by Levine, Nina
Fear bled from Marx, and he squirmed in the bed where we had him. He blinked rapidly a few times. There was no escape for him. He’d come to us, and King would make him regret that decision if he didn’t give us what we wanted.
After I had given him some water, he mumbled, “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”
My phone sounded with a call, but I ignored it. Whoever it was could wait.
King pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat. “Who the fuck do you work for?”
Marx pulled a face. “That’s the one thing I don’t know.”
King was up and out of that chair faster than Marx could blink. “Don’t fucking lie to me!” he roared.
Marx shrunk from him. “I’m not! I honestly don’t know who he is. We never met.”
King gripped Marx’s chin and squeezed hard, raining a new round of pain down on him. “Tell. Me.”
Marx thrashed on the bed, legs and arms trying to fight King. I quickly stepped in and held his legs down while King threatened him again. “You don’t start talking now, I’m gonna start removing body parts.”
“He sent different people each time,” Marx managed to get out between deep gasps for air. “We met in different places, too. There was no pattern to it.” He gasped again when King tightened his grip. “I swear! He told me I would never know because that wasn’t how he worked. No one knew who he was.”
That made King stop. Letting Marx’s chin go, he demanded, “How did he make first contact with you? How the fuck did he know you? And what did he offer you?”
Marx nodded madly, tears streaming down his face. “I’ll tell you! I swear I’ll tell you everything.” Another gasp for air and then—“I don’t know how he found me, but the first time I heard from him, he called me. Well, I don’t think it was him. I think it was his main guy.”
“What the fuck do you mean by his main guy?” I asked, ignoring another call coming from my phone in my pocket.
“I met a lot of different men, but there was this one guy who seemed to be in charge. He was the one I always spoke with on the phone. And then they sent others to drop off drugs and collect cash.”
King planted his feet wide and settled his arms across his chest. “How do you know the one on the phone wasn’t the man you were working for?”
“By what he said.”
“Fuck, spit it out, Marx. What did he say?” I asked.
“He always told me that his boss would be happy with my work.” He paused. “Until today.”
“What did you do today?” I asked. King remained eerily silent while he took everything in.
My phone rang again. I ignored it, again. We’d be done here soon enough; I’d check it then.
“I dropped off cash to one of their men early this morning, and I followed him, trying to get to the boss. They must have been following him, too, because I didn’t get far before they got to me.”
King dropped his arms. “So they left you for dead. How the fuck did you get here?”
Marx shook his head slightly. “They didn’t leave me there. They brought me here. Opened their car door and dumped me out the front as they drove by.”
King’s eyes met mine, and I knew we had the same thought. “I’m on it,” I called out over my shoulder as I exited the room.
I jogged down the hallway to the room where we ran surveillance. Finding Nitro there, I said, “We need to pull footage of the front of the club from just over an hour ago.”
“What are we looking for?”
“The car that dumped Marx out the front.”
He whistled low. “Surely they’re smarter than that.”
“You’d think so, but we need that number plate either way.”
Ten minutes later, I had Bronze on the phone. I’d given him the number plate to run. And then I asked, “Any word on Sully yet?”
“Nothing. I’m still looking,” he said, causing my gut to tighten.
“Thanks, Bronze.” I ended the call and tried to push thoughts of what had happened to Sully from my mind. I wasn’t ready to admit my gut feel for the matter. Not yet. I still held hope that he’d show up.
I noticed the missed calls I’d had were from Charlie and was about to call her back when King entered the surveillance room, distracting me.
“Bronze on to it?” he asked.
Both Nitro’s gaze and mine dropped to King’s hands. Blood covered them. “Fuck, King,” I muttered, meeting his eyes again. “What did you do?” Surely he hadn’t killed Marx. I was convinced there was more information to get out of him still.
The murderous energy surrounding him filled the tiny room. There was no mistaking how wired he was for death. “He’s still breathing if that’s what you want to know.”
Nitro’s brows raised. “You just had a little fun with him?”
“Let’s just say that he won’t be walking anywhere in a hurry.”
“You cut his foot off?” I asked.
King scowled. “Fuck, Hyde, I’m not that fucking stupid.” King’s mouth twisted into the kind of smile that let you know he derived great—possibly, insane—pleasure from whatever he did. “I broke his leg so he couldn’t go anywhere.”
“Good move,” Devil said from the doorway. “That asshole deserves it.”
My phone rang yet again. This time I answered it. “Monroe. I’m in the middle of something. You okay?”
Monroe’s voice filtered down the line. It was filled with concern. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Charlie’s just been taken to hospital by ambulance. She fell at your place and hurt her arm.”
Fuck. I’d ignored Charlie’s calls.
Every fatherly instinct I possessed kicked in. “Which hospital? And where’s Tenille?”
“Calm down, tiger. She’s okay. I don’t know where Tenille is. Charlie said she tried to call you, but you didn’t answer, so in the end she called Bree. And Bree called me.”
She gave me all the details and told me she was on her way there, putting my mind at ease a little.
King narrowed his eyes at me. “Everything okay, brother?”
I blew out a long breath. “No. My kid’s in the hospital.”
He jerked his chin at me. “Go see her.”
“You good here?” Not that I wouldn’t go to Charlie straight away, but I needed to know where we were with the club.
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m gonna wait for Bronze to get back to me and then make plans from there. We’ll be sitting tight until then.”
Five minutes later, I was on my way to the hospital. My gut churned with worry for Charlie. I knew it was an overreaction, because a broken bone, if that’s what it was, could be fixed. But I hadn’t answered her calls, and I was pissed off at myself for putting her in a situation where neither parent was there for her.
Chapter 30
Monroe
It wasn’t often I met a woman I took an instant dislike to, but Hyde’s ex-wife was one of those women. I’d been at the hospital with Hyde for almost two hours before Tenille showed up. She hadn’t liked the fact I was there with him and had spent the half hour since glaring at me. But besides that, there was something about her that I couldn’t warm to. And it wasn’t just because she was Hyde’s ex.
Hyde was pissed at her. I could tell he was fighting like crazy not to lose his shit at her, which, full points to him, but I wouldn’t even blame him if he did.
Raking his fingers through his hair, he barked, “You left her alone when she needed you? When she was sick?”
Tenille turned her glare to him. “That doesn’t even have anything to do with Charlie’s fall,” she snapped.
His face contorted with anger. “She told you she felt sick, really fucking sick, and still, you left her alone. What was so fucking important that you had to leave her then, Tee?”
Tenille was right—this had nothing to do with Charlie’s fall, which happened because she was running to the bathroom to vomit—but I was with Hyde. What kind of mother would leave her child when she w
as sick with a raging temperature and had been vomiting? I wasn’t up on first aid, but even I knew that level of sickness required attention.
“That is none of your business,” Tenille threw back.
Tension coiled itself around Hyde’s body, and he took a step towards her. “I’m fucking making it my business.”
Oh Lord. He sounded like he could murder her. I felt the need to step in on her behalf, even though I agreed with everything he said.
Reaching for him, I said, “Hyde—”
Tenille’s steely gaze snapped back to me. “Take your hand off my husband.”
I lifted my brows. “Your husband?”
A smug expression filled her face. “Oh, you didn’t know? We’re still married.”
“Tenille,” Hyde warned in a low voice. “Stop trying to fuck with shit that doesn’t involve you, and answer my question.”
Her words hit their mark, leaving me confused and upset. Surely she was lying. He’d never told me they weren’t divorced.
Tenille moved closer to me. “He never told you, did he?” The woman was awful. I could practically see the venom dripping from her lips. How the hell did he marry and have a child with someone like her?
Well, she wouldn’t see me crumble. I didn’t believe in letting bullies win. “You can try and change the subject as much as you want, but the fact remains—you were a shitty mother this morning. And I think Hyde deserves an answer to his question.”
She slapped me. “Fuck you, bitch.”
My hand flew to cover my face where she’d left a sting. She was a crazy bitch.
Hyde finally lost his shit. Gripping her bicep tightly, he dragged her away from me, down the hospital hallway. She argued with him every step of the way, but he paid no attention. To think I’d tried to help her earlier when I thought he was about to explode. Good luck to her. As far as I was concerned, she deserved anything he said to her.
I pulled out my phone and sent Tatum a text.
Me: Did you know Hyde is still married? She’s fucking insane BTW.
Tatum: No. Where are you?
Me: At the hospital with them. His daughter is sick.
Tatum: She okay?
Me: She’s got a vomiting bug and has broken her arm I think. They’re doing X-rays now.
Tatum: I’ve never heard about Hyde’s wife. You okay?
Me: IDK. I don’t like being lied to. You know that. Honesty is at the top of my list.
Tatum: Hear him out, Roe. I think he’s a good guy.
Me: Yeah, we’ll see.
Tatum: Sorry, babe, gotta go. Billy’s in a mood today.
Me: Love you xx
I didn’t have to wait long for Hyde to return. He stalked down the hallway towards me, alone, with a furious look on his face. It softened a little as he came closer, but not much. Tenille had worked her way under his skin.
“Sorry about that,” he said.
“Did you figure it out with her?”
“No. She won’t tell me what she was doing, and now she’s fucked off downstairs.”
“Does it really matter what she was doing? I mean, nothing could have been more important than staying with Charlie, so whatever it was doesn’t make any difference, right?”
He scrubbed his hand over his face, and for the first time that day, I noticed how exhausted he looked. Or maybe not exhausted, but agitated. Something. He was off, whatever it was.
“You’re right. At the end of the day, it doesn’t fucking matter. I just can’t believe she did that.”
I bit my lip as I contemplated the best way to ask my next question. But there was only one way to ask it, so I just blurted it out. “Are you still married?”
He held my gaze and nodded. “Yeah.”
My heart splintered in my chest, and I realised just how invested I had become in this relationship. But putting up with dishonesty wasn’t something I was willing to do. I’d been burnt by lies before and I wasn’t willing to go down that path again.
The busy hospital blurred as I focused solely on Hyde. People swarmed around us in the waiting room, but I saw none of them. All I saw was Hyde staring down at me, with what looked like regret.
Taking a step away from him, I said, “Okay, I’m out. I’m done.” The words hurt to say, and I felt shaky on my legs. I just needed to get out of there, to my car, where I could sit and process all of this. And cry. Because, fuck, he’d broken my damn heart with his lie.
He took hold of my arm and stopped my retreat. “It’s not what you think.”
I snorted and tried to wrestle my arm free of his hold. “Yeah, that’s what they all say.”
His jaw clenched. “Stop fighting me, Roe, and hear me out.” The tone he took with me made it sound like I was in the wrong, not him.
Using force, I yanked my arm free. “Don’t you do that! Don’t you make out that I’m the bad guy here when you’re the one who hasn’t been honest!” This situation had worked me up, annoying the fuck out of me. I hated sounding like a fucking harpy.
“Fuck, that’s not what I’m trying to do. I’m just trying to get you to listen to what I have to say.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Fine, say it.”
“Tenille and I haven’t been together for fourteen years. But we never got divorced.”
“Is it over?”
“Yes.”
“So why does she think it isn’t?”
“Fuck, it’s a long story—”
“I’ve got time.”
His phone rang, cutting into our conversation. He checked his caller ID and hit me with another look of regret. “I have to take this.”
I nodded and watched his back as he walked away from me. He carried so much on his shoulders. I was sure of it. But he didn’t seem to want to share any of it. And as for his marriage, I felt like an idiot for allowing his wife to get me all worked up to the point where I refused to listen to him. I didn’t usually act crazy like that, but damn it, my jealousy got the better of me.
Hyde finished his call and came back to me. He opened his mouth to speak, but a doctor interrupted. She wanted to go over Charlie’s X-rays with him.
I met his gaze. “I’ve gotta get to work, so I’ll leave you to it.”
His eyes searched mine and he nodded. “I’ll call you when I’m done here.”
“No, I don’t want you to worry about me. Just focus on Charlie. I’ll talk to you tonight.” I stood on my toes and brushed a kiss across his lips and then left him before he could argue.
I really did want him to give all his attention to Charlie. But I also needed some space to get myself under control and my thoughts in check. Tenille had fucked with my head way too much, and I had to find a way to clear that shit out.
Chapter 31
Monroe
I didn’t hear from Hyde all day. It was almost 10:00 p.m. with still no word. I’d texted him around five to see if he had time to chat, but he hadn’t replied. I had then spent the last few hours worried about him. Tatum said something the other day about Nitro wanting her to lay low due to club stuff going on, so I was concerned for his safety. Kinda crazy, knowing that Hyde was more than capable of looking after himself, but you never knew what could happen when someone pulled a gun or some other weapon.
I was about to go to bed when he finally showed up. Yanking the door open, I found him on my doorstep looking anything but okay. Dishevelled accurately described him, from his hair to his clothes to his body language. And he watched me with haunted eyes, causing my worry for him to shoot even higher.
I reached for him. “What’s going on?”
He didn’t answer me. Instead, he stepped inside, shutting the door with his boot, and pushed me up against the wall. His hands were under the baby-doll I wore within seconds, and a deeply satisfied growl came from him when he cupped my breasts.
I pushed against his chest in an effort to stop him, but I had no shot at that. Hyde was on a mission.
He lifted me so he could carry me into my bedr
oom. I took the opportunity to ask again, “Hyde, what’s going on? You look like shit, and I’m worried about you.”
Another growl from him. “Only thing you need to be worried about, sugar, is opening those legs of yours and letting me fuck you.”
I was all for sex; he knew that. But I was more for him sharing his load. That didn’t have to mean dumping all his problems out in the open, but what I was looking for was some back and forth. If this relationship was going to go anywhere, I wanted us to know we could come home at the end of the day and find some comfort there.
When we reached my bedroom and he deposited me on the floor, I forcefully stopped him from getting his hands all over me again. “The only way you’re getting fucked tonight is if you stop for a minute and tell me how you are. I’m not looking for details. I just want you to talk to me and share yourself with me.”
His face darkened. “It’s been a long fucking day. You want me to share the shit I’ve got going on in my head?”
“Yes.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t. If you knew what was in my head, you’d run a fucking mile, Roe.”
“You need to give me a little more credit, Hyde. I may not know exactly what you do when you’re out on club work, but I figure it’s not rainbows and unicorn type shit. I can see you struggling. Between dealing with your daughter, and your wife, and your club, you’ve got a lot going on. You don’t have to carry that all by yourself.”
Silence filled the room while he processed that. This relationship was so new that I had no grasp on what he thought. Not when it came to this kind of stuff. So my veins buzzed with a little apprehension as I wondered what he would say or do next.
“I’ve been a shitty father. My kid hasn’t seen me since she was two. I left her mother and never went back until recently. That enough to make you think twice about me?” It was like he was trying to provoke me. Trying to throw bad shit about himself at me in an effort to push me away.