When Abe’s fiftieth birthday had started to creep closer and he started to long for a little more excitement and adventure, this had definitely not crossed his mind. Skydiving…that would have been safer. Maybe swimming with sharks. A crash course in wrestling alligators. Not this. But Dom was worth it.
“Sir, I’m sorry,” Noah started in a low voice.
“What’s wrong, Drew?” Trent straightened in his seat and looked around.
“The SUV that was following us has returned,” Noah said.
“Fuck!” Trent snarled. They all looked out the rearview mirror to see the SUV driven by the stalker was behind them again. But the tinted SUV carrying James’s crew was missing. Abe didn’t know if they were simply lost or if Ward’s people had intercepted them. Either way, it was one less thing to worry about for now.
“What the fuck!” James swore beside him in stunned confusion.
“Here! Go in here and see if we can lose him among the warehouses,” Trent directed, pointing off to his right.
Noah jerked the wheel and the car jumped the curb, darting through an opening in a sagging chain link fence. The parking lot was filled with fractured concrete and weeds growing up through the cracks. The warehouses had their windows darkened and partially boarded up. A For Sale sign was nailed to the side of one of the buildings. It looked like they were the only ones in the place. Perfect.
“Brace!” warned a low voice in his ear. Possibly Rowe’s.
Abe grasped the door handle and tightened his seat belt a second before Noah swore and violently jerked the wheel. There was a horrendous scraping noise as something rubbed against the undercarriage of the car. It helped to significantly slow them down, but not as much as the telephone pole. The BMW came to a painful halt as the front hit the pole and stopped. Airbags exploded around them, and Abe sat in dazed silence for a second. There was an ache in his bones from the impact, but he knew he wasn’t feeling the worst of it yet. That would come later when the adrenaline subsided.
Blinking a couple of times, Abe watched as Trent released his seat belt and reached over to Noah, who was lying against the steering wheel, the airbag deflating quickly beneath him.
“Oh God,” Trent moaned. “Drew is dead. He’s dead.”
Abe couldn’t help the skip of his heart. Was he really dead? Or was Trent still acting? The impact hadn’t felt that hard, but it was enough to spiderweb the windshield. It looked like there was blood running down along the white airbag. Was Noah…dead? Had his plan killed Rowe’s lover?
“He’s fine, Abe,” Rowe calmly said in his ear. “He gave the signal.”
A whimper of relief slipped from Abe’s lump-clogged throat, but he didn’t care. The noise could just have easily been mistaken for pain and horror. He was ready for this to be over, but he had one more part to play.
“We have to go,” James said. “The stalker is still out there.”
Abe nodded slowly, unbuckling his seat belt. He pushed open his car door and slid out. His body protested the movement, but he gritted his teeth and stood. He was going to need some great painkillers and a massage if he managed to survive this bullshit.
Running his hand along the side of the car to help keep his balance, Abe moved to the trunk with Trent and James. He glanced around and there was no one about…except for the SUV and the giant man stepping out of it.
“The warehouse!” Trent said, pointing to the closest warehouse with the open rear door. “We can hide in there and call the cops.”
James stared at it and nodded. He looked utterly dazed and confounded by the events unfolding around him. Abe almost felt pity for the bastard. He’d undoubtedly thought he’d just be kidnapping an old man right out from under Dom’s nose. Not get taken on a wild adventure.
“Trent Elrige!” the stalker shouted. He came around the side of his SUV and lifted his gun, pointing it at Trent. “You’re fucking dead, asshole!”
“Hey man,” Trent said. He lifted his empty hands, holding them out to the side. “I don’t know what I’ve done to upset you, but I’m sure we can talk about it. Figure this out calmly.” He took a couple of steps so that he was standing right next to Abe while James was behind them both.
The gun in the stalker’s hand went off three times. Trent’s body twisted and jerked as blood jumped from his chest and he collapsed to the ground. The stalker then pointed the gun at Abe, and the entire world slowed down to a crawl. He sucked in a ragged breath. Never had he thought that he’d stare down the barrel of a gun. There was no sound, but there was an explosion from the end of the weapon. And then three sharp, painful bursts thudded against his chest. He gasped and let his body go limp as he fell forward.
The squibs exploded against his chest in the little make-shift vest they’d placed on him under his button-down shirt, which was now ruined. At least it wasn’t his favorite. His chest felt like someone had hit him with a hammer, and he swore he could smell burned chest hair, but he ignored it, trying to remember the instructions Trent had given him on playing dead. Be still. Let your entire body go completely loose.
Gravel dug into his cheek and the fake blood was seeping through his shirt, chilling his skin. More shots were fired. This time from James’s direction and Abe prayed for the fake stalker. He was relieved when he heard the squeal of tires as the SUV peeled out of the empty parking lot.
There was a scrabble of feet on the broken pavement and then a hand on his shoulder, tilting him slightly upright. Abe struggled to keep his gaze unfocused.
“Run, Dom!” he choked out. “Call for help.” He gave a thick, phlegmy cough. “Run.”
“Yeah, help,” James mumbled, releasing Abe to flop back down on the sun-warmed pavement. There were more footsteps, but this time they were running away from the car…toward the warehouse.
Closing his eyes, Abe chanced a deep, shaky breath. The overwhelming need to both laugh and cry rose up inside of him at the same time. He’d come up with this insane plan and somehow, he’d managed to survive it. There was just one more dangerous part, and there was nothing he could do to help Dom from this point on.
“Hey, Abe.”
“Yeah, Trent,” he replied, still lying facedown on the pavement.
“This is a normal day for Dom?”
“Yep.”
“Fuck…I need a damn vacation after this.”
“Yeah, me too.” Taking a deep breath, he whispered, “He’s all yours, Dom. Be safe.”
Chapter Seventeen
Dom waited in the shadows, sweat running down the side of his face in the stifling hot warehouse. He held close Abe’s admonishment to be safe. It was not his priority, but for Abe, he would try. They were not finished, not by a long shot. He wanted everything that a relationship offered when it came to Abe. He wanted the arguments and the tense moments of fear as much as he wanted years of laughter and joy. He wanted to wake up beside Abe and plan their day while lying in bed.
But first he had to deal with James.
His brother had threatened Abe, threatened the family that he built with Ward Security. Threatened the fucking life that he’d finally gotten for himself after years of struggle. It couldn’t continue.
James might be all that was left of his blood relatives, but it carried no weight when it came to the lives of the people that he loved.
When Abe had described his plan, he was sure that his lover had absolutely lost his mind, but then they wrangled in Rowe and Trent. They all rallied together to help Dom. To confuse and distract James until he ran straight into Dom’s clutches.
“We’ve got Abe and Trent in sight with Noah. We’ll have them in two minutes,” Rowe relayed in the earwig he was wearing.
“Got it.”
“Don’t be stupid, Dom,” Rowe said in a low, firm voice. “We need you back safe and sound too.”
Dom grunted. He wasn’t planning to be stupid, but there were a few choice words he wanted to say to his brother before this was finally over.
Heavy footsteps pounde
d on the pavement and echoed off the high walls and ceilings in the empty, two-story warehouse. Dom watched from his perch atop of a pair of crates in the shadows as his brother ran into the warehouse and slammed the door shut behind him. He continued to move into the room, twisting to the left and then right as if searching for some unseen assailant. Harsh, broken breaths filled the relative silence, and James frantically ran his hand through his hair.
“Fuck!” he swore softly, and then a second time, louder. Loud enough to disturb the doves from where they were roosting up in the steel rafters. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out his cell phone. After tapping a couple of buttons, he held it up to his ear while he paced in the center of the room. He swore again after a few seconds and lowered the phone. He tried again…and again.
“What the fuck, Slaney? Where are you?” he snarled. He tried again but still got no answer. He started to throw his phone but caught himself at the last second and shoved it into his back pocket again.
“Trouble?” Dom called out.
James spun around, whipping out the gun he had concealed in a holster at his back. “John?” He pointed it in the general area where Dom was but had yet to actually spot him.
Dom let the name slide without comment as he jumped down from his perch. He wasn’t worried about the gun, yet. And he’d learned from his past mistakes when it came to James, bringing his own to this fight.
“Can’t reach your crew?” he continued.
The confusion twisting up James’s features cleared and was replaced by rage. “What did you do? Where the fuck is Slaney and the rest of my pack?” He stomped toward Dom, the gun pointed right at his face, and Dom just smiled at him.
“Right now, they would be in police custody. They should be matching your people’s prints to The Joint and the weapon that killed the bar owner. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a few other unsolved crimes around the area that could be tied back to your pack.”
“Fuck off! You think you’ve won, but you ain’t won shit. Your boyfriend is dead. You’re going to be blamed for the death of Trent Elrige. You’re going to lose everything. I can create another pack. Nothing is going to stop me.”
Dom chuckled at his brother, his grin growing wide. “Abe’s dead? Trent’s dead?” He shook his head. “Sounds like you had a rough day pretending to be me.”
James stared at him, the confusion returning. The gun in his hand slowly lowered back to his side and he took an unsteady step backward. “What? How?”
“You mean, how did I know that Abe, who was completely off the grid for three days, just suddenly ran back to his house, the one place your people were sure to be watching? And then you just happen to catch him out in the open in Washington Park. Where you just so happen to meet up with a freaking movie star?”
“Of course, you expected me to follow Abe,” James snapped, but his voice lacked the same mocking strength and conviction he’d had just a few minutes earlier. He waved the gun widely as he spoke. “I told you I was going to get Abe. He was your weakness.”
“Abe is my strength,” Dom corrected in a hard, cold voice. He slowly paced, walking around James so that he was forced to turn in a tight circle if he wanted to keep Dom in view. “But how could you pass up the chance to grab both Abe and a movie star? That was a once in a lifetime opportunity, wasn’t it?”
“I don’t…” James started to say, but his voice trailed off.
“But then Trent had a stalker who chased you to Trent’s nearby car. That had to have been a wild ride through the city. Must have been hard for your people to keep up. There was always the chance that you’d lose your backup to a red light and heavy downtown traffic.”
“You!” he gasped.
“Ward Security intercepted your crew, disabled them for the cops, while you continued on to here. A fake car accident. Blanks and some exploding squibs with fake blood put both Trent and Abe out of your reach. And you…you’re alone, confused, and desperate for escape and ran straight in here after Trent mentioned it.”
“You-you fucking conned me,” James stammered in shock.
“Dad taught us both,” Dom sneered. “You think I forgot all that shit? Forgot what it takes to get a person to believe and do exactly what you want them to? You think you’re smarter than everyone, but yeah, I conned you.”
James backpedaled away from Dom. His sweat-covered face was pale in the light coming through the dirty windows of the warehouse. He shook his head once, mouthing the word no. Dom braced himself, muscles bunched and ready to strike if James decided to lift the gun again. There were several feet between them, but he was sure that he could cross the distance in time to knock the gun away.
And then James started laughing. Deep, loud belly laughs. He dropped the gun to his side, hanging loose from just a few fingers. He held his stomach with his free hand and laughed wildly. When his gaze returned to Dom, he shook his head as he continued to chortle. “Dad was wrong about you. He was fucking wrong,” he said when he could drag in a deep breath. Dom remained cautious, not sure what his brother was talking about.
“He said you didn’t have what it takes to be a wolf. He said that you were always too soft, too worried about the marks.” James snorted. “Said you were nothing more than a weak sheep pretending to be a wolf. He was glad you were dead.”
Dom clenched his teeth but said nothing. There was no love lost between himself and his father. He couldn’t say that he was surprised by his father’s comments, and they certainly didn’t hurt like they should have.
Staring down at the gun in his hand, James gave a little smirk and returned his sparkling green eyes up to Dom. “This con…your greatest con ever…proves to me that I was justified in killing the old bastard. He couldn’t talk about you like that. Talk about us like that. You’re not a sheep. You’re a killer wolf just like me.” Unexpectedly, James charged him faster than Dom could react. Reaching out, James grabbed the back of Dom’s head and pulled him forward until their foreheads touched. “My brother is back and he’s ruthless. We’re back.”
Dom shoved his brother off in revulsion and backpedaled. “You cut my face. Threatened to kill my boyfriend. Threatened to kill me. How could you think that I’d want anything to do with you?”
“I had to do those things, John. In order to save you. To bring you back to me.” James reached out with his empty hand, but there was no forgetting that he still held a gun in the other. “If I didn’t do those things, if I hadn’t pushed you, we wouldn’t be standing right here, right now. You’d be dead. My crew and I would have those jeweled handbags and headed to a nice tropical vacation. But you pull this awesome con!” He threw his arms up in the air and howled, sending the chilling sound up to bounce off the ceiling and down to them again. “Seriously, a work of art. So impressed.” He brought his hand to his lips and made a kissing sound. “Bravo.”
“You’re insane,” Dom muttered, shaking his head.
“And now, we’ll just slip out of town together. You shed this silly life here, and we’ll get back down to business. We won’t need a pack like my old one. We’ll operate, just the two of us again. We’ll tear the world apart. No one will ever be able to catch us.”
“No! This is my life. I love my life. I love the people I work with and protecting good people. I love Abe Stephens. There is nothing you can say that would make me walk away from that. I’ve got everything I’ve ever wanted here.”
James’s expression slowly morphed from one of disbelief to rage. Dom knew he couldn’t understand why Dom would choose this life over the one they’d had, but he didn’t care. James started to lift the gun back toward Dom. There was no talking his way around the gun this time, which was just fine with Dom. He was done talking.
Lunging forward, Dom grabbed James’s wrist, wrenching it at a key pressure point. James screamed in pain, his fingers loosening so that the gun clattered to the concrete floor. Dom kicked it, sending it skidding away from them. James took advantage of his distracted gaze, punchi
ng Dom with his free hand and snapping his head around.
Dom released James and backed up a couple of steps. He had no idea if his brother had picked up any fighting skills over the years beyond his usual street brawler style, but he knew to expect the man to fight dirty. James didn’t care about fighting fair. Just winning.
With his hands balled into fists in front of his face, James stalked after Dom. They circled each other, moving into the large, open space in the center of the old warehouse. There were a few broken pallets that once held raw materials for the old mill, but the machinery had been sold off and moved out years ago. The light through the windows was waning, and soon they’d be fighting in the dark if Dom didn’t settle this with James quickly.
Dom’s right hand shot out, his fingers flicking. The feint wasn’t intended to actually make contact, but rather to check his brother’s reaction. Did he swing? Block? Retreat?
James batted Dom’s hand away and took a wide swing. Not the trained response that Dom had worried about. He could work with that. Dom sent out two more flicker punches in James’s line of sight, the last one flicking the tip of his nose.
A snarl of frustration rumbled in the back of James’s throat. Dom almost chuckled at how easily annoyed James had become. Of course, he might also be stewing about the fact that Dom totally played him with Abe and Trent.
Dom started to lead with his right hand again. James was already reacting, his hands loosening as he prepared to bat Dom’s hand away. Instead, Dom ducked low, delivering a hard blow to James’s midsection, just under his ribs, with his left. He followed with a right to James’s chin, knocking him stumbling backward. James quickly backpedaled, putting more space between them. Dom followed, looking to end the fight quickly.
Sadistic Sherlock (Ward Security Book 4) Page 18