Quiet Chaos : The Chaos Series- Book #2

by Keta Kendric

  “This may seem like an unusual question, but why aren’t we dead yet?”

  Like me, he must have been expecting the searing hotness of led that I anticipated. Together, we were two of the most powerful people in the criminal world. Our deaths could crumble two empires. There was so much adrenaline flowing through my anxious body, my soul was peeking out, searching for what would end us.

  “Silvia Cardenas sent me out to get you. She says she doesn’t intend to kill me, but I think she wants me clinging to false hope. She also says she needs to talk with me. It appears she’s not going to make her next move until we have that talk.”

  He drew me back into the hug, but the loud clearing of a throat broke up our loving embrace. It was Silvia, standing fearlessly on the porch, although Arjen had men in the tree line that could have taken her out.

  “I don’t like to be kept waiting. Will you two come inside?”

  In the moment that he held me, Arjen had managed to make me forget that I had landed myself in the middle of Death Valley and had lured him there with me.

  I clung to the hand that he wrapped around mine, and we faced our unknown path together. All that mattered at this moment, was that we were together. We took the steps and entered the house together.

  “Khane, they didn’t take my weapons. Play this by ear,” Arjen said under his breath, talking to his brother through his earpiece. They were breaking so many syndicate rules that their actions could lead to even more chaos.

  Silvia had already taken a seat in the big oversized white chair near the large couch that Corvel had been sitting on. She ushered her hand towards the couch, instructing us to come and sit.

  As soon as we sat, the notion that something was sucking the air from the room hit me. The tension grew thick and heavy, causing me to squint my eyes and deepen the wrinkle in my forehead to concentrate.

  A deep breath followed my moment of meditation. Arjen’s hand clamped around mine was the pulse in my lifeline. Although I sat at the mouth of death, my mind was determined, and with a strong mind, my mouth would not be silenced.

  “Ma’am, I know what they call you. You don’t show up unless someone needs to die.”

  “You’re not going to die, Mecca, not by my hands or anyone else’s if I can help it.”

  “I don’t understand. I’m confused as fuck right now. Your men have been attacking and trying to kill me. I beat a man to death to find out that this cartel had hired him to kill me.”

  “I don’t know who you’ve been fighting or killing, but it hasn’t been any of my men.”

  Her words had a genuine edge to them. Corvel walked back in and sat beside her, nodding in my direction. I couldn’t tell if he was agreeing with her or urging me to accept her words as the truth.

  I raked my fingers quickly through my hair, highlighting my confusion as Arjen sat in place, his eyes searching Silvia’s face for the same truth I was struggling to decipher. We didn’t have enough parts to this puzzle to connect the dots.

  “I know things are confusing, and I’m well aware that you’re not going to stop until you’re standing face-to-face with the person responsible for putting this hit out on you.”

  Silvia was talking like she truly didn’t intend us any harm. I sat fixed in my raging mind, but eagerness for her to shed light on the situation was biting on my nerve endings.

  “I’m proud of the job you’ve been doing with the Black Saints.”

  My head twisted in each direction, wondering who the hell she was talking to. Arjen’s fixed gaze made him appear as surprised by her compliment as I was.

  “It’s not the career path I would have chosen for you, but knowing that you wanted to be like me gave me a sick sense of pride.”

  How the fuck did she know I was patterning myself after her? Was it that obvious? Had Raymond told her that?

  Her stare was pinned to my face, reading the confusion in my pinched expression.

  “Yes, I have recently sent a few men to keep an eye on you. When I found out you were becoming a Vallin, it painted you as a bigger target, so I put eyes on you for protection, not for harm. And I can assure you, the men I sent didn’t get caught. The others I have deployed on your behalf have also been put in place to protect you.”

  “What? How long have you been watching me?” The question was barely audible. Silvia’s words were out there now, they resonated, but I didn’t understand them.

  “Why would you send men to protect me? Who are these men?”

  She didn’t answer, but stood and paced, her heels clicking as she was contemplating what she wanted to say. Corvel also seemed to be failing to keep a lid on something as he wouldn’t meet my eyes anymore.

  What the fuck were they hiding? Were they the reason Raymond had gone missing? Had they killed him so I could remain in charge of the Black Saints? Was this their plan all along?

  “Raymond, at one point, was dependable and honorable, even for someone so young,” she began.

  Was she reading my damn mind?

  “I trusted he would keep you safe, but after he allowed you to get attacked and shot, I put a protection plan in place. Or to be more precise, I set one in your path: you know them better as Angel and Devil.”

  I’m going to kill their asses for being Silvia’s fucking spies.

  “Why?”

  She hadn’t explained why she believed she needed to protect me, and I wasn’t sure if I had asked the question out loud. Silvia resumed pacing again before she took a few careful steps closer.

  Why did it seem like she was the one afraid of me now? Her heels clicked with the lightest steps as she closed the distance between us. Her aura reached out before she reached me.

  Arjen’s grip on my hand tightened enough to pause my circulation, but I knew that he would protect me with his life if need be. Besides, he and I still had our weapons.

  Silvia stepped around the table, scooting it back with her leg to free up space. She gave a quick wave as she stood in front of us and directed us to stand. Arjen came up with me.

  Her heels had her peering slightly down at me, and her eyes zeroed in on mine.

  I hated to admit it, but I felt like a child standing in front of such a legendary woman. However, it didn’t matter what I felt. I glared at her and waited. Though unreadable at first, her features softened, and I failed to unscramble what was emerging in her expression and tense body language.

  Those big brown eyes of hers scanned me leisurely before linking back with mine. Was it pride I was seeing in her? I couldn’t have been more confused if the word was imprinted on my forehead.

  “It’s almost mind-blowing how fearless you are. You’ve never allowed it to be a disability, have you?”

  At those words, my fucking nerves went into a frenzy, wondering how she knew my damn business. Arjen’s head whipped in my direction, no doubt wondering what the hell I was keeping from him.

  When Silvia lifted a hand to touch me, Arjen yanked me behind him and stood face-to-face with the devil. I peeked around his sturdy shoulder, and there she was with a big proud smile on her face.

  The shit kept taking weird turns, enough that it had looped my thoughts into a circle. My confusion about this situation was in overdrive, causing me to shut my eyes and pray that I would wake up to Arjen and me at home and in bed.

  “You’d die for that beautiful woman, wouldn’t you?” she questioned Arjen in a low, even tone like he hadn’t just challenged her.

  “Fucking right, I would. And she’s not just any woman, she’s my wife.” His strong words reverberated throughout the room. I had all but forgotten we were surrounded by guards and were more than likely the targets of multiple points of death.

  However, like my husband, I wasn’t going to cower in the face of death, no matter how out of character Silvia was acting. We had barked at the devil and were standing in the pit of her domain without a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving, so why not go out as fierce warriors.

  Corvel hadn’t moved fro
m his seat on the couch, riveted to the scene in front of him. The sight of him sipping on what I believe was his third glass of alcohol added to the weirdness of the situation. Silvia maintained a smile that kept Arjen and me glaring at her.

  “I couldn’t have picked a better match for my daughter if I had tried. You two are good for each other, and I respect this union.”

  Daughter. Daughter. Daughter. My brain had dumped every other word but the one that wouldn’t stop echoing inside my fucking aching head.

  “Come again. She’s your what?” Arjen asked, his strong stance wavering a bit, weakened by the same word that had me dizzy. I stepped around him on shaky legs, my mouth hanging open, but eager to hear the answer to Arjen’s question.

  She reached out, and I was too stunned to do anything about her placing a caressing palm against my cheek. Arjen went stalk still, his eyes rotating back and forth between us. “Holy shit,” he said as his neck continued to swivel between us.

  “You grew into such a beautiful woman, despite your father’s recklessness. I should have killed him years ago when he allowed you to get hurt the first time.”

  Her hand brushed down my shoulders, but I eased away from her touch. A mix of anger and confusion had my face clenched so tight, I was grinding my teeth.

  “Did you just say I’m your daughter?” A hollow laugh escaped. “You’re my mother?” My head was shaking in the negative, more willing to believe her words had somehow gotten crossed up in my brain.

  My eyes threatened to close, and my brain swam in my head, attempting to grasp onto the revelation. It would certainly explain why Arjen and I were still breathing. It also explained why Corvel was always so accommodating with me. He was my fucking uncle.

  Wait. I couldn’t possibly believe this shit. My head started to shake and it wouldn’t stop, even when she resumed talking.

  “I sent you to live with your father a few months before your fourth birthday because any child of mine would have been kidnapped, stalked, tortured, and marked for death their entire life. For the first four years of your life, we had to pass you off as one of the maid’s daughters, but I saw you every day, and tucked you in and sung to you every night. My decision to hand you over to your father was one of the worst mistakes I have ever made. I wanted to take you back when I realized you would always be surrounded by danger no matter who you were with.”

  Unshed tears glistened in her eyes, the sight of them was as shocking as the wicked reveal she had unleashed.

  “When I forced Raymond to send you away to boarding school, I thought it would stick because you were so smart. Yet, after one semester you refused to return, and I understood it better than anyone that the streets had gotten into your blood. There was nothing you wanted more than to learn how to conquer the streets.”

  She reached out again, and I yanked away from her this time.

  “I pray that you could someday forgive me, my sweet Mecca.”

  The information had overloaded my brain and caused my eyes to fall close while I attempted to process the wicked reveal.

  “I should have kept you near, protected you. I never wanted you in this life. You were my paradise in the hellish world I was born into. I told Raymond what you meant to me, forced him to send you to college. After seeing how well you were doing, I was certain you would leave the streets behind and go off and live a nice, normal life.”

  The notion that I was someone’s daughter had so many thoughts fighting for dominance that they were bottled necked at the entryway of my brain. I wasn’t just anyone’s daughter either. My mother happened to be one of the most powerful women I knew. She was one I had attempted to emulate my whole life. I shook away the heat flowing off my overworked brain.

  “You mentioned my father. He died and I ended up with my uncle, at least that is the story Raymond fed me. Is my father still alive?”

  My ability to speak complete sentences was restored, which meant I was getting my luster back.

  “It was his idea to present himself as your uncle, but Raymond Evans is your father, Mecca.”

  “What!” Arjen and I yelled together as her words delivered another body-pounding blow. I didn’t know how many more of these truths I could take.

  “He was much more reliable back then, made good decisions, and was dependable. He was already doing a good job of raising three kids on his own, so adding you to the group didn’t seem like a bad idea. His brother had died a few days before he took you, so to keep your identity hidden, I agreed to cast Raymond’s brother off as your father. Raymond doesn’t even know that you’re his daughter because I never told him. He went along with my plan because of his loyalty to me and the cartel. If anyone ever found out that you were my daughter, or even Raymond’s daughter, it would have painted a big red target on your back. I thought you being the daughter of a dead man would keep you safe, but I was wrong.”

  The words she spoke had delivered a donkey kick that knocked a hole in my chest.

  Raymond Evans is my father?

  “No, I refuse to believe any of this shit.”

  “Es verdad, lo siento,” she apologized. It had just occurred that she was how I knew Spanish.

  “I don’t want your fucking apology.”

  The anger raging through me had me seeing double.

  “You skirted your responsibilities as a parent and sent me to live with a man that used me most of my life. Raymond had me out on the streets selling drugs by the time I was seven. How was that a fucking better life? As far as I’m concerned, you and Raymond can kiss my whole black ass, and I have a lot for you to kiss.”

  She stood in place, frozen and staring. It was clear that no one had spoken to her the way I had as she appeared at a loss for words. I didn’t give a shit about all this family shit she was talking about. I gripped Arjen’s hand, turned, and was taking off, not caring what else she planned to say or do.

  Arjen didn’t stop me; he was right at my side. What the hell was I supposed to do with all the truth I had discovered? The truth couldn’t do shit but complicate my already chaotic life.

  There was one question I had yet to find an answer to. If the Cardenas Cartel were not the ones trying to kill me, who the hell was?

  37

  Mecca

  The sky was what I decided to lose myself in, gazing past the fluffy, sun-kissed clouds as Arjen gathered his men. Images of my childhood churned in my mind, some that I had never understood until now. Me, being sung to sleep in Spanish, the voice that had always sounded familiar had now been confirmed. Me, always longing for a face I could never see, but now it was as clear in my mind as if the memories were implanted.

  I sensed Silvia’s eyes on me from afar, but I couldn’t deal with her. I had too much to think about, too much to process, too much to choke down and digest.

  I climbed into the passenger seat of Arjen’s truck when he opened the door and took my hand to help me inside. He had directed one of his men to drive the SUV I had driven.

  When our vehicles began spilling from the tree line, most of them tactical vehicles with machine guns attached to the backs and tops, the sight caused me to glare at my husband. He had truly brought an army, an insane amount of men that were prepared to fight a woman that was as unbothered by their presence than if she were surrounded by her own men. I couldn’t imagine what type of bloodbath would have taken place if I wasn’t a relative.

  “This might not be the right time to bring it up, but with your mother being one of the most powerful women in the country, it gives us another ally, and eliminates the Cardenas Cartel as our adversary.”

  “You were right, husband. This is not the right time to bring that up.”

  My head fell back against the seat once the view of my uncle’s compound disappeared from the rearview mirror. The thick woods that surrounded the area loomed, the waving dark leaves saying their goodbyes.

  Arjen’s hand sat secure on my leg, and every once in a while, when I would drift too deeply into my mind, he would sq
ueeze, reminding me that he was there.

  I placed my hand softly atop his, absorbing his strength through the touch. With him, I had discovered that I could love and be loved in return. Our connection was the last thing I expected to fall into my life, but he was one of the best things to ever happen to me. It was also the one thing in my life that wasn’t turning out to be a lie. We knew most of the gory details about each other.

  “Pull over,” I ordered out of the blue.

  A smile creased his face as he eased the truck over without a second thought. The last time I had asked him to pull over, we had ended up ruining his car. Once he had parked, the long line of vehicles in the convoy veered off to the side of the road and did the same. No one exited their vehicles to see why we had stopped, but sat parked and waiting on us.

  I climbed across the seat and was in Arjen’s lap within seconds, but neither of us went for the explicit wild sex that was capable of popping up between us. The hot stuff was at the surface of my mind, but I decided to put it on hold to discuss something much more important.

  My hand slid across Arjen’s chest and up to his stubbled chin as his heavy gaze met mine. I pointed at his ear.

  “Can you turn your earpiece off?”

  He did so without dropping his gaze from mine.

  “Back there, you said you loved me?”

  I needed to know if the presence of death had spurred his words. The infectious smile he flashed me caused one to rise up on my lips.

  “For those of us that have never had anything to love other than death, danger, and destruction, we feel it harder, deeper, more intensely than those that have had it all their lives. I would build your dreams with my bare hands to make you happy, Mecca.”

  His arms tightened around me. “I love you deep enough to die for you ten times over.”

  “I love you too,” I blurted, the words rushing as fast as my beating heart. They were the most meaningful words I had ever spoken to anyone other than Desiree. I assumed I would have trouble saying something so profound, but the truth had spilled free without a doubt.