Merciless King (Lawless Kings, #5)

by Sherilee Gray

  And I’d been draped over him. On him.

  I couldn’t get over the heat radiating from his big body. His skin had been as smooth as I’d imagined and so hot. My hand ached to touch him again. I took a closer look at his tattoo. It was beautiful, intricate, wrapping around his biceps and shoulder almost lovingly. Then down to his pec, covering one whole side and circling that one little brown nipple.

  I swallowed and dropped my gaze, then sucked in a breath. His sweats were thin and I was pretty sure he didn’t have anything on underneath because he had a very noticeable bulge. In fact, it seemed to be growing before my eyes. You could clearly see the outline of his—I swallowed, mouth suddenly dry—cock, and the head was fat and close to bursting out from behind the waistband of his pants. I squirmed when between my thighs heated and started throbbing.

  I glanced back up to his face and jolted.

  Black-as-night eyes were watching me. His nostrils flared.

  I jumped to my feet. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…wake you…fall asleep on you…I’m just going to have a shower and dress.” I ran from the room and shut the bedroom door behind me. Leaning against it, I squeezed my eyes closed. Oh God. He’d caught me looking at his penis. Not just looking, drooling over it like a slavering sex starved nymphomaniac.

  Staying in here and never coming out sounded like an excellent idea.

  I took my time showering and dressing.

  When I came back out later that morning, I hoped like hell that he’d left for work or something. No such luck. Van was already dressed, hair damp. He’d showered as well. He had a mug in his hand—coffee, going by the smell that had filled the apartment—and he was sitting at the dinner table near the window, his laptop open in front of him.

  “Help yourself to anything in the kitchen,” he said without looking up.

  I made myself a coffee as well and didn’t bother with food. My stomach wasn’t up to it, not with the anxiety riding me this morning.

  I walked back into the living room, fighting my humiliation at being caught ogling him, and forced myself to talk. “I’d like to go back to the shop today and clean up. I need to get back to work.”

  Van put down his mug and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “I don’t think opening up is a good idea, not until we’ve found this guy.”

  I’d called Erin the day before and told her what had happened, that she could start back in a couple days, so if I didn’t open today it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I didn’t want her coming to work tomorrow and finding the mess I knew was there. And I didn’t either. I wanted it cleared up. I wanted to forget about it. “I have staff who rely on me. I can’t just close up for days. I’ll make sure I’m not alone in the store.”

  His jaw tightened and he shook his head, just once.

  I stared at him in shock. “No?”

  “No.”

  My mouth opened, closed. Again, I forced myself to speak. “You can’t just say no.”

  “Yeah, I can,” he said.

  Heat suffused my cheeks with the anger I felt rising, and I knew my eyes were round as saucers.

  His gaze moved over my face and a small smile played at the corners of his firm lips when he took in my reaction. “You pissed at me, London?”

  Was I? I guessed I was. Which wasn’t cool, considering all he’d done for me. Still, I wasn’t really a fan of being told what to do. I was used to doing whatever I liked, whenever I liked. That was what happened when you were an only child being raised by a single parent who was never home. You learned to be self-sufficient. You made the tough decisions on your own.

  “You can go in and do online and phone-in orders, but the shop needs to stay shut. No walk-in customers. It’s too risky. That okay with you?” he said, saving me from having to answer.

  That was actually a good idea. Yes, I’d lose some money, but the online orders would be enough to keep us afloat until it was safe to reopen. “Yes, actually.”

  He stood and shut his laptop. “Good. I’ll drive you in.”

  Someone named Cage was there when we arrived. He was tall and muscled with dark hair and a beard, and McBride Security was written in white block letters across his wide chest. Van was vague when I queried him about it, and honestly, I didn’t care. I was just happy not to have to deal with it myself. I’d been doing everything for myself for as long as I could remember.

  I started to clean up while they talked.

  Cage left a short time later, and Van righted the shelves and threw out the destroyed flowers on the shop floor as I mopped up the water. I bit back my fear when I walked into the back room and turned on my computer. I refused to think about those horrific hours locked in the small space while I placed a rush order for the flowers I needed. As soon as I was done, I shut the computer down again and went back to cleaning up.

  When I finished, Van ran through my new security system with me, giving me codes and explaining everything that Cage had installed.

  It was a lot more than I’d expected. “This seems expensive.” I chewed on my lip. “I’m not sure I can afford all this. I wish you’d checked with me—”

  “Cage owed me one.” Van’s eyes dropped to my mouth then slid back up. “Don’t worry about it.”

  I realized I was standing close to him, and, yes, my belly was all whooshy and squirmy, but I was…okay. I was still nervous, and meeting his eyes was not something I could do yet, but maybe I was getting used to him. “This is too much. I can’t let you do this for me.”

  “It’s done,” he said and opened the door for a couple standing outside the shop.

  I stepped back as they walked in.

  “London,” Van said. “This is Hunter, my brother, and Ruby. They’re both investigators from our agency. They’re going to be helping with your case.”

  I frowned. “Case? I thought the police—”

  “We like to be proactive about these things,” Hunter said, blue eyes searching mine.

  I had no idea what he meant by that.

  Hunter’s expression was intense and familiar. Van often wore the same expression. They had a lot of similarities. Both tall, about the same height. The same firm lips and sharp cheekbones. The same dark hair. The main difference was their coloring. Van’s skin and eyes were darker.

  “How you doing?” Ruby said, tucking a purple-streaked lock of hair behind her ear. She wore all black, leather jeans and a jacket to match. Her eyes were bright blue, sharp and intense but warm at the same time.

  “I’m okay,” I said, giving my standard answer.

  She came closer and rested her hand on my arm. “We will get this fucker, London,” she said fiercely. “We’ll make sure he never has the chance to hurt you or anyone else again.”

  Her kindness hit me unexpectedly. She didn’t know me—neither did Hunter, apart from what Van had told them—and yet there they all were, ready to help me, making sure I was safe, that I felt safe.

  Her face went blurry as sudden and unwanted tears filled my eyes. “Thank you,” I managed and quickly turned away, moving behind the counter and pretending to get busy working. I wasn’t fooling anyone.

  Hunter and Ruby stayed for a while, speaking with Van. He seemed to have a lot to say, not that I could hear them at the other end of the store. Van showed them my new security system as well, and I saw him point out several cameras I hadn’t noticed before, then Ruby waved to me, and they left.

  Van didn’t. He stayed.

  I felt guilty that he had to be there with me, but I was glad he was, more than he knew.

  The next morning I was up and dressed when Van walked out. I’d managed a little more sleep, but after another nightmare woke me, I’d laid there staring at the ceiling, wondering what I’d done to deserve this. What it was about me that drew that kind of evil, not once but twice.

  I guessed I’d cried myself to sleep, tired myself out enough to get a couple hours rest.

  My eyes were puffy, and no amount of concealer could help m
e there. I just hoped Van didn’t notice. I smiled when he strode toward me but ducked my head, hiding.

  He stopped in front of me. “Look at me, London. I don’t like it when you hide from me.”

  Crap. What could I do? He’d called me out. I tilted my head back but focused on his chin.

  “You’ve been crying,” he said, voice gritty.

  I shook my head. “I’m just tried, that’s all.”

  “You don’t need to suffer alone…not anymore. I’m right here. You need me, all you have to do is say the word.”

  I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Did he want me to knock on his door in the middle of the night and cry all over his shoulder? I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t bear for him to see me like that. I didn’t tell him that though “Thanks,” I said.

  He narrowed his eyes at me, like he wasn’t buying it. “London…”

  “Thank you,” I said again, hoping he’d let it drop.

  Thankfully, he did. “You ready to head in to work?”

  I nodded. He filled a travel cup with coffee, and we headed out.

  When we reached the store, he followed me in, checked the back room, and then went over the security system with me again.

  “Keep this on at all times and the door locked.”

  “I will.”

  “You gonna be okay here on your own?” He seemed reluctant to leave.

  “Yes, and I won’t be on my own. Erin will be here with me.”

  He studied me intensely for several long seconds. Taking in my puffy eyes again, no doubt. “Between us at the agency and the police doing their drive-bys and drop-ins, you’ll be covered.”

  I smiled to reassure him. “I know.”

  His gaze dropped to my mouth.

  He seemed to do that a lot. I licked my lips self-consciously and his eyes darkened.

  Erin knocked at the door and I stepped back.

  “I’ll be here to pick you up at six.” He opened the door for Erin then turned back to me. “Make sure you lock this after me,” he said before he walked out.

  I watched him go, then smiled at Erin, thankful that every trace of what happened was gone. She gave me a hug but didn’t ask me a lot of questions about it, which I was grateful for. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to think about it. I needed to get back to work, to keep my mind occupied. The last thing I needed was to start going over and over what had happened or what that creep had said to me through the door.

  I didn’t need to be thinking about what he would have done to me if I hadn’t been quick enough and locked myself behind that door.

  If he’d gotten to me.

  Instead, I got busy. We had a lot of orders to fill, most of which had come in overnight. I also had quite a few apologies and refunds to organize after having the shop closed the day before and forgetting to turn off the online orders.

  At around five-thirty, Detective Daniels tapped on the shop door.

  I smiled at him and hustled over to open up and let him in.

  The alarm started up instantly, all hell breaking loose. “Oh! Crap.” I quickly keyed in the code, but it didn’t work. I rushed to the counter and rummaged around, found the piece of paper with the code written on it, which I needed to lock away, and rushed back to punch it into the keypad.

  I glanced at Detective Daniels. “It’s, ah…new.” His lips were curled up on one side, and he was looking at me in a way that made me feel all flustered and jittery. Not in a bad way. But yeah, if a good-looking man was looking at me, I was flustered and jittery.

  My phone started ringing and I glanced at the screen. Van. My heart did a little leap before I could stop it. “Hello?”

  “Talk to me,” he said.

  “Huh?” I frowned. About what? The weather? What we were having for dinner later?

  “Your alarm, London. It was triggered.”

  “Oh! Sorry. I forgot to turn it off when Detective Daniels arrived.”

  “Daniels is there?” His voice had dropped lower.

  “He just got here.”

  “Tell him hi from me.”

  “Um, sure.”

  “I’m about to head over. See you soon.” His voice seemed somehow even deeper when he said that.

  “Yep, yes, you certainly will.” God, why did I turn into a complete idiot when I spoke to this man?

  Van muttered something and made a funny sound.

  Was he laughing?

  He disconnected before I could ask.

  I glanced up and Detective Daniels was watching me closely. “Van said to say hi.”

  This seemed to amuse the detective, but he didn’t comment. “Shall we talk in your office?”

  I led him to the back room, and he motioned for me to sit. He asked a few basic follow-up questions then said, “You made a call and made a report the day of your attack.” He opened a file he was holding. “The young guy from Pizza Heaven, you thought you might’ve been the last to talk to him?”

  I nodded. “I had a pizza delivered that night. I thought it might be him.”

  He took something from the folder. “I wondered if you could take a look at a picture of the deceased and see if you recognize him from that night.”

  I swallowed, feeling suddenly ill. “What does this…why would I…”

  “I just want to rule something out. I know this is frightening, but it’s just his face. You can’t see the rest of him.”

  In other words, the rest of him was not—good. I bit my lip but finally nodded.

  He placed it in my hand, and I stared down at it.

  “Is this the man who came to your door?”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s not him. The guy that delivered my pizza had blond hair. His face was thinner. I remember what he looked like because he asked about my dog.” The young man in the picture had black hair and darker eyes.

  “He asked about your dog?”

  I nodded.

  “What did he say?”

  “He said he was sorry to hear about him. When I asked how he knew that he’d died, he said my neighbor mentioned it.”

  He jotted something down. “And did you confirm this with your neighbor?”

  “No, I…” I froze. “Was it…him?”

  “Now, London, we don’t know that for sure. I need to talk to your neighbor, and we’re waiting on some CCTV footage—”

  “It was him, wasn’t it?” I started to shake.

  “London—”

  “He killed Heathcliff.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “He wanted me to know he could get to me anytime, and he…he killed my dog.” My head shot up, my eyes meeting his concerned gaze. “Oh God, he killed that poor boy just so he could prove that he could get to me. He wanted me to know. He wanted me to know…”

  Detective Daniels stood suddenly and his arms came around me, pulling me out of my seat.

  “Deep breaths, London. Can you do that? I need you to breathe nice and slow.”

  “D-Detective D-Daniels…I, I can’t…”

  “Connor, honey. I think we’ve been through enough that you can call me Connor.” He leaned back, looking down at me. “I’ve got you, London. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Slow it down. Slow breaths.”

  Panic had hold of me and I gasped, trying to do as he instructed. His voice sounded distant, the room going fuzzy. I felt like I was suffocating, being sucked under as memories became reality, taking me back, throwing me on the floor, the knife raised high above me…

  There was a vicious curse from the door, jarring me. Then Van was there.

  “What the fuck did you say to her?” he growled.

  “You’re not helping,” Connor gritted out.

  Van pulled me from Connor, taking my shoulders in his big warm hands. His eyes, dark and fierce, locked on mine. “I’m right here, London,” he said. “Focus on me.”

  For once I didn’t want to look away. I grabbed hold of the lifeline they represented and listened to the sound of his deep, gritty voice as he told me to b
reathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. Over and over, doing it with me until I had it back under control.

  “That’s good. In and out. Stay with me, sweetheart.”

  The next thing I knew, Van was instructing Connor in a clipped voice to hang around while Erin locked up, and he led me out onto the street and to his car. It felt like only moments later we were back in his apartment.

  I was sitting on the couch and he was crouched in front of me, looking worried.

  6

  Van

  What the fuck could I do to make this okay for her?

  “What did Daniels say, London?” I thought I knew—we’d been making some headway of our own—but I didn’t want to freak her out by giving her info she didn’t need to know yet. I didn’t want what had just happened back in her shop to happen again.

  “A pizza guy was killed outside my apartment building three days ago. It was him.” She looked into my eyes. “It was him. He asked about my dog. Because he knew, because he’d killed Heathcliff. And he killed that boy, some poor kid who was unlucky enough to get handed my pizza to deliver, just so some madman could prove he could get to me.”

  She sounded almost hysterical, was moments away from a panic attack or, shit, another flashback.

  “London—”

  She shook her head. “Why didn’t he just kill me when he had the chance? Why is he doing this?”

  Shit.

  Because the fucker was playing with her. Getting off on her fear.

  A sob burst past her lips.

  Fuck this. I climbed onto the couch beside her and pulled her onto my lap. “I’m telling you, baby, I won’t let anyone hurt you. He’s not getting anywhere near you. You trust me, yes?”

  She was trembling in my arms, but I felt her nod.

  “I’ve got you, sweetheart. I promise, I’ve got you.”

  We stayed like that for a long time. I stroked her hair, her back, until her trembling slowed along with her breathing. She’d fallen asleep. Not surprising with the lack of sleep she’d had the last two nights. I’d heard her cry out last night and heard her pacing around her room afterward. I’d wanted to go to her like I had the first night, but she’d stayed in her room, I guessed to avoid running into me again.