by Marni Mann
“I gave you half a million dollars, you cunt.”
“And The Achurdy appreciates it.” She pulled all her hair to one side and started braiding it. “I’m sure Arman bought another car with it. He was quite excited when he saw that bag full of cash.”
“Unbelievable,” I barked.
“After all of this,” Jae said, moving closer to her, “you didn’t even get what you wanted. You got nothing out of me besides cash and my cock. I didn’t fucking lead you to Tyler, the person you really wanted, and now, you’re sitting in the same chair you’re going to die in. How does it feel to accomplish nothing, Mina? Do you feel like you’ve come out ahead?”
“I gave my life to my organization. It’s the oath I took when Arman bought me at sixteen years old, when he took me from my country and brought me to America. I have no regrets. I did what I had been asked to do, and I did it to the best of my ability.”
“That’s your answer?” I shouted. “You’re sitting in a death chamber, and all you have to say is, you took an oath, and you have no regrets? What about all the girls you killed? The lives you ruined? The money you stole? The people you hurt? Do you know how sick you are?”
“I took an oath, and I have no regrets.”
I’d never seen anything like this. This level of manipulation. This loyalty that made absolutely no sense. It didn’t matter what I said or what Jae said; she would never admit how wrong this was.
I moved over to one of the shelves and grabbed what looked like a crowbar. Jae was behind me before I even turned around.
“You’re not going to kill her,” he said in my ear. “If you take her life, you’ll have to live with that on your conscience, and it will eventually become a regret. I won’t let that happen.”
I dropped the metal onto the floor and turned around. “I’m not letting you do it either. Please call in one of the guys. I just want to get out of here.”
He looked up at the camera that was in the corner of the room and made some kind of signal with his hands. It only took a few seconds before Diego was at the door.
Jae clasped my hand and led me toward him. “Kill her,” he told Diego. “I don’t know where Shank is, but I don’t want to wait for him. You make sure this bitch suffers.”
“You got it, buddy.”
Jae then escorted me to the door, but I stopped halfway through it, and I slowly faced her.
“Good-bye,” I said to her. “After today, I’ll never have to run from you again because no one will be looking for me. You’ll all be dead.”
“You—”
Mina didn’t get to finish that sentence because Diego reached inside her mouth and ripped her tongue out.
Thirty-Eight
Beard/Jae
I gripped her fucking hand so tightly, I was sure I’d cut off her circulation. But, shit, the girl had survived a butcher’s knife tearing the hell out of her arm. Therefore, she’d survive me clutching her fingers all the way up the stairs until we reached my bedroom.
Once we got through the door to my room, I slammed it closed and held her face with my hands. “Are you really here?” I kissed her cheek and her forehead and down to her chin. “Tell me you are. And tell me you’re not leaving again.”
“I’m not,” she promised.
“Perfect answer.”
I pressed my lips against hers, taking in her smell, her taste. Neither had changed. It felt like my mouth had been here just moments ago. But it had really been years with so much fucking pain and all those goddamn screams.
“Jae”—she nibbled on my bottom lip—“we have so much to talk about. I mean, it’s been two years. Are you sure you even want me—”
I put a finger over her mouth to stop her from talking. “Don’t say that, Tyler. Not ever again. I want you here, and I don’t ever want you to leave. Do you understand me?”
She nodded, and I reached for the bottom of her shirt and tried to pull it over her head. That was when she put her hands on mine and prevented me from moving.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
I hadn’t seen her in so long. I’d thought she was fucking dead. I needed to be inside her, and I didn’t want to wait a second longer to remember what that felt like.
“We’re going to have plenty of time for that,” she said. “Maybe we could just talk for a little bit.”
Shit. She really didn’t want me to touch her yet. But talk? I thought we’d done a hell of a lot of that in the OR. I was sure there were things we still needed to cover, but I’d gotten the gist of it all, and the rest would unfold over time. The last conversation I wanted to have was about Mina and the stripper. I wasn’t even sure if she’d bring it up. I just had a feeling our talking would lead us there.
She looked toward the door and sandwiched my hands in front of her. “Gary told me you said you were never going back to your condo. You didn’t, did you?”
I shook my head. “Nah, I couldn’t. Not after what happened there.”
“So, why Miami?”
That was an easy one to answer.
“It’s on the opposite side of the country, far as hell from home. But it’s still south enough, so it isn’t as long of a flight as the Northeast would be.”
“A hotel, Jae?”
Her voice was so quiet, I could tell she was getting upset. I didn’t want that. And that was why I wanted to skip all this talking and show her how I felt, how much I’d missed her, how I was never letting her out of my sight again.
“I wasn’t ready for a home.” I sighed. “I know it doesn’t make much sense, but a home feels so personal, and I couldn’t put myself in a place like that. At least not for a while.”
“You eventually wanted one, right? I mean, that’s why you gave Mina the money.”
“I got tired of the cleaning ladies snooping through my shit.” I smiled to try and lighten what she was feeling. “I figured I could get a place that looked nothing like my old condo. Different in every way. If I couldn’t get comfortable there, I could always sell.”
She rubbed her hand over my head. “You shaved it all off.”
“Didn’t feel right. Nothing did after you left.”
“Except the beard.”
I rubbed my whiskers across the softness of her face. “I’ve had this thing off and on for years. More on than off. You’ve seen it this long, haven’t you?”
“Yes. And I like it. Lots.”
She laughed, and I knew exactly what she was talking about. What she liked was when I brushed it across the inside of her thighs while I was eating her pussy. Fuck, she loved it when I did that. I needed to do it again.
Now.
But, as I pulled her closer, reaching just under her shirt, there was a knock at the door.
“Jae,” she said, “there’s something I didn’t tell you downstairs.”
“Don’t do this to me, Tyler. I can’t take any more surprises.”
She gritted her teeth, and I could tell I wasn’t going to like what she was about to say.
“This is kind of a big one.” She looked toward the door. “Come in!” she yelled.
Shank walked in with a kid in his arms. It threw me back for a second. I’d never seen him hold a baby before, especially not one inside the prison. I didn’t know much about them. None of us were around children all that often, if ever. But this one was a little boy. Couldn’t say his age, couldn’t even guess. He had the brightest green eyes and a big blue pacifier in his mouth.
Little fucker was real cute.
“Who’s that?” I asked.
Tyler took the baby from him, and she came over to me. “Jae, meet your son.”
“My what?”
I glanced from Shank to Tyler, not sure what the hell she had just said.
“Your son,” Shank repeated for her.
“But…” My voice trailed off as I tried to piece this one together. Just when I’d thought I had shit all figured out, Tyler had hit me with something else I hadn’t expected.
�
�I was pregnant,” she said. “That’s why I faked my death. If Mina had found out, she would have sent me here, and Shank would have had to kill me. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time. I only knew girls often disappeared, and I thought the worst, so I didn’t take any chances. I had to protect our child, and I did what I had to do.”
“I have a kid…” I had to say the words out loud, and I still wasn’t sure I believed them.
I hadn’t just gotten Tyler back. Now, she was telling me I was a father.
I checked out the kid’s face, trying to see if he had any of my features. Shit, with my dark eyes and her blue ones, he definitely took after her more than me. His hair was light, his skin fair. But he was just a baby. He had plenty of time to darken up.
“Want me to take him outside for a little bit and give you guys some time?” Shank asked.
Tyler handed the baby back to him. “I’ll come down and get him in a little while.”
“We’ll be on the beach,” he said. Then, he walked out of my room.
I watched him leave and continued staring at the door.
“Are you okay?” she asked once we were alone.
“Yeah.” My eyes shifted to her. “I think so. This is a shit-ton to process in one day.”
She reached for my hands, her short nails stabbing the backs of my knuckles. “I know, and I’m sorry. I hit you with a lot.”
I laughed.
We both did.
It was fucking needed after everything that had gone down.
My whole life had changed today. I’d gained not one person, but two. And, any second, one would soon be calling me Dad.
Shit.
I leaned my face into her neck and breathed her in. I didn’t need her naked. I didn’t need her screaming. I didn’t need her even touching me. I just needed to stay like this, with my mouth on her warm skin, her scent in my nose, and her hair tickling my face.
“Jae,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“I know you said you wanted me here, but does that change now that I’m not alone?”
I leaned back, so she could see my face. “No. Neither of you is going anywhere.”
I felt her body relax a little.
“Good. I was hoping you would say that.”
I closed my eyes, touching my nose to hers. “I have a son, Tyler. A fucking son.”
When my lids opened, there were tears in hers, and I wiped them away, licking them as they wet my fingers. Once her face was dry, I grabbed her cheeks, knowing I wasn’t holding her gently and knowing she didn’t want it any other way.
“Let me say it.”
“Jae, you don’t have—”
“Let me say it, Tyler.” She didn’t interrupt me again, so I moved my lips to where they hovered just above hers, and I said, “I love you.” It felt so good to get that off my chest. Words I’d been wanting to tell her for a long-ass time, but she hadn’t ever let me. “I’ve always fucking loved you. And I’m going to love my son.”
She closed the space between us, and I swore, the moan that came from her lips sounded like the most perfect scream.
Epilogue
Shank
I walked the little bastard down to the beach and took a seat on the wet sand, knowing we were seconds away from getting hit with a wave.
He giggled when it happened. Imagine that, a sound so carefree, something as stupid as water causing you to laugh.
I didn’t remember those days. The ones where ridiculous things were funny.
All I remembered was wanting to kill.
The hunger for it. The desire. The smell of blood teasing me so badly that I fucking drooled.
And, now, there was a kid.
And he would be living at our prison.
He was the last thing we needed.
The last thing I needed.
The kid was cute. He had blond hair and these green eyes that were almost as large as a nickel. I thought Beard would have said something about that. Christ, my best friend had brown eyes that were so dark, they were almost black. Tyler’s were blue. Didn’t Beard wonder how the kid had gotten green? And why he looked nothing like his dad?
He hadn’t even asked what his goddamn name was.
I glanced behind me at the house and saw my dad in one of the windows. He was watching us. I was sure he was getting lots of ideas. Planning shit out. Working things through in his head.
It all gave me a headache.
I just wanted to go inside, give Demon a quick pat, head to the OR, and gut that fucking cunt Mina or Layla or whatever her name was.
Her blood was calling me.
I wanted it on my fingers. On my face. I wanted to drop my cum in a big pool of red.
But no, I was sitting on a wet beach, soaked, playing babysitter to a kid who was probably shitting on me.
Dad nodded.
I nodded back and turned toward the water again.
“What do you think of this place?” I asked the brat. “You think you’ll like it here?”
He didn’t answer. He just made some funny sounds.
That was probably a good thing.
If the kid had heard the conversation Tyler had with my dad and me, he’d be repeating it to everyone. We couldn’t have that.
But I wondered how long it would take until the truth came out.
I’d kept a lot of shit from my best friend, things that would cause him to find a knife and slit my throat if he found out, but I had no fucking idea how I was going to hide this secret.
“That bearded man up there thinks he’s your daddy.” I stared at the ocean, wondering how much longer this place would be our home. “He’d be real mad if he found out your daddy was really me.” I shifted him in my arms. His diaper was all wet, making him even heavier. “So, we’re going to keep this as our little secret and try not to let that hairy man find out. Got it?”
The kid giggled again.
Hell, I did, too.
I had a fucking son, and I found that shit real funny.
Copyright © 2017 by Marni Mann
All rights reserved.
Visit my website at: www.MarniSMann.com
Cover Designer: Letitia Hasser, R.B.A Designs
Editor: Jovana Shirley, Unforeseen Editing, www.unforeseenediting.com
Proofreader: Judy Zweifel, Judy’s Proofreading
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
ISBN-13: 978-1975979058
For Ricky.
For believing in me. For inspiring me.
For pushing me.
For replying to every text no matter what time it is.
I never could have done this without you.
Prologue
Shank - One Day Before Release
I sat on the dirt floor with my legs out in front of me, knees slightly bent. There wasn’t enough room in this goddamn cell to fully stretch out. Even if I lay on the shitty blanket that I called my bed, I still wouldn’t have the space to extend all the way. Besides, the blanket was just as hard as the ground, and my ass was killing me.
Fucking prison.
I looked down at the piece of paper in my hand. I’d been holding it for hours, reading the kid’s words over and over to the point where I’d memorized them. There were several more letters tucked inside my makeshift mattress, a few in the small space between the toilet and wall, and a handful more in an empty bottle of shampoo.
I’d kept them all.
Every last one.
I’d told myself that I was holding on to them because they
were the only entertainment I had in this cell. But, every time I looked at the letters, whenever my palm caressed the paper he had touched, I felt something inside my chest. A feeling I wasn’t all that familiar with, that I’d only felt once before. And one that made me vulnerable.
I didn’t do feelings.
I never did vulnerable.
But, the sender, he wasn’t just any kid.
He was my kid.
He’d come into my life during the peak of my career when my buddies, Beard and Diego, and I were running the most successful underground prison in South America. We’d built it on a piece of land in Margarita Island, a small island off the coast of Venezuela. People from all over the world would hire us to murder their enemies. We’d torture the hell out of them, drain their souls, incinerate their bodies, and dump their ashes into the ocean.
That was back then.
But, now, I was on the wrong side of the bars.
Fuck, everything had gone so wrong, so fast.
I collected the letters from around my cell and spread them over my blanket. I couldn’t take them all with me. The pages stacked together would be too big to shove up my ass. One of the prison’s ridiculous rules was that we were allowed to leave with only the items we had come in with. For me, that was the clothes I’d been wearing the night the guards dragged me inside this jail that were covered in dried blood and about an inch of black soot.
So, I chose the letter that had the line I liked the best. It was from the one that had come in yesterday. The one that said, I’m looking forward to you getting out, Shank, at the bottom. Tomorrow morning, I’d roll that shit up and wrap it in plastic and cover it in spit and straight up my ass, it would go. Then, I’d walk out of this motherfucker.