by Ella Miles
I jab the needle hard into her flesh, knowing I’d rather her give in now than halfway through. I want her to fear me. I want her a little tipsy. It will make interrogating her easier.
I wait for the hiss, wince, or curse word. All I hear, though, is the steady rise and fall of her chest. I ignore her ample cleavage in my face as I stab the needle through her skin again.
No reaction from her again. Her body doesn’t even flinch away from me.
I frown. She can’t have that high of a pain tolerance unless…
I examine her bare abdomen more closely. There is still some blood and bruises from however she got this gash but hidden beneath the dried blood are scars. There is one just under her bra on her ribs. Another angling downward on the lower half of her stomach, disappearing beneath her underwear.
“Something wrong? I don’t feel you jabbing me anymore.”
“So you can feel that?”
“Of course.”
“You don’t react to it, so I thought maybe you were already drunk or took pain pills.”
She shakes her head, and her eyes glaze over as if she’s replaying why she has such a high pain tolerance.
I should feel sorry for whatever atrocities she faced in her past, but I don’t feel anything but anger. I quickly finish stitching her up, realizing physical torture isn’t going to work on her to get my answers. If it wasn’t for her, I would have been here to protect Odette.
“Well, you won’t die from bleeding out.” I put a piece of gauze over the wound.
“Thanks.”
I grab the clothes from the bed and toss them at her as I stand up. “Get dressed.”
She catches the clothes and doesn’t argue as she puts them on. The clothes are much too big on her. The black sweatshirt hangs down to her knees like a dress, and the gray sweatpants fall off immediately after she pulls them up.
I sigh and rummage through Caius’s open suitcase. I find a pair of boxers and toss them to her.
She pulls them up and rolls them several times, but it’s enough to keep them up. When she pulls the sweatshirt down, it hides the boxers. At least I know she’s not wearing only her tiny panties underneath.
“Now that you’re decent, start talking.”
She frowns. “What do you want to know?”
Where my fucking wife is! But I keep my anger in check. If I explode, she might not talk.
“Everything. Who you are running from? How you were hurt? Were you sent as a decoy for me to follow while your father kidnapped my wife?” Kidnapped, not murdered. I can’t believe she’s dead. I have to hold out hope.
Even as I think about that possibility, my body doesn’t register it. All I feel is fury. I don’t feel sadness or terror or loss or grief. If I did, I would be a sobbing mess on the floor. I’d be drowning in my tears and cries.
Ri’s face scrunches as she thinks. There is a long pause before she opens her mouth. “I can’t tell you.”
“What do you mean you can’t tell me?” Maybe I’m going to have to torture her after all…
She folds her arms over her chest and walks to the window, looking out into the dark night. You can’t see any stars in the middle of the city, just a sea of blackness and city lights.
“It wouldn’t be safe for you if I told you. But my problems have nothing to do with Odette. The people after me aren’t after Odette.”
“Is it your father?”
“My father isn’t after Odette.”
“Your father would do anything to get you back. If he thought I had you, he’d take what’s mine to keep me in line and ensure your return.”
“Then offer up a trade. But I don’t think my father has Odette.”
“It’s either your father or the Phantom Brotherhood—one or the other. Either way, it has to do with you. It has to do with whoever hurt you, whoever you were running from!” I stomp toward her.
She doesn’t cower. She lifts her chin as I grab her neck, threatening her as I press my body hard against hers. “Tell me who hurt you. Tell me what you were doing interrupting my wedding. Tell me why you were covered in blood on the elevator at the same time I just happened to be stepping on. Tell me why my wife is missing.”
Her eyes flick back and forth, searching mine for something. If she’s looking for my trust, she won’t find it. I will gladly give her up, sell her, murder her if it would bring Odette back to me.
I close my hand around her neck, reducing the amount of oxygen she’s getting to almost none. Her face starts turning blue, her eyes bulge a little, but once again, I find no fear.
“Start talking.” I release my grip enough for her to suck in a deep breath.
“You’re not a monster. You’re my hero. And you’ll be Odette’s too. But I can’t help you.”
I’m going to kill her.
The door flings open and Caius steps in. He doesn’t seem shocked to see me squeezing the life out of Ri. I file that away for later, because it doesn’t make sense. Why would he allow me near his sister if he thought I was a bad guy capable of torture? Odette said she didn’t tell anyone else about my past, but it seems like she might have.
“The police are here, but I don’t think we are going to get much help. I called everyone to keep an eye out for Odette.”
Caius looks nervous as hell. He runs his hands through his blonde faux mohawk, tousling it as he paces the room.
“What is it?” I bark, losing my patience.
“I think I know why Odette was taken.”
“Elaborate.”
“They didn’t want you to become king.”
“King of what?” I frown, having no idea what he’s talking about.
“The Retribution Kings.”
8
Beckett
Retribution Kings—that’s the same name Ares spoke of. I thought he was speaking nonsense, but now I’m swirling with thoughts of what the group is and how Caius is tied to it.
“Sit down, Beckett,” he says.
I still have my hand around Ri’s neck, and she studies me curiously. I have no doubt that she knows more about the Retribution Kings than I do. She grew up in this world. If what Ares said is true, then the Retribution Kings are a rival gang to the Corsi family.
Reluctantly, I let go of Ri’s neck and sit on the edge of the bed. Ri takes a couple of deep breaths, her chest rising and falling calmly beneath Caius’s sweatshirt.
He walks over to her and strokes her cheek. “You okay, babe?”
Babe? Really? Such a cliche. I know they kissed, but that doesn’t mean he gets to go around calling her a term of endearment.
“I’m fine.” She smiles brightly. “But if you call me babe again, I’ll punch you in the face so that disgustingly sweet term of endearment never leaves your mouth again.”
Caius’s face stares incredulously at Ri.
I huff once in a sort of chuckle. If she had said that under different circumstances, maybe I would have laughed, but not when I’m worried about Odette.
Caius notices. “You should sit, too.” He looks to me. “Unless you don’t want her to hear all this, but I’m pretty sure she already knows, being who she is.”
I shake my head; it’s fine if he speaks in front of her. It’s not like we have much choice. We can’t just let her head to the lobby and hang out by herself while we talk. She’s our best chance of getting Odette back.
Caius picks up the bottle of whiskey and holds it out to me. “Maybe you should drink some of this first.”
His eyes are wide and terrified.
I take a swig of the bottle as much for his benefit as mine, while he paces in front of Ri and I.
“Speak. Who are the Retribution Kings? And why would I become king of them?”
“The Retribution Kings are a centuries-old group who cares about one thing—retribution. We have no loyalty to anyone but those who have proven themselves worthy of the group, who have passed our tests. Together we ensure order among the gangs, elites, mafia. Any group can hire us
to seek their revenge. We only accept a job that ensures justice. We are judge, jury, and executioner. We decide who should be punished and how. We—”
I know I should be listening closer, but all I hear is Ri say, “We?”
Caius’s jaw ticks nervously. He raises his hand and brushes it through his hair as he looks at me with a flushed face. He quickly glances from me to Ri, but even Ri’s eyes have darkened as she stares Caius down like what he’s saying is poison.
“My family has belonged to the Retribution Kings for generations. It’s one of the most common ways of joining the group. The other is—”
“Marriage.”
He nods.
Jesus. I stand abruptly, my fist tightening as the vein in my head bulges. I can already guess much of what he’s going to say next, but I need to hear it. So instead, I walk back to the window and stare out to avoid looking Caius in the eye and most likely killing him. I should have had more than a swig of the whiskey. Maybe the alcohol would have cooled the burning blood in my veins.
“Odette is our family’s princess, just like Rialta is the Corsi princess. We try to keep the women in our family out of danger by keeping them from knowing much of what we do exactly, but Odette being the princess, had one very important role…” Caius stumbles over his next words. “To find a man who could follow in our father’s footsteps and become king.”
I study him out of the corner of my eye as I rest my forehead on my arm, gripping the top of the windowsill.
He sucks in a breath like he knows he’s about to get punched. “We picked you.”
His words rush together like he’s trying to hide the truth of what he is admitting.
“We?” I pick up on that word again. I’m beginning to hate the word.
The door bursts open as if I just said the magic word they’d been waiting to hear. Gage, Hayes, and Lennox walk in—my three other groomsmen. It’s not because I’m best friends with them, but because I thought they represented my new world. A world free of dangerous men. They grew up with Caius and Odette. I enjoyed drinking a beer and watching a game with them. I never suspected I was in the presence of men who were born killers just like me.
Although, now that I know, I replay every conversation and gathering I’ve ever shared with them. There were signs. Either I was oblivious, or I just didn’t want to think that my future wife was tied up with this shit.
“You’re all Retribution Kings?”
Three sets of heads nod.
Ri takes in each of them but remains silent, not drawing attention to herself. And yet, she’s a magnet to every man in this suite. All of their eyes run up and down her body with hot lust and desire. She doesn’t flinch away from the attention; she basks in it. Her eyes flirt with each of them, telling each of them how much she wants them. All three of the men are fit, too fit. It should have raised a red flag that all of Caius and Odette’s friends were super in shape and weren’t physical trainers, athletes, or models. I should have known they stayed in shape out of necessity, not vanity.
“Did you find her?” Caius asks.
Now they have my full attention. Of course, they’ve been out looking for their lost princess.
Their princess.
Odette was never mine.
She was always theirs.
It was all a lie.
But I still cling to every word. My feelings don’t disappear just because I find out Odette lied to me.
“We haven’t found her. Whoever took her wiped all the security feeds. I’m scanning the nearby security cameras, but they knew how to avoid being seen,” Gage says as he sits down on the bed with his laptop going back to work. I assume he’s the tech wizard of the group. He told me he was an accountant. He wears dark jeans and a leather jacket that looks sharp against his black skin as he sits on the edge of the bed.
“Gage will find her. Have you finished telling him?” Hayes asks Caius. He, too, is dressed in all black like he’s ready for a fight. His long dark hair is pulled back in a man bun, and he wears full-frame glasses. He walks over and leans against the wall looking over Gage’s shoulder.
I glare at Hayes. He told me he was a real estate agent.
“No, I haven’t finished telling him everything,” Caius says, annoyed with his friends.
“Well, get on with it. We should be searching for Odette, not listening to storytime,” Lennox says. His reddish-brown hair is textured in a long French crop hairstyle. Tattoos riddle his body from head to toe, at least what I can see that’s not covered in his long black sleeves. The liar told me he was a software engineer.
“You should be searching instead of listening,” I snap.
“Is that an order, boss?” Lennox grins, knowing it’s going to piss me off.
I don’t want to be the leader. I wanted a quiet life with my wife, not trying to wrangle these guys who are still boys in every way. They think they are invincible, that they can rule the world. I know because I used to be just like them. And they won’t learn until one of them ends up six feet underground.
“What leads do we have?” I ask, ignoring Lennox’s taunt.
“Not much; we think whoever kidnapped Odette was trying to stop your wedding. They got the fake information we sent out that the wedding wasn’t until tomorrow. They wanted to stop you from taking over,” Gage says.
“Why would they care if it was me or someone else?”
Silence stretches around the room. “Because they know your past, same as us. You’re the only man who can do this job,” Caius says.
I frown, not understanding, but it doesn’t seem important now. All I care about is finding Odette. Then I can come back and murder these bastards for lying to me and interfering with my life. I’ll fight to the death to get her back, but I have to know what I’m fighting for.
“Was it all a lie? Or was it basically an arranged marriage? One you all forced on her?” I move from the window, staring each of them down in turn—Caius, Gage, Hayes, and Lennox.
All of them look anywhere but me. The only one meeting my gaze is Ri, the only person I don’t want to be thinking about right now. There is sympathy floating out beneath her long eyelashes.
I glare back, wanting none of her sympathy. All I want is her hate, so that’s all I’m going to give her back. I hate every person in this room for lying to me, for having a part in my wife’s disappearance.
“You were Odette’s mark when you met in the coffee shop. We had scouted you for months and finally saw a chance to draw you out to Chicago where you two could meet,” Lennox says, not holding back. Apparently, he’s the brave one.
My heart sinks.
“My sister cared about you, though. You may have started off as basically an arranged marriage, one that would benefit her family, but the feelings she felt for you were real. She cared for you a lot; possibly even loved you. She’ll tell you that.”
My heart sinks. Possibly? Odette possibly loves me? When my heart only beats because of her?
“Who took her? You all have your suspicions. Who. Took. Odette?”
I scan the room. This time the men at least have the balls to look me in the eye. My anger bubbles through me, and if I don’t have something to take my rage out on soon, I’m going to beat the shit out of all of them before I go find Odette myself.
“Either the Phantom Brotherhood or the Corsi Family,” Hayes says, his eyes landing on Ri.
She squirms where she sits on the bed, looking uncomfortable for the first time to have all the attention on her. We are right back where we started, needing her to talk.
“So either the Phantom Brotherhood took Odette to ensure that I followed through and married Princess to ensure their alliance, or Corsi did to ensure I returned his daughter to him unharmed,” I say.
Everyone nods and grunts in agreement.
I have to torture Ri to get the answers, but I want to know everyone’s thoughts first.
“If your life was dependent on choosing who took Odette, who would you bet your life on?
” I’m asking them to bet their life on this, because if we don’t find Odette, I’m holding them all responsible.
I look to Caius first.
“Corsi,” he says, his eyes flicking an apology to Ri.
I growl.
He snaps his attention back to me.
I turn to Lennox next. “The Phantoms.”
“Same,” Gage says.
“Corsi,” Hayes says almost apologetically.
It’s an even tie. Half the group thinks it was the Phantom Brotherhood, the other half Corsi. My gut doesn’t have a strong inclination toward either of them. I’m still playing catchup, but I will soon.
“It’s your turn, Princess. Who do you think took Odette?”
Her gaze locks with mine. I almost expect her to look to her new admirers for help. “I don’t know, but I’m willing to do what I can to help.”
I frown, my mind buzzing with the ways I plan on torturing it out of her.
The room is silent.
“Shit, we have to tell him,” Hayes says, gathering his nerve.
“Tell me what?”
Hayes’s eyes water, but he doesn’t speak.
Gage keeps staring at his computer hiding behind the screen.
Lennox grabs the bottle of whiskey and drinks a long swig from it.
Caius’s bottom lip quivers.
Princess walks cautiously to me. Her movements, above everyone else’s, I don’t understand. Everyone else is a coward, while she’s the only one who will face me.
Gage clears his throat through a sob. “The blood—you saw it—there was too much—there is no way Odette survived it. All we can do now is get retribution for her.”
My heart thumps to a stop, and then I fall, my grief and fear consuming me. I believe his words because my heart already knew what I was too afraid to admit out loud.
Odette’s dead, and I’m not getting her back.
9
Ri
Beckett collapses as soon as Caius implies that Odette is dead. I reach out to hold him, and his body is heavy in my arms. I don’t think he passed out, just disintegrated from his grief.