Ellen Sue looked down her nose at Onyx while he took a seat at the large table. Again, everything in the room was white. If we didn’t have to eat with white plastic utensils, I’d be surprised because I didn’t know how he could possibly have all white forks made of metal.
She shook her head and went to the refrigerator, giving us lots and lots of colors. It’s strange the things that you take for granted every day, not even paying attention to them, become a source of comfort.
“Can’t you ever be nice?” I clipped.
He raised his brow not answering. I almost hated him not answering more than answering—almost.
“What can I help you with, Ellen Sue?” My mom would turn over in her grave if I didn’t help out in the kitchen that I was eating out of. She’d put my sister and me to work every time, and it was some of the best memories of her.
“Oh dear, just have a seat, and I’ll get you some coffee.” She maneuvered over to the coffee pot and filled two cups. One she put cream and two sugars, the second she looked to me.
“Black please.” With a nod, she angled to the table sitting my coffee down, but I didn’t follow.
“Really, I can help.”
“Collateral, sit your ass down,” Onyx demanded, bringing his coffee to his mouth and sucking it back. I hoped he burned his tongue and throat, the asinine jerk.
I ignored him and stood next to Ellen Sue who just shook her head at me knowingly. What she knew, I’d love to be privileged to. The chair behind us slid across the white tile. In two seconds flat, Onyx was behind me, picking me up one handed.
“Put me down!” I yelled to him, not saying a word.
He tossed me into the chair, not gently, bent down and looked me square in the eyes. No hesitation. “Either sit in this seat or I’ll tie you to it.”
Panic flared, and I felt my body start to shudder. Those were the magic words for my brain to keep my ass in that chair while I watched Ellen Sue flit around the kitchen and Onyx read the paper. Everything was so normal that it bothered me because this man was anything but normal, yet Ellen Sue didn’t seem to give a second thought to his behavior, nor to the fact he had a woman locked in his room for the past week.
Ellen Sue brought over two plates of food, sitting them down in front of each of us. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, sausage and hash browns stared back at me just as my stomach rumbled. “Thank you.”
She nodded, turning around. I kicked Onyx under the table, his narrowed gaze coming to me. I hesitated then went with it. “Aren’t you going to say thank you?”
“Do not ever…”
The door to the kitchen flew open. A large man in a completely black suit and dirty blond hair held a smaller man at gunpoint in front of us. The smaller man was yelling, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying. It was a different language and the only one I had any recollection of was Spanish, but I was sure it wasn’t that.
Onyx’s chair flew back, crashing to the ground as Ellen Sue came over to me. Her hand resting on my shoulder in a what I thought was comfort maybe.
“What the fuck?” Onyx asked the big man.
The suit man didn’t even break a sweat. “Caught this asshole on the perimeter of the estate. Had a pair of bolt cutters and was trying to cut the gate back there to get in.”
Onyx looked to the shorter man, grabbed a large butcher knife from the block on the counter, proving to me there was some color even if it was silver. “Hold his hand,” he told the suit who apparently did his bidding. Then, right there in front of me, Onyx Blake cut every single one of the shorter man’s fingers off his hand.
The screams were agony to my ears. The bright red splatters stood out against the stark white counter and floors. A man was being brutally attacked in front of me, and I felt glued in place. I couldn’t move, and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Time seemed to stand still. Blinking didn’t make what was happening in front of me go away.
The man dropped his head and cried out as the suit man held him in place, not giving him a centimeter to move. Onyx used the blood covered sharp tip of the blade to lift the man’s chin to look him in the eye.
“Who sent you?”
The man had tears running down his face as he shook his head frantically, stuffing his lips between his teeth like it would keep him from talking. In horror, I watched as Onyx lifted the knife high over his head. Closing my eyes, I fought to keep them shut tight, but lost the battle. Like watching a train wreck, I couldn’t turn away. I thought for sure he was going to stab the man or cut his entire hand off. As the blade came down, I watched in a trance as Onyx flipped the man’s wrist and brought down the handle of the knife on the palm of his hand, crushing it and causing more blood to gush out.
“Who the fuck sent you? I won’t ask again.” His growl was so deep and powerful that part of me wanted to run and run fast, but I was frozen.
The man choked out a word then stopped. The sentences he started rambling made no sense to me.
“English, motherfucker,” Onyx said with a tone laced in menace as he once again raised the knife up and slammed it down, the handle crushing the flesh and bone beneath it. The echoes of the crunch made my stomach roil.
Blood was pouring from his hand, and his words were tumbling out incoherently.
Onyx, though, was calm and collected. His tone clipped, but his body strong and full of confidence. The knife hung casually at his side.
“Case,” Onyx lifted his head to look at the tall man in the suit, “call Dane, exit for this fucker is only delivered when we sort out who the fuck sent him.”
“Yes, Sir,” Case said, gripping the man harder.
Just as the suit man started to pull the man back, Onyx lifted the knife and jammed it in the man’s abdomen. “Let you be the message to your handlers—no one touches what’s mine, not even a fuckin’ blade of grass on my lawn.”
He yanked the knife out, and the man cried out so loudly his voice literally went out. I jerked back in my chair as I fought to stifle my own screams and the acid that wanted to come up. Onyx dropped the knife to the floor where it clanked loudly, splattering more red across the white.
Moving to the sink, he washed his hands while the man he called Case dragged the bleeding mess out of our sight. Ellen Sue squeezed my shoulder before she moved right to the knife, picking it up and taking it to the garbage. Onyx stepped back drying his hands on a paper towel while Ellen Sue slid in and opened a cabinet to pull out a bottle of disinfectant spray.
She was calm like this was something she had cleaned up before.
My stomach was in revolt. My mind was racing, my instincts screamed I was in over my head and needed to run. Yet, these two people were casually moving in the kitchen like this happened every day.
As my thoughts slowed and the reality of why I was here washed over me, I began to worry about Kennedy. What the hell had my sister gotten into? Did she know the kind of man they tied themselves to? And the biggest question of them all that’s played over and over—what does he have that they want?
Onyx stopped in the kitchen doorway. “Collateral,” he called out, but didn’t turn to look at me. “Bedroom, I have to shower and change. Come.”
God, I hated this man. I feared this man. I wanted so badly to rebel against this man.
Except I couldn’t. Especially not now after what I witnessed, seeing what he was capable of.
It killed me not knowing what Kennedy needed from him and I couldn’t forget that she was in jeopardy too. This was about more than me so—good or bad—I would have to get through whatever the mad man in front of me had in store.
What kind of sinister person was he? And could he really think this would be something he could get away with? How could he be above the law?
Something about him told me, yes, he could do it and get away with it. More so, he knew he was free to do whatever the hell he wanted, including to me.
9
Onyx
I didn’t turn around. There was no need to. The chair’s
loud scrape across the tile floor told me she was following, even if she was hesitant.
Good fucking deal.
I didn’t have the patience for shit from her right now. Someone took it upon themselves to send some lackey to my home, my manor. This was the only property purchased in my name, not under a holding company. The address was a matter of public record, so it wouldn’t be hard to gather the information. Like everything in my world, there was a reason behind it.
Currently, I couldn’t help but regret the decision. In all these years, no one had ever had the balls to send anyone to my house. I had my fair share of enemies, but none were dumb enough for this kind of stunt. Whoever was behind this, they had a death wish.
It was one I would happily make come true.
This was also why no one knew the code to get into the gate, not even the residents like Case and Ellen Sue. While I couldn’t simply exist as a ghost with no paper trail in life, I had the manor, I had investments, and, believe it or not, I was a tax paying citizen albeit far from law abiding. As to not draw attention to our activities, the core four of our organization each had a home with property attached to our identities.
In the game of life, property defined certain things. Sure a house, property now that was a status symbol, some people looked at that as a defining value. For me, it was more, so much more. When life began for me and my crew, we had nothing. To have these places to call our own, they meant everything.
No one would come to my place and taint that shit, ever.
At my bedroom door, I twisted the knob and walked in letting Torryn follow. I stripped my shirt off as she bustled past me to the bathroom practically tripping over her own feet. While I listened to the sounds of her retching, I went to the bedroom door and locked it. Dropping my pants, I shed my clothing in a pile and walked right into my bathroom where she sat knees on the floor, elbows on the toilet, and her head facing in the bowl dry heaving.
Continuing to the back of the space where my shower stall stood with two rain showerheads from the ceiling and six in the walls, I turned it on hot.
While I didn’t mind blood on my soul, I didn’t like it on my body, my floor, or physically on my hands; emotionally—I didn’t give a fuck. In fact, I would’ve loved to kill the fucker myself, but we needed information and my tolerance to learn Portuguese in a flash didn’t exist.
Torryn raised her head from the toilet and drank me in. Okay, to be fair, she wasn’t taking me in like a lust-filled woman, but rather this look of defiance mixed with fear. The look in her golden flakes was plotting my death and her escape, while wondering if she could actually pull it off.
“Whatever you’re thinking over there won’t happen, Collateral. You can’t kill me. No one can.”
Stepping under the spray, I faced her the whole time. I expected her to look away. She didn’t. While I washed off the filth of my enemy, she kept her eyes of fury locked on mine. It made me hard.
I wanted to break her more than I wanted to kill the man on my lawn. Oh, Torryn McAllister, you’re getting us both in too deep.
Washing my body, I let the events of the morning go down the drain. Stepping out, I grabbed a towel and shamelessly dried in front of her, still in the same awestruck position she was in—on her fucking knees. With my cock semi-erect and her in the position, I wanted to shove it in her mouth while gripping her hair to guide her at the pace I desired. I refrained—this time.
The dry heaving stopped. Being consumed in her hateful stare seemed to work wonders to end her retching. In my bedroom, Ellen Sue left my phone on the dresser after picking up my clothes while I was in the shower. She had a key—Torryn didn’t need to know that right now.
Before I could dress, my phone rang. It was Case.
I answered, sliding it to speaker. “Boss,” he greeted.
“Yeah, speaker’s on, Case.” I tugged on boxers, dropping my towel to the floor. He knew discretion so I had no fear in the words he would say, nor did I really give a shit about what Torryn would or would not learn from this conversation.
“Got a name,” he replied as Torryn came into view from the bathroom. At least she wasn’t hiding in there.
“Who?” I slid on jeans as he gave me the answer.
“Malcom Lanier.”
Torryn’s face paled while my blood boiled.
“End it,” I clipped back, swiping the call off.
“Please, Onyx, don’t hurt them,” she begged. It was cute, but I was too pissed to give a shit.
I closed the distance between Torryn and myself. “Looks like you’ll see your sister a little sooner than I planned, Collateral.”
“What’re you gonna do to them?” she asked with this fierce protectiveness. “What are you tied up in? What do you have that they want?” I had to admire her tenacity.
Well, if that wasn’t the best fucking question she asked yet. I smirked. “I have fuckin’ everything, Collateral. It’s best you know where the power lay. I hold their entire future in my hands. They need that reminder, I see.”
Her hands reached out. The touch of her skin to mine felt like branding irons searing my soul. I almost jumped back at the contact… almost. I had never been this twisted inside around someone in my entire life. At every turn Torryn had me on edge.
“Please,” she begged. “Not my sister. I’ll do whatever you want, stay here as long as I have to, but don’t hurt my sister.”
Yanking her hands off me like they were dirty went against what my body wanted to do; still, I did it. She was willing to give me everything, but I didn’t want it. Not like this. It wasn’t how the game was played. Truthfully, her compliancy to the situation wasn’t something I anticipated.
“Put your shoes on, Collateral, we’re goin’ for a ride,” I commanded while going to my closet. I put on a black t-shirt, my black boots, and a black baseball hat. When I stepped out, she was watching me with her mouth gaping wide open. I read the blend of desire and hatred in her eyes. I didn’t have time to sort this shit between us. This little dance we played was dangerous. The push, the pull, the war inside her wasn’t going to end well for Torryn McAllister.
Taking her by the hand, we left my bedroom and went down the stairs at a fast clip. At the garage door, I grabbed a set of keys and escorted her behind me. She followed without hesitation or questioning which only made me wonder what was going on inside her head.
On the table by the door, I snagged two helmets, handing one to her. Standing in front of the Harley Davidson Night Train, I turned to make sure she had secured her lid. With the helmet in place, I flipped my hat backward and put on my own.
“We’re ridin’ so I know you won’t toss yourself out of my car while I drive. Road rash is a bitch, Collateral.”
“What are you gonna do to them? To me?”
I didn’t answer her. Instead, I swung my leg over and cranked the mean machine under me.
The Lanier’s were about to learn a lesson the hard fucking way.
10
Torryn
My arms trembled, wrapped around the powerhouse in front of me. The same man who, not moments ago, chopped a man’s fingers off as if he was cutting a piece of meat for a Thanksgiving meal. No explanation. Nothing—except we were going to see my sister, which put the fear of God in me. After seeing how Onyx handled things, my sister didn’t need to be anywhere near him, preferably in another country. Hell, I wasn’t even sure that was far enough. Was there a way to live on another planet? I’d heard that NASA thinks that Jupiter could have life. A space shuttle shouldn’t cost too much to get there.
The bike rumbled between my legs, and somehow my body knew how to lean into the turns. This was actually on my bucket list, riding on a motorcycle. I never had a chance and thought it would be a rush. This wasn’t the rush I’d envisioned. No, this was like being stuck in a tornado, going round and round out of control only to land and repeat the process.
My sister had everything in her grasp. She had an adoring husband, a beautiful home,
and money. She always said she wanted to go to Hawaii at some point, but Onyx was no travel agent. Malcom and her had friends they saw regularly, but none stood out to have a connection to Onyx.
There was nothing that came to mind, and I feared that I’d be learning something when we arrived at my sisters. And it wouldn’t be pretty.
He had to know I’d protect my sister with everything inside of me, even jump in front of a knife or take a bullet. Maybe that was the plan, take us all out so he didn’t have to deal with any of us anymore. He did say that my sister and brother-in-law knew too much.
With each passing moment, the fear grew in the pit of my stomach, festering and branching off all over me.
Hope that we’d miss the turn to their house faded quickly. Once we were in their driveway, bile rose from my throat again, but I was able to keep it down. At the gate, I was shocked when Onyx leaned over and punched in the code. Who the hell were we dealing with? He knew everything it seemed. That made him dangerous.
Strong, that’s what I needed to be for my sister. Even as hard as it was in that moment, no one was going to hurt Kennedy. I would do anything necessary to make sure she came out of this unscathed.
Onyx charged in front of me, his strides long and sure. I scrambled to keep up. Banging on the door, he didn’t wait for anyone to answer. Instead, he barged his way through with me on his heels, the door slamming against the wall and the sound of a picture shattering in the distance.
He stalked through the house just as Malcom rounded the corner, his entire face turning white as a ghost. “Onyx.”
Kennedy raced behind her husband, pushing past him to get to me. “Torryn! Are you okay?” She made a move to come my way, but Onyx made a noise that stopped her in her tracks.
“You!” Onyx pointed at them, a calm fury cascading over him. On instinct, I ran in front of him with my hands up. Even with the man in front of him who invaded his personal home, Onyx didn’t look like this. The man had commanded every room he was in every time I saw him, but typically it was in this controlled way. The very energy that radiated off him right now was fury.
PowerHouse_Anti-Hero Game_Power Chain Book One Page 6