Not Broken (Firebacks Book 2)

by Linda Verji

  Where was she? His gaze searched her side of the bed and then the room for her, only to come up with nix. His watch said it was eight in the morning. A moment later the door to the en-suite opened up and he turned his head. Steam from the bathroom spilled into the room, before Tasha walked out bundled up in a towel.

  The white fabric started above her breasts and stopped just above her knees. It didn’t expose anything more than he’d ever seen on her but for some reason it was enough to turn him on. Or maybe it was the fact that Tasha looked less put together than he’d ever seen her. Her face was completely bare of makeup and her hair was bundled up on her head in a messy bun. It shouldn’t have been sexy but it was. She was so beautiful.

  She stopped mid-stride when she noticed him watching her. “Good morning.”

  “Morning,” His voice was a mix of early morning roughness and desire.

  “Did I wake you?” She asked as she walked to the couch. Kian bolted upright when he saw her upper back. Her skin though dark was lined with even darker marks and scars crisscrossing each other and dipping into the edge of the towel. In the morning light Polo’s abuse was clear.

  Bile rose to Kian’s throat, not from disgust but rather from anger at seeing the damage that bastard had wrought on Tasha. He swallowed his anger heavily before answering her, “No, you didn’t. I was up.”

  Tasha unzipped the navy knapsack that sat on the couch. “Why don’t you take a shower while I go help make breakfast?”

  “Okay.”

  “I think afterwards I’ll go and buy Jazzy and Ash something to wear and shoes for all of us,” Tasha kept on speaking as she extracted some clothes from the knapsack and shook them out before coming up with a bottle of baby oil. She continued, “…then I have to go the station. I have to find an apartment then a job…”

  She was so busy running down her tasks for the day that she didn’t even notice him come up behind her. She jumped when he wrapped his arms around her waist. She stiffened but didn’t move away from him. He kissed her shoulder. “We have to.”

  “We have to what?” Tasha turned in his arms, confusion glimmering in her eyes. Immediately Kian’s gaze zeroed in on her breasts their tops visible over her towel. It was a hard task to drag his eyes away from the tempting sight

  “You keep on saying I, I, I, like I’m not here,” he said. “I’m here. Everything you’ve got to do, I’ve got to do too. You’re not alone anymore.”

  He let his words percolate between them. Tasha dropped her gaze as she said, “Kian, I don’t want to involve you in my family drama.”

  “I’m already involved.” He tipped her chin up so that she could see the sincerity in his words as he said, “You’re important to me and I want to make sure that you’re safe and protected.”

  “I appreciate it but-”

  “No buts,” he interrupted. “I’m offering to help as a friend. We are friends, aren’t we?”

  She silently searched his eyes before nodding. “We are.”

  “Then let me help you.”

  Being so close to her was hell on his body. Her sweet scent, something flowery imbued his sense and set his nerves on edge. However, though all he wanted to do was to lift her against the wall and seduce her into giving him her body. He settled for pressing a kiss on her forehead before asking, “So after breakfast we’ll head off to the station?”

  “Yeah!” Tasha turned and rifled through the backpack and handed him a packet. “I think I’ve got some evidence that might help.”

  While she dressed in the bathroom and then went to check on the kids and breakfast, Kian sifted through the contents of the packet. In there were pictures she’d taken with her cell phone of all the bruises and marks Polo had given her. She also had several hours of recordings of him threatening and beating her. The more Kian listened to Polo’s voice, the beatings and her crying, the angrier he became.

  I should’ve killed him.

  Kian switched off the recordings unable to listen to anymore. He wiped his palm over his face struggling to recollect himself. He was glad that Tasha wasn’t there to see him like this. He wanted her to know that she had a strong man by her side now, one who would protect her. Once he was good, he left the room.

  When Kian got to the lower steps, he was confused where he had to go. Last night he’d only gone from the front door to the guest room. Fortunately, Lucky came down the stairs behind him. They were almost the same height but Lucky was a bit bulkier. It seemed he was on the way to the gym because he was wearing, sneakers, shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt.

  “Morning.” They dapped then Lucky asked, “Sleep well?”

  “Yeah! Thanks for hosting us.”

  “No problem.” Lucky didn’t move off the stairs instead he just stood staring at Kian contemplatively before he said, “I guess you know about my history with Polo.”

  “I do.”

  “If you hurt her too, I’ll rip your balls out,” he said the statement in such a matter of fact way that Kian was sure he meant it. Apart from Rafe, there were very few men whose threats he respected. Lucky had just added himself to the list.

  “Fair enough,” Kian said.

  Once breakfast was over, Tasha and Kian left the house to go shopping. Though Kian offered to pay for the clothes she bought, she handed him back his black card with a firm shake of her head. Right then he knew that he was going to have a hard time getting Tasha to let him take care of her. She’d been holding it down so long for her and her children that letting go and letting someone help was contrary to her nature. They’d have to work on that.

  Once done with shopping, they headed to the police station. Even though it was early morning, the main floor was a bustling beehive of activity. Uniformed as well as plain-clothed cops milled around the busy precinct, some dragging in offenders as others left. Before they could get to the information desk, someone called out, “Mr. Harper!”

  Jim, the officer from the previous night, came towards them smiling. “Have you come to make your report?”

  “This is Tasha, his…” Kian couldn’t even say ‘wife’ without gagging. It seemed so wrong.

  Jim’s eyes took on a concerned look as he turned to Tasha. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” She smiled. She looked okay but Kian couldn’t help wrapping his arm around her waist to pull her closer to him. She moved away quickly but not before Jim’s eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline. However, he didn’t comment.

  “We’ve been holding him for the night as we waited for you to make a formal report,” he continued as he led them to his desk. “We should be able to charge him now.”

  “I don’t know if this will help,” Tasha said handing Jim her evidence as she took a seat. There was dawning horror in his eyes as he looked through the pictures and then listened to the recording. He looked up at Tasha startled, but she sat silently with a dispassionate look on her face. Kian figured that Tasha had perfected that neutral look to hide her pain from everyone around her and protect Asia.

  “In my book this is enough to get him in front of a firing squad,” Jim said as he packed the photos and recordings into an evidence bag. “Let’s hope the prosecutor will think so too and put a stop to his lawyer. She’s already trying to get him released.”

  “Do you think they’ll let him go?” Tasha asked a thin thread of panic in her voice.

  “I don’t think so.” Jim eyes strayed beyond them. “There’s his lawyer.”

  Both Tasha and Kian turned to see Polo’s lawyer. The petite woman walked through the station with her head bent as she rifled through documents in her hand. Kian couldn’t see her face, but almost immediately he recognized her. He would’ve known that stature anywhere.

  Hanna.

  CHAPTER 16

  Kian’s heart began to beat faster. His eyes had to be lying to him. It couldn’t be her, he tried to convince himself. There were too many years between them for her to turn up now. There were many petite slender career girls in New York. Heck
the city practically bred them in its Prada gilded cages. This could be anyone.

  “We’ll need to be careful with that one.” Jim broke into Kian’s frantic thoughts. “She’s dangerous. Too many criminals have slipped through the cracks because of her.”

  “She doesn’t look that dangerous.” Tasha’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the tiny woman still reading through the papers. As if she could feel the eyes on her, Hanna raised her head. Her gaze scanned the station before they settled on her observers. The moment she spotted Kian, her eyes widened in recognition and then shock, destroying whatever doubts Kian had.

  It was her. Hanna Simms!

  And just like that the past came rushing in like a frenzied rapid.

  *

  “Visitor for prisoner 25583.” The prison guard shouted as he tapped on the bars that separated this cell from the next.

  “That’s you, dog.” Armin Howard, prisoner 17651, lowered his head from atop the bunk bed to look at the boy who slept beneath him. The boy’s eyes were closed but even underneath the bruises that covered his face you could see the faint twitch that said he was awake.”I think you got a visitor.”

  “I don’t have all day to wait for you Hadrick,” the guard shouted as he banged on the hard metal with his baton. The clanging echoed all through Cell Block B. “Get your ass out here.”

  With a huff, prisoner 25583, Keifer Hadrick, pried his swollen eyes open, sat up and slid his feet to the ground. The moment the rubber soles touched the solid concrete he felt pain shoot through his thigh to his body. Every muscle ached, even those he didn’t know he had. Damn! Mekko had really done a number on his body this time. But he preferred the beatings to Mekko’s other proposition any time.

  “Turn and hands out,” the guard barked once Hadrick got close to the door. He did as demanded, and immediately felt metal cuff on his wrist. The cell doors opened up with a loud rusty whirring.

  “Maston, my mama come to see me yet?” Piper yelled from his cell. More prisoners poked their heads out of their cells as Hadrick was led through the cold corridor. The guard ignored their questions like he always did. Criminals, all of them! Nasty criminals with not an honest bone in their body. They were not worth his time.

  Hadrick’s step was a little bit off because of the pain in his body, but he tried to keep his head up. Already he was the youngest in lock up; he couldn’t also be the weakest. The steel door that led to the visiting area opened up.

  She was there.

  Immediately Hadrick could feel his body lighten up. Every time he saw her he felt like this was worth it, that he’d done something good.

  “Ten minutes. No touching!” the guard said as he uncuffed then shoved Hadrick towards the girl.

  Hadrick straightened out his orange suit and ran his fingers through his mussed up dreads hoping that he could look a little bit good for her. She lifted her head and her amber eyes met his. It was such an odd color against her caramel stained skin and it was what had attracted him to her. But later, everything about her had kept him wrapped up tight around her index finger.

  “Hanna,” he murmured her name as his face opened up into a smile. It wasn’t a pretty smile considering how banged up he was.

  Maybe that was why she didn’t smile back. She asked, “What happened to you?”

  “I ran into a wall,” he said as he slid into the metal bench opposite her keeping his hands on the table between them. She didn’t ask anymore. She was always like that. She only asked questions she wanted answers to and obviously his injuries didn’t warrant her attention.

  He was used to it. Her cold precise nature had drawn his hot-headed youthfulness towards her. Every time he was around her it felt like he was drowning in emotion, passion and obsession while she sat quietly absorbing it and him. Like a flame and its moth.

  He wanted to reach across the table and grasp her dainty fingers in his but then the guard would be on him fast with his tazer. So he settled for, “I’m glad you came to see me, baby. Does the king know you’re here?”

  “No.” The harsh word reverberated through the empty area. Even the guard’s head snapped towards them. The king was her father, Malcolm Simm’s code name.

  Simms was the head of one of the most notorious L.A. drug syndicates. One of his competitors had turned up dead with Simms name written all over the body. The boss couldn’t go to jail so one of his pawns went down. In this case it was fifteen year old Keifer Hadrick; new on the street and looking to make a quick buck to support himself and his grandmother.

  He was young, they’d told him. The cops would never formally charge him and if they did, it would be juvie. That was right before they sold him out with four mysterious witnesses coming out of the woodwork to testify that they’d seen him running with a gun from the restaurant. The D.A. had come at him with everything they had, slammed the book on his head so to speak. If he didn’t testify against Simms he was being charged as an adult.

  Hadrick took it like a man.

  He was no snitch and Simms was his girl’s father. After all he had two other bodies on his hands anyway. He could survive this. Hanna had known that he was innocent, but even she hadn’t said a word to dissuade him from taking the blame.

  “Have you told the king about us?” Hadrick said.

  Instead of answering his question, Hanna said, “Your grandma died.”

  The jolt of sorrow that rushed through him was startling, but it didn’t show in his banged up face. There was only a slight break in his voice as he asked, “When?”

  “Two weeks ago.” Her eyes were on her hands as she played with her nails. She’d waited two fucking weeks to tell him his grandmother was dead? Tears chocked his throat. Nana was dead. She was the reason he’d even gotten into this. Chemo needed good paper, not the small dollars working in a barber shop would’ve got him. Now she was gone.

  “Who handled the funeral?” Hadrick said once he was sure the tears wouldn’t fall.

  “Dre organized something small with her friends from the hospital and Reverend Timo,” Hanna said. Dre was Hadrick’s supplier and the one who’d encouraged him to just take the fall. When he got out, Dre had said, Simms would take care of he and his grandma. At least Nana had had a decent burial, even if he wasn’t there.

  Hanna was still playing with her fingers as if she still had more to say. She did. “Look, Keifer, this is the last time I’m coming here.”

  He could only flap his mouth in consternation, “Wha…wha…what?”

  “I can’t come here anymore,” she repeated, this time looking him straight in the eye. “I’m getting married.”

  She said it so coldly, as if she was reciting someone else’s words and not her own. Her eyes didn’t even flicker. Hadrick’s voice was almost a yell as he said, “I’m supposed to marry you.”

  “Keifer, you’re only fifteen. I’m twenty two.” Her tone was a matter of fact as she flicked imaginary dirt from the shoulder of her green frilly top. “Can you imagine what people will say to that?”

  “You weren’t worried about that when you were fucking me.” The moment he said the words he regretted them. He expected to see hurt flash in her eyes but instead she just shrugged. He tried again, “Hanna, I love you.”

  “I told you not to fall for me.” She stood up from the bench to reveal the dark pair of jeans she was wearing and picked her bag from the table. There was no pity in her eyes as she said, “I need a man not a boy. And I certainly don’t need a boy on death-row in my life. So this is where it ends for me.”

  “Hanna, wait.” He rose up. “We can talk about this.”

  “Goodbye Kiefer.” She slung her bag on her shoulder. “Have a nice life.”

  With that she left him. As he watched her walk away, Hadrick wanted to cry. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. She was supposed to love him. He sat back down on the hard cold metal rubbing his cuffed hands on his face. She was supposed to love him even more now that he’d given up his life for her father’s.

 
“C’mon. Back to your cell.” The guard yanked him to his feet almost ripping his arms from their socket. He pulled Hadrick’s hands behind his back hard as he cuffed him up again. Hadrick didn’t move when he tried to walk him to the door. The guard yelled, “Walk.”

  The boy hid the tears that lurked in his eyes; tears for his lost family and tears for a love never had. Instead he replaced that weakness with grim determination that this was the last time someone would use him. From now on he was number one, and everyone else could go fuck themselves. The boy was replaced by a man who had nothing more to lose.

  Hadrick turned to the guard. “I’d like to see the D.A.”

  A few weeks later he became Kian Harper and Kiefer Hadrick disappeared.

  *

  Seeing Hanna was like journeying into a past he had no desire to ever go back to. His testimony had led to the arrest of Simms and many of his lieutenants. In exchange Kian had been given a new life, a new name and a clean record. Hanna had been at the trial glaring at him with every word he spoke to bury her father. That icy glare hadn’t thawed over the last sixteen years.

  “Kian, are you okay?” Tasha touched Kian’s arm startling him from his stare match with Hanna. Her brown eyes were worried as she let her hand rest on his arm, unaware of the danger that was Hanna Simms.

  Anxiety crowded Kian’s thoughts. Tasha didn’t know about Hanna or the extent of his involvement in the drug trade. He’d been deliberately evasive with the details of his stint in prison because he knew that a good woman like Tasha just wouldn’t look at him the same way if he told her that not only had he been a pusher but that he also had blood on his hands.

  He couldn’t lose Tasha. He’d just found her.

  “Kian, are you okay?” Tasha repeated. She was everything he wanted in a woman; strong, beautiful and protective of the ones she loved. She was nothing like Hanna.