“What did you do? You stupid bitch! What the fuck did you do?”
The scene around unfolded then like a bad dream. Jackson crouched down next to his younger son and before she could react to any of it she felt the powerful smack of the back of Alex’s big hand across her face. It knocked her sideways and she actually came up off her feet and flew backwards...landing on her back on the floor. She was still stunned as her head bounced up and then fell back again hitting the floor with a thud. Before she could process that trauma he was standing over her with his hand drawn back again.
“Alex! That’s enough!”
Paige’s ears were still ringing but she heard the sharp tone of her step-father’s voice ordering his son to stop. Alex lowered his hand but the look he gave her was murderous and told her that this wasn’t over by a long shot. She waited for Alex to return to the other side of the room and then she pushed herself up on her arms. She could feel blood trickling along the side of her face, filling her mouth with the strong iron taste of the blood and mixed with the salt of the tears she didn’t even know she was crying.
I shot Damien! Oh fuck! What did I do?
Through the fog that still filled her head she heard Jackson say, “Go search her room and find that package.”
“Is he okay?”
“Just go Alex!”
Paige could see Damien’s face. His eyes were closed and he was grimacing as Jackson knelt over him. She couldn’t see where he was hit or how badly he was hurt. Her body was suddenly wracked with raw, irrepressible sobs and she was shaking all over uncontrollably. Fright was consuming her. What if she killed him? He wasn’t the one that should have been in the way of that bullet. Damien wasn’t the one she wanted dead. Terror raced through her as she thought about the predicament she’d gotten herself into. They were going to kill her once they had what they wanted. As the seconds ticked by like hours, she said a silent prayer that Alex wouldn’t find the USB drive and that Damien would be okay. Her deep, wracking sobs were the only sound in the room when the shrill ringing of the telephone on the wall cut through it like a knife. Damien’s eyes tore open and for a second they were focused on her face. Then she heard him tell his father in a voice thick with pain, “It’s the front lobby. Someone must have heard the shot.”
Jackson gave her a look almost akin to the one Alex had given her as he stood up and went over to it. She was trying to catch her breath and calm down as she let her eyes roam over Damien’s body, trying to see where the damage was. She stopped when she got to his right leg. Jackson had pulled up Damien’s pant leg and she could see a dark red gash with blood oozing from it and down onto the floor.
“This is Jackson Paine, I’m Damien’s father,” she heard her stepfather say into the phone. “He just stepped into the shower; can I ask why you’re calling? A gunshot?” Jackson laughed. He was good. “Oh no, I’m sorry. My son and I were using a shoebox compressor to fill our little back-pack scuba tanks. I’m afraid I bent the relief valve on one and it exploded. No, no one was hurt, but I’d be more than happy to show you the tank if you need to check it out. Of course, thank you for your diligence in checking.”
She actually heard Damien chuckle when his father hung up the phone. It was a strangled, painful sound and she felt her heart ache at the sound of it.
“Nice. What were you going to do if they wanted to see it?”
“Kill them,” Jackson dead-panned. “Do you have any bandages?”
“Yes, in the bathroom medicine cabinet.”
That was when Jackson’s eyes finally landed on Paige. “Don’t move.” he said. His voice was hard and scary and for the first time since she’d known him he looked and sounded every bit the part of the drug lord. She’d finally regained control and stopped crying and she watched as he left the room. Then her eyes found Damien’s again. His blue eyes were rimmed in red and his breathing was sharp and ragged.
“I didn’t mean for you to get hurt,” she said.
Damien didn’t respond. His eyes were cold and his expression set in a tight grimace. A few seconds later, Jackson reappeared with the medical supplies. Paige pushed herself up to a sitting position and drew her knees into her chest as Jackson rolled up his sleeves and worked on his son. She could tell that this wasn’t the first time the elder Paine had tended to a bullet wound.
Damien didn’t even wince as his father poured the peroxide into his wound and used the soft cloth to clean it. Paige wondered how many times he’d been shot before. This didn’t seem to be his first rodeo.
“There’s nothing there. I ripped the room apart.” Alex said, returning to the living room. He looked down at what his father was doing and then across the room at Paige. She knew he had something he wanted to say to her but he was keeping it in check...probably waiting for his father’s lead. Neither one of the “boys” seemed to do anything unless Jackson told them to. Jackson continued what he was doing and only when his son’s leg was cleaned and bandaged did he speak.
“Where is it, Paige?”
“Where is what?” she said in a voice that sounded braver than she felt.
“Don’t fuck with me, little girl. I’m not in the mood. Where is the package that cop gave you?”
“The cop you killed?”
Jackson took about three long steps before he was in her face. He’d lost any air of successful, suave businessman. Suddenly, he was all thug. “I told you not to fuck with me little girl! You do not want to get on my bad side. Where the fuck is it?” He wasn’t touching her, but he was so close that she could feel his breath in her face. His eyes were cold and all semblance of the step-father she’d known years ago was gone.
“I destroyed it,” she said.
Jackson raised an eyebrow. “Do you think that I’m stupid?”
“No,” she said, simply. “I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t come here to do battle with you. I came here to kill the man that killed my brother. I still intend to do that and then I will go home. I don’t want anything else...I just want Greg’s death to be avenged.”
“You could very well have the death of my son on your hands. If that had been the case, I wouldn’t have been able to stop Alex from killing you. You’ve fucked things up so badly by coming here, Paige. Do you think Lucas Kramer is going to sit idly by and allow you to murder his son? You’re going to start a war here Paige...is that what you want?”
“I want my brother’s killer to pay for what he did. In spite of your relationship with Greg, you like to go around professing how much you cared about him. Prove it, Jackson...stop trying to protect that piece of scum.”
“I think that you’ve mistaken me for someone you can give orders to, Paige. You’ve gone too far here and I don’t believe that you destroyed anything. I think that you believe you have the upper hand...but you’re wrong. If you do still have that evidence you have only two choices...give it to me now or really destroy it, because if you try to use it against me in any way, I will resort to doing shit that I don’t want to do...but make no mistake here, I will do it.” He dismissed her then by turning back to Damien and Alex. Alex had helped his brother up and Damien was sitting on the sofa now.
“Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with,” Paige said to his back. Jackson pivoted back around and watched her struggle to her feet. Her head was pounding.
“I will do what I have to Paige. You’re like a daughter to me. I’d rather not see you hurt. But if you give me no choice...”
“Fuck off,” she said reaching out to steady herself on the desk. Jackson laughed, but there was no humor in his eyes or his face as he said, “I hope you’re as smart as I think you are.”
Paige didn’t need an explanation and Jackson wasn’t going to give her one. They both knew that he expected her to do what everyone else did...cow down to his demands or suffer the consequences. He turned back to his sons and told Damien, “I’ll send Chris by later with an antibiotic and some pain medications. It just grazed you so it should be okay. If it starts
bleeding again, put pressure on it.”
Paige had no idea who “Chris” was, but she assumed it was someone who handled their medical needs discreetly.
Damien nodded. “Okay.”
“Make sure she gets to work and otherwise that she’s not left alone.”
“Okay.”
With that, Jackson gestured at Alex, picked up his suit jacket and with Alex in tow, he waltzed out the door. Paige continued to stand where she was for several seconds. Damien finally said, “You’re not going to take him down, you know? He’s more powerful than you can imagine. You’re going to be the one that ends up dead if you don’t let this go.”
She looked into his eyes and wished that she didn’t want so badly to take him in her arms and tell him how sorry she was for hurting him. She wished that she could strictly see him for the thug that she knows he is. She didn’t say anything before walking out of the room and heading for the shower to get ready for work. When she stepped into the bedroom she found all of her things in a pile in the center of the floor. The mattress was tossed off the bed and the drawers had all been pulled out and turned upside down. She glanced towards the vent where she’d hidden the USB and audio drives. Breathing a sigh of relief that Alex hadn’t found them, she gathered her clothes and got ready for work.
Chapter 18
Paige walked into the club that night with an attitude. Her head was still throbbing from getting bitch-slapped by Alex. Her mind was still reeling from Jackson’s threats, but instead of frightening her as they probably should have, the threats only served to piss her off that much more. She saw Kelsey as she walked in and she began to seethe under the surface. She watched her before Kelsey knew she was there. She was flitting around the club, dressed to kill and acting like she was the fucking queen as usual. Paige wondered if she or her brother ever had any qualms about where all of this money and power came from. She wondered if Kelsey cared how many people had to die to keep her in the lifestyle that she seemed so attached to. Does she know that her brother is a killer? Does she care?
Kelsey looked in her direction as Paige made her way towards the bar. She locked eyes with her and in that one look; Paige knew something changed between her and Kelsey. The other woman wasn’t greeting her with her usual smile. She was looking at her with suspicion and disdain.
Paige forced a smile and said, “Good evening, Kelsey.”
She saw Kelsey’s eyes flit to the door and then rest back on her face. Kelsey didn’t bother faking a smile as she said, “Where’s your chauffeur?”
“Are you talking about Damien?”
“He seems to be everywhere you are lately.”
“Well, he’s not here now. If you don’t mind I’m going to get to work on that inventory.” Paige had taken a cab tonight. Damien wasn’t up to driving considering he’d just been shot in the leg.
Kelsey didn’t answer her, she just continued to glare. Paige shook it off and got to work. She had much bigger Kramer fish to fry than this bitch. She spent about an hour behind the counter, painstakingly filling out the inventory forms and checking off what they needed to order when she heard Kelsey say, “Paige, I need you to serve tonight.”
Paige looked around the club. Three servers and two bartenders had already shown up. The club was just beginning to pick up speed for the night, but it still wasn’t crowded.
“Why?”
Kelsey raised one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows and pursed her full lips. “Hmm...why?” she smiled then, but it was an evil smile. “Oh yes I know...because I’m your fucking boss and I said so.”
She turned on the six inch heel of her Jimmy Choo’s and marched towards the stairs, stopping to talk to two of the servers. Paige was even more pissed now. Kelsey was punishing her for her involvement with Damien. Paige had half a mind to tell her that she’d fucked him earlier today...before she shot him...but she’d leave that part out.
Not long after Kelsey went up the stairs the two servers she’d spoken to told her that Kelsey had given them the night off. Paige didn’t let on to them how pissed she was. She just smiled and pretended to be on the same page as her boss. Her saving grace was knowing that soon Kelsey was going to be as miserable as she is, once Paige exacts her revenge on the whole Kramer family.
Without the two servers the night was busy. Paige was thankful for that, it made the time pass quickly. When her shift was about two hours from being over, the night really began to go south. Caine showed up. Paige was behind the bar, filling her tray with the drinks the bartender had just made up for her when he came around the counter and smacked her on the ass in plain view of the bartender and the patrons at the bar.
“Knock it off,” she said.
Caine grabbed her roughly by the arms and pulled her up towards his face. His pupils were dilated and he was sweating...obviously on something.
“What the fuck did you say?”
“Don’t slap my ass in front of the customers.”
Caine smiled, reached back and grabbed two handfuls of her ass and squeezed, hard. “I’ll fucking grab your ass whenever and wherever I want.”
Pissed, Paige pushed against his chest with both hands. He was wasted enough that he stumbled back into the bar. She saw a dangerous look pass through his eyes and she thought that she was in serious trouble before she heard one of the guys at the bar say, “Hey Caine! How the hell are you guy?”
Paige looked at the man that Caine’s back was to. The man was well dressed and she could see by the look on his face he was trying to distract Caine so she could make her escape. As soon as Caine turned to face her savior, she gave him a small smile behind Caine’s back, picked up her tray and went to serve her drinks.
She was able to avoid him for a while as she served her drinks and the guys at the bar kept him busy. The problems started again just before closing. She was helping the bartender clean up when she felt him at her back again. She tried to step away but this time he wrapped one beefy arm around her waist and the other came up and grabbed one of her breasts. The bartender’s eyes widened, but he didn’t say anything. He actually turned away. Paige tried not to be pissed at him, knowing what an ass Caine would have been if he said anything to him anyways.
“Shit Caine! Stop it! We’re in fucking public!”
“Oh, that’s your problem?” he said like the wasted asshole he was. “We can fix that.” He grabbed her arm and led her towards the back. There were only a few customers left in the club and it was obvious that none of them were going to come to her aid. Everyone in this world lived in fear of a handful. She wondered why they didn’t realize that they could overcome this tyranny these families reined over them if they would all just do the right thing and stand up together against them.
She tried digging her heels in and grabbing onto the wall as they rounded the corner but he was too strong. He half dragged/half carried her to the back like some kind of caveman. When they got to one of the rooms he tossed her down on the bed and started to undo his pants. Appalled, Paige pushed herself up to her feet only to be met with the back of Caine’s hand across her mouth. She fell back and for the second time that day she could taste blood in her mouth. This time it felt like she had a split lip. No man ever laid a hand on her and today it was two...one from each of the families that she intended to destroy...they were just fanning her flames.
“Caine what the fuck are you doing?”
He pushed his pants down and said, “Take your clothes off.”
“Fuck you!” She had definitely never been forced to have sex. She thought about screaming but she knew it would only net her another back hand.
He laughed a creepy laugh and said, “Yes, that’s exactly what you’re going to do, now undress.”
She looked at him defiantly until he proved her point and raised his hand to strike her again. They stared at each other for several seconds before she finally reached for the bottom of her blouse and pulled it over her head. This son of a bitch was going to have her either way. All she could
really do now was make sure he did it by inflicting as little pain as possible. He stood there naked in front of her while she peeled off her clothes. She unhooked her bra and he licked his lips as her full breasts bounced free. She wondered how many women he had fooled into thinking he was as good as he looked over the years. She wished that she had a knife right now. She’d love to shove it into his gut and watch his face as she twisted it.
He grinned at her and her stomach rolled. She could taste bile in the back of her throat as he lowered himself down on top of her. He wrapped a hand around the back of her neck and pulled her up into a kiss. He kissed her deeply, forcing his tongue into her mouth. It was a brief, but intense kiss and it made Paige feel even sicker. While his tongue probed her mouth all she could think about was that she was kissing the man that killed her brother.
She felt her eyes well up with tears for just a second. She willed them away. She wasn’t going to give this bastard the satisfaction of seeing her cry. She could feel him pressing at her opening. At least he wasn’t looking for any foreplay tonight.
"You are so fucking beautiful," he told her. She wanted to spit in his face, but she kept her face neutral and squeezed her eyes shut. “Get on your knees.” Shit! His tone went from admiration to total domination. He was going to make her pay for resisting.
She sank slowly to the floor as he stepped towards her, shoving his throbbing cock into her face. He took it into his hand and held the back of her head with his other hand. He started rubbing it all over her face. Once again she squeezed her eyes shut. She tried to transport herself somewhere else inside of her head...anywhere else.
“Open up sweetheart.” She was afraid she would gag, but she did as he told her. As soon as her lips parted he pushed himself into her mouth. The side where he’d hit her and split her lip was burning and she could taste blood again. He didn’t seem to notice or care. She considered biting down, but she was sure she might have to pay for that with her life if she did. He began thrusting his hips, pushing in deeper and deeper, still holding her head in place with his hand. Her eyes teared up again, but this time because she was trying not to gag. In a breathless voice he said, “Play with your tits baby.” She dutifully obliged, moving her hands to her chest and tugging at her hardening nipples. Fucking traitorous body.
House of Paine - (A Romantic Suspense - Book 1) Page 10