Cruel

by Raven Kennedy

  I didn’t answer him, but my eyes darted to Logan. The older man turned to where I was staring and frowned. “You know the rules, Logan,” he said. Without warning, he raised the gun once more and pointed it at Logan’s head. Logan threw up his hands in surrender and looked around at the others for help, but no one looked back at him. “We don’t hurt women.” With that simple statement, the man pulled the trigger, and the gun fired.

  Another scream escaped my lips as I watched Logan drop to the ground, clutching his cheek and screaming out in pain. “You clipped me!”

  When he drew his hand back, I saw the line across his cheek and the blood flowing from it. His ear was clipped, too. I swiveled to look at the older man, my mouth gaping open in shock and my ears ringing from the sound of the gun firing.

  “Get him out of here,” the man said, jutting his chin up.

  Immediately, two guys rushed forward, grabbed a kicking and cursing Logan, and hauled him off to the car.

  “Idiots. All of you. Do I have to do everything around here?” the man said with a sigh as he stuffed the gun into waistband. “Get those fucking blindfolds off of the rest of them. Unbind their hands, too. Bring them to the warehouse. I want them there in six minutes,” he then ordered before limping away.

  The cigarette smoking man from before stepped forward, holding a hand out to help me up. I gingerly grabbed it before fixing my eyes back on the retreating man that saved me. “He almost k-killed that guy,” I said while standing.

  He followed my gaze then shrugged. “Rocco doesn’t miss, ma’am. If he wanted Logan dead, we’d already have a cleanup crew dumping his body.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Rogue squeezed my hand so hard that I had to politely ask him to let go a little. The moment he was untied, he came to my side, holding his stomach and ignoring his bloody lip. He ran his hands along every limb, checking me for injuries while blood coated his teeth. “Are you okay?” he asked before jerking me forward to clutch me tightly. I could hear his pounding heart while I whispered quick reassurances that I was, even though I felt far from it.

  The men cut Bonham, Luis, and Godfrey loose next, keeping their guns at the ready in a wordless warning not to try anything. But because of the perfectly aimed shot that probably would scar Logan for life, not a single one of the other men touched me. Whoever this Rocco guy was, these men had a strange mix of fear and respect for him.

  Though Godfrey limped, he, Bonham, and Luis circled Rogue and I as we entered the large wooden building. I looked up at the ceiling as the men led us down a concrete corridor. Rotted wood on the roof allowed the glow of the moon to peek through, and every time I breathed in, a distinct smell tickled the back of my throat. It smelled like...crisp money straight from the atm. An odd, but recognizable smell. I looked around, but the warehouse was completely empty. Absolutely nothing covered the concrete floors, aside from dust. It was just a clear space.

  “Over here,” one of the guards said while another one held back a plastic partition for us to walk through.

  “Where are we?” I asked Rogue in a low voice, but my whisper must have still been loud enough for the men to hear, because a lanky one on Luis's left answered me.

  “Unless you’re willing to die for the answer, you’re safest just not asking questions, girl.”

  I swallowed. We were definitely somewhere illegal. “Care to explain why it took you eight minutes instead of six?” Rocco asked.

  The room we were led to had fold out chairs scattered around the dusty space, and Rocco was sitting in the middle of them. This space was only lit up by construction stand-type work lights. The intense bulbs let off glaring light in each corner of the room, but the dark wood walls seemed to absorb the light.

  “We were still trying to wake one of them up, boss. Had to pour water on him,” the cigarette man answered. I looked over at Godfrey, noticing his clothes were sopping wet and sticking to his body. Despite the chill in the air, he didn’t shiver.

  “Fine. Have a seat right there, boys. The girl can sit by me,” Rocco said.

  Rogue immediately tensed at the idea of not having me at his side. He opened his mouth to refuse, but Rocco stopped him. “I have no interest in girls my daughter’s age, kid. But if I have to shoot you, I’d rather have a clear line of sight. It’s less messy that way.”

  Rogue snapped his mouth shut at that reasoning, and after giving me a long, penetrating look that said all the things we couldn’t say out loud right then, he released his strong hold on my hand. Rocco’s cunning eyes watched our every move. I realized that his reasoning for separating us had a purpose other than just what he said. He’d also been trying to determine if I was important to my guys. He had his answer.

  As I padded towards the leader, I noticed that a pristine chessboard was set up on a rickety table that looked like it was about ready to fall apart. The game board was made of marble and several of the pieces had chips in them. When I hesitated, Rocco patted the chair next to him. As soon as I sat down, he started placing the chess pieces on each square, methodically lining them up. Everyone watched him in attentive silence, waiting for him to speak.

  Daddy once tried to teach me how to play chess. But he got too frustrated when I didn’t understand the complex rules right off the bat. He’d given up on our second lesson. I’d stolen a rook from his board and kept it on my nightstand. He never even noticed.

  “You ever play chess, pup?” Rocco asked while setting up another piece.

  “My daddy tried to teach me, but he didn’t have the patience for it,” I explained, not quite feeling safe with this man, but not exactly feeling in danger, either. I didn’t know why he’d set me at ease. Sure, he fired a warning shot at Logan, but he was obviously still dangerous. I shouldn’t let my guard down. I shifted in my seat and studied him, while my guys on the other end of the room did the same. Rocco had grey, glassy eyes that seemed intensely despondent.

  “Shame,” he said with a tsk. “I bet your daddy wasn’t very good at it, anyways. If you don’t have the patience to teach the game, then you definitely don’t have the patience to play it.”

  The profoundness of his words made me pause, and I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like for he and my daddy to be in the same room. I had a feeling they wouldn’t like each other very much.

  He picked up the queen and held it out to me, nodding for me to take it from his rough hands. I tentatively reached out and grabbed it from his shaky grip, letting the weight of it lay heavy in my palm. “I’m sure you already know who this is,” Rocco said. “The queen? She’s got the entire purpose of the game wrapped up in her crown. Everyone lines up to protect her. She can bring down your board with grace and a couple of moves.”

  My eyes darted up to Rocco’s face, but his attention was on the board. “A King is only as good as the player that controls him,” Rocco continued, like sitting here with the people he’d kidnapped while he explained chess wasn’t unusual. “Some kings are too willing to sacrifice their pawns. They toss them on the board and don’t give a fuck when they lose ‘em,” he said with disdain as he picked up a pawn. “I was tired of being a pawn, pup. So I took on the king, do you understand?”

  “You used to be in Johnny Jack’s gang?” Godfrey interrupted, but Rocco didn’t acknowledge his question at all.

  “I was in the middle of my third lesson of chess with my daughter when he took her,” Rocco said to me before grabbing the king and chucking it across the room. The chess piece slammed against the wall and broke into pieces on the floor. Rocco stood up, his glassy eyes filled with fury and heartbreak, but when he started to unbutton his shirt, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rogue shift forward in his seat, as if ready to tackle Rocco should he try anything. But Rocco just opened his shirt at the front and pointed to the ugly scarring that covered nearly every inch of his torso. “The bastard carved into my chest while my daughter watched. And then he took her,”
he said, his words choked and furious.

  “Oh God,” I whispered as I covered my mouth, my eyes wide as I took in his red, raised flesh spelling out two large J’s to stand for Johnny Jack.

  Although I didn’t know this man, I had an urge to reach out and hug him. He was a father who was obviously destroyed at the loss of his daughter. The selfish part of me wondered if my own parent would feel his same desperation and loss. It was palpable in the air, like his entire body fumed with it.

  Rocco buttoned his shirt back up and looked over at the guys. “Word on the street is that you boys stole some evidence from Johnny Jack. I want it.”

  I stole a look at Rogue, but he and the other guys were watching Rocco, each of them wearing their stony, expressionless masks. But everything was snapping into place for me, for why he’d coordinated to ambush whoever showed up for this fake clean up job. He must’ve found out that we had the photographs of Johnny Jack’s kidnapped girls. My stomach tightened at the thought of one of those girls being Rocco’s daughter.

  “What do we get in return?” Rogue asked. “Can your men offer us protection? Because Johnny Jack has already made it clear that he’ll take us out if we don’t give him what he wants.”

  I bit my lip nervously, waiting for what Rocco could say. Maybe he could help us, and we could actually get out of this fucked up situation.

  Rocco laughed. It was like a hacking wheeze, filling the space with his dark chuckles. “Boy, I couldn’t even save my own daughter. What makes you think I can save you? I’m not here to help you. I’m here to get my Rachel back.”

  I moved to place the marble queen back on the chess set, but Rocco stopped me. “Keep it,” he told me, before turning back to the guys. “You have one week to get me the evidence. If you don’t, I’m afraid our next meeting won’t end well for you,” he threatened. “I have no problem burning all of Savannah to the ground to get my girl back.”

  He started walking toward the door, and all of his men trailed after him. Cigarette man set a burner phone down on the chessboard before following after his boss. Rocco stopped at the door and pointed at the Heirs. “One week, pups. And if you give that evidence to Johnny Jack’s men, I won’t hesitate to end each and every one of you. I don’t care if you are the Heirs of Savannah,” he said darkly. “I’ll be in touch.” He nodded once at the burner phone and then disappeared behind the plastic partition.

  Once we heard the sound of the cars start up and the engines fade in the distance, I finally let go of the breath I’d been holding.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  The five of us stood outside the abandoned building in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch black besides the single lantern hanging on the wall and the stars above us. It would’ve been peaceful, if it weren’t for the fact that we’d just been kidnapped and abandoned.

  Godfrey and Luis did one last sweep of the building, but there was nothing to find in there. Using the burner phone, Rogue quickly sent our coordinates to his driver to come pick us up. We were way outside of Savannah, so that meant that we were stuck here for a few hours. I sat on the dirt with my back against the splintered wood of the building with Rogue settled on my right.

  He hadn’t vacated my side since Rocco’s men left. I kept shaking slightly, both from the chill in the air and from the adrenaline that was now crashing down around me. Being ambushed, kidnapped, groped, threatened, and then watching a guy get his cheek blown off would do that to a person.

  Luis pulled out a joint and a match from his shoe. I wasn’t surprised, but I was grateful that he’d managed to keep it on him, because if we ever needed to mellow out, now was the time. He lit it up and we all passed the joint around quietly. When it was my turn for a hit, Rogue took it from his own mouth and with a hand on my neck, turned my face toward his. He blew a stream of smoke against my mouth, and I breathed it in, breathed him in, until I could feel him permeate every hidden part of me. Then he took the joint and held it in between my lips for me, our eyes locked while I inhaled. I held it, closing my eyes a bit before blowing smoke back out. Rogue kept watching me with an anxious expression on his face that I’d never seen before. When I shivered again, he passed the joint to Bonham and then reached over and pulled me onto his lap. He wrapped his strong arms around me and I rested against him, soaking in his warmth as I sunk into my high.

  “What are we going to do?” I asked, watching as Bonham took a drag and then passed it to Godfrey.

  “This is actually perfect,” he said, blowing out smoke in lazy little rings that filled the air around us.

  “What do you mean?”

  Godfrey shrugged. “We’ve been looking for an out,” he said. “This is it. I say we do it. Give it to Rocco.”

  “And if shit goes bad and comes back on us?” Luis asked.

  Godfrey shrugged. “We’ll be in no worse position than we were already in. Johnny Jacks’ men are already breathing down our necks. Their next step is to take someone close to us to show they mean business. The only reason they’ve waited this long on threats alone is because of who we are. They have to play this right, but they’re circling. We have no other move.”

  “We’re stuck between the twisted fucks of Johnny Jack and now this fucker Rocco, who’s looking for revenge for his daughter,” Luis groaned as he rubbed a hand down his face. “This isn’t gonna end well.”

  “We just have to be smart,” Bonham said. “If we play this right, we might actually make it out of this alive. Becoming allies with Rocco is our best bet.”

  The five of us grew quiet, no doubt thinking about everything that could happen. There were a million what-ifs. No one spoke again until Rogue’s driver finally showed up hours later. I’d dozed off against Rogue’s chest, barely feeling it when he lifted me in his arms and walked me to the car. He sat in the backseat with me, never letting go.

  When we got to his house, we all trudged inside the empty estate. The other guys broke off to their respective guest rooms, while Rogue led me up to his room. He’d been quiet ever since Rocco’s men had left us. I didn’t know what was going through his mind, and that worried me. Would he push me away again? Start up his cruelty for the sake of saving me? Everything that had just happened was a major mind fuck, and I wouldn’t blame him for feeling cagey, but I would fight through his instinct to distance himself.

  Once we were inside his room with the door closed, he took hold of the hem of my shirt, but before he took it off, he stopped to look at me first, waiting for permission. “This okay?” he asked with a tentative look.

  It surprised the hell out of me, so it took a few seconds for me to react. I lifted my arms for him, wordlessly giving him the go-ahead. He lifted the dirty shirt over my head and let it fall to the floor. When he knelt down in front of me to unbutton my jeans, I placed my hands over his. “I can do it,” I said quietly.

  His turned his head up to look at me, and when I saw his anguished expression, my heart stopped. “Just…let me do this. Let me take care of you. I need to,” he admitted hoarsely.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded, watching as he peeled off my jeans and underwear. It wasn’t sexual. Not even when he unclasped my bra or led me into the bathroom. He was radiating male protectiveness and providing me with a tenderness that made my whole body feel tight with love. He turned on the spout to the jacuzzi tub, carefully adjusting the water temperature and then filled it with minty-smelling bubbles. With a hand on my arm, he helped me inside.

  “Just relax. I’ll be right back.”

  I nodded as he turned and left, taking a moment to breathe out a shaky breath. This was new territory, and I wasn’t sure how to navigate. I’d known Rogue as a friend, then as an enemy, and then as an aggressive sex partner, but this was different. This showed me how much he really did love me. I knew he’d been scared for me when we were kidnapped, and when control was taken out of his hands, it cost him dearly. He needed this—he needed to take care of me to reassure himself that I was okay.

 
I dunked my head under the warm water and then sat back up, pushing my brown hair behind my ears. Being still was dangerous, because it let my mind wander to everything that had happened, and everything that we were about to face. I thought of Rocco, of Johnny Jack, of the man Rogue killed. Plunging my head under the water, I stayed like that until my lungs felt like they were going to burst—then I stayed longer. I waited until my head started pounding as my body begged for oxygen. Just before I knew I’d pass out, I lifted up, gasping for air, but it forced the chaotic thoughts to leave, which was exactly what I wanted. I washed my body and then soaked for a little while longer before finally pulling myself out and draining the water.

  After wrapping myself in a towel, I padded into the bedroom, finding Rogue just coming back in with a tray of food.

  “Hey,” I said, watching as he set the tray on the bedside table.

  Seeing me in the towel, he walked to his closet, coming back out with a pair of his boxers and one of his t-shirts. Taking the corner of the towel, he unwrapped it from my body, and then gently lowered his shirt over my head to dress me. I took the soft boxers, stepped into them, and then he led me to his bed with a hand on the small of my back.

  “I’m going to shower. You eat.”

  I nodded, watching him curiously as he disappeared into the bathroom. Settling onto the bed, I pulled the tray in front of me while I stretched my legs out. When I saw what was on the tray, a smile spread over my face. He’d brought me my favorite comfort foods. Macaroni, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, chips and guacamole, hot chocolate, and strawberries with cream. He remembered it all. I was half tempted to take a photo of it, just to remember the thoughtful gesture.