I stood and watched the man who had once tried to rape me leak onto the ground. He tried to say something but only gurgled, and then his eyes glazed over.
“Shit.” I looked around wildly. What if someone saw? I thought I heard sirens. My fucking fingerprints were all over the shovel handle. “Ah…” I dropped to my knees and fished around Fin’s backpack. “Sorry, Fin, I just need,” I pulled out his water bottle, “this.”
I dumped it over the handle, grabbed a fistful of sand, and with the sleeve of my jacket, rubbed it into the wood in hopes it would scrub my prints clean. Fox’s glazed stare and still-jerking body lay nearby as I tried to hide the evidence of what I had done.
I tried not to think of how Fin would react to all this. I did what had to be done. I tucked the bottle back in his bag, tossed it over my arm, grabbed Fin’s hand, and quickly walked out of the park and onto the road.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I kept repeating to Fin as we walked at a normal pace. I wiped at the blood to help blend it into my clothes. Thank God I had on something dark. I didn’t need to draw any more attention to us. Anger flooded my brain, and I fought like hell to keep it under control.
“You’re okay, sweetie,” I reassured him once we turned the corner. “You’re going to be fine.”
I wasn’t sure if anything was okay right now. Something was happening, and I needed to know what was going down. I did know that no matter what got in my way, I was going to make sure he was safe.
“One more block, and then we’re back at the club.” I finally saw the rusty sign and knew I just needed to make it inside. Savannah always said “baby steps.” I could really use her right now.
“Here we go.” I opened the door and should have known by the fact Joe wasn’t at his post something was very wrong.
Fin’s drawn-out scream stopped my entire body from working, and all that was left was the word decoy.
Decoy.
***
Allen
“Should I be worried?” I turned to Zay. I knew he had tipped off Tess about the kid.
“No.”
I clucked my tongue on the roof of my mouth. “We had a plan.”
“My plan never included hurting the kid, only to use him to draw her out.”
“So, now you care?”
“No, not at all. I’ve killed and will kill again, but I don’t hurt kids.” He raised his hand like he had something else to say. “I’m beyond confused why you wouldn’t have taken out Trigger. You had the perfect moment when he walked out of his office. Silver platter, Trigger,” he made the motion with his hands, “right there for the taking!”
I shrugged. “I enjoy toying with my food.”
“We don’t have the time, and we’re running out of money. At what point will you put a bullet in his head? Because, apparently, you won’t fight him in the ring.”
I shot him a nasty look and waited for him to realize he was too far over the fucking line.
“I thought you were one of us.” I shook my head in disappointment. “Is this because your dick is jealous because she’s marrying my son?”
“No,” he hissed and changed his angle. “It’s because you hit a five-year-old kid across the face, and when he cried, you punched him. He’s an innocent fuckin’ little kid, for Christ’s sake. You didn’t need to do that.”
“Oh, what is it about people and kids? I hit Trigger all the time when he was a kid, and he was fine.” I fixed my collar in the rearview mirror and smiled at the memory.
Police, fire trucks, and an ambulance roared by with their sirens screaming.
“You didn’t need to kill him, and you didn’t need to do it in front of his oldest.”
“I don’t need to kill anyone, but that has never stopped me before. The boy will move on. Kids are resilient.” I pinched my eyebrows and shot him a disgusted look. “Are you next to be killed? Because of all people, I never thought you’d be the one to get soft on me.”
He opened his mouth to speak but then held up a hand as if to stop himself again.
“Wise choice.” I rolled my eyes as I went back to the mirror to make sure I looked just right.
His head dropped to his phone, and his mouth twisted into a thin line.
“What?” I snapped over my shoulder.
“Fox was found dead, shovel to the neck.”
“Well, fuck me, that chick has bigger balls than you.”
Zay closed his phone and bent to get out of the car.
“Hey,” I barked, annoyed that he left before I had given him permission. “Let’s always remember who helped you when you got sloppy with that Italian hit.”
“That was nine years ago.”
“Yeah, and one picture to the police, and you’ll be in jail for life.”
“So, now you’re blackmailing me?”
“You expected anything less?”
“No.” He paused with his hand on the door handle, eyebrows raised, and waited for me to dismiss him.
I flicked my wrist and eyed my bloody jacket in the back seat. The splatter had stained my clerical collar. Luckily, I had a backup for times like this. It was a hazard of the job, I supposed. A strong surge of pure joy moved through me, and my spine tingled. I could almost feel the energy from his soul entwine with mine and meld with the many others who joined us.
I hummed with my palms downward.
“One down, a few to go.”
Chapter Fourteen
Trigger
Fin’s mouth was open, and his chest heaved, but there was no sound. Denton was stone next to Cray, who still had his backpack in his hands.
Brick ran in, but he was in slow motion. He shouted at Rail, but there was no sound.
Morgan had his gun drawn, and his wild eyes scanned the room along with Cray and Bruce.
Again, no sound.
The muscles in my arms were locked solid, my jaw was clenched so tight I thought my teeth would crack, but above all, the demons within wailed in high-pitched shrieks that made my head pound to their wild beat.
What the fuck just happened?
Where the hell did they come from?
Why the living fuck is the fucking mole staring at the body?
Flashing lights poured through the windows, and the sound of sirens filled the air while the vibration in the floor drew my attention to the guys. They were grabbing the last few bricks of coke from my office as fast as they could, then they slipped out back to hide it under the floor of the pool house. I knew all this, but I stood still. I observed, but I did nothing.
To my surprise, the lights and sirens seemed to move away toward the park.
I locked eyes with Fin. I took in his beaten face. Tears made a path down his dirty cheeks, and my eyes moved to the blood spatter across his white shirt. Fin’s white shirt? Blood on Finny’s white shirt. Suddenly, something inside me broke.
It felt as if someone had turned off the lights, turned off the sound, and I was left in the bottom of a cold, dark cave. The demons were free, and they were hungry. Their claws ripped at the flesh on my bones. They were wild, excited I had finally returned home.
I’d never taken speed, but the way my rage burned through my blood, I felt amped up and racing.
I needed to kill someone, and at this point, anyone would do.
“Trigger?” Tess sounded like she was a million miles away. “Oh, my God, Trigger,” she sobbed with Fin’s face tucked against her stomach. “What happened?”
Her horrified face turned
to look over my shoulder, and I barely heard her scream Denton’s name.
Tess started to run to me, but Brick stopped her.
He eyed me carefully before he held up a hand and shook his head.
She looked confused as she sobbed and held the boy, and I felt nothing. Just emptiness. Lost.
I let my gaze fall to my uncle’s lifeless body.
“When was the last time you saw him?” Gus was pissed, but he was good at keeping his voice calm when he spoke to the school. Unlike me. “So, he did meet up with Ryder?” He paused. “Okay, I’ll wait.” He slammed the phone down and eased into the seat with a hiss. He was still in a lot of pain, but he tried to ignore it.
I set a bottle of Coors Light beside him—a shitty beer, but his favorite—and pulled out my phone.
“Ryder,” I said when he answered on the first ring. “Put Fin on the phone.” Gus leaned over the table with his hand stretched out. There was a pause before he spoke.
“I, ah, I can’t do that, boss.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s not with me.”
My eyes shot up to Gus, who was now by the door, ready to leave. “Explain.”
“I met him as usual, and we were walking along the street. The next thing I remember, I’m getting up from the sidewalk. I must have been knocked unconscious, and Fin’s gone. I was just reaching for my phone to call you.”
“When?”
“I just came to. Couldn’t have been out long.”
Shit!
“Morgan!” I shouted, and the entire club went silent. “Get the guys and get out there, find Fin fast.” I could hear their bikes as they fired them up and roared out onto the street. What the fuck was happening here?
Denton came in with Cray, looking confused at the commotion.
“Why are you not in school? Gus shouted.
“I got in trouble, and the school called and got Cray.” Cray came in behind with his book bag.
“Where is Tess?” Gus looked at me, worried. “Where is my youngest? I have a bad feeling.”
Boom!
We were knocked off our feet, momentarily stunned, and the place quickly filled with smoke. I was hit in the back and dropped to my knees. I managed to catch my weight with my hands before my face hit the floor. Black boots came into view, and my head was pulled back by my hair. A rifle butt was shoved in my face, and then I saw him.