by London Casey
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I did not anticipate what just happened,” Erik said. He rubbed his forehead. “I was going to wait until the fight was over and then make my move. Grab you, threaten Kellen, find a solution here. But that son of a bitch…”
“Do you know who that was?” I asked.
“Of course I do.”
“So then what does he want in all this?”
Erik reached for his back pocket. I jumped back, fearing he was going to take out another weapon.
It wasn’t a weapon.
It was a picture.
He tossed it to the bed. “That’s some leverage.”
The picture was of Dani tied up. My fucking friend who helped me by bringing me a bag of clothes so I could hide. And I was staring at a picture of her tied to a chair, black tears streaming down her cheeks.
“What did you do?” I asked.
Erik smiled. “I took her. I’m not going to lose this fight, Penny. And now I’m going to tell you the truth about Noah.”
Chapter 40
(Noah)
I waited for Nathan but he never showed.
The entire place had cleared out, except for me, the guy with a gun to my head, two other men, and Raider’s body.
I was on my knees, taking deep breaths, trying to piece everything together.
Truthfully? I had nothing.
“What is this?” I asked. “Are you with Nathan? Seth? Erik? What is it?”
“Shut up, prick,” the guy said and jammed the gun to the back of my head. He then said, “You two. Get the body out of here. Hide it somewhere. Then clean up the floor.” I felt the gun press at my neck. “Noah. Slowly stand up. Make one funny move and I’ll kill you.”
I stood up and the guy turned me around.
He was an older man, which surprised me. He had a full head of grey hair with white patches. He was in a nice suit and looked very uncomfortable to be there. The gun was shaking in his hand. His eyes were bloodshot as he blinked fast.
I could read him.
He had no idea what he was doing or what to do next.
I put my hands up on my own. “Now would be the time to tell me who you are and why you’re here.”
“Where’s my daughter?”
“Your daughter? Who?”
“Don’t fuck with me,” the man said. He put the gun right to my nose.
“Hey, man, I have no idea what’s happening. Okay? I was in the middle of a fight. Is Penny your daughter?”
“No. But her best friend is.”
Then it hit me. The person Penny called to bring her clothes when she first crashed at my apartment.
“Oh, shit,” I whispered.
“Dani. That’s her name. I’m her goddamn father.”
“Listen, man, I don’t know what’s…”
“Stop calling me man. My name is Warren.”
“Warren, okay,” I said. “I did not do a thing to your daughter. I swear on it.”
“Why the hell should I believe you?”
“Shoot me then,” I said. “If I had your daughter, what would killing me do? Huh? I understand you’re pissed and want revenge. But what you just did here… there’s going to be hell.”
“I’m hell!” Warren bellowed. He then stepped back and choked on his breath. “I’m rich. I have more money than you’ll ever know. I can have a security team here in ten minutes and kill you. Nobody would ever find you.”
“I won’t argue that,” I said. I put my hands down. “I get it. I’m just a scumbag fighter, right? But if you want to know the truth, put the gun down, Warren. Let’s talk. Let me help you find your daughter.”
Warren slowly lowered the gun.
I was able to take another deep breath.
I was sweating, bleeding, dirty.
And now I had another fucking person to save.
The only person that made sense in this was Erik. He was going to keep attacking and hurting people until he got to me or Penny. Or both of us.
Shit. Penny.
The building was empty. That meant she must have gone with Nathan. That was good. That was her best chance at survival. If Erik tried anything with Nathan or his family around, he’d be killed instantly. Especially now that I had given Nathan the intel that Erik lost his badge months ago.
Warren sat on the edge of a chair with a cigarette between his fingers. He was still shaking. I wasn’t sure if it was the smartest move to make at that moment, but I knew by telling him what I knew about Erik would give me the best chance of getting out of the building in one piece. So I could then get to Penny and Nathan and get this all settled once and for all.
“So my daughter… has nothing to do with this?” Warren asked.
He looked at me, weary eyed.
“I’m really sorry. Erik is going after anyone and everyone who has a tie to me or Penny. I’m going to stop this, Warren. The man I work for is powerful.”
“I’m powerful,” Warren said.
“Listen to me. The man I work for is connected.”
Warren’s eyes went wide. He rose up from the chair and sucked on the cigarette. “You’re telling me this is mob related?” he asked, smoke pouring from his mouth.
“Just let me help you. If you step over the line, Warren, you’ll get hurt. I don’t want that.”
“Fuck you,” Warren spat.
He then looked over my shoulder for a split second, giving himself away.
I spun and threw a punch, hitting one of his men in the nose. The guy fell back as the second one rushed at me. I got him in the stomach, bent him over, and slammed a knee up into his mouth.
I was fucking livid by then.
The urge to finish a fight was still very real deep inside me. That’s something not a lot of people understood about me. I always finished a fight. So Raider’s murder left me feeling unfulfilled.
Now these two men were going to pay for it.
I grabbed them by the throats, one in each hand, and put them against the wall. I put my head down and growled as I pressed harder. They both swung at me, landing cheap punches to my ribs and shoulders, but I felt nothing.
All I could see was Seth.
The car.
Him and Emily.
Seth’s pale ass thrusting back and forth. The look on Emily’s face. The way her blue eyes somehow shined even in the dark.
She was a liar. A manipulator.
So was Seth.
I realized I hadn’t told Penny everything about Seth. That he had been the one to kill her father. There was so much to figure out, and we would do that together.
I squeezed my fingers tighter, feeling both men’s throats crunching against my grip.
“Stop it!” a voice yelled.
I ignored it.
I wanted to kill the men.
My need to win a fight became a need to kill.
I then felt a sharp pain right slam into the top of my spine. It was jolting enough that I released my grip on the men. When I turned, Warren stood there with the gun in his hand.
He’d hit me with it.
“You stop this,” he said. “Stop trying to kill my men. Find my fucking daughter. Right now.”
I moved at him and he moved back. “You better be careful. You’re scared. That’s your weakness.”
“Of all the things I’ve said and done, I always took care of Dani. I never wanted her to work for a newspaper or magazine. I wanted her to do something greater. She insisted on this scummy life and look where it got her.”
“I will find her,” I said.
I walked to the door and looked down at the two men as they held their throats, still gagging and trying to catch their breaths.
“Noah?”
I looked back.
“I knew everything about you before I came here. That’s how powerful I am.”
“You pull the trigger on the man I was fighting?”
“No. But on you, I will. Hear me clearly, if you don’t find my daughter, I am goin
g to kill you.”
“I hope you can back that up.”
Warren lifted the gun and shot one of his own men.
“Not bad,” I said.
He moved the gun and shot the other man.
Just like that, he’d killed his own guys.
“They were cheap hires anyway,” Warren said. “And they couldn’t stand their ground against you.”
I nodded.
I left the room and started to run for the door.
I had gone from a fighter to a wanted man. From guys wanting to knock me out for a paycheck, to guys wanting to kill me for their own pleasure and revenge.
When I got to my car, I hurried to call Nathan.
One of his bodyguards took the call and put me through to him.
“Where are you?” he yelled into the phone. “What the fuck was that?”
“I’m leaving the building right now,” I said. “Put Penny on the phone. I need to talk to her right now.”
There was silence.
“Nathan?”
My heart rose up into my throat.
“Noah… I don’t have Penny… I haven’t seen her since the fight.”
Chapter 41
(Penny)
I sat in a chair in the corner of the motel room. I wasn’t tied up or really being held by Erik. He at least kept to his word with that. He stayed on the opposite side of the room, sitting in a chair too.
He was drinking whiskey or something.
I had a glass of water.
“This has to end,” he said. “It’s gone too far.”
“Erik, you don’t have a badge. You were suspended. You’re in serious trouble with this.”
“I don’t care. When I found out about my brother… the goddamn truth.”
I swallowed hard. “Which is?”
“He was set up. Paid to be killed. Seth and Noah…”
“Noah doesn’t do that. No. He’s not a murderer. He’s not a hit man.”
“He was there that night. I want everyone to pay. You hear me?”
“Okay. I hear you.”
“There were conflicting police reports, just like with your father’s murder.”
I sat up straight in the chair. “Are you going to tell me about it now?”
“My brother was all I had,” Erik said. “He wasn’t the greatest person in the world but nobody is. I worked hard for us. I was going to get him a job with me. Take good care of him, you know?”
“What does this have to do with my father?”
“I told you before there were problems with the police reports, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I wanted Noah in exchange for the truth,” Erik said. “But I’ve taken this as far as I can go now. Andy is dead. I sent that punk fighter a clear message. I tried to track down the whore that had been fucking my brother when he was killed, but she was gone. That told me Noah was playing smart. Smarter than I thought him to be. So I had to react.”
“Dani…”
“She brought you a bag,” Erik said. “She was involved.”
The guilt hit me hard. I touched my chest and felt like I was going to pass out.
“This is my fault,” I whispered.
“It’s Noah’s!” Erik yelled. “You need to see that. And you will.”
“How?”
“Your father was murdered, Penny,” Erik said. “And I know who did it.”
“Who?”
“He was targeted by a hit man. Someone was paid to kill him. The same thing that happened to my brother. That’s what happened to your father. Seth and Noah did it.”
The room spun for a few seconds and I stood up. I reached for the wall and fell into it. My shoulder hit with a thud.
“Noah wouldn’t,” I whispered.
“Seth was the hit man,” Erik said. “But Noah was involved. Just like with my brother. Noah was the one who beat up my brother. He beat him senseless. He hit him so hard and so many times, that Aiden was just there, sitting on the ground, unable to move. Unable to speak. Unable to defend himself and speak the fucking truth.” Erik stood up and pointed the liquor bottle at me. “So what do you think happened with your father?”
“No. No, no, no…”
“Yes, Penny. Your father had a drug habit. He lost your mother and turned to drugs. The problem with drugs? They only work for so long until you need more. The more you need, the more expensive it gets. He fell into debt with a dealer. The dealer was being run by the mob. The mob wanted your father dead for his debts. That’s why he was at that fight. He was going to try and sell drugs back to his dealer. He was going to try and bet on the fights to earn a little cash. By then, it was too late. The hit had been ordered and your father was a marked man.”
I refused to believe it. I shook my head as hard as I could, wanting to shake away Erik’s words. But he kept talking. He kept saying it over and over. The details. The different reports. That Marcos had guys in the police on his payroll and that they were taken care of to make sure the reports didn’t point to anyone for the murder. The same way it had been done for his brother.
Erik stood there, drunk, tears rolling down his cheeks.
I was in a corner, feeling trapped.
As tender as the moment perhaps appeared to be, it wasn’t. Erik put the bottle down and grabbed his gun. He then opened the nightstand drawer and took out a revolver.
“There’s one bullet in this gun,” he said. “It’s up to you to decide who gets it. Either you or Noah.”
“No,” I said.
Erik pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger.
Before I could actually let out a scream, Erik pulled the trigger a second time. My brain told me to get the hell out of the way. So I dropped to my knees and tried to hide. Erik moved fast though, coming around the bed truly putting me in a corner. I grabbed the chair and tried to throw it at him, but it simply toppled and bounced against the bed and rolled to the floor.
Within seconds of him pulling the trigger the first time Erik was hovered over me, gun aimed right at me.
“Don’t,” I managed to say as my mouth had gone bone dry. “Please, don’t.”
“Too late. Just like everyone else in this.”
“What does that mean?”
“That means I want to be heard. I want Noah. Got it?”
“You took me from the fight,” I said. “I don’t know where he is right now. And with Dani’s father showing up-”
Erik pulled the trigger again.
I screamed.
I started to kick at him, feeling childish, but having no other means of defending myself. Of course my feet weren’t going to protect me from a bullet, but I thought maybe I could get lucky enough to knock the gun out of his hand.
Luck was not on my side.
Erik dropped to one knee, knocked my legs out of the way, and kept the gun on me.
He pulled the trigger again.
“It won’t say silent forever,” Erik said.
I completely froze up.
How many shots did he have left? Three? Four?
I took a few deep breaths, reminding myself of the situation I was in.
“Look at me, Penny. Just please look at me.”
“Okay,” I said. “Just stop pulling the fucking trigger, Erik.”
He nodded. “Okay.” He slowly reached back and put the gun away. “I’m sorry it’s come to this for us, Penny. But you have to know the truth. What he’s done. To me. To my brother. To you. To your father. If Seth were alive, then maybe it would be easier. But Seth was taken out, right?”
“That’s what Noah said.”
“Who took him out?”
My lips quivered.
“Exactly,” Erik said. “I bet Noah killed Seth. Kill the killer and it all goes away.”
I didn’t respond. Either Erik was really fucked in the head or he was really smart at this detective stuff. Or a strange combination of both.
“We can do this together,” Erik said. “I swear you’ll survive.
Forget about everyone else.”
“Dani,” I whispered. “I need to see Dani.”
“Okay. I promise. I will make sure you see Dani again. Yes. You’ll get to hug her. Tell her everything. Figure it out, okay?”
What choice did I have in it all? I was literally in a corner.
Erik started to reach back for the gun.
I grabbed his arm. “Wait. Let me get my phone. I’ll call Noah. I’ll help you set him up.”
Chapter 42
(Noah)
“Damn, man, you’re going to set the carpet on fire if you keep pacing that quick.”
I knew Nathan meant nothing by it, but whatever. I turned and punched as I hard as I could, popping his nose open and sending him flying back into - and then over - a leather couch.
“Jesus,” Nathan said. “Noah…”
“He’s fucking got her,” I said. “Erik’s got her. Goddamn this. You…” I ran toward the desk. Two men dove at me, grabbing my arms. “You should have stopped it!”
“Let him go,” Nathan said. “It’s okay.”
The two men let me go. As much as I wanted to get over the desk and wrap my hands around Nathan’s throat I knew better.
“I have men out looking for her,” Nathan said. “We’ll find her.”
“You don’t get it. That guy, Warren…”
“Yes. Very wealthy man. Has quite the profitable, yet questionable, real estate empire.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means we know everything,” Nathan said. “Erik kidnapped Warren’s daughter, Dani. I have men out looking for Erik, for Dani, and for Penny.”
“You better kill him…”
“I explained before how this works.”
“Then I’ll do it!” I yelled and punched the desk. “You find him and I’ll kill him.”
“You sound like a hit man, Noah. Shades of your old buddy, Seth?”
I lost it.
I took a swing at Nathan.
I clipped his jaw, just enough to send him back down to his chair.
A second later, the two men had me on the ground, pummeling me with heavy punches.
Nathan ordered them off me but not before letting them have more than a few seconds with me.