by Ella Miles
“That will start a war you’re not going to win. Corsi is prepared. He has his men ready, while we’re fighting over who is going to lead.”
Harry shakes his head. “We are always ready for war. We aren’t scared of Corsi or any of the mafia. And we will have our leader decided by tonight.” He glances at his watch. “You have fifty-three minutes until she dies.”
I grab his shirt, and to my surprise, every one of the guys behind me points his gun at Harry’s head.
“I’m only going to ask this once; where is Rialta?” I ask.
“You won’t shoot me. If you do, there will be retribution, a price on your head,” Harry laughs.
I look behind me; Caius is standing with his gun pointed at Harry, the same as the others.
“Caius and I may not agree on much, but we both want Rialta alive. So tell me where she is, or we’ll kill you, and no matter which one of us wins, there will be no retribution for your death. We will both gladly kill you to save her.”
I tighten my grip, cutting off his breath. When he gets the message, I loosen my hand enough for him to talk.
“Then, I guess I’ll die for the cause. I’d rather die this way than from a heart attack like Monroe.”
And then someone fires, and Harry’s head falls limp in my hand.
I look to my left, expecting Hayes to be the one to shoot; I think he likes Ri the best. But it’s not him. It doesn’t seem like Gage or Caius shot either, but neither seems broken up about Harry’s death.
“Lennox?” I ask.
He shrugs, holstering his gun. “I’ve wanted to shoot him for years. Glad to have finally gotten orders to do it.”
“Technically, neither of us gave orders,” I say, looking to Caius.
“I did,” Caius says. “Or at least, I’ll say I did.” He looks around at the crowd that doesn’t seem heartbroken that Harry is now lying on the ground in a puddle of his own blood. “And the bystanders will back me up. Emma was all he had left, and she hated him. He wanted to die.”
I start digging through his pocket for his phone to see if he called anyone to take Ri. “How much time do we have left?”
“Forty-nine minutes,” Hayes says.
We all look at him. “I started a timer as soon as he said we have an hour.”
I look to Caius. “Are we working together or still competing?”
“It’s Ri, whatever it takes to find her as fast as possible,” he answers.
I nod.
We are only doing this to prevent a war, not because any of us have any sort of feelings for her.
“Knowing Ri, she’s already talked her captors’ heads off, disarmed them, and cut off their balls. So everyone, relax,” Lennox says.
We all know he’s probably right, but that doesn’t ease any of our tension.
“Where do we start? Who wasn’t here that should have been?” I ask.
“Harry’s guards,” Gage says.
I frown. “His guards?”
“We are Caius’s. We swore an oath when we were five, then renewed the vow at sixteen and marked our skin with tattoos of Caius’s crown. He will be a king, a leader of our group, whether he is the king or just one of many. There are five kings in our group and one who is king of everything. Monroe is the current king. The rest are more like princes. All of them have three guards who vow to protect and be their right-hand guys. We are Caius’s,” Hayes says.
And then it all makes sense. They couldn’t choose me even if they wanted to.
“So when I become a prince or king…?”
“Then you will choose three to guard you.”
“But not you three?”
Silence.
“No, they are mine. You would have to choose others,” Caius says with a growl.
Interesting.
“So Harry’s guards most likely have her. How do we find them?”
Gage snatches Harry’s phone from my hand, and he starts typing furiously.
“They won’t be on the grounds,” Hayes says.
“No, I suspect they will be somewhere about an hour away. Harry wanted her dead; that much was clear,” I say.
“The lake, then,” Caius says.
We all look at him.
“A boat on the lake. It would be the hardest to track, to get to,” he finishes.
Our faces drop.
Gage nods his head. “They took her to the lake. They don’t have reception, so I can’t pinpoint where exactly, just the dock they launched the boat from.”
Fuck!
We all start running toward our cars. “When we get there, I want everyone in different boats. We all take a slightly different direction, radio will be turned to station two to communicate if we see her, and shoot no matter your relation to them.”
“Agreed, I’ll go north, Beckett you go northeast, Hayes east, Lennox northwest, and Gage west,” Caius says.
I make it to my car first, expecting the others to ride with Caius again, but Hayes jumps into the passenger seat as I take off. He gives me directions as I drive the fifteen minutes to the pier twenty over the speed limit. That leaves about thirty to find her in the lake.
I run a red light, horns honk, but I just keep driving.
“We’re going to find her. And like Knox said, she’s probably already escaped, tied them up, and is driving the boat this way,” Hayes says, trying to reassure me.
I see Caius’s car behind me as I pull up to the dock.
“Gage has already arranged for five boats,” Hayes says.
I’ve barely put the car in park before I’m running down the gravel toward the dock. I grab the first boat and have it started and pulled out before I glance behind me. Every guy has moved just as quickly. They are all pulling out into the lake.
We’re going to find her. It won’t be too late.
It depends on my definition of too late. She should have never been taken. And I don’t know if they will torture her, rape her, hurt her before they kill her.
The boats are small speedboats that are made for five people, so with only one, they fly.
It’s a busy holiday weekend, though, so there are boats fucking everywhere.
It’s easy to spot the tourists and party-goers, though. Their music blasts loud enough that I don’t even bother going near any but the silent ones to get a closer look.
I glance at my phone every few minutes, watching the seconds tick by.
I turn on the radio. “Anything?”
“No sign yet,” Gage answers.
“Me neither,” Hayes says.
“I’ve found a suspicious acting boat. Keeps driving aggressively anytime I try to get near. It could be them,” Caius says.
“Send us your coordinates,” I say.
“I’m closest; I’ll go,” Lennox says.
I keep driving, but I want to go meet them. If she’s there, I need to see with my own eyes. I need to kill every fucker on that boat.
But something deep in my gut tells me to keep going, just a little further.
I keep going forward, listening carefully to the radio in case Caius finds her.
Then I see a boat. No lights on. No music. A boat that looks like it’s trying to hide in the evening dusk. My heart trembles, and I know it’s her.
Am I too late?
16
Ri
My shoulder throbs as I try to figure out how to get the engine started again. I’m pretty sure the bastards disabled it somehow. Cut the gas line. Emptied the fuel. Dropped the anchor. I don’t know, but they did something to make sure that even if I did escape and kill them that I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way to get off unless I want to swim the couple of miles to shore or take my chances with one of the drunk party boats that occasionally come by.
Also, based on the water filling the bottom of the boat, I’m pretty sure I’m sinking.
“Great, just great,” I mutter under my breath as I try to get the motor started again. I put my entire body into it and fall against the
side of the boat into my dislocated shoulder.
“Fuck,” I groan.
But I don’t get to revel in my misery long. I see the shadow even in the darkness.
There were three men. I killed them all.
Did I miscount?
Did I forget one?
This boat isn’t that big. I don’t know where one would have been hiding. It took me a while to find the third guard, so maybe he called for help before I killed him.
My gun is in the back of my leggings. In one motion, I spin, aim, and fire.
The guy ducks and chuckles. “Good thing I knew you were going to shoot and ask questions later, or I’d be dead. Your aim is good.”
“Beckett?”
He smiles, and the moonlight catches the white of his teeth. Without thinking, I run toward him and throw my one good arm around him, dropping my gun.
I expect him to push me away; he doesn’t. His arm wraps around me, holding me so hard against him that I can feel the speed of his beating heart against mine.
“You came.”
“Well, I owed you a hero save.”
I frown. “I’m not sure this counts since I killed them all myself.”
He chuckles. “Then what are you doing sitting on a boat in the middle of the lake for?”
I sigh. “I couldn’t figure out how to get the boat started.”
“You fought off how many men?”
“Three.”
“Were you tied up?”
“Yes, I had to purposefully dislocate my shoulder to get out of the ties.”
“So you dislocated your shoulder to escape being tied up, found a gun, and killed three dangerous men all on your own, but you couldn’t figure out how to get the boat to start?”
I nod, thankful that it’s too dark for him to see my embarrassment.
“Then I’m definitely counting this as a rescue mission. We’re even after this.”
“That’s just because you want me to do something embarrassing again, or you want to fuck me without telling me you want me.”
His eyes darken as he holds me closer. “When I fuck you, I’m doing that because I want to.”
When I fuck you.
Those words have me salivating.
He smirks. “But I’m not fucking you when you have a dislocated shoulder, and there are four other guys worried to death about you. Plus, I’m still pissed you took Caius’s side.”
“I didn’t take Caius’s side, you asshole. I knew you’d win. I wanted you to win. But I have to look out for myself. You’ll forgive me for not choosing you. Caius won’t.”
“How do you know I’ll forgive you?”
“Because you have before.”
His eyebrows turn downward, and his lips thin. But his grip on me doesn’t loosen.
“I should teach you how to drive a boat, but then you might not need my hero services. Then, I might not have an opportunity to get what I want from you.”
I almost tell him he can take whatever he wants from me for free, but then I remember that I need him as much as he needs me. I have to manipulate him into rescuing me since he’s still stuck on his ex, even though she never loved him. He has trust issues, he’ll always have trust issues, and I don’t have a say in whom I’m with anyway.
Beckett helps me into his boat, radios in that he found me, and tells the guys to meet us back at the dock.
I wince when he sets me down.
“Want me to fix that shoulder now or later? Either way, I’ll make sure the guys know what a badass you are,” Beckett says with a wink.
“Fix it now. And I don’t need your help to get the others to like me.”
“No, I’m sure they fell for you the second you let them stick their cocks in you,” he says in a deep, jealous voice.
“Jealous? I’m pretty sure I made you the same offer, but you turned me down.”
“I don’t share, Princess.”
“I don’t either, Hero.”
We stare into each other’s eyes. Out of nowhere, Beckett grabs my shoulder, spins me around so that my back is to his front, and plants a hard, wet kiss on my lips. It’s the kind of kiss that hits deep into my bones. It vibrates around in my body until my muscles tremble with desire. His kiss is delicious and intoxicating. His tongue sweeps in like he owns my mouth. He does. No man has ever kissed me like he does.
I don’t think anything can bring me out of the dream that is this kiss. I’m wrong, though. The pop of pain in my shoulder shatters my bliss.
“Fuck,” I say, grabbing my shoulder and bending over.
“Don’t act like my kiss wasn’t better than any painkiller.”
He’s right. I’d prefer his kisses to any drug.
“Come here.” He holds out his hand to me.
I take it, and he pulls me to the steering wheel. “This is called a steering wheel.”
“I know that, asshole.”
He chuckles. “This is the throttle. This is the ignition. Speedboat 101. Push this, then turn this, and you’ll go.”
“I did, and the other boat didn’t go.”
“That’s because you flooded the engine by trying too fast. You have to ease into it.”
He puts his hand over mine and shows me how to increase the speed slow and steady. He gives me a couple of other tips as we drive back.
When we get to the dock, he doesn’t have time to give me a lesson in how to park the boat or tie it off. All the guys are running toward me. I can see their relieved expressions even though the only light is the shine of the moonlight.
Lennox reaches me first.
“Careful,” Beckett warns, slowly releasing me as Lennox throws his arms around me.
My eyes widen in stunned silence as Lennox hugs me. I try to turn around and look at Beckett to understand why the man who has shown his dislike for me the most is the first to hug me.
“You’re alive,” Lennox says, relieved.
“I am. Why are you hugging me?”
“Because I thought we’d find you dead, just like Odette.”
My heart aches for him. I always forget that the others knew Odette too. They hurt too.
“Did you kill them?” he asks, holding my shoulders as he looks at me. It kills my hurt shoulder, but I don’t say anything.
“Yes.”
“Good, I killed Harry for you.”
I smile softly, trying to keep the tear that’s forming in my eye. “Thank you.”
“Stop hogging her,” Hayes says, grabbing me next and engulfing me in a hug as he picks me off the floor.
“Careful,” Beckett growls.
“I have ice. Where are you hurt?” Gage asks, holding up a back of ice.
“Her shoulder,” Beckett grabs the bag of ice. “She had to dislocate it to get out of the ties.”
“Badass,” Gage says, giving me a quick pat on the back as Beckett holds the ice to my other shoulder.
And then Caius is in front of me. “I’m—I’m so sorry, Ri. I suspected, but I should have never done the obstacle course until I knew you were safe. I just assumed you were in the stands and didn’t want to choose sides. My uncle, Harry…I’m sorry. I didn’t think he’d try to kill you.”
I reach out my hand to his cheek. “Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”
“But it was my family. When I realized they took you, when I realized they threatened your life, that you might be…I’m sorry. I should have protected you. It was my job to protect you. I was too worried about the initiation and beating Beckett that I risked your life. You didn’t deserve it. You have enough you’re already dealing with. When you are with the Retribution Kings, you should be safe.”
I pull him into a hug, knowing he needs it. His heart thumps faster, just like Beckett’s did when I hold him. His words were sweet, honest, vulnerable—things I’ll never get from Beckett.
I kiss his neck, and he buries his head in my hair. I feel a tear sliding down his cheek that he brushes away quickly.
Fi
nally, I step back.
Everyone is staring at me, but no one speaks.
“Here,” Beckett says, releasing the bag of ice. I hold it up to my shoulder on my own, realizing that when I was hugging Caius, Beckett was still holding the ice to my back.
“So, who won?” I ask a moment before realizing my big mouth shouldn’t have said anything.
“Beckett won the fight, as you know. Caius won the obstacle course. Finding you was supposed to be the tiebreaker, but we all formed one team to find you. We didn’t care about the stupid initiation competition anymore,” Gage says.
I look between Caius and Beckett. That’s all good and well, but someone has to win. There can only be one leader—one.
“Beckett won,” Caius says at the same time Beckett says, “Caius won.”
“You’re part of the Retribution Kings since birth. You want this. You have your team. You should lead them,” Beckett says.
Caius shakes his head. “I wanted it because I wasn’t sure an outsider was better. But Odette didn’t want me to lead; she wanted you. She believed in you. And you were the one to find Ri. You saved her, not me.”
“She saved herself,” Beckett says.
“Does that mean—” I start.
“No,” Beckett says to me, interrupting my question about him still owing me a save.
A smile tugs at my lips.
“You deserve to lead. You’re better at it. More experienced. Odette wanted it. You’re better at protecting Ri than I am. The guys will follow you until you find your own guards. The only reason there even was a tiebreaker is because I cheated during the obstacle course. If I hadn’t, you probably would have won, and then there would have been no reason for them to take Ri. You won, Beckett,” Caius says.
Beckett just nods.
And then he looks to me. Beckett may have won, but that doesn’t mean he’s won me. He would if I had any say in it, but Vincent chooses. Even if I could choose, Beckett still wouldn’t pick me.
“We need to go back to tell everyone what happened, so you can gain temporary control until my father…until you finish your final task of getting retribution,” Caius says.
We all walk down the dock toward the cars. Caius breaks off to one car, Beckett to the other. The other guys seem as torn as I am about which car to ride in.