Beautifully Broken (The Denver Series Book 2)

by Eve L Mitchell

  “Yes, yes, of course, don’t come back for forty-eight hours, okay?” He was already looking for something to clean the handles with. Jesus, he was paranoid. “Should I call Aiden for you?”

  “Aiden?” Why wouldn’t he ask for Raphe? “No, I’m good,” I rushed out before he could ask me why I questioned Aiden.

  “Okay, go, before you infect me.”

  Alrighty then. “See you later.”

  When I was a block away from the bistro, I looked around the streets and the buildings. Now what? Where was I going to go?

  Stepping into a recessed doorway, I loosened my hair, finding comfort as it fell around my face in the familiar curtain of privacy. Checking my cash, which I still kept rolled under my boobs in my bra, I counted out quickly just over a hundred and fifty dollars. They shared tips in the bistro, and even the dishwashers got a share. Keeping my head low and pulling my jacket tight around me, I started walking with purpose to Nineteenth, my destination: the Greyhound bus station.

  Twenty minutes later, I was staring at the leaving next buses. Kansas City? I had never been to Missouri. The bus ticket would take most of my cash though. When they said it was leaving within the next ten minutes, it spurred me into action, and a few minutes later, I had a one-way ticket to Kansas City.

  As I settled into my seat, ready for the thirteen-hour journey, I stared out at the streets of Denver with a slight sadness. Yes, I had been here for two years, and I had spent the majority of that time on the streets. Denver hadn’t been that kind to me, but could I say it was bad to me? No. Bizarrely, I felt like I was running away from home. However, it was time to move on.

  Raphe couldn’t find me if I wasn’t here to be found. With a small victorious smirk, I closed my eyes.

  Fuck you, asshole.

  I was free.

  Entering the penthouse, I packed my shit up and then went into Devon’s room to do the same. She had only what I had provided for her; she had never asked for more. As I looked at her meagre possessions, I realised this was more than she had in a long time. It still bugged the shit out of me that she had the two-year gap between leaving the comatose boyfriend and ending up living behind a dumpster in Denver.

  She was in Nevada, for fuck’s sake. She could have gotten lost on the fucking Strip in Vegas and wouldn’t have been found, ever. Was Vegas too close to home, I wondered. A lot of the local residents avoided the tourist trap that was the Strip. Overpriced, overpopulated, and abysmally loud.

  Vegas and New York, both cities to avoid at all costs, in my opinion. Was she the same?

  Unloading her hamper, I packed her dirty clothes into a separate bag, and once I was sure I had everything, I made my way downstairs. Checking with the doorman that Katalina hadn’t returned, I took the elevator down to my car. I didn’t need her to see the bags and start asking questions.

  I already had another place ready for us. Devon had been here for too long. The fact that this was the first time that Kat had seen her was a miracle. I grit my teeth as I thought of the spiteful bitch this morning. Everyone, including Aiden, thought I had fucked Kat when I was assigned to her. The reason Kat disliked me was because I had refused her more times than her husband had. Desperate wasn’t sexy. Plus, Kat was the kind of lay that thought having sex meant she owned you.

  I’m sure she was good in bed. Fuck knows she had been in a lot of them, a reason her father had encouraged a marriage. I made sure she never had the opportunity to be in mine.

  I drove to the new house in North Denver. It was more often being referred to as Highland now, but the old timers still called it North Denver. It was a bustling area, and I secured a small property off of Thirty-fourth Avenue, near one of the more affluent areas with a vibrant nightlife and scattering of restaurants. Busy nightlife meant I was less noticeable coming and going. The only drawback was the fact Devon would be heard if she decided to protest her new lodgings. It was also far enough away from her old “neighbourhood” that I was willing to take the chance that she would settle down, eventually.

  I spent the morning installing security cameras around the house, inside and out. It was a three-bedroom apartment, and I utilised one of the bedrooms for security. The windows weren’t too big, so she couldn’t climb out, although what I knew of Devon, she did try her best to protect herself. Even sleeping on the street, she was careful.

  By mid-afternoon, I had the apartment security set to my liking. I sent a message to Aiden to let him know his penthouse was free again. His woman wasn’t going anywhere near his penthouse since she hated it there, much happier in their sprawling property in Cherry Creek.

  Now what was I going to do about Devon? Give her a key, trust her to come and go? I sat on the couch as I stared out the window. A window I had made sure couldn’t be overlooked by anyone. I stared at the turning leaves on the tree outside while I thought about why I was going to so much trouble for Devon.

  However, I had more important matters to attend to. I had gone to one of the clubs last night, picked up one of the waitresses, and as I fucked her, she told me all I needed to know about Emilio Neroni and his coming and goings.

  It wasn’t unusual for me to visit one of Louis’s clubs. His guys left me alone—most of the time, they thought I was there to check up on them. The club had a VIP area, offering the select few backroom entertainments. The girl was new, but she saw more than Emilio paid attention to. The benefit to me was that her lips were loose, and although I profited from the information, I knew she wouldn’t last a month. She’d blab to the wrong man and either be put to work for real to earn her way, or she wouldn’t be seen again.

  I forgot she scratched me. I wouldn’t have let Devon see that. Not that I was ashamed, the girl had been a good outlet for my frustration. Sometimes you just needed an easy hard fucking to get long brown-haired, brown-eyed women out of your mind. It hadn’t been very successful because the only thing I could think about last night when I was with the girl was Devon and her writhing in the bed alone, thinking about me. I had finished too soon at the memory of her calling out my name.

  Once I was done with the waitress, I had gone looking for Emilio, finding him in a back booth with his constant companion and a woman. The woman looked familiar, but I didn’t stay long enough to think where I had seen her before. Emilio was eager to tell me about his persuasive ability to get his uncle to meet with the West Coast. Ten minutes in, I knew that Emilio was more of an idiot than I had previously given him credit for. He was going to get himself killed. I wouldn’t shed a tear, but he may also get Louis killed, and him I liked.

  My phone rang, distracting me from my thoughts. “Yeah?”

  “We seem to have an influx of east and west influences in my city,” Malcolm said dryly.

  “Do we?” I leaned back, closing my eyes. I needed to sleep better. I had never been a big sleeper, but I was running on about two hours a night for too long now. I was going to become clumsy, make a mistake.

  “Nick is here from New York.”

  My eyes popped open in surprise. “And?”

  “Hmm, should I be expecting your cousin too?” Malcolm was pissed off.

  “I don’t know,” I lied. I had half the information I needed to move forward. Nick already being here forced my hand again.

  “Nico too. It seems like everyone you work for is heading to my city like it’s the epicentre.” Malcolm paused and I knew he was taking a drink. “Why are they all converging on my city, Raphe?”

  “Denver’s one of the most popular cities in the US to live,” I deadpanned.

  “I would like a meeting in an hour.” He hung up on me, and I contemplated ignoring his command, but I had a good relationship with him. It wasn’t really Malcolm’s fault my cousin was a prick. Or that Nico was playing power wars, or that Emilio was so fucking clueless he was a joke.

  I glanced at my watch—after five. She still had a few hours to work. Could I fit all I needed to do tonight and still get her from work? Fucking hell, this was worse tha
n having a pet. I needed to collect her first before I could do any real work.

  Cursing under my breath, I left the apartment and headed to Sixteenth. Traffic was a nightmare, and I was in a foul mood by the time I got into the bistro. When I didn’t see the street rat at the sink, I went searching out front, grabbing a waitress as I watched Levi talking to two customers, my fury mounting as I listened.

  “What do you mean, sick?” The girl in front of me looked like she was close to crying. That would be a wrong move for her.

  “She said she was ill, so Levi sent her home.”

  “When?” I was going to fucking kill her. “An hour ago, two? When?”

  “She didn’t start, she told him first thing when she came in.”

  I hadn’t even been gone ten minutes and the little bitch was running. I was going to break her neck. Back in the car, I felt the calm settle over me. “It’s me.”

  “I haven’t heard anything yet about that errand,” Les said quietly down the phone.

  “The errand ran.”

  “Where?” Les asked me, his voice a mere whisper.

  My hand gripped the phone tighter. “I don’t know where. She’s been gone”—I glanced at my watch—“seven fucking hours.”

  “Bus station,” Les said to me. “You have someone to access the cameras if I get you in?”

  “Yes,” I growled down the phone. “Me. Tell your guy I’m coming.”

  “You need me?”

  “No.” I hung up and drove to Greyhound. She would have gone to the nearest one, she was smart. Why hadn’t I taken the money off her? Careless. Stupid. Stupid and careless.

  Twenty minutes later, Les’s contact was trying very hard to be invisible as I watched Devon get on a bus for Kansas City. She had nothing but the clothes on her back. Somehow that infuriated me more.

  “The bus left on time?”

  “Yes, sir,” the man squeaked at me.

  “Where’s its next stop?”

  He reached forward and looked at the schedule. I almost shot him as I watched him do the math in his head. “Hays, Ellis County. She’s about an hour out.”

  Leaning forward, I deleted the footage.

  “You can’t…that’s a terminable offence,” he protested weakly.

  “Sue me.” I walked out of his tiny office and headed back to my car. She was seven hours in front of me, she would be in Kansas City within another six hours. I looked at my car. Fuck it, it was time to test the speed on this baby. I briefly thought of everyone who was expecting me to react to them being in Denver.

  Fuck them too. I needed to teach someone a lesson.

  The top speed of the Jaguar was impressive; I ate up the distance between me and the little runaway. As I drove, my mind questioned me why I was trying to catch her. If she was gone, there was no way she was pinning a crime on me. I should let her go. The fact that Devon had the audacity to run from me was what made me press my foot harder on the gas. Who the fuck did she think she was? More importantly, who did she think I was?

  She ran from me, and I was going to bring her back, kicking and screaming, so she knew she could never run from me.

  Les texted me once to tell me Malcolm had actually lost his cool. If I wasn’t gunning down the freeway to catch her, I would have liked to have witnessed that. I had a main cell phone and two burner phones. When they all started ringing incessantly, I switched them all off. I wasn’t a lackey. Their world didn’t fall apart from me not being there. If they died, they died. Ray knew fucking better than to play games with me, the others should have learned that a long time ago too.

  I knew I wouldn’t manage to intercept the bus, even though the bus would be a slow journey anyway because it needed to stop. I didn’t need to stop. However, I was confident Devon wouldn’t stray too far from the bus station on her first night. She would stay somewhere well-lit and populated as she got her bearings. The fact she had been behind the bistro for so long was her tell. She knew the staff didn’t see her when they stepped outside, but they were aware of her. They had probably looked for her and the drunk over the last few weeks, knowing they were gone. Something Devon had recognised too, which is why I knew that when she stepped out of the fire exit that night, she hadn’t done it before. Putting herself in that alley brought back familiarity not only to her but to her coworkers.

  They kept the fire exit open, and that had given her a sense of security as she slept there. Knowing that someone would hear her scream or that it provided her with a quick getaway had given her security which, being homeless, was a lot. I was confident that she would stay close to the station. At the moment, she could pass for a passenger waiting for her journey to start. I knew she didn’t go out of her way to connect to people. When I asked Levi about her the night I found her working in the bistro, he said she hardly spoke at all.

  No, she was hours in front of me, but I had the advantage in using the car, so she would only be in Kansas City for a few hours at most before I got to her.

  I arrived in the city just before three in the morning. Six hundred miles in seven hours, not too bad. Christ alone knew how many speeding tickets I could have racked up. The bus had been scheduled to pull into the station at one fifteen, Colorado time—I had forgotten the time difference in Missouri.

  I knew nothing about the bus station, but I knew the street rat, so I went straight to the main waiting area. From there, I looked at the entrances and exits, and on my second attempt, I found her. She was pacing back and forth in a medium-sized recess, which I realised was a shop loading area. She was cold, her jacket wrapped tightly around her, with her head bowed. I could almost hear her thinking. Suddenly she stopped, and I waited patiently.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, her head rose, her eyes no longer on the ground as she looked over her shoulder to the dark alley behind her. Devon peered into the alley for a long moment, before she turned to her side. I lit my cigarette as I waited.

  Even in the low-lit back passageway, I saw her eyes widen with fear and alarm as she saw me standing there, waiting.

  Waiting for her.

  I saw the wild panic and the moment she decided to run.

  “Are you really that fucking stupid?” I asked as I took a deep draw of my smoke.

  Her foot had been half lifted, ready to sprint, but it froze as I opened my jacket to show her my trusted companion. Devon’s eyes were as wide as saucers as she looked at me, then to my gun and back to me.

  “You followed me?” Her surprise and fright were quickly being replaced with anger.

  “You ran?” I asked her mockingly in the same outraged tone she had used.

  “Why?” she wailed at me. Devon’s arms flew up in a temper. “Don’t you get it? I am never telling anyone about you. You’re safe from little old me.” Her eyes cut to me in accusation. “I am not a threat to you, why are you so fucking stupid?”

  Throwing my own words back at me, I liked it. “Let’s go,” I instructed as I turned from her. “You have some explaining to do.”

  “No.”

  No? Did she tell me no? This time I turned slowly to her, and I noticed with satisfaction that her face was white, her step took her backwards, away from me. I crossed the space between us swiftly and grabbed her as she turned to flee. My hand had her arm twisted up her back as I marched her to a wall. I didn’t give a fuck it was covered in dirt and grime, she was fucking lucky it wasn’t covered in shit. Pressing her into the wall, I dipped my head to speak in her ear.

  “No?” I asked her. “You stupid little bitch, who the fuck do you think you are?” I raised her arm higher as she went to speak. “You think I’ve treated you badly? I gave you a roof over your head, I was going to let you keep that shitty job, I gave you fucking freedom.” I pressed her harder into the wall. “And you ran. You threw it back in my face. I’m a little pissed off, Davina.”

  “My name is Devon,” she snarled back at me.

  “Your name is whatever the fuck I call you,” I bit back angrily. “Now get your fucki
ng ass into the car.”

  “No.”

  Even with her body pressed into a wall, one arm up her back and her face taking the brunt of concrete blockwork, she was still defiant. Knowing I’d get a reaction, I switched tactics in order to make her more pliable. My other hand slipped around to her front and found the button on her jeans, flicking it open easily.

  “Raphe, what are you doing?” Devon gasped as I slipped my hand inside her jeans.

  “You think I don’t see the way you look at me?” I asked her as my lips travelled along the side of her neck. “You think I don’t react when you call for me as you come around your fingers?”

  “It’s not like that,” Devon whispered, trying to press herself into the wall now to get away from me, her breathing laboured, her pulse racing.

  “What did you think was going to happen when you ran?” My fingers moved over her panties, dipping low between her legs. “You’ve been practically begging me to fuck you,” I said softly as her back arched. “You don’t want this?”

  Devon’s ass pressed back into me, desperate to escape my fingers, stilling when she felt how hard I was, and she let out a small moan. “You’re not this man,” she whispered as her eyes closed when I moved my hand over her pussy again.

  “Your panties are damp. You telling me this reaction is my imagination?” I asked as I stroked the front of her again. What had been a tactical move had turned into curiosity, how wet was she?

  “It’s not you. I’m not reacting to you.” Her voice was shaking, but her ass ground into me again.

  “You’re a fucking liar, Devon. If my fingers were to slip inside you, I’d find you fucking dripping.” My nose drifted along her jawline. “Now, I’ll give you two options,” I said as I stroked her pussy again. “You get in the car and shut the fuck up. Or, I fuck you here, in this alley, behind a bus station, like your pussy is begging me for, and then you get in the fucking car and shut the fuck up.”

  “Those aren’t even choices,” Devon growled at me, her head turning so she could glare at me.