Dirty Ties

by Pam Godwin

  Trent ran a finger along the kitchen counter as he looked around my living space. His filthy fucking presence in my home made my muscles tense to the point of pain.

  He’d already checked me for weapons and inspected the bathroom and closets for Kaci. He hadn’t asked me to remove the helmet, and he could’ve shot me the second he walked in. Evidently, he was here for more than just my demise.

  He lifted Kaci’s phone from the counter and checked the screen. “Where is she?”

  In the center of the room, I widened my stance and slid my jaw side-to-side to loosen the tension. “She’s out for a jog.” A believable reason for her phone to be here. Thank fucking Christ I hadn’t told her to take it downstairs with her. “Soon as she sees your limo in the drive, she’ll take off.”

  He studied me for a long moment. “We’re twenty miles from the nearest town. She’ll come knocking.”

  A few feet in front of me, Collin slumped in a folding chair. His shoulders curled forward, his hands tied behind his back, his eyes hard and bloodshot as he watched Trent. He hadn’t said a word since entering, and didn’t seem fazed by the gun Jed aimed at his head.

  The hidden elevator was ten feet behind Collin and Jed, a comfortable reminder that Kaci was safe two-stories below.

  How much did Trent know? Evader wouldn’t give a shit about Collin’s life. Did Trent know who I was beneath the helmet? My only concern was keeping Kaci safe, so I stuck with silence to avoid giving anything away.

  Trent prowled toward me, his hands behind his back and his expression hidden beneath his tight, polished skin. “As you can guess, you won’t be racing tonight.” His forehead furrowed. “Initially, I thought Kaci somehow knew about the bet I placed and had come here to warn you about the police raid. But I’ve checked all my connections in the Chicago PD. No one knows anything about a big race bust tonight.”

  Fuck fuck fuck. I didn’t twitch, didn’t speak.

  He stepped into my space, his eyes level with my visor. “Remove the helmet.”

  The fucker didn’t know who I was. I remained still, shoulders back, spine straight. “You may not like what you see.”

  He looked at the floor, grinned, and raised his head. “I’ve been tracking her for a long time. She attends your races. She’s been here since yesterday. It’s safe to assume you’re sticking your dick in her. So why do you care what happens to her husband?” He looked over his shoulder at Collin and returned to me. “He’s fucking clueless about what Kaci’s been up to. Big surprise there.”

  I stifled a heavy exhale. Collin hadn’t said shit.

  His hand smoothed down his tie. “I brought him here, knowing she’d cooperate if I threatened him.” He cocked his head. “Interesting how you seem to share her sentiment toward this man. Why not just tell me to kill him?”

  His proximity gnawed at the composure I was seconds from losing. “I know who you are, Trent. You won’t shoot your own son.”

  “You have no idea.” He glanced back at Jed, who slipped a finger through the trigger guard, a command away from squeezing it. Trent’s eyes flicked back to me. “Remove the goddamned helmet.”

  No sense delaying, and to be honest, I looked forward to his reaction. I gripped the sides, lifted it off, and tossed it onto the nearby couch.

  His eyes flashed, and he took a step backward.

  The refrigerator motor hummed. The clock on the wall ticked. The room waited.

  He burst out in laughter. Threw his head back, barking a goddamn cackle into the rafters. The skin around his eyes wrinkled, and his over-gelled hair didn’t move with his bobbing head.

  When he righted himself, he sniffed, as if dismissing his momentary loss of poise. His fingers steepled against his mouth as he studied me, his gaze weighted in thought. “You sent the watches?”

  Well, fuck, he was quick. I nodded. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Jed ease off the trigger without removing his focus from Collin. Maybe I could disarm him, but he would pull that trigger before I covered the six-foot distance.

  Trent walked to Collin and circled behind the chair to put his hands on Collin’s stiff shoulders, giving them a squeeze without an ounce of affection. “I had this vision, Logan, that my son and I would control Trenchant Media, that I would be proud to hand the company down to him when I retired.”

  Collin closed his eyes, a swallow bouncing in his throat.

  I had no idea if he was referring to me or Collin. I held my arms loose at my sides as I racked my brain for a way out of this madness.

  Trent stared down at Collin’s head. “Part of this vision was to see Kaci married to my son. Her parents are loyal partners, and I’m rather fond of her.”

  My stomach turned, and it took everything I had to keep my foot on the floor rather than slamming it into his face. When he met my eyes, I ground out, “Is that why you forced her to remain employed after I stole her job?”

  He sighed. “I was suspicious of her interest in the racing syndicate, specifically her interest in Evader. I needed her close while I considered whether or not to place that bet against Evad— you.” His eyes hardened. “I knew she would eventually lead me to you.”

  So he could kill me and ensure the outcome of the race. Anger bubbled up, and I swallowed it back. “How did you know about her interest in the races? Who snitched about the files on the server?”

  He stared at me as if he wasn’t going to tell me. But if he intended to kill me, why did it matter?

  Straightening the sleeves of his jacket, he met my eyes. “Hal Pinkerton was pulling the racing information for me long before he began feeding it to her. I left that trap open for her the moment I discovered she was looking for the information. Then I sat back and waited to see what she would do with it.”

  My fucking head swam through the what-ifs. If I hadn’t sent the watches and prompted Trent’s interest, Kaci wouldn’t have obtained the racing schematics and gained access to the races. We wouldn’t have met as Evader and Miss Ducati. I wouldn’t have traded places with Holden at the nightclub. We would’ve began in the office as strangers without our tense yet fiercely solid connection.

  “I hoped…” Trent removed his hands from Collin’s shoulders. “That something would’ve evolved between her and my newly found son”—he gave me a pointed look—“so I could, as they say, keep it in the family.”

  My face heated. “You have a sick sense of family, considering the gun currently pressed against your son’s head.”

  “I only have one biological son.” He narrowed a disgusted look at Collin. “This faggot isn’t him.”

  My lungs froze, and Collin jerked, twisting at his waist to stare up at Trent. His chest heaved as he spoke through clenched teeth. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, you worthless little shit, that your mother fucked one of our business partners.” His tone was deadly calm. “You are not my goddamned son.”

  Oh, fuck. Dread curled in my stomach.

  A pained expression distorted Collin’s face. “Who? Where is he?”

  Trent’s face softened, and the gentle pat he gave Collin’s back made the skin on my back crawl. “Your father was some gangly banker prick from Detroit. He was also a pussy. He sobbed and pissed his pants when I killed him.”

  Collin cringed away from Trent’s hand, his face red-hot, his jaw locked with rage.

  My chest ached, and my hands clenched. My empathy with Collin was met with the godawful memory of my mother’s death. I pushed that away as my mind struggled through the implications. We weren’t brothers. Collin wasn’t his son, which was why he would send Collin to prison and why he had no intentions of letting Collin survive the night.

  The distressed look on Collin’s face said he was coming to the same conclusion.

  Yet Trent hadn’t killed us. There was more. I could feel it gathering like an approaching storm.

  Trent stepped to the other side of Jed, and that movement alone ratcheted my fear. He essentially moved himself out of the path of
the bullet that would exit Collin’s head.

  He slipped his hands in his pockets, meeting my eyes. “Frankly, I was delighted to find out about you. To have a son of my own.” He smiled, but it quickly descended into a scowl. “The curious thing is, I never fucked Maura Flynt.”

  I breathed in deeply and spoke as calmly as possible. “You raped her.”

  Trent stared at his shoes as if lost in thought.

  Ten feet behind him, the cabinet door beneath the sink cracked open. The barrel of my fucking Glock slowly pushed through the opening. Kaci?

  My pulse hung in my throat, my lungs seizing. Oh God, no. How the fuck did she get in there? Did she not get on the elevator?

  Every nerve in my body went on hyper-alert, and my hands shook like a motherfucker. My gaze flew to the hidden elevator and jerked away. Sweet fucking hell. She must’ve slipped off the lift when I turned my back. I was going to wring her fucking neck.

  “I never touched your mother.” Trent raised his head. “But her sister?” His smile raised a million shivering goosebumps across my skin. “She was a whore in bed.”

  My spine snapped straight, denial curdling my stomach and shooting tremors through my body. “My mother didn’t have a sister.”

  “She did. Ella Flynt, who has to be your real mother, was the reporter who introduced me to Maura Flynt on the movie set.” He rocked on his heels, his hands in his pockets. “Your stunt racing adoptive-mother was as gay as Collin here, though much more masculine. Butch. Very much not my type.”

  My mother was really my aunt? Who had a willing affair with him? I flexed my numb hands to keep the blood flowing. “Why are you telling me this? To make yourself seem like less of a monster because you didn’t rape them?”

  Trent stared at me, his expression suddenly so raw with sincerity it made the hairs on my nape stand up. “I wanted a son, Logan. My very own blood. I want you with me, on my side. To be part of my family. To run Trenchant.”

  Fuck, I couldn’t stop shaking, couldn’t escape the terrible shock. And the movement in my periphery exasperated my unraveling. Kaci’s silhouette rose from beneath the cabinet. I locked my gaze on Trent, trying like almighty hell not to draw attention to her position. “You murdered them. I will never be on your side.”

  His face clouded, wiping away any semblance of humanity. And Kaci hovered ten feet behind them. Farthest away was Collin in the chair. Jed stood beside him, holding the gun at his head. Trent was beside Jed and closest to her. If any of them turned their heads, they would see her.

  Distract them. I spun to the side and paced in a tight circle. Back and forth, step after step, I let all my fucking nerves rise to the surface. My hands shook, my muscles heated and expanded, and my breaths grew loud and labored.

  And their eyes tracked my movements, waiting for me to blow a gasket. Fucking perfect.

  I shoved my hands in my hair, refusing to look in Kaci’s direction. “What happened to my mother’s sister?”

  Trent scratched his jaw. “We had a short affair. It ended when she stumbled across some things she didn’t approve of.”

  I could fill in the blanks, considering Trent’s criminal history.

  “She wouldn’t shut up with her threats. Hounded me for months.” He shrugged. “So I had to put her down.”

  I slammed to a stop and swiped a hand over my face. My skin felt cold, my brain numb. He killed my mother’s sister, who he claimed was my biological mother.

  “I should’ve put it together.” Trent folded his hands behind his back. “Thirteen years later, Maura Flynt picked up where her sister left off. She raised you, then she went after me.”

  And he killed her, too. My chest heaved, my anger boiling. I could deny everything he said about Ella Flynt, but why would he lie? If my mother’s sister was a reporter, that explained the detailed evidence in my mother’s diary.

  Kaci shifted in my field of view, inching closer behind them with the gun trained on Jed. Blood pounded through my veins to the point of bursting. It would only take a half-second for him to redirect his aim and shoot her.

  I wanted so badly to look at her, to examine her expression. Was she freaking out? Could she pull the trigger? She had maybe a seven-foot range on Jed, and Collin and I weren’t in the trajectory. She had this.

  Come on, baby. Don’t hesitate. Don’t miss.

  Jed turned his head, and my heart stopped.

  She squeezed the trigger, and the shot reverberated through the brick walls. Blood sprayed across Collin’s face, Jed’s body slumped, and I launched for my weapons by the door.

  “Jesus! Fuck, Kaci,” Trent yelled behind me. “Wait. Now just wait a minute.”

  I passed over the Glock on the floor, grabbed the blade, and turned back.

  Trent inched backward with his back to me, his hands in the air. A few feet in front of him, Kaci pointed the gun at his chest, walking with him.

  Collin jumped from the chair and strode toward me, his gait fueled with urgency, his arms restrained behind his back, his expression furious. I met him halfway and sliced the knife through the zip-ties, freeing his hands.

  “You don’t want to do this, Kaci.” Trent’s voice cracked. “I came here to get you, to take you back with me.”

  That, I believed. He would’ve taken her by force. After he killed me and Collin.

  I slipped behind him, gripped his perfectly-gelled hair, and yanked his head back. With the blade pressed against his throat, I met her eyes.

  Christ, she was stunning, standing there in her bra and panties, her dark blue eyes glowing with fierce intent. With her arms straight out, the gun didn’t so much as tremble in her hands. There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in her expression. If I didn’t kill him, she would.

  Collin leaned over Jed’s body, grabbed his gun, and pressed his fingers against the man’s throat. He wouldn’t find a pulse. Half of Collin’s face was covered in Jed’s brains.

  “Listen.” Trent’s back heaved against my chest. But his heavy breaths didn’t affect the steadiness in his voice. “We can make a lot of money tonight. We’ll split it between the four of us. I’ll hand off full control of Trenchant. You can have all of it.”

  I put my mouth beside his ear, holding him still with the blade at his throat. “You killed my family, Trent. You can’t replace them with money and power.”

  He closed his eyes. “Logan, I swear I didn’t know I had a son.” He turned his head, tried to meet my eyes, but the angle of the knife didn’t allow it. “Ella kept you hidden from me. I wouldn’t have left you without a family.”

  No, he would’ve killed me. I suspected Ella had given me to her sister when I was an infant to protect my identity. To protect me from Trent. But why didn’t the diary explain Ella’s relationship to Trent or the details of her death? Thanks to Trent, I would never fucking know.

  “Kaci, please.” Trent swallowed against the blade. “In just a few hours, I’ll have billions at my disposal. You can have all of it. Just let me go.”

  So much for splitting it four ways.

  She lowered the gun and walked slowly toward him. “No, Trent. In a couple hours, I’ll be in that race, losing your millions.”

  His body stiffened in my hold. “You’re…you’re the underdog?”

  She held his eyes and nodded. A sad smile tightened the corner of her mouth. Not the kind of smile that delivered revenge. She accepted his fate with strong determination, but she wasn’t going to celebrate it.

  Shifting her gaze to mine, she stepped back and lifted her chin with a silent End this.

  Trent squirmed against me, begging for his life in a high-pitched voice. I tuned him out.

  I’d imagined this moment for nineteen years as I drowned in the memory of my mother’s blood and followed the leads she’d left behind. I thought if I gutted him while I stared into his eyes, it would kill all the cold inside me. If his life spilled over my fingers, it would chase away my anger.

  But Kaci had already done those things. She warmed m
e with a simple look. Calmed me with a gentle touch. She replaced my revenge with a profound breath of life.

  Holding her eyes, I tightened my grip on Trent’s hair. It wasn’t revenge that had me dragging the blade over his neck. It was my vicious need to protect her that guided my hand and opened his throat from ear to ear.

  She didn’t look away from my gaze as he gurgled and writhed. She stared directly into my eyes when I let him go and he crumbled to the floor. I sensed Collin beside us, bending to check Trent’s pulse, but my focus was on her.

  I dropped the blade beside the lifeless body, my heartbeat roaring in my head as I searched her face. She didn’t seem stunned. Definitely not flipping out. Her lips parted, her shoulders relaxed, and she still hadn’t looked away.

  She’d killed a man. She watched me kill her father-in-law. I murdered him while she stood feet away. That kind of trauma forced itself inside a person. The blood. The darkness. The finality of a beating heart. I knew the haunting impact of that all too well.

  I stepped forward and cupped her face with my clean hand. “You okay?”

  She nodded once. “Relieved.”

  “Yeah.” I moved my hand from her face and hooked it behind her, dragging her against my chest.

  Her arms came around my back, and we stood there, bodies entangled, my bloody hand hanging at my side, and shared a moment of relief. Slowly, our muscles loosened, our breathing evened out, and the thump of our hearts swallowed all sound.

  Too soon, she leaned back, and her stubborn chin pointed at the clock on the wall. “We have two hours to clean this up and get our asses to the race.”

  “Kaci,” Collin and I said at the same time. Trent was no longer a threat. We didn’t have to race. “You and Collin can take over Trenchant and keep your careers, live a lawful life that’s not on the run.”

  “No. Collin can keep his career.” Her eyes flickered with fire. “And he needs this win, this money to fight our parents after he turns them in.”

  I glanced at the gore on my hand, at the bodies bleeding out on the floor, and looked to Collin.