"I will admit I wanted your key," I said quickly, sensing his patience was wearing thin and wondering if there was enough of the boy I'd once loved left in him to hear me out. "And to be honest, the making a fool of your men thing was actually pretty hilarious - that asshole seriously thought I was going to suck his cock just because he helped me out with a bit of engine trouble and I-"
"In four days’ time, the cartel are expecting me to deliver the cocaine I'd been storing for them to their people. If I don't show up with their merchandise, they'll come here and find me. They'll find my men. And I'm sure they'll find whatever is left of you too. And then they'll skin each and every one of us alive - and that's assuming we get off lightly." Maverick moved to place a hand on the back of my chair and leaned down to look right at me, the tip of his blade pressing to my left thigh above my knee and making a shiver run through me which had nothing to do with the cold.
"I don't want that," I breathed, looking into his eyes and wondering what was going on within them. Was he looking at the girl he'd once sworn to love and protect forever? Or was I just a stranger with the face of a memory to him now?
"So tell me," Maverick asked slowly, dragging the knife up my thigh so that the kiss of the blade awoke every nerve ending in my body as he danced a thin line with the pressure he was exerting so that it didn't quite pierce my skin. "When Foxy boy was slamming his cock into that wet pussy of yours, did he whisper my name in your ear? Did he convince you to come to my home and fuck me even harder than you were fucking him? Did he put you up to your little charade in the hopes of making the cartel do his dirty work for him?"
Maverick skimmed the knife down the inside of my thigh and I gasped as the blade touched to my core, the bite of the cold metal making my heart thrash as he pressed it to me a little harder, warning me not to lie to him.
"It was my idea, not Fox's," I whispered, my muscles coiling with tension as I fought against the urge to panic. I was utterly at his mercy here and there was nothing I could do about it aside from offering him the truth. "And I...didn't really think much beyond them burning a bit of your stock. I just thought you'd replace it or whatever. That drawing your men away from the warehouse would mean less death..."
"So you chose them?" he growled. "You chose the three of them when they were the ones who threw you away in the first place? You show up back here after all that time and part your thighs like the good little whore Fox always wanted you to be for him and-"
"I'm not fucking Fox," I snapped. "But maybe you need to ask yourself why you're so caught up on the idea of that, Rick."
"So why is he still telling everyone in the entire town that you belong to him then?" Maverick asked cruelly, giving me a look which said he didn't believe me, but fuck him. I had no shame over sex or who I chose to share my body with, but I sure as fuck wasn't going to sit here like some beat down little bitch and let him throw anger in my face over lies and bullshit.
"Fox has been telling the whole world I'm his girl since I first got back here," I replied scathingly. "He likes to talk a big game and play the boss man with everyone, but he isn't the boss of me. I made it more than clear to him that I wasn't his at every given opportunity and I don't need to sit here and listen to even more bullshit from you. I already gave you this answer the last time I was here and you clearly decided my word means shit. You're asking me for the truth and I'm giving it to you. If you won't listen, then I won't waste my breath."
Maverick regarded me for several long seconds before moving the blade which was still pressed against my pussy and slowly dragging it up the centre of my body. I gasped as he slid it over my clit, the sharp tip almost cutting that sensitive flesh and making my pulse thunder as I tried to clamp my thighs closed but couldn't thanks to the restraints.
"So you were only fucking JJ then?" Maverick asked, arching a brow like he was waiting for me to lie to him but I'd promised him the truth so he could have it. He moved the knife up my body again, curving it around my tits.
"Yeah. Johnny James grew up into a talented man," I replied. "He fucked me until I saw stars and even then, he wasn't done with me. It's just a pity he's a treacherous motherfucker like the rest of them or maybe I could have made more use of him."
Maverick's upper lip peeled back and the knife slipped, making me hiss as he spilled a small line of blood across the curve of my right breast. It wasn't deep, but it stung. Though that small pain had nothing to the hurt in my heart over the Harlequin boys and what they'd done to me again.
"Don't tell me your heart is breaking for that asshole," Maverick snarled, his eyes flashing with malice as he moved the bloodied blade and pressed it to my throat.
I tipped my chin higher, meeting his gaze and letting him see that I didn't fear death at his hands. It would probably be a mercy after all this time. To just let go of the ache in my unwanted heart and fall away into darkness.
"My heart broke for all four of you once upon a time. What they did yesterday only ripped the shattered pieces back apart again."
"What did they do?" he asked, something in the set of his features making me feel like he really did want to know.
"Surely your pet cop told you all about it?"
"I just got a call to say the girl I'd been keeping tabs on was locked up in a cell. All I know is that you were found with stolen goods and it cost me ten grand to make them forget they’d ever arrested you and hand you over to me. I'm still trying to figure out if I got a bargain or if I was ripped off."
"Well let me know when you figure it out," I replied bitterly.
"Spit it out then. What did the three assholes do to put that hurt in your big blues, beautiful?"
My tongue sat thick and heavy in my mouth as I stared up at him, his entire body caging me in and that knife against my throat like the sweetest promise I'd ever been given. He owned me in that moment. My life was his to take or give. And I found the burden of no longer being responsible for it was a relief.
"They made me their fall guy," I said, my eyes burning at the pain of that betrayal.
There was a time when I never could have imagined any one of us leaving another behind and yet it was clear they'd planned it that way. The boats had been gone. They'd saved their own asses and abandoned mine like I was nothing at all to them. And the worst thing was that I had actually been gutted by that. Shocked. Like some naive fucking fool, I'd actually begun to believe in the bullshit they'd been spewing since I'd returned here. Despite my best intentions, a part of me had clearly thought they would have my back like old times. It was so fucking pathetic that I couldn't even argue with fate for landing me where I was now. This was the least I deserved for letting myself fall for their shit and be sucked in by their lies.
"I was the one who got thrown to the wolves all over again. Though fuck knows why that surprised me. You all showed me what you thought of me when it came down to it ten years ago. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me," I muttered, dropping my gaze for the first time and studying the ink on Maverick's arm instead of his face.
He had a shrunken head with its hair clasped in the fist of a skeletal hand dominating his forearm and I looked into its dead eyes, wondering if I might find anything hiding in there which mirrored my own soul.
"They were the ones who let you down," Maverick said, leaning close and speaking into my ear so that the scent of wood, leather and pure fucking danger coiled all around me. His stubble grazed against my neck and the shiver that raced through my body had nothing to do with the cold. "But I never let you go, beautiful. I came for you. And yeah, I might have fucked it up, but don't go lumping me in with the rest of them. They threw me away just like they did you. They left us both to rot. But we didn't, did we?" He moved the knife away from my throat and used the knuckles of the fist holding it to tip my chin up and make me look at him again. "We grew tougher skin and learned the truth of what we were made of. We came back stronger than before and ready to prove to them that they made a mistake when they chose to c
ross us."
I met his dark eyes as clouds of our breath mingled between us and suddenly I could see him there, that boy I'd loved with all of my heart. The one who had taken a kicking for me when the asshole from the hardware store caught me stealing from him. The one who had always gone well out of his way so that he could give me a ride on the back of his motorcycle instead of letting me ride my skateboard to meet them. The one who had held my hair back when we'd gotten wasted on a bottle of stolen vodka and I'd spent hours puking it all back up again. The one who had come looking for me when the rest of them had left me all alone in this world.
"I'm sorry, Rick," I whispered. "I'm sorry for not knowing what happened to you back then. I'm sorry you took the fall for something I'd done. And I'm sorry for the warehouse too...I just thought that if I kept you occupied then none of you would get hurt. I knew I couldn't stop them from striking at you and the thought of the four of you taking shots at each other terrifies me. I might hate all of you, but I don’t want you to die.”
Maverick's brow pinched at the honesty in my words and for a moment I thought he was going to say something that might change everything. Like the world was balancing on the edge of a dime and at any moment he'd make a choice which could send my entire existence tumbling down one path or another.
But before he could do that, he jerked back suddenly, backing up so that the chill of the freezer enveloped me again and I was left shivering before him as he pointed the blade still wet with my blood at me.
"Prove it then," he growled. "If you're so sorry then you can help me fix it."
"Fix what?" I asked.
"My little issue with the cartel. Like I said, if they find out I let their supply burn then I'm going to be held accountable for it. And as much as I hate this fucking miserable life I'm living, I don't think I'm done with it yet."
"How the hell are you going to make them forget that you had all of that cocaine?" I asked him, shaking my head. "I doubt you have the cash to cover it, so unless you happen to have a backup hoard of the white stuff-"
"I don't," he interrupted me. "But I happen to know someone who does."
"Who?" I asked, my fists tightening as I fought a chatter in my teeth. It was fucking freezing in here and I was already missing any sense of feeling in my toes. Perhaps I could ask Maverick to start cutting my extremities off first if he really did follow through on that threat to chop me up - at least that way I wouldn't be able to feel too much of it.
"Shawn Mackenzie," he said, a smirk lifting his lips that was full of danger and made my heart race. "He's the leader of The-"
"Dead Dogs," I interrupted him, because I knew that. Of course I fucking knew that. I might not have had much to do with Shawn's work, but I had been warming his bed for two years. Though I hadn’t realised his gang would mean a whole lot to the gangs out here in Sunset Cove. His turf was miles away, inland and based in the town of Sterling. But the question was, did I want to help Maverick break into his drug supplies and steal a fuck ton of cocaine from him to cover up what Rick had lost from the cartel?
Why yes. Yes I did.
"I'm in."
Maverick arched a brow at me and lowered the knife. "Just like that?"
"Let's just say, I have no love for that particular motherfucker and if we can fuck with his business then I'm all for it. Better yet, if we can take a moment to gut him while we're there, I'm up for that t-too." My teeth gave me away by chattering a little as I finished, so I gave up on trying to fight the urge to shiver as the cold in this fucking place bit deeper into my skin.
"You expect me to just believe you?" he asked, his breath rising before him. "To accept your word after you stole my key and ran off on me the last time I turned my back on you?"
"Believe what you like, Rick. But if you leave me butt naked and tied up in this f-fucking freezer m-much longer then I won't be h-helping you to d-do shit."
Maverick moved towards me slowly, his gaze crawling over my exposed body as he slid the knife back into his pocket and placed his hands around the arms of my chair before my frozen fingers.
"Alright then, beautiful. Here's the deal. I'll let you out of here and lock you up somewhere warmer while I prepare everything we need for this little robbery I have planned to replace my cocaine. But while you're waiting for me to come back to you, you'll bear this in mind." He leaned forward and dropped his mouth over my chest, his hot tongue licking across the line of blood he'd left painted over the curve of my breast and making me gasp as my back arched against the wooden chair automatically. "I've had a taste of your blood now," he purred, looking up at me again and capturing me in his dark gaze. "So I suggest you don't cross me for a second time. Or you're going to find out just how bloodthirsty I can get."
I lay on the velvet couch in the huge old hotel bar as I waited for night to fall, light streaming in from the arching bay windows all along the south wall, though none of it touched me where I was in the shadows. I had a plan in place to steal Shawn’s shipment of cocaine and it was going to be a dirty job that I needed a certain kind of cold, detached mindset for. Luckily for me, that was my permanent frame of mind.
I thought of Rogue in the sauna where I’d put her again, sure I could still taste her blood on my tongue. I replayed the moment in my mind and the way she’d shivered for me which had clearly had nothing to do with the cold.
I considered going to her, then wondered why I’d do something like that. And as time ticked by, my thoughts inevitably drifted to the past so I slipped into the cage of my memories, falling into an inescapable nightmare that followed me everywhere I went in life.
Officer White guided me along, my stomach hurting from where his steel-capped boots had slammed into it just minutes ago. It was late at night, the prison quiet and all cells we passed locked up tight.
My gaze hooked on my cell at the end of the walkway as our footsteps rang out across the metal. It was the one place I could get any relief in this hell, a small, six by eight haven of peace where I could rest. My cellmate was a runt of a guy who barely spoke and most of the time I could just ignore he was there, shut my eyes and think of Rogue. Sometimes I wrote letters to her, filled with all the words I should have said when I got the chance, but I always ended up ripping them to pieces and flushing them away. They were just ammo for Officer White and his friends to use against me if they found them, and though I never named her on paper, I still feared someone seeing my weakness laid out like that. She was my secret, my home. One I’d return to just as soon as I got out of here. I only hoped she knew I was coming for her, no matter how long it took. One day, I’d walk free of this hell, seek her out and pray she hadn’t forgotten me.
White dragged me past my cell and I gazed back at it in confusion.
“That was my cell,” I told him, though he definitely knew that. He’d dragged me out of it just hours ago.
“Not anymore it isn’t,” he said darkly, a smile twisting his thin lips.
My heart thumped out a violent tune as he led me past a few more cells and finally radioed his buddy up in the control room to open a door ahead of us. I schooled my features, not letting him see me rattled, but inside I was starting to panic. Everything had been the same for so long. I’d keep my head down in the day, get taken to the trench by Officer White and the others at midnight, but by three I was always back in my cell and I knew they wouldn’t come for me again until the following night. I could handle that. I’d adjusted to it. But this change screamed wrong to me.
White pulled the door open and shoved me into the cell. “You’re bunking with Krasinski now,” he purred in my ear and that name sent dread bleeding into every bone in my body.
I twisted around in desperation, planning to fight my way out, even if I ended up in isolation for it. But anything was better than being in here. White slammed the door in my face before I got close and the lock clunked loudly in the dark.
My breaths came hollowly from my chest, matched by the heavy breathing of the man in the room with
me. He was the biggest guy in this prison. Two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle, a bald head and an array of silver capped teeth.
“Hello, pretty boy.” I felt him draw closer and twisted around, his hulking form approaching in the gloom. I was tall, but during the few months I’d been here I’d lost some weight and now White had ensured I was injured all the fucking time too.
His hand snaked around my wrist and I threw a punch with a cry of fury. He spat a curse as it cracked against his jaw. His grip tightened and his answering punch knocked me flat on my back, my head spinning like it used to on the Waltzers at Sinners’ Playground. One of us would sit in the car while the other four would work to spin it as fast as possible until we almost threw up. I felt like that now, the world moving around me at an incredible speed, but only shadows drew closer for a moment before I forced myself to picture the smiling faces of my friends. Then I focused on the one that always called to me, her laughter lighting up the air and making all the darkness recede.
“Maverick?” Mia called, snapping me out of the past and I found her dropping down beside me on the couch with a pout. Her nose was still red from the punch she’d gotten from Rogue and she rubbed it indignantly as I pushed myself up, a dark cloud clinging to me. I couldn’t face her now, I needed to be alone. When the dark got in, it wouldn’t leave until I looked death in the eye and found purpose again.
“She’s a feisty little fucker, huh?” Mia said.
“Mm,” I grunted as she moved to straddle me and I gazed past her head as my heart drummed out a furious tune against my ribcage.
Mia captured my cheek, turning my head to make me look at her and my breaths came faster at being touched right now. I pushed her off of my lap and got up, scrubbing my hands over my eyes as my skin crawled and bile rose up in the back of my throat.
Dead Man's Isle (Harlequin Crew #2) Page 4