by Sam Crescent
“We’ll see.”
They were back on the road again, and she really just wanted to go home. Where was home? Her apartment was a shitty little prison where she spent her long, lonely nights stressing over every detail of her equally shitty life. Home was wherever Bain was. He made her feel beautiful, special, and safe. Alive rather than existing. What more could she ask for?
“Can we stop at my place to get some clothes?” she asked.
“No way. Your apartment is definitely under surveillance.”
She didn’t recognize this area of the city, but she was glad they weren’t heading to Michael’s house. The house they used to share together was the epicenter for her worst nightmares. Bain turned down a side street, then another, before parking the car.
“The suburbs? What now?” she asked, already feeling emotionally exhausted.
“Come on,” he said. Bain walked around to the trunk, popped it open, and unzipped that black duffel bag. He tugged on a jacket over his t-shirt, and then concealed a gun in the back of his pants. Every move he made was fast and precise, like he’d done this dance a thousand times.
He shut the trunk and took her hand. The simple act of handholding calmed her nerves and made her connection to Bain grow stronger. She looked at all the different houses, row by row—mowed lawns, flower beds, garden gnomes. Little did the homeowners know a killer was in their midst.
“Where’re we going?” she asked.
He stopped and stared at a house across the street. “Time to pay Michael a visit.”
****
Bain had to hold back the beast. All he could think about was breaking that prick’s neck. Apparently, Michael had fucked with Scarlett’s head, taught her fear and insecurity, making Bain’s job at winning her over harder. It wasn’t going to be easy for him to convince Scarlett of her worth, but he’d spend the rest of his life doing it.
That wasn’t the only reason he hated the bastard. Michael had bedded Bain’s woman and still believed he had a chance with her. Bain needed to stake his claim and set the record straight.
He had a firm grip on Scarlett’s hand as they crossed the street. She didn’t need to be here for this, but she did need closure, so he’d give it to her.
“Bain, no, I can’t…”
“You never have to be scared, baby girl. Not for a fucking second.”
“You don’t understand.” Tears filled her eyes. She clung to him, and his protective instincts fired up inside him. For the first time in his life, he had something of value, something precious. “He didn’t just hurt me. There’s more.”
“What is it?”
“He took something from me—” She couldn’t speak any more. Scarlett shook her head, too emotional to continue. Michael really had put her through hell and back.
The wraparound porch was painted white, a wooden rocking chair beside the door. Picture perfect came to mind. Out of all the men he’d killed over the years, the worst of them put up the biggest fronts. They lived in the nicest neighborhoods, had the right friends, and joined the public community events. It was all a façade for the evil lurking beneath. He suspected it was no different with Michael, living in the suburbs, playing house.
“Knock on the door. When he answers, tell him to you want him to stop looking for you. I’ll be close, so don’t worry. Can you do that for me?”
She swallowed hard, but nodded. Bain couldn’t wait to get this shit over with, because he hated seeing Scarlett so nervous. He had to prove to her that he was capable of handling himself.
He stood farther down the porch while she did as he asked. The door opened, and there was silence. She froze up, staring straight ahead and not able to speak. Bain was about to intervene when Michael spoke.
“I heard you’d moved on, and now … you’re here.”
“You can’t keep looking for me, Michael. Stop trying to get back into my life because it’s never going to happen. You know what you did, and it’s unforgiveable,” Scarlett said.
“You came all the way here to say that? That’s doubtful. How’d you find my new address anyway?”
“I have nothing else to say to you. You have no idea how much pain you’ve caused me. Just keep your distance because I have a court-ordered restraining order.”
“You think those mean anything? There not worth the paper they’re printed on,” he said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Use your imagination, doll.” Michael said. “Do you already forget what happens when you piss me off? You think I’m scared of the cops?”
Scarlett started to back away, but the asshole grabbed her arm and forced her into the house. Bain was in the doorway within seconds, kicking the door shut behind him.
“Who the hell is that? Is he the guy you were with?” Michael asked.
“Shut up!” Bain shoved him in the chest, sending him scrambling backward.
Scarlett grabbed his coat to hold him back. “Bain, no!”
He turned and glared at her. Why was she trying to protect that piece of shit? Did she still love him? Did she have no fucking self-worth?
Bain returned his attention to Michael. He was pathetic, not even worth a bullet. “You like to hurt women?”
“You have no right to be here. This is private property.”
He chuckled without humor. “Do you think I’m afraid of the cops?”
“This is between me and her,” said Michael.
“There is no you and her. Scarlett’s mine now. Only mine.”
Michael looked toward Scarlett. “Did you actually sleep with this guy?” His face grew redder, his brow lowered. “I knew you were a slut, and this only proves it.”
Bain had had enough. He wrapped his hand around the front of his collar and slammed him up against the wall. “Apologize to her,” he warned.
It took all his resolve not to empty his clip into this asshole. He’d been raised fighting; it’s what he knew and what he loved. Living in regular society had always been a challenge when he was used to acting on impulse, no regard for laws or ethics.
“Get out of my house,” Michael said, his voice hoarse with his air supply being limited. When Michael pulled a pocketknife out from his pants, Scarlett screamed.
Bain twisted his arm around his back in one swift move, the knife clanging to the tiled floor. “Fucking apologize, you piece of shit.”
“You’ll both pay for this,” cried Michael.
He leaned down and whispered in the guy’s ear. “I fucked that sweet little pussy all night long, tough guy. And I will again tonight. The only cock she’ll ever know now is mine. You need to remember that.”
Bain stepped back, rolling out his shoulders.
Michael stood up, attempting to straighten his polo shirt. “Keep her. She’s damaged goods now. I don’t know what I was thinking hooking up with that. I have standards.”
Bain groaned, his temper flaring. No one insulted Scarlett. This was supposed to be enlightening for her, not make her feel like trash. When he heard her sobbing, he lost it, punching her ex in the mouth.
“You wish you had a woman like her.” Another punch to ensure he kept his fat mouth shut. “But you fucked up, and now she’s mine.”
When he heard several car doors slam shut, he peered out the window.
Fuck me!
Boss and three of his men were coming up the walkway. Bain had to protect Scarlett. If he had to he’d end the four of them, but it would guarantee a life of running, constantly looking over his shoulder.
Killian shoved open the door. The Irish prick was one of Boss’s newest acquisitions. He was cutthroat and heartless, not the type of man Bain wanted coming after Scarlett. His sadistic smile faded when he saw Scarlett standing against the wall in the foyer. It was rumored Killian never accepted contracts on women.
“Well, well, well. Look at this,” said Boss as he strolled in with two other hitmen. “I warned you to clean up your shit, Bain. Did I not warn you?”
“I have ev
erything under control.” Now that the Lisa knew Scarlett was alive and well, there weren’t any loose ends. The original witness wasn’t a problem because she belonged to Bain now.
“Obviously not if I’ve wasted my morning doing clean up when I had plans to hit the gym. That doesn’t put me in a good mood,” said Boss.
One of the hitmen took a step toward Scarlett, and Bain instinctively drew the gun from his back, aiming it at the man’s face. “Don’t even fucking breathe on her,” he warned.
“Interesting,” said Boss. “I remember Viper telling me they’d fucked you up beyond the point of no return when you were a kid. Now, look at this. Ready to kill poor Carlos for a piece of pussy.” He shrugged and strolled around the room, a gun swinging in his hand.
“What’s going on?” asked Michael.
All attention diverted to him after he spoke. “And who the hell is this little fuck? I don’t have any guy on my loose-end list, just the two women. Well, one woman,” said Boss, scratching his forehead with the muzzle of his gun. “Are you trying to make this more difficult for me on purpose, Bain?”
“Leave Lisa alone!” Scarlett said. She was terrified, but brave when it came to helping others. He liked that about her.
“Was that her name? I’d forgotten already,” said Boss. “Well, I’ve cleaned up that epic disaster since you couldn’t, and now we’re here.”
“You killed her?” Scarlett asked. She started crying uncontrollably, but Bain couldn’t take his eyes off Boss or his men just yet. Dogs barked in the distance, the hum of a lawnmower drowning out Scarlet’s sobs. It was a regular morning for the neighborhood.
Boss ignored her. “Care to finish this up, Bain? Despite your unrefined methods, I can still see your value. I won’t be cutting you loose just yet.”
Bain moved his outstretched arm, shifting to point the handgun at Michael. It wasn’t a hard decision considering he’d wanted that fucker dead the moment Bain knew of his existence. As long as he was alive, that deep-seated fear would live on in Scarlett. Those memories and secrets needed to be terminated permanently. When he’d escaped his captors as a teen, murdering them all didn’t erase the nightmares, but it helped.
Bain pulled the trigger.
Chapter Eight
Michael fell in a heap with blood spattering the wall. Scarlett didn’t feel anything for the evil bastard now that he was dead. He had taken so much from her and made her feel more pain than anyone ever had. Michael was part of the reason why she would have gladly found peace in her own death.
Lisa was her problem. Her best friend was dead. No, she couldn’t be dead. Scarlett wouldn’t believe it. Lisa was a sweet woman. She stared at the man who seemed to be the leader, the one doing most of the talking and not a lot of listening.
“Now, why do you have a problem with doing that to this one right here?” The man yelled as he pointed from Michael’s body to her.
“Boss, I told you to back out of it, and I mean it.” Bain grabbed her hand, and he had a gun raised at the men. She held onto Bain, and wondered, not for the first time, why she felt safe with him. He might be a murderer, but her ex had been so much worse to her.
Michael hurt me so badly that he killed my baby.
He was a monster.
She held in her sob, refusing to let her painful memories distract Bain. He didn’t know. No one knew how Michael had thrown her downstairs, and repeatedly kicked her in the stomach and back until she miscarried on the floor. He wouldn’t take her to the hospital for the longest time, and when he did Scarlett was forced to lie about the violence. She had to see the painful evidence of what she had lost.
Had it made her a little mad in the head? She didn’t know.
Boss sighed, and then he began to pace. He took four steps one way and four steps the other. For someone who paced he was rather precise in how he dealt with his steps. She felt crazy for being hypnotized by the way someone walked.
“You have one job to do and that’s to do exactly what I say.”
“Fuck you, Boss. I did what you wanted.”
“No. You left mess following in your wake. For someone who’s supposed to know what they’re doing, you’re sloppy. You’re not professional. You’re nothing like fucking Viper was.”
“Then hire him back. Remember, you came to me. You wanted me, not the other way around. I do my work, and I get the job done.”
“Then kill her!” Boss yelled. “Kill her. Prove to me right now that you can follow orders. Grab her damn neck and put a bullet inside her. She’s a problem, Bain. Do what you know you can do. What’s easy for you to do.”
Bain’s hand tightened around hers. It wasn’t painful yet, but it was getting close. “I kill the people you need me to, but I’m not going to do this.”
Why did Bain sound so calm?
Boss exhaled, an exasperated sound. “You know, I had my doubts about you, and every step of the way you’re proving I was right to doubt myself.” He snapped his fingers, and the men with him held their guns up.
She gasped as Bain let her go and held his own gun steady. He didn’t train it on anyone else but Boss. “You really want to do this?” Bain asked.
“I clean up my mess.”
“There’s no problem here,” Bain said. “But I’ll put a bullet in your fucking skull if you don’t back up, and I mean that.”
“You don’t have the fucking—” Boss didn’t get to finish as Bain shot him in the shoulder. Boss groaned and cursed. His jaw clenched as he pressed a hand to his shoulder. The three men with him didn’t do anything. They continued to hold their guns on them, nothing happening.
Bain had just shot their boss, so why weren’t they shooting? She expected a replay of the gunfight at Semenov’s. Her heart raced, and her entire body trembled. Bain had moved her so that she was shielded by his body. She held onto his waist, hoping that she gave him strength even as hers was fading fast.
“You shot me?”
“You were going to tell me I didn’t have the fucking balls. I do, Boss. I don’t give a fuck if you live or die. All of my life I’ve never had anything to myself. I’ve given you everything. I’ve given everyone who ever wanted anything, everything. There’s nothing left to give. You’re not having her. I’m not giving her up. Not for you. Not for Killer of Kings. For no one.”
The emotion in his voice shocked her. He was on the brink. Couldn’t anyone else sense that? They all stood facing off against one another, and Bain was fighting for her. No one had ever fought for her. No one cared enough about her. She was always a means to an end. Something to be disposed of or replaced.
The tension was thick. Silence fell in the house, and she was sure that she could hear a pin drop. Time seemed to stand still they waited for one of them to make the first move.
There was the sound of another car door closing, and Boss was the first one to mutter. “Is this fucker popular?”
One of the men left and looked through the curtains. “Viper is here.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Boss said, moving toward the door. “Is this a family fucking reunion?”
The door opened, and another deadly looking guy entered the house, a gnarly scar down one half of his face. “I see I’ve come in time.”
“Viper, what the fuck are you doing here?” Bain asked.
“I may be out of the business, but a contracted killer never really steps away. I’ve got a woman to protect, and a family business to keep thriving.” Viper frowned and pointed to Michael. “You know this guy?”
“No. I don’t know him, but he hurt my woman, and so he couldn’t live another day. He hurt her, and I think he did a whole lot of other shit I don’t even know about.”
“So he was a piece of scum,” Viper said. He pushed his hands into his pockets.
All of this was surreal to her as she was in Michael’s home with a bunch of killers, hitmen. Deadly weapons for hire for a really high price.
Crap.
The man she hated more t
han anything was now dead, and people had seen her enter the neighborhood. Would they think she killed him? Wow, she was starting to feel really sick right now, and everything that was happening around her scared her.
Breathe, Scarlett, breathe.
“I want to know why you’re here, Viper,” Boss said.
“You came for a party and seeing as I consider Bain an actual brother—”
“You do?” Bain asked. She heard the confusion in his voice now.
“We took an oath, Bain. You and me, we shared blood, and we bound ourselves together. I won’t kill you. I’ve told you that many times, and I mean it.”
Did he mean the blood oath? Scarlett stared down at her hand and wondered just how many people Bain had shared blood with. Before doubts flooded her mind, she remembered he had said that he’d only ever shared blood once before. That other person had to be Viper, which meant he was with him when they were kids.
She really needed to lie down. She was starting to feel a little lightheaded with the information overload that was happening. Not to mention being in Michael’s house, his dead body only feet away. It had taken her a long time to finally gain the self-respect to leave his horrible ass.
“So why the fuck are you here?” Bain asked. “You’re out of the business. You’re not supposed to be part of this.”
She felt his back vibrating, and she tried to offer him some comfort with her touch.
“I needed to make sure you were doing the right thing. You’re not used to working for someone else. It’s a lot different than going solo.” Viper looked at her. “Is she worth all of this?”
“You don’t get to fucking look at her. I cleaned up my fucking mess, and you, you did what you fucking wanted. Or don’t you remember?”
“Killer of Kings has a reputation to uphold, Bain. You’ve got to do things by a certain code. She’s a loose end,” said Viper.
“She’s mine!” Bain growled. Scarlet held him tightly from behind. She didn’t care if it looked stupid, but she needed him to know she was here if he needed her. Silence once again fell between them. “You’re not taking her away from me. I’m going to go and put her in the car, and you’re going to stay here. I’ll be right back.”