Honor

by Jay Crownover

  “There’s hundreds of them!” I couldn’t hear her, but I could see what she was saying plain as day.

  I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Chuck. “Rats?”

  “Son of a bitch! It’s like a goddamn plague in here!”

  I swore and rushed to the elevator. “Start clearing everybody out.”

  “Already on it. Key is moving everyone in the bar to the front doors. This isn’t good for business, boss.”

  “No shit. How in the hell did someone get hundreds of rats past our security?” I hated when anyone messed with my money, but I hated when someone outsmarted me even more.

  “Don’t know, but I’m not happy about it. I hate rats.”

  “I hate losing money. We’re gonna be shut down for at least two days getting all those little creatures out of here.”

  “If not longer. I’ll go pull up the video feed, but if it’s like the last two incidents, there won’t be anything.”

  I swore again as the elevator deposited me in the back hallway. I moved toward the bar area, ushering people toward the exit as I did so. They all looked kind of frantic and disgruntled that all their fun had been ruined for the weekend. I didn’t apologize, but I did tell anyone that asked that they would of course be given a credit. It was a pain in the ass, and when a particularly fat and ugly rodent scurried across my foot, it was all I could do not to kick it into a wall. It was disgusting and had perfectly succeeded in shutting me down. Fury lashed hot and bright inside of me.

  When I reached the bar I saw that Key had done a pretty good job of clearing out most of the patrons. The floor looked like it was alive as furry bodies climbed all over it and each other. I could see she was grossed out but keeping it together as she helped one of the bartenders off the bar and told them laughingly to take the rest of the night off. Our eyes met across the space and I motioned for her to go on and head outside as well. She nodded back and carefully picked her way across the vermin-covered floor. The noise of the rodents had my skin crawling as I went to follow her. The smell was enough to have me biting back bile, and the rage at all my hard work and careful planning being disrupted was enough to choke me.

  I called Chuck and told him to make sure the building was clear of people and also to see if he could find a twenty-four-hour exterminator. He already had his guys doing a floor-by-floor sweep for any remaining clubgoers. He told me to take the night off and that we could tackle the mess and whoever was behind it in the morning.

  I begrudgingly agreed and made my way over to where Keelyn was standing by her car.

  “I need to burn everything I have on right now. You owe me a new pair of Jimmy Choos.” She stuck out her foot and scowled at the strappy, nude-colored high heel her foot was encased in.

  “I’ll buy you whatever you want. Let’s get out of here. I’ll follow you up to the house.” I had been spending so much time at the club I hadn’t been to the mountain house in almost a full week. I was ready for a night in my own bed. Preferably with her under me . . . or over me . . . I wasn’t too picky.

  “Are we seriously going to just pretend like the entire club wasn’t overrun with rats like some kind of plague and pestilence out of the Bible? What’s going on, Nassir?”

  I sighed and rubbed a hand roughly over my face. “I’m not sure. Can we talk about this later? I want a shower and five minutes to calm down so I don’t put my fist through a wall.”

  She must have seen the barely contained violence that was boiling in my gaze because she took a step back without arguing and nodded. “Okay. I’ll see you at the house.”

  She got into her little car, and I walked over to my much more expensive one. I loved the Bentley. It screamed king of the fucking mountain, but it was also fast and handled like a dream. I appreciated the opulence of it. I pulled out of the parking lot behind Key, making sure to keep her in sight as we tooled through the city. My mind was a million miles away, wondering how someone could be circumventing my security system and what they gained by messing with my new club.

  I made enemies like it was the one job in life I was born to do, but most people with a grudge against me wanted to put my head on a pike not a dent in my fat pocketbook. I didn’t understand it and that annoyed me even more. Revenge and retribution were the things I’d been weaned on, so I should be able to figure out why someone was toying with my new club. It all felt very random and woefully immature.

  I rested my wrist on the steering wheel and forced myself to concentrate on the twin red taillights in front of me. Desire, sharp and jagged, poked at the anger that was flooding my veins. I would have Keelyn in my house, alone for the next few days, while the infestation at the club was taken care of. If there was ever an opportunity to show her that this thing between us was inevitable, this was it. She could push and push at me until she tired herself out and then I would pick her up and take her to bed because by then she would be begging me to. A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth at the idea of Keelyn Foster begging for anything, ever. It was a nice fantasy, but I knew she was going to fight me every step of the way. That’s why no one else but her would do.

  I squinted as bright lights suddenly illuminated the interior of the car. I glanced into the rearview mirror and frowned when all I could see was headlights because the car behind me was so close to my bumper. The hair on the back of my neck stood up a little as I eased my foot off the gas and slowed way down. I heard an engine rev up as the car behind me sped up instead of slowing down to match my new pace. I frowned and tightened my hands so that I was actually holding the steering wheel in a tight grip. I saw Key’s taillights pull farther and farther away, which was what I wanted. I wasn’t sure why the person behind me was riding my ass, but after the week I had had, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.

  I let the Bentley pick up a little bit of speed and switched lanes to see if the person behind me would pass. They didn’t. They switched lanes as well and I wasn’t surprised in the slightest when I heard metal screech against metal as their bumper made contact with mine. The Bentley wobbled a little, but Bentleys were luxury cars made for rich people with a lot to lose, so the love tap barely sent me off course. I slammed the gas pedal down to the floor and the car leaped forward smoothly. I shot my gaze to the rearview to see if I could get a license plate or tell what kind of car it was, but the brights shining in my eyes made that impossible.

  I knew I had the driving skills and the horsepower to outrun pretty much anyone on the road. But I didn’t have that luxury, because as soon as I sped up I ended up catching up to the Honda and to Key, who had obviously slowed down to see where I had gone. I swore and tried to flash my lights at her to get her to move, but that just made her slow down even more, forcing me to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending her and pushing her off the road. I didn’t have any choice but to let the other car that had been chasing me catch up. I didn’t want to run the risk of speeding past Key and having the other driver pursue her instead. When the other car reached me it was still going top speed since the driver was trying to catch up to me, and the impact when our vehicles collided was brutal and violent enough that it sent the Bentley careening off the shoulder of the road.

  I probably would’ve been able to regain control. The Bentley was made to take a hit; what it wasn’t made to do was fly. The shoulder had enough of a lip on it that once the wheels caught it at the speed I was going, the car lifted up into the air. I watched everything go upside down, and I knew the impact was going to be harsh and violent. All I could think about was Key telling me my forever was never going to be as long as someone else’s and how this just served to prove her point.

  When the car came back down, it landed on the roof and everything crunched down around me like I was on the inside of a trash compactor. The noise was deafening and the impact was enough to rattle all of my bones. The top of my head collided with the concave metal—hard—and everything instantly went foggy and out of focus. I felt shards of glass shatter around me and pierc
e my skin. I had to blink blood out of my eyes as my vision started to get blurry. My head really hurt and everything was the wrong way, but I could smell gasoline and the copper scent of my own blood, so I knew I was still alive . . . at least for now. I tried to move so that I could release the seat belt, but the car had crunched so far down that this was impossible. I groaned and lifted a hand to the blood liberally flowing over my face.

  I couldn’t move. I was stuck upside down in the mangled mess of my car because someone had run me off the road. I groaned as my vision started to fade to black.

  I heard someone call my name in a frantic voice and realized it had to be Key. I wanted to yell at her to stay in her car and just head to my house in the woods where it was safe, but I couldn’t make words work. My tongue felt too thick in my mouth and my thoughts were fighting through a bunch of darkness and haze in the effort to become speech.

  “Nassir! Are you okay? Oh my God, that SUV ran you off the road!”

  Suddenly her face was in the window and I had to squint to see her clearly. Her gray eyes were taking up most of her face and her usual sexy sneer was replaced by pinched concern. “You’re bleeding. Bad.”

  I couldn’t reply, so I just closed my eyes and then startled when I felt her fingers tap against my cheek, at first softly, but when I refused to open my eyes she used more force.

  “None of that. I called 911. They’ll be here any second to get you out of there. Just hang in there.” She sounded scared and really worried.

  I sighed and turned into her touch. It felt really nice.

  “Why didn’t you just outrun that SUV, Nassir? As much as this car cost, I know it goes faster than that ordinary piece of junk.”

  She was stroking my cheek and I knew she was talking mostly to keep me awake and alert, but all I wanted to do was close my eyes. My head really hurt and it was starting to throb.

  “Didn’t want them to . . . hit . . . you . . . let them hit me.” The words were slurred and I wasn’t sure I got them out in the right order. I shuddered a little when she brushed her thumb along my bottom lip. I wished I could move my hands and that I wasn’t hanging upside down.

  “Jesus, Nassir. You can’t do something that chivalrous and thoughtful and then die on me. Keep those eyes open.”

  I thought I heard sirens, but maybe it was just the ringing in my ears. I must have let my eyes drift all the way closed because my cheek stung as she full-on smacked me across it and barked my name in a panicked tone.

  I peeled my lids open and tried to reassure her. “The devil doesn’t die, Key. He just goes back home.” Hell was always waiting.

  Getting the words out took the last of my energy and I couldn’t fight the darkness that was waiting to drag me under anymore.

  Chapter 9

  Keelyn

  It took two paramedics and a uniformed police officer to pull me away from the car. I was freaking out and not thinking rationally because Nassir had blacked out, and I couldn’t tell if his chest was still rising and falling. He was covered in blood and the car looked like a crushed soda can. He was too still, and if he wasn’t giving me hell, then I knew something was really, really wrong with him. I decided if I took my eyes off him and couldn’t touch him, he was going to be taken away from me forever, and that sent me into a full-fledged panic attack.

  I was on my knees in the mud holding Nassir’s pretty, bloodied face in my hands and saying his name over and over again when help arrived. He stopped responding to me and I didn’t want to let him go, but the first responders thought I was in the way. The paramedics pulled me to my feet and handed me off to the cop as the fire department made their way down the hill carrying some kind of heavy-duty equipment that they were going to use to cut him out of the crumpled metal surrounding him.

  “Is he breathing? I couldn’t tell if he was breathing.” I sounded frantic and kind of crazy, but the cop just kept hauling me away from the carnage up the embankment and toward where I had left the Honda parked askew on the side of the road. The lights from the sirens cast everything in an eerie light and I balked a little when I saw another cop putting a middle-aged woman in the back of a police car.

  “Let the first responders get him out and then I’ll make sure to get you an update on his condition. It’s a shame. That’s a really nice car.”

  I cut him a look and crossed my arms over my chest. The cop just lifted his eyebrows at me. “What? I’ve been on the streets since day one on patrol. I know all about Nassir Gates. Can’t say I’m surprised a deranged lady tried to run him off the road. Lots of people want a piece of him for one reason or another.”

  I looked over at the hobbled SUV with the smashed-in front end and then over to the dejected woman in the back of the police car. I had no idea who she was, but she looked like the president of the PTA or a suburban mom. She definitely didn’t look like the type of person that would have a grudge against Nassir or be crazed enough to try to kill him.

  “Who is she? Why did she run him off the road?” I asked the question but it was almost drowned out by the screech of metal as they started pulling the car from around the injured man. I went to bolt back down the hill but the cop grabbed my elbow and held me in place.

  “She said he ruined her life, that her husband left her because of him. She’s a little wacky and not making much sense. She banged her head pretty good when she rammed into the Bentley, so she might not be operating on all cylinders.”

  I couldn’t care less about how she was or if she was right in the head. I wanted to punch her in the face, and if Nassir was fatally injured no amount of police presence was going to keep me from ripping her apart. I was going to tell this to the cop, but voices started moving closer to the top of the hill, so I shook him off and rushed to the point where the road turned into grass. I almost collapsed back onto my already dirty knees. Not only was Nassir breathing and in one piece, he was standing wobbly on his feet and arguing with a paramedic that was trying to tell him that he needed to wait for the stretcher and backboard to be rolled down the hill.

  I dashed back down the hill before the cop could snatch my arm again. I’d ditched my heels the first time I rushed down the embankment to see if he was okay, so the ground was cold under my bare feet, but all I felt was heat when Nassir’s bronze gaze hit me. It wasn’t as shiny and as lit up as it normally was, but I could see him in there, foggy with pain and dulled with confusion, but he was still my unbreakable, resilient devil.

  I pushed a paramedic out of the way so that I could get to him, hearing myself sworn at and seeing myself glared at in the process. I put my hands on each of his cheeks and my fingers immediately got slick and red with the blood that was coating his face and running from the top of his head. He had multiple cuts on his face from the broken glass and a particularly nasty-looking slice right above the collar of his shirt that was leaking a steady trickle of crimson down the curve of his neck. But his chest was rising and falling with strong and steady breaths, and even though his skin was cold where I touched him, he was still vital and very much alive.

  “You passed out and wouldn’t wake up. You suck.”

  He lifted his hands and I could see them shaking. He was going to pull me to him, but at the last second he stopped himself and let them drop to his sides limply. Even as battered and barely holding himself upright as he was, his will to keep me, to challenge me, was stronger than the pain clearly stamped across his face.

  “I was stuck upside down. All the blood rushed to my head. Let’s get out of here.” He grunted and lurched a few steps forward on wobbly legs.

  “Hey, man, you need to head to the hospital. You’re all kinds of messed up,” one of the young paramedics called out to Nassir as he determinedly put one foot in front of the other. I slipped an arm around his waist and tugged on his arm until he wrapped it around my shoulder.

  “I’m not going to the hospital.” Nassir stumbled a little and almost pulled both of us to the ground. I squeezed him tighter as we took one slow st
ep at a time.

  “You need to get your head checked out, man. The roof of that car came right down on your head when you landed. You probably have a concussion, and you need stitches for sure.” The paramedic sounded nervous as he followed behind our slow progress.

  Nassir’s muscles started to twitch as we hit the incline that led back up the road, but he didn’t stop moving forward. He turned his head to look at the worried EMT and told him, “I’ll be fine. I’m not going with you.”

  The guy obviously thought that was a bad idea, but as we finally crested the hill he just shook his head in defeat. “Okay, you can refuse further medical care, but you have to understand it isn’t advisable. You need to see a doctor. You’re going to have to sign a Refusal of Medical Assistance form before we can let you leave the scene.”

  Nassir listed really hard to the side and it took all my strength to keep him upright. I thought maybe I should just shove him in the back of the ambulance for his own good. His fingers curled around my own where I was clutching his hand and I abandoned that idea. I knew there was no forcing Nassir to do anything he didn’t want to do.

  “I’ll sign whatever. I just want to go home.”

  “Okay, I’ll get one, and we need one of the cops on the scene to witness it.”

  Nassir grunted and the EMT hurried off. I looked up at him from under my eyelashes and let him go as we reached the Honda so he could rest against the side of the car.

  “You really are a mess, Nassir.”

  “Just banged up. This is nothing.” He lifted an arm and rubbed the edge of his sleeve across his bloody face. I saw him wince when it came away redder than my hair. “They have any idea who ran me off the road?”