by A. J. Macey
Love me?
Yeah, fucking right.
Without prompting, Cheryl placed my typical drink in front of me with a respectful nod before going back to filling drinks of the other members. I stood next to Brooks who had sunk back into his normal seat, my back pressing into Chase’s chiseled chest. I just fucking want to go to bed, I grumbled internally.
“Didn’t expect you here tonight, baby, not that I’m complaining,” Brooks’ words nearly shouted over the noise around us. I ignored Garrett’s shoulders tensing at his words as I responded.
“I have news,” I shouted back. Brooks’ eyes lit up in understanding and he nudged Garrett. Leaning into his personal space, Brooks said something to him that I couldn’t make out before walking off. My stepbrother didn’t say anything to me as he got up, whispering something in the tramp’s ear before starting toward the back office. Assuming we were supposed to follow, I caught up to him, my eyes tracing the muscles moving in his arms and shoulders as he walked. After another minute of stifling silence in the Aces’ office, Brooks entered with Stone right behind him.
“I found the girls,” I started once the door was shut, the much softer music allowing me to talk at a normal volume.
“I would certainly hope so, we told you exactly where they’d be,” Garrett snapped, his words harsh as he glared at me. I bristled.
“I meant where within the warehouse, asshole.” I unconsciously took a step toward him as my fingers curled into tight fists.
“How many?” Brooks asked, trying to diffuse the tension between us. I glared for a moment longer, Garrett’s gaze unwavering as he glared back.
“Five”—I dragged my eyes from my asshole stepbrother to Brooks—“and fifteen guards. Shift change at six sharp. No cameras, no electronic monitoring of any kind in the building. Girls are sedated through IVs and kept together in the room next to where four guards are stationed. Only one or two sprinkled throughout the rest of the warehouse. I have their positions throughout the building marked down. They use the side door on the Southeast corner of the building which explains why we couldn’t figure out their shift changes.”
“How’d you get all this information?” Stone finally spoke, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. I huffed.
“I do what thieves are good at. I got onto the roof and snuck around the air vents.” That should be fucking obvious. My exhaustion was making me irritable. Well, more irritable than normal.
“You went into the building?” Garrett nearly screamed. “Jesus fuck, Kiera! Do you have a fucking death wish?”
“Obviously, haven’t you heard anything she says when she opens her damn mouth?” Stone sneered.
“Knock it off,” Brooks snapped at his officers. “This is exactly what she’s being paid to do, Garrett, so reel it in. Stone, get over your shit with her until this job is done and then you two can go back to hating each other, but we’re on limited time right now.”
“What about me?” Chase piped in cheerfully. “I want something to do.” The MC members looked at him like he had lost his marbles as he excitedly bounced on his toes. Brooks opened his mouth, but I cut him off.
“Now that we have the main information on the girls, I want you to see what you can find on Harbold and where he could have possibly moved his files,” I instructed, knowing Chase’s question wasn’t directed at the Aces’. I was the only one he ever took directives from. Facing the guys again, I gave them a pointed look. “Are we done? I’ve been up since like three in the morning, I’m fucking tired, and I want to go to bed.”
Brooks opened his mouth to respond when the sounds of screaming and shouting filled the air from out in the bar. Stone and Brooks bolted out of the room as Chase and I grabbed our weapons. Garrett blocked the door as I tried to follow.
“Stay here, both of you,” he bit out. I felt my jaw fall open. He can’t be serious.
“Like hell we’re staying here!” I shouted in disbelief, but instead of arguing with me he shut the door quickly behind him, and the sound of a lock filled the office.
“Oh, my god,” I huffed. “He just locked us in here. That fucking asshole,” I fumed. I turned to Chase in anger. “Hold my shit.” I shoved my gun at him, forcing him to awkwardly clutch it to his chest with hands full of his own weapons. Pulling out my lock picks, I got to work, and after a few quick wiggles, the janky lock opened.
The shouting had stopped. Now it was only tense silence and the sound of a man whose voice I didn’t recognize arguing with Brooks. Walking silently, Chase and I weaved around people who were staring wide-eyed at the center of the room. When we finally reached a small opening near the back edge of the crowd, I spotted Brooks, backed by Stone, Garrett, and Nate, facing off with the stranger who was backed by three Alloy Kings’ members. On second glance, I recognized the speaker as the Alloy Kings’ Vice President Ron ‘Savage’ Sacher, his buzzed head and greying beard giving him away. He was bulkier and stockier than the Aces’ officers except for Nate whose scary-looking muscles bulged under his clenched fists.
“Back off of your shipments and it won’t result in any escalation,” his deep voice commanded. Brooks rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, the perfect picture of indifference. I pulled my eyes away from the Alloy Kings’ VP to scan the rest of the group, easily recognizing the other players. I felt my heart seize when I spotted a familiar face. Taking half a step to the left behind one of the watching club members, I moved out of his eyesight before he could spot me.
This was bad.
Very, very bad.
“Get off my compound before I decide to shoot you,” Brooks drolled out. Ron just shrugged before waving his leather-wearing backup dancers toward the door.
“Then suffer the consequences.” He chuckled giddily before following his members out of the clubhouse. No one spoke or moved until the rumbling of their bikes faded in the distance. The tense atmosphere faded but didn’t dissipate as patch holders and hang-arounds went back to drinking and flirting. I turned my attention to Garrett, noticing his eyes were tight as he exhaled. He tried to hide it, and it probably wasn’t noticeable to other people, but I knew him better than anyone. His hands trembled and his face was pale. Garrett was shaken up after seeing his ex-best friend. Stepping around the tall man I had hidden behind, I followed the officers back to the office.
“What the fuck!” Garrett lost it when he saw the open door, whipping around in search of me. Brooks and Stone glanced at each other in confusion while Nate only looked back at me with a small laugh. He had known me long enough to know that I wouldn’t have stayed put. “Damn it, you little…” Garrett trailed off when he spotted me standing at the end of the line of people in the hall. Storming up to me, his calloused, tattooed fingers wrapped around my right forearm and pulled me into the very cramped office placing me between him and the desk.
“You’re staying where I can fucking see you before you wander off and get yourself shot,” he growled quietly in my ear, his hand still holding onto me. The metal of the desk was digging into my leg painfully, so I shifted till I was sitting atop it. His grip loosened but didn’t release as he leaned against the side of the object. Chase’s sparkling steel eyes caught mine, a brow raised as his gaze flickered toward Garrett before returning to me. I internally scoffed at his hinting. Garrett does not love me.
“Did you see what happened?” Brooks asked us, his gaze darting between me and Chase.
“Portion of it,” I filled in, not giving away that I knew who each of the Alloy Kings were. “We have a problem,” I started before Stone’s attitude interrupted me.
“No shit, Sherlock, good job on your observation skills,” he snarked.
Gritting my teeth, I glared daggers at him. He keeps saying my mouth will get me killed, but he clearly needs to check what comes out of his own because he’s going to end up pushing daisies before me at this rate.
“Shut the fuck up,” I spouted looking toward Garrett. “I’m assuming you saw who I did?”
“So, I wasn
’t just imagining things?” he questioned. I shook my head, scrunching up my face in sympathy. “Damn, well, that makes this a lot more complicated.” I nodded, ignoring the way he was gently squeezing my arm in comfort, whether for himself or me, I didn’t know.
“Want to share with the rest of us, love birds?” Stone sneered at us. Brooks sighed and rubbed his eyes at Stone’s attitude. I swallowed the long, long string of obscenities I wanted to snap at him and focused on the question.
“The guy who wasn’t wearing an Alloy Kings’ cut is Jace Corden.” I sighed before continuing. “He’s another thief, but several years ago he became a hit man.”
“All right, so?” Brooks asked, confused.
“He has no moral compass, so he’ll kill or hurt anyone and everyone if the price is right,” I urged. Brooks’ brows drew low over his grey-blue eyes before looking over to Chase.
“What’s the problem? Isn’t that what you did?” Chase bristled from his spot to my left. Standing up straight from leaning back against the desktop, he squared up to Brooks.
“Excuse you, I’m nothing like that bloody fucking bastard,” he huffed, highly offended, his hand pressing into his chest. “I don’t kill kids, and I don’t unnecessarily hurt or rape my marks before utterly slaughtering them.”
“It’s all right, my little assassin,” I cooed, soothingly rubbing my hand down his soft jacket. “He didn’t mean it like that.” Chase puffed up his chest still glaring at the president before settling back into my hand, practically purring like a cat at my pets.
“Why do I feel like there’s something you two aren’t telling us?” Nate finally spoke, not recognizing the name. I grimaced. “That means it’s really bad if you’re making that face.”
“He was my best friend.” Garrett’s rough and harsh voice cracked under the emotional strain of the past. “He was always after Kiera to the point of obsession. It got to the point we had a falling out…”
“Meaning you cut his face to hell and back,” I corrected. The left side of Jace’s face had been scarred, three large, jagged cuts going from above his eyebrow, down his cheek, and over his lips ending at his jaw. The rest of the officers’ eyes widened as they realized the ugly scars on his face as well as the black patch over his eye had been given to him by their vice president.
“Because he was trying to force himself on you!” Garrett snarled at me. The feeling of Jace’s hands roughly roving my body as I tried to fight him flashed to the front of my mind before I could shove them away. Sliding off the desk, I attempted to rip my arm out of Garrett’s grasp, but he held steady.
“Fuck you, Garrett! Don’t throw that fucked up shit in my face because I don’t need your damn help remembering that day!” I shouted shoving his chest with my free hand, but in the cramped space he only stumbled the half step back into the wall.
“Enough!” Brooks yelled over all of us. “Did he see you, Kiera?” I shook my head, keeping my mouth shut so I wouldn’t blow up. My eyes focused on Garrett who stared back. Taking a few deep breaths to keep my anger at the situation inside and not focusing it on Garrett and his assholey behavior, I calmed enough to resituate myself on the desk. As much as I pushed Garrett’s buttons and wound up yelling at him, I was grateful he had been there that day, and I couldn’t help but be thankful for what he had done.
A wave of exhaustion bared down on me at that moment, my eyes drooping in the weightiness of the urge to sleep. Their voices soothing around me made me slouch more and more until I was eventually leaning against something warm. My cheek rested against supple leather, the scent of grease, spice, and black currant filled my nose as I finally drifted off. A soft squeeze on my arm barely brought me back enough to hear a few harsh whispers.
“My kitten…” I slipped quickly back into a deep sleep, only this time I was accompanied by a memory I’d long since wanted to forget.
The summer air was hot as it lightly filtered through the open floor to ceiling windows, the gauzy white curtains billowing in the breeze. My sweats were rolled down until they rested snugly on my hips. The tank top I had on was form fitting, and I hoped I wouldn’t see any of the usual faces. Except Garrett, I’m more than okay with him seeing me in a skin tight top.
Don’t tell the asshole I said that though.
The cavernous halls and empty rooms that made up my wing of my father’s house felt hollow, lonely. I nibbled my lip and thought, What should I do today? Glancing at the large double wood doors at the end of my wing that were closed, I added sneaking out to see Abby or go poke around Vinny Russo’s lavish estate down the way to my list, until I realized Abby was spending the day with her boyfriend Nate. Stealing from sleazeball Russo was also off the table when I remembered he was throwing some stupid party tonight that I was being forced to attend with Frankie and his new whore of a wife.
The sound of the knob turning caught my attention, and I shot into my usual lounge chair to make it look like I wasn’t about to do something I knew I would get in trouble for. I had just gotten the book I was reading open when the main person I wanted to punch in the face stepped through the door.
Frankie.
“Kiera.” His husky voice was sharp as he called me like a dog. “I expect you to be ready for Vinny’s party tonight at seven sharp. Wear the dress Barbie picked out for you,” he commanded. I kept my head down, only glancing up at him under my lashes so he didn’t lose his shit like he did last week.
His sharp suit was custom made and fitted, the open black jacket revealing a matching vest buttoned over a crisply ironed white dress shirt. He would have had a conniption if something was out of place, wrinkled, or anything less than perfect. Even his ungodly expensive Italian shoes were shiny enough that if I looked down at them, I would be able to see myself in perfect reflected detail. His light brown hair was slicked back flawlessly, not even one hair out of its cemented place, while his honey brown eyes were cold as they glared down at me. His golden tan skin was clean shaven, topping off the perfectionist air that he prided himself on.
“Yes, sir,” I mumbled, counting the seconds until he left my portion of his gaudy mansion. He glared for a few more moments before turning on his heel and striding confidently out of the room. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking up before the door closed, my eyes landing on my second most hated person in this house.
Lorenzo Bianchi, my designated ‘body guard.’ Yeah right, more like prison keeper.
His blond hair was slicked back in the same fashion as my father, ice blue eyes centered on my face while the cruel slash of his mouth curled up in a mocking smirk. Bastard. I sat completely still, my eyes back on my book without actually seeing any of the words until he finally followed my father out the door. Even after hearing the thud of the doors closing, I didn’t look, fearing they would come back for another one of my forced ‘sessions.’
At the thought of all the shit Frankie and Lorenzo required me to go through to keep from following my mother’s gruesome fate into an unmarked grave in the middle of the Nevada desert, I slammed the book closed and chucked it across the room. Rage stirred within me, fueling the reservoir of fury I always felt sleeping within my chest to even higher levels. Turning in slow circles around the elegant sitting room, I wanted nothing more than to smash every lavish and expensive piece of art, furniture, and useless trinket until nothing was left but a room that reflected my turbulent emotions.
One day, I’ll destroy this house of horrors, taking Frankie and Lorenzo and the long list of names of those who had earned a trip to Hell with it.
The door opening startled me, but when I saw Garrett’s messily combed hair and sharp green eyes, I calmed. Jace’s dark brown eyes sought mine out as he followed his best friend into my rooms. Garrett was dressed in his usual attire of dark jeans, tight shirt, and leather jacket, his black boots thudding loudly on the shiny tile floor. Jace used to wear something similar until recently, when he started wearing business-y type shit. Today, he was in a pair of ironed slacks and a r
uby red dress shirt that was buttoned up to his collarbone, his tan neck peeking through the open collar.
“Hello, Kiera.” Jace’s rough and gravelly voice always put me slightly on edge. I wasn’t quite sure why, he had never done anything to freak me out, but the way he said my name, like a tortured promise, had me standing straighter.
“Jace, Garrett,” I muttered, turning to busy myself with something to do instead of staring at my stepbrother like some doe-eyed bimbo. That asshole didn’t need to know that I found him sexy. He was already irritating enough.
“What are you doing?” Garrett demanded. His voice, in stark contrast to his best friend, melted me from the inside. So much so I was already starting to feel my underwear growing wet. I really should stop wearing these stupid things since I have to change them several times a day. Glancing over at him from my position in front of the fancy bar cart, I cocked a brow at him as I poured myself a very large glass of liquor.
“What are you going on about now?” I huffed taking a sip of the smooth, and probably more expensive than most people make in a year, liquor. Frankie always prided himself on being and having the best of the best.
“You have a party tonight with your father, and you’re here fucking getting drunk,” Garrett hissed stomping over to me, but before he could take the glass I jumped away being careful to not spill it.
“I’ve literally had one sip,” I snapped, drinking another couple of gulps to purposely piss him off. “Also, I know I have a stupid party, your mother,” I sneered, “even picked out my outfit.”