Cash Money (Bad Money #4)

by Ali Parker

  The girl glanced up from the couch and whispered, “Save me.”

  "Don't touch her. You'll have more hell to pay than you think. Just get the drug information and keep yourself clean and clear with the boss man. You think you're something special, but you're not, Marcus. None of us are." Reni patted his back before walking to Sarah. "Come on, baby. I'll put you to bed. It's all okay. You know that, right?"

  Marcus turned and walked to the front door, half knocking the big bastard who hovered in front of it over.

  He got to his car and made it a mile down the road before pulling off into the tall grass and jogging to the middle of the field. He heaved until he had nothing left inside of him. Anger and hate ripped through him as he let out a loud cry and moved back before dropping to his knees. The tall grass danced around him as he let himself unhinge from the inside out.

  Things had changed. He wasn't the same heartless bastard he once was as a kid. Kate changed all of that. Saving her had become his mission and through helping her find herself again, he’d found his humanity.

  "I can't go back. Not ever." He pressed his hands to the cold ground beneath him as the rain started to drip from the sky. "I can't."

  Letting her go would be a one-way ticket into hell. He would need something else to focus on, someone else to save, to love. Pain gripped his chest and he closed his eyes, unable to find enough air to breathe.

  His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he dropped down on his ass, wiping at his eyes before pulling the phone to his ear.

  "Marcus." He laid back, crushing the dried grass around him.

  "This is Demetri DeMarco. I'm a businessman from Chicago, and I hear from a good family friend that you might be looking for a new opportunity. That so?" The voice was distinctly Italian, and the guy on the other end of the line not sounding much like the type to put up with anything.

  "That's right. When and where?" Marcus closed his eyes and tried to steady his heart. He'd walked into the center of hell again, and knew that the only way out was to run. He'd take Kate and Jon with him. There wasn't any way to beat Billy without one or more of them dying in the process. It wasn't worth it. They weren't as strong as they thought they were, nor as cunning.

  "Tomorrow around lunch in Chicago. I'll have a private jet waiting for you at hangar A at the local airport. Just tell them you're a guest of mine."

  "Great. I'll see you then." Marcus dropped the call and let out a long sigh. Never in a million years had he thought that he might be incapable of taking a man to his knees, but Billy was different. He wasn't all there, and the parts that remained made the darkest nightmares look like a vacation. Their only option was to get the cops involved.

  It was going to take far more than a few men to take down Billy Turner, and hopefully Marcus could talk Jon and Kate into getting the fuck out of town with him while the good guys tried to make it happen.

  Time to guilt Jon back onto the police force.

  Chapter 8

  Kate

  After a long shower and trying to think through Jon's old boss's comments, Kate dried herself off and moved to stand in front of her dresser. Zak and her had worked hand-in-hand after going to the hospital a few nights before to bury the bodies deep in the woods. It was an event she didn't want to relive ever again. Those days were supposed to be far behind her.

  She lifted the top of her heart-shaped jewelry box and pulled the small slip of paper that had somehow made its way into her pocket the night of Adam's death.

  "A safe code," she murmured and ran her thumb over the code. Her thoughts moved over the events of that night, of watching Adam struggle to breathe. "The safe downtown."

  A million thoughts raced through her as she tried to think through why the safe would matter. No matter how hard she tried to shake it, she couldn't move past the fact that it did matter. She would have to talk to Jon about taking her down there to look at the contents of it.

  "It's just money. Shit." She slipped the code back into her jewelry box and crawled up into the bed, trying to shake the feeling that she was missing something. Benton was the original kingpin in the city. She'd taken him out to prove her loyalty to Billy, who wasn't the crazed lunatic that he'd become over time. Billy overextended himself and fell in love with death and carnage and was pegged by the cops as a serial killer.

  "And Marcus got me out before that. What am I missing?" She turned onto her side and pulled her legs up as she cuddled a pillow to her chest. Marcus worked for Billy for years before Seth popped him, and Seth was the rat at the police department, but where did Jon fit in?

  He was Benton's right hand man? No, Billy was. Seth was Billy’s.

  She turned onto her back as a knock resounded at the door. Marcus's voice surprised her.

  "Kate. It's me." She got up and walked quickly to the door, opening it and moving back. Marcus was soaked from the storm, his black t-shirt clinging to his thick frame and eyes filled with hard emotions. "I need you."

  "I would never deny you." She reached for him and pulled him in carefully before closing the door and starting to work on his t-shirt. The cold, wet material clung to him, leaving nothing to question about his size or the strength of his delicious upper body. She pressed her lips to his cold kiss and closed her eyes, loving the way he shivered against her touch.

  Deadly. Untamed. Mine.

  A sob rose up from him, and Kate jerked her attention up to his handsome face, realizing how close he was to breaking. She pressed her hands to the sides of his neck and pulled him down, resting her forehead against his.

  "What is it? Tell me what's wrong." She brushed her nose past his as a tear dripped down his face, his tear-drop tattoo only making him look more lost.

  "No," he whispered as his fingers dug into her lower back. "Just make love to me."

  "Make love to-"

  "Kate. Please." He pressed his lips to hers, forcing her to open up wide for him as his tongue broke the barrier of her lips.

  A groan rolled off her tongue as she half-crawled up his body, wanting to take away his pain and kill whoever had caused it. His attack was aggressive, and his grip almost painful, but she kept herself in check, ready to give all she had and never wanting to ask for anything. He'd been far too many things to her over the past ten years. She owed him everything.

  Marcus broke the kiss and set her back down before working on his pants. The hungry look in his eyes said that he wasn't going to talk much more that night. "Suck me."

  "Anything." She moved down to her knees and helped him pull his wet slacks from his body before moving up to lick the long column of his shaft. Another sob left him as she took him into her mouth, wanting to replace the torrent of pain with pleasure... love.

  His fingers slipped into her hair as he pressed himself in deeper, forcing her to take more than she thought possible. His eyes never left her, but the continuation of slow tears broke her heart. He was diving off a cliff and leaving them all behind. There was nothing else that would leave him broken, torn up, destroyed.

  "God, I love you." He touched her face and reached up with his free hand to press it to his eyes as his face crumbled and another sob left him.

  Kate moved back and stood up before pulling him toward the bed and climbing in. He crawled in after her and collapsed into her arms, rocking her with the power of his hard emotions. She held him tightly, letting him get it all out, and rubbing his back rhythmically.

  "I'm sorry," he whispered and rolled over to lay on top of her. "I saw too much today. It was... fucking heinous. I can't do it. I can't live that life. This life, yes, but not that one."

  She cradled him against her body and wrapped her legs around him, digging her heels into his perfect ass and beckoning him to take her.

  "And you don't have to. Not ever." She licked at his last tear and jerked him up, groaning loudly as he filled her completely, stretching her body around his.

  He brushed her hair back as he pressed kisses all over her face and started to slowly work himself out
of her before thrusting back in so hard, so deep.

  "You know the only regret I have?" He kissed at the side of her mouth before sniffling.

  "Don't do this." Tears blurred her vision as she clung to him. "Please."

  "The day we were standing at the old railway station and you asked me to join you." He sniffled again as his eyes filled with tears once more. He brushed her hair back before pressing his lips to the soft skin below her ear. "I should have come. I should have said yes."

  Kate closed her eyes and tried to ignore the burning awareness that the end was near. It was too soon. Too much. She tightened her grip on him and pressed her lips against his chest as he lifted up, starting to fuck her harder, more like he always had.

  He was magnificent, and everything she thought she wanted when she was younger. His denial tore her in half that day, and it took forever to get herself back together, but when she did, she was stronger because of him. Their relationship took the right turn, and he was everything to her. He always had been.

  "Come with me, Katie." He moved to press his lips to hers as he cried out. She joined him, and clung to his thick frame as he rocked the bed back and forth, giving himself to her like he had so many times over the years.

  He collapsed on top of her and kissed her once before moving off to lay on his side.

  "Stay with me tonight." She turned on her side and pressed herself to his front. "I don't want you to go."

  He nodded. "I've yet to do anything that would lead you on, but maybe that was a mistake too."

  She ignored his words. They were too much to bear, too much to consider. They left her with no choices, and that wasn't fair to her or Jon. Time to change the subject. "What happened today?"

  "Billy wanted me to take out some guy he'd been torturing. It was horrible, disgusting." His face contorted, and he started to roll away, but she pinned him to her, shaking her head.

  "No. Stay right here." She scooted up a little and ran her hand over his cheek, memorizing the depth of emotion in his eyes. "Was that it?"

  "No. I saw you there. Some sweet girl they're using. I need to get her out of there, Kate. She's a fucking skeleton." He closed his eyes and took a shaky breath. "Just like you were, baby."

  "Then we get her out and we kill him." She pressed her lips to his softly. "I'll help you."

  His eyes opened, the intense blue almost stealing her breath. "No. You're not getting involved. He wants you back, and I'll be a dead man before that happens."

  "I'm not the sweet girl you found all those years ago, Marcus." She brushed her lips by his, unsure of anything but the need to keep him beside her. "Don't make me into something I'm not."

  He rolled onto his back and gripped her tightly, forcing her to move with him. His strong hands ran down her back and cupped her ass. "Never. Half the reason I'm crazy about you is because you're fucking scary."

  She laughed and sat up, straddling him. The need to run her hands along his firm chest and over his shoulders drove her to move up and rest on his lower stomach so she could touch more of him.

  "Are you crazy about me?" She glanced down, trying not to put too much weight on his confession of love. They both knew how they felt about one another. There was no reason to say anything out loud and leave it solidified in the other’s mind.

  "So much more than I care to be." He smirked and ran his hands up her thighs and locked onto her hips. "You're so damn beautiful. Did you know that? That I think about you all the fucking time. Why is that, Kate? Why am I forever damned to love a woman who's too good for me and will soon be gone?"

  Her turn to choke back tears. She pressed her teeth into her bottom lip and shook her head before sliding back and taking him inside of her again.

  "No more words tonight." She forced the whisper from her throat and closed her eyes, trying to get lost in the feeling of being with him and yet having nothing to protect her from the rawness between them. No drugs. No liquor. No nothing.

  It was dangerous and left her far more confused than she had been only hours before.

  Belonging on the right side of the tracks was appealing in so many ways, but there, in the arms of the baddest boy she knew, nothing could quite compare.

  And nothing ever had.

  Chapter 9

  Marcus

  Having Kate sleep beside him the night before was a huge mistake. Huge. There was no way to shake her before, and having woken up next to her beautiful body that morning left him lost. Running was the only option he could fathom, but now that choice had to include Kate. He couldn't imagine taking another woman to his bed, or loving another woman like he loved her.

  After kissing her a few times and letting her know that he had to spend a few days in Chicago for business, he slipped out of her apartment and checked the club.

  "Thank God for Jeffery and the crew," he mumbled as he walked out the back door and got into his mustang. A quick stop by his place for a shower and a change of clothes, and he would be headed to Chicago. If he thought he could get Kate to go with him, he would have taken her.

  Billy wasn't anyone to fuck with, and as he had decided the night before, it was time to ask for help. He pulled out his phone and called the cop.

  "Peterson." Jon's voice was gruff and filled with sleep.

  "Hey, pretty boy. I'm headed out of town for a few days. I need to make sure you're going to keep Kate with you." Marcus trapped the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he pulled onto the freeway.

  "Where you going?" Jon yawned loudly.

  "I'm headed up to Chicago. I have to do a little bit of work for Billy or he's going to figure out that I'm just snuggling up for a chance to pull the trigger."

  "Right. I'll call her shortly and make sure I talk with her or stay with her over the next few days."

  "All right. Hey, I need you to seriously think about rejoining the force. Billy is far more than the three of us can handle. Just think-"

  "Already done. My captain is having some problems at home, and he's been a good friend to me for too long to deny him."

  "Right. Good. Then make them focus on Billy. He's a sick mother fucker. I'll give you his address once we're on a more secure line."

  "Give it to me now."

  "No. Fuck off. I'm not having myself on audio as having turned him in. Do you know what he'll do to Kate?" Marcus pulled off onto the side street that led to his studio apartment. "Not happening. I'll be in touch. Watch our girl for me."

  "Always." Jon dropped the call, and Marcus couldn't shake the coldness in the cop’s voice. He had every right to work through the depression that had to be lingering due to the death of his baby brother, and now mom, but something was off. What?

  Maybe he was thinking about all of it too hard. After parking in his spot, he turned the car off and sat in the silence for a minute, letting himself lament over how bad he'd needed Kate the night before. She'd never seen him so broken, namely because he hadn't ever been as bad as he was after being out at Billy's. It reinforced the ignorance in his decisions. Letting her go would be good for a time, but forever?

  "Fuck no," he mumbled and got out of his car, scanning the parking lot and jogging up the three flights of stairs to his place.

  He hadn’t been inside more than a minute when the phone started to buzz again. Zak.

  "What's up, man?" Marcus pressed the speaker button and continued to walk around his bedroom, pulling various items from his closet and drawers. Zak didn't respond. "Zak? What's up, dude?"

  "Marcus." There was no inflection to his voice. It was completely deadpan. "She's dead. He had her killed the minute we left for the States. It was all for nothing."

  "What?" Sickness rushed through his chest as he moved to the bed and scooped up the phone. "Victor killed your wife?"

  "Yeah, man. It's all over. It's all for nothing." There was no sadness, no devastation, just numbness.

  "Shit. Where are you?"

  "I'm at his place, looking through all the files the fucker kept hidden from
me. He has so much money, Marcus. Women, businesses, stocks... you name it, he has it. He was a god." The chuckle that resounded from the broken man was ugly, disturbing.

  "I'm going to pack a few things, and I'll be over there. I gotta go to Chicago today. Come with me. You need to be around someone else. I'll come get you."

  "Naw. I'm not your burden to bear, my friend. I'll see you when you get back."

  "No. I'm coming to get you. I don't want to meet these new dealers alone anyway, and you need some company. Hang tight, and pack a few things. Do it. I'm serious," Marcus barked into the phone, knowing that Zak would respond to direction more than kindness.

  "All right. See you soon." The line went dead as Marcus tossed the phone onto the bed.

  "Fuck," he mumbled and cupped his hands behind his head as he closed his eyes. The pain Zak must be going through deep down inside of him had to be overwhelming. Only one thing could cause that kind of loss in his own world - Kate.

  *

  "I really shouldn't be going, Marcus. I'm no company at all." Zak glanced over from the passenger's side seat. "I need to go hold the funeral ceremony and such for Katrina. It's our custom to mourn over a period of time. Her mother needs to know, as do her sisters."

  "You're coming with me today. I'll put you on a plane to Russia when we get back if that's what you need to do in order to honor Katrina." Marcus reached over and squeezed Zak's shoulder. "And when you're done with everything you need to do, get back on the plane and come back. You and I can work to build an empire together. You focus on honoring your wife, and I'll take out Billy Turner while you're away."

  "I need to help you with that first, and then I'll go." He turned to focus on the window beside him. "After that, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm a narcotics guy. I don't like death or disrespect. I like honor and strength. Drugs are a way to escape, and I get that, but I don't believe that darkness has to follow them. It doesn't in Russia."