I let him stew while I helped myself to another drink. The first round of bourbon hadn’t affected me yet. Maybe my adrenaline was too fucking high.
He lost the snarky attitude, and a minuscule amount of fear jumped free. “Who told you that?”
Tension, thick and strong, filled every nook and cranny in the enormous room.
With my glass full, I returned to stand near the fireplace. I needed the heat from the fire to thaw my rage. Or maybe I should just get stinking drunk and let the alcohol quench my fury. I wasn’t a mean drunk. That blue ribbon went to our old man.
“Did you know that gossip is worse in prison than it was in high school?” I asked.
Duke’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “So you’re telling me some con told you I was at Alvarez’s apartment on the night he was killed?”
I gulped down a mouthful of bourbon before answering. “Yep.”
Duke’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Or was it the Feds?”
“I told you I’m not working with the Feds.” I wasn’t. I’d never told Travers I would do anything, at least not until they gave me something in writing. But deep down, I was never planning to blow the whistle on Duke. Although if he continued to piss me off, I just might slap on a badge and take the reins.
He vaulted off the chair so fast, I barely tracked his movement until he was patting me down like I was getting arrested.
I swung my arms out to the sides, giving him full access to search me. “You won’t find a wire if that’s what you’re looking for.”
Edging back, he hardened his jaw.
“Satisfied?”
He clutched the back of his neck. “Did the Feds come to see you in prison or not?” His lethal tone had a crack in it.
“Tell me who told you that, and I’ll give you a straight answer.”
Duke heaved out a breath. “I’m not revealing my sources.”
I cocked my head and shrugged. “Until you can give me straight answers, I’m not giving you squat.”
“Then we’re done here.” He swung out his arm and gestured to the elevators. “Get the fuck out.”
“Gladly.” The only thing to come of our reunion was that one or both of us would end up in the emergency room, but I had to give it one more college try and attempt to break through his steel wall.
I knocked back the bourbon. “Did you murder Hector Alvarez?”
He lunged, pinning me against the sharp stone frame of the fireplace before gripping my throat. “Until you can act like my brother, I don’t want to see you again.”
The empty glass fell from my hand. The sound of shattering glass exploded in the vast penthouse.
My eyes bugged out of my head. My lungs burned like an inferno. I clutched his hands, trying to pry them off me. He was a strong motherfucker like Costa. Death loomed as he squeezed the air out of me. I wasn’t ready to die, particularly at the hands of my brother.
“Duke,” a high-pitched female voice said. “What are you doing?” She rushed over, wiggling her petite frame between two tall and muscled men as though she could stop an army. “Let go of him.”
Duke didn’t move a muscle.
The room began to spin.
“Duke Hart,” the woman shouted. “Stop. You’re going to kill him.”
I didn’t know if it was her caustic tone or the word “kill” that did the trick, but my brother let go of me.
I bent over, gasping for air and blinking rapidly, hoping to clear the darkness creeping in at a Mach speed.
Small hands gripped my arm. “Have a seat.” Her voice was hauntingly familiar.
I inched over to the chair. “You’re the woman on the phone.”
“I’ll get you some water.” She dashed off, her red hair flowing behind her.
Duke sat on the coffee table. “You need to leave.”
His phone rang, and he practically assaulted it. “What, Harris?” he snapped. “Sure, why not? Send them up.” He slammed the phone down. “Well, baby brother, you’re in for a treat.”
I had no idea what he meant. I was too fixated on the redhead as she glided over with a bottle of water. She must’ve been in his bedroom when I came up, which would explain his messy hair and bare chest.
If I weren’t mistaken, she was none other than Mallory Gomez, Jade’s best friend. Maybe they weren’t BFFs anymore.
Taking the water, I opened my mouth to ask her when the elevator dinged.
Duke mumbled under his breath as he crossed the room. The redhead bounced alongside him, eager to see who was about to walk off the elevator.
I gulped down water only to spit it up when I laid eyes on Duke’s guests.
16
Jade
Mallory crushed my hand. I had no idea she was that strong. But I needed a little pain to ground me to my mission.
The elevator sped up to the twentieth floor to Duke Hart’s penthouse at breakneck speed. With my free hand, I held my stomach. Nausea threatened to unleash its wrath at any moment. I did some quick breathing exercises to quell the nerves and hopefully the nausea.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Mallory asked. “You just left the hospital an hour ago. You should rest.”
I wasn’t in the mood to rest. I was in the mood to tear off a head, decimate a man’s balls, and make Duke Hart feel the pain I was feeling.
“I’m good.” Those words came out surprisingly strong. I’d been a ball of tears and snot in Mallory’s car.
“Then when those doors open, be strong. Say your piece and then leave and never look back at a Hart man ever again.”
I didn’t plan on it. No matter how badly I ached to be with Denim, nothing good could come of us. I couldn’t be with a man who was related to the devil incarnate.
Duke Hart was the bane of my existence. I wasn’t going to kill him. Death was too merciful for him. I had no idea what I would do, but maybe the mace in my hand would be a good start. Maybe when he felt the stinging and burning of the pepper filling his eyes, he would wake the fuck up. When he felt the blinding pain of having his balls skewered over an open fire, maybe he would realize he was a class A asshole.
The elevator stopped, and the doors opened with a whoosh.
Suddenly, breathing seemed like a monumental task. I inhaled and exhaled, blinking away the last of my tears, or at least I hoped that was the last of them.
I held my chin high. “Let’s do this.”
Mallory squeezed my hand for good measure.
When we stepped off the elevator, the air jetted from Mallory’s lungs. “Cara?”
Mallory’s sister clung to Duke, who was standing next to a pillar. His hair was messy, his chest and feet were bare, and he wore an expression that would scare a baby for sure.
Cara’s light-red eyebrows hiked to her hairline as she snapped her spine straight. She always had a way of stealing one’s thunder. Well, not that night. I didn’t care why she had her hands all over Duke or why she was even there.
Hell, I didn’t even care when Denim ambled closer, watching me with a steadfast intensity. “Did something happen?”
I held up my hand. “Don’t come any closer.” It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him he wasn’t the brother I wanted right then. But it was best that I stick to my plan. Denim could change my mind with his disarming smile.
He stopped in his tracks. His blue eyes were glossy. He was either buzzed or high. He’d been known to drink and smoke weed prior to prison.
I let go of Mallory and charged up to the imposing human whose heart I envisioned driving a stake through. Inwardly, I laughed. I doubted any type of blade or sharp object would kill Duke Hart.
He didn’t move as we stood toe-to-toe.
I craned my neck up. “You killed her,” I said without a crack in my voice or a tear in my eye.
He didn’t flinch. He didn’t blink. The only sign he’d heard me was a muscle jumping along his jaw.
Cara’s arms came at me, but Mallory, or maybe Denim, held her back.
Duke de
adpanned as his empty brown eyes dropped to my hand.
Fuck the mace. I kneed him in the balls. “You killed her. You.”
A whoosh of air gushed out of him as the blood rushed to his face. But he didn’t drop to his knees or bend over or even cup his balls. He stood erect and stolid, not revealing his true pain.
Dropping the mace, I punched him in the gut, my knuckles meeting abs harder than stone. But no matter how bruised I would be, I would beat him until I bled.
Strong hands gripped the sides of my arms from behind. “Love.” Denim’s breath fanned my ear.
In that moment, I not only hated the word “love,” I hated him. He represented everything bad in my life. I’d let him rule me, even if it was the memory of him and us. I couldn’t keep hoping and wishing and praying. Somehow, I had to unlove him.
I hated myself and hated that I was sandwiched in between Duke and Denim. One was coldblooded, and the other had a heart. I wanted to kill one and kiss the other.
My heart went boom, boom, boom against my rib cage.
If Mallory was yelling or talking to her younger sister, I didn’t hear her.
The only sound in my ears was Denim’s breath until he said once more, “Love.”
As though that word was the worst swear word in the universe, I spun around and pushed him. “Don’t call me that. I am not your love. Not anymore. If you think you can waltz into my life like nothing happened, you’re sorely mistaken. You and I will never be. Never, ever, ever.”
He raised his hands and edged back, hurt washing over his handsome face.
I couldn’t care. If I did, he would hurt me again, and the second time would be more devastating than the first. I had to take a play out of Duke’s playbook. I had to be cold. I had to be numb. I had to walk away. It was the best course of action to protect my heart. I had to heal, and I couldn’t do that in the presence of any Hart brother.
“Savannah is dead,” I screamed. “She’s dead because of men like you.” Then I turned again and faced Duke. “You are a monster. You drove her to do evil things. Why didn’t you see her in jail? Why didn’t you take her calls? If you had, she might still be alive.”
The man still didn’t display any reaction except for that muscle in his jaw, which was moving wicked fast.
I was done blaming myself. Duke might not be the one who’d beaten her, but he’d had an invisible hand in the process leading up to her death.
I sucked in a long breath, and with all the strength I could muster, I punched him in the face.
That freaking hurt. The man was a stone wall.
“Are you going to say something?” I shouted in Duke’s face as the tears started again, rolling out like a fast-moving river after a severe rainstorm.
The man only took in breath after breath. His lips were cemented shut.
It was time to go, to leave behind all the bad in my life, and to shed the evil that was the Hart brothers.
Cara stood next to Mallory with shock and awe on her freckled face.
“If you don’t want to die,” I said to Cara, “leave now and never look back.”
Mallory took her sister’s hand. “Come on, Cara.”
“Sorry, sis. I’m not leaving. I love Duke.”
Duke cringed. It seemed he hadn’t known that and didn’t like hearing she loved him.
Mallory moved her head back and forth. “No, you don’t.”
Oh, the irony. The tables had turned. I was watching Mallory pry her sister away from the very man who had been my sister’s downfall.
While Mallory had pulled me out of the depths of hell after I’d reasoned and yelled at Savannah until I’d been blue in the face, I couldn’t help my best friend in that moment. My feelings were too raw, and the wound was too deep for me to care about someone else. It was time for a fresh start. A new life. A new place. Maybe after I buried Savannah, I would find my aunt and join her in Africa. Or maybe I would find a cheap apartment on a beach somewhere warm.
Denim studied me, no doubt waiting for some cue from me that it was okay for him to come near me, touch me, or kiss me.
I wasn’t giving in, no matter how much I longed for him to press his lips against mine and tell me he still loved me. I was beginning to realize love was fleeting to men like Denim. He would just sweep a girl off her feet, whisper sweet nothings, shower her with kisses, then kick her to the curb.
Been there. Done that. Got the T-shirt. No more. No, thank you.
I started for the elevators. My legs were trembling, my hand was bruised, and my heart had disintegrated into a million pieces. I could feel Denim’s penetrating blue gaze on my back.
Don’t turn around. Don’t give into him.
I stabbed the button over and over and over, willing the door to open quickly.
“Cara, I swear if you don’t come with me now, I’ll make sure Mom and Dad cut you off,” Mallory chided.
“I don’t want their money,” Cara said. “And you can’t tell me what to do. Not anymore.”
Poor girl.
“Everyone, out of my house,” Duke grumbled in furious undertones.
“Even me?” Cara cried.
“Yes,” Duke said. “Jade is right. I’m no good for you.”
I tossed a look over my shoulder, scrunching my face. “The man finally speaks.”
Sadness flashed in his eyes before he quickly banked it.
Cara rubbed her hands up Duke’s chest. “You don’t mean what you said.”
He pried her hands off him. “Get out.”
He was doing her a favor, even though she didn’t know that yet. I wished he would’ve acted like that with Savannah years ago. Maybe then I wouldn’t be mourning her death.
Cara sobbed. “I need to get my things.”
“I’ll have them sent to you.” He glared at Cara. “And don’t bother coming back either.”
She hunched her shoulders, her bottom lip trembling.
Denim just watched his brother kick Cara to the curb, and I couldn’t tell what he was feeling or thinking because his blue eyes were empty. Typical of the Hart brothers.
The elevator doors finally opened.
No one needed to tell me twice to leave.
17
Denim
The smell of bacon woke me, drifting into the room as I rolled over and stretched. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d slept in a queen bed on a mattress that wasn’t poking my back or on a pillow that wasn’t flat. It was nice not having to listen to men snore, talk in their sleep, have sex, or jerk off in the dead of night.
I sighed, sinking into the comfy mattress as I soaked up the quiet. It was pure gold. Even the decor of bare walls and simple drapes was rich to me.
“Denim,” a soft female voice said before she knocked. “It’s Maggie. Can I come in?”
Pulling up the blankets to hide my morning wood, I cleared my throat. “Sure.”
The door opened, revealing a curvy blonde with green eyes and a smile that could knock any man to his knees. I could see why my brother was smitten with Maggie. Dillon and I had both had hard-ons for her when we were teenagers, but she’d been off-limits. She’d run with a rival gang of ours, and their leader would’ve cut off our nuts if we’d even tried to woo her to our side.
She padded in and stood near the dresser, adjusting her scarf. “Dillon is cooking breakfast. I have to get to work but wanted to say welcome home. Maybe we can catch up tonight if I’m not late. I’m working on a big story.”
“The last time you worked on a big story, you were kidnapped.”
She rolled her eyes. “Comes with the job. But this one isn’t as risky as the last one on human trafficking. I can’t say much, but it involves gang violence.”
Raising an eyebrow, I leaned against the headboard. “Gangs, huh? Like the McCauley gang?” Duke had been standing next to their leader in the picture Travers had shown me.
She tucked her hands into her jacket pockets. “Do you know them?” Intrigue weaved through her question.
>
I probably shouldn’t say anything. Travers would have my head if I did, and I couldn’t risk anyone finding out I was working with the FBI. Oh, wait. Duke already knew. “Just heard of them. They’re more dangerous than the gang I ran with.”
“Don’t discredit the Creepers,” she said. “Tito Alvarez is trying to make a name for himself. He’s high on power and money and taking over the city.”
I laughed. “What’s he up to other than trying to put a bullet in my head?”
She frowned. “Dillon briefly mentioned that to me earlier. Watch your back. Tito is a scary dude. Anyway, he’s trying to insert himself into the gun-trade market. Word on the street is he’s done with selling drugs.”
“Guns?” I couldn’t help but think that maybe the FBI had their wires crossed. Maybe Tito should be their target rather than Duke.
“It’s a big business,” she said. “Boston PD’s gang unit can’t keep up with the guns coming in and the gang wars going on. But the Feds are now involved because of the large shipments coming in from Europe and South America.”
At least the FBI wasn’t blowing smoke up my ass. “Where does Duke fit into any of this, or does he?”
Her shoulders tensed. “He’s mixed up in something. I just don’t know what yet or why he is. Again, welcome home. I got to run.”
I didn’t get the sense she knew much more than that, although she was close to the cop who’d arrested me for murder. According to Dillon, Officer Ted Hughes was now Detective Ted Hughes, and he was head of the gang unit for the BPD. “Thanks for letting me crash here.”
“It’s your brother’s house. Besides, you’re family.”
The word “family” sounded odd to me. For so long, my family had been the gangs I’d run with on the streets I’d called home. “Oh, and congrats on saying yes to my brother. I’m happy for you guys.”
She blushed. “Thanks. You’ll find that special someone one day.”
I lowered my gaze to the bed. “I doubt that.”
“Jade doesn’t want anything to do with you, huh?” she asked.
Hart of Vengeance: The Hart Series Page 12