Merciless

by Sybil Bartel

  “No, and I don’t fucking care. Only assholes refer to themselves by an initial.”

  “You should care. He knows everyone.”

  “He doesn’t know me.”

  Sawyer looked back at me, giving me a weighted stare. “You sure about that?”

  What the fuck? “You got something to say, say it.”

  “How’d you meet her? What do you know about her? How’d she wind up with your kid and you not know about it?” He fired off a round of questions like a lawyer.

  “Fuck you.” I wasn’t on trial.

  “Those are legitimate questions you need to be asking yourself.” He went on like I hadn’t just told him to fuck off. “No one is friends with X. If you know him, he either uses you or plays you. He hunts out his targets, takes aim and executes like a pro. That’s what he does. He was a grifter for years, building a network of connections all over the city. Then he upped his game and partnered with the cartel.”

  “How the fuck do you know him?” I couldn’t have been his target, not with how shit went down three years ago. No one knew I was coming home, least of all me.

  “I don’t, but my dad did. He conned him out of millions.”

  “Then why the fuck didn’t he prosecute him?” His dad could’ve done us all a favor.

  “Because nothing touches the guy.”

  “What’d he do?”

  Sawyer was quiet a moment. “Long story.”

  I settled back in my seat. I wasn’t leaving until I saw my truck. She had to come out of that house eventually. It wasn’t the ideal way to tail her, but it’s all I had. “I got time.” Not that I expected him to tell me shit. He never spoke about his family. Fuck, he didn’t talk about anything personal. So I was mildly shocked when he opened his mouth.

  “There’s only two things my father cares about. Money and more money.”

  I tipped my chin. “Real estate.” You weren’t a Floridian if you didn’t know his family name was big in real estate development and had been for generations.

  He nodded. “And since there’s not much land left to develop in Miami, my father’s answer is to build up.”

  “High-rises.” They were everywhere.

  “Yeah. Well Lewis conned him on a piece of property he had the title on. Said he’d gotten the permits, and all he needed was capital to start building a luxury high-rise. He offered my dad an investment partnership knowing full well my father would try to just buy him out and develop the land himself. And that’s exactly what my father did. He offered him a premium price, and Lewis took the deal. Only problem? The permits to build were fake. Turned out the land is unstable for any kind of structure. Shifting tides, water table, and a host of other problems, it’d be cost prohibitive to build the property up just so you could put houses on it, let alone a high-rise.”

  “Your father didn’t bother to check the legitimacy of the building permits from a known grifter?” What a fucking tool.

  “Lewis wasn’t known then. And try telling my father anything.”

  I shook my head. “Idiots come in all income brackets.”

  “It gets better. When my father couldn’t unload the land, guess who bought it back for pennies on the dollar?”

  I glanced at Sawyer. “You’ve got to be shitting me.”

  Sawyer nodded. “Lewis. Gave a cool million back to my father for the title and turned around and pulled the same scheme on two more companies before the land was absorbed into the Port Authority tunnel project and he made money on that transaction as well.”

  “Does no one in real estate talk to each other? How the fuck was this asshole scamming all these people?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. You need Luna involved in this. What I just told you is only a fraction of what this guy is capable of.”

  “So he swindled some real estate assholes.” Not my problem.

  “Getting in bed with the cartel is a far cry from swindling someone on a real estate deal,” Sawyer pointed out.

  “Like I said, I’m not going after him.” I was going after her. But the more shit Sawyer told me, the more my instinct was telling me something was fucking off with him and Brookelyn. Really fucking off.

  But I didn’t have time to think about it.

  I saw my truck pull up to the intersection leading out of Bal Harbour and get in the turn lane for the causeway that led off the barrier island. Brookelyn was behind the wheel.

  “Here we go.” I pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Don’t ride her close this time,” Sawyer warned. “Keep your distance.”

  I refrained from telling him to fuck off and followed her. Keeping seven cars back, I tailed her as she drove through downtown. She skirted some of the major streets like she was avoiding traffic, then wound her way into a shit part of the city before stopping for gas.

  I pulled into a chain pharmacy across the street and watched her.

  Sawyer scanned the street then glanced back at her. “Something’s up. She’s not even looking for a tail.”

  I noticed the same thing. “Agree.” Like she wanted to be found. “I can’t tell, but I don’t think the kid is in the car.”

  “I don’t think so either,” Sawyer agreed. “She hasn’t looked in the back seat once since she’s been pumping gas, and she didn’t open the window when she cut the engine.”

  I thought about approaching her at the gas station, but there were too many people and too many security cameras. I didn’t know how far-reaching that asshole Lewis’s resources were, but I wasn’t going to make shit easy on him by being stupid. “I want to see where she goes next.”

  “Copy.” Sawyer settled back in his seat.

  She finished pumping gas and got back in the truck. A few minutes later, I followed her as she pulled into a strip mall in a less-than-safe neighborhood and parked in front of a dry cleaners.

  I pulled halfway around the side of the building, but kept the front of SUV nosed out enough to see what the fuck she was up to. When she opened her door and got out with a laundry bag, I unclicked my seat belt.

  “I’m gonna talk to her. Get behind the wheel and keep your comm on.” I got out of the SUV. “Be ready to roll if she’s on the move.”

  Sawyer nodded once, but didn’t comment.

  I jogged across the parking lot and skirted the back of the truck to the passenger side. Keeping hidden from the front window of the dry cleaners, I tried the passenger door.

  Unlocked.

  I got in the back seat.

  MY HANDS SWEATING AND MY heart pounding like it always did when I made a drop, I walked out of the dry cleaners. Holding my breath, I didn’t exhale until my hand was on the driver door handle.

  But I didn’t inhale until I was behind the wheel and the engine was running.

  And that’s when it hit me.

  My heart fucking stopped, my eyes closed and I inhaled again. Deep.

  No one smelled like him.

  “Garrett,” I muttered quietly.

  “Drive.”

  His deep voice filled the space around me, and it almost broke me. Opening my eyes, knowing I would regret it, I looked in the rearview mirror.

  Arms crossed, jaw set, he made everything in my world turn upside down and right-side-right at the same time.

  Fighting and losing to calm my nerves, I stared at him. “He tracks me.”

  “Coffee place around the corner. Go through the drive-thru.” No hesitation, he issued the command like he knew what he was doing.

  “He has Maverick.”

  Garrett tipped his chin. “Go.”

  My hands shaking in earnest now, I carefully put the giant truck in reverse and backed out of the spot. “I heard what he said to you.”

  Garrett scanned the street. “Use the right lane.”

  I hit the turn signal and pulled out of the parking lot into the right lane. “I’m sure you want an explanation.” I didn’t pretend to not know him now. There wasn’t any point.

  Anger bled off hi
s presence. “I want to know my son.”

  “Our son,” I corrected, telling him more than I should.

  His jaw ticked and he ignored my statement. “Next right.”

  I tried another tactic. “You got in my car. What do you want to know?”

  “It’s my truck. You stole it.”

  He was still mad. I couldn’t blame him. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t have an excuse for that other than I was weak. I’d always been weak.

  He snorted. “The irony?”

  I nodded, but he didn’t wait for a response.

  “I would’ve let you have it.” He scanned the street again. “Use the fuck out of it until I got back, same as my place.”

  A fresh wave of three-year-old guilt built on regret. “For whatever it’s worth, I wanted to stay.”

  This time he half snorted, half laughed. “What’s wrong, had a fight with your husband? You were looking to blow off a little steam? Get back at him?” He shook his head and looked out the window.

  A lifetime of shit choices and total shame culminated in that one single moment. I’d never felt good about myself, but in that moment, seeing the only man who’d ever showed me something more than pity or deceit crammed in the back seat of his stolen truck next to his son’s car seat, a son he never knew existed before today, I didn’t just feel like an asshole, I knew I was worthless.

  I’d failed Maverick.

  I’d failed my dad.

  I’d failed myself.

  Nathan manipulated and used me, but I’d let it happen, and I had no one to blame but myself. But how did I explain a lifetime of shit decisions to a man who was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend his country?

  I didn’t.

  I couldn’t.

  “Nathan isn’t my husband.” That’s all I had. “I don’t live with him.” Not technically. “Not in his house, anyway.” That was the only excuse I had for Garrett.

  “Left lane.” Ignoring my explanation, Garrett glanced behind us. “Where’s Maverick right now?”

  I fought tears and switched lanes. “At the estate, in the main house with Nathan.”

  “I want a paternity test.” He tipped his chin toward the chain coffee place. “Pull in there.”

  “You don’t need one. He’s yours.” It was the least I could give him.

  “I’ll set it up.” Garrett pulled out his cell phone. “What’s your number?”

  Panic edged out my anxiety. “You can’t call me.”

  For the first time since I’d gotten in the truck, he met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Why the fuck not?”

  Inhaling, I said it as plainly as possible. “He’ll kill you. Or me.” I could barely bring myself to say the next words. “Or worse.”

  Garrett scanned the parking lot. “Far end of the lot, on the right, pull into a space under those trees.”

  I did as he said, then threw the engine in park. I wanted to turn to face him. I wanted to crawl over the center console and throw myself into his arms. I wanted to tell him to rescue Maverick and me. I wanted to say I was sorry. God, I wanted to say I was sorry.

  But I didn’t say any of it.

  A black Cadillac Escalade pulled up next to us and parked. The passenger window went down a few inches and the blond man from the city parking structure first looked at me then the back seat. I knew he couldn’t see into the truck’s tinted windows, but it felt like he could, and his stare felt as judgmental as Garrett’s.

  Garrett reached for the door handle. “You’ll hear from me.” He threw the door open.

  “Wait.” Every ounce of hope I thought I might still have started to slip through my fingers. “You don’t understand.” Nathan would kill me. It wouldn’t be violent or messy or sensational. It wouldn’t even be by his hands. No, Nathan would make me disappear like all the other people he’d made disappear over the years. He didn’t even need to expend any effort to make it happen. All he had to do was smile and mention to one of his armed guards how he wondered what it would be like if I weren’t around. I wouldn’t even be a missing person an hour after that. I’d just be gone.

  I turned to face the one man who was my last hope. Despite his anger, despite his hatred of me, I couldn’t make my heart see anything other than the tender, most caring man I’d ever met who taken me three years ago like I was the love of his life.

  “I need a favor.” I couldn’t ask him to take Maverick, not outright, not yet. It would make it real and my heart was already shattered.

  “You don’t get any favors from me,” he ground out.

  Out of options, I outright begged. “He’ll kill me.”

  One foot already out the door, Garrett looked at me. Really looked at me.

  For a split second, I saw the man who I’d first met, but then, just as quick, it was gone and a new man, one harder and more controlled, one I didn’t know at all replaced the old Garrett and a mask of impenetrable warrior slid over his expression.

  Then he gutted me with the cold, honest truth. “Then Maverick will still only have one parent.” He got out of the truck.

  LIVID, I GOT OUT OF my truck.

  I was about to slam the door when her voice broke.

  “Garrett,” she cried.

  I glared at her, which was more than she deserved.

  “Barrone,” she whispered. “Brooke Barrone….” Her eyes welled. “That’s my last name. That’s…” She swallowed. “That’s your son’s last name.”

  My nostrils flared.

  “Please,” she begged. “All I’m asking is for you to—”

  I slammed the door shut and strode toward the Escalade.

  Fuck her.

  Fuck her lies.

  Fuck what she wanted.

  Goddamn trouble was what she was. Fucking, fuck-my-shit-all-to-hell trouble.

  I got in the passenger seat and slammed that door. “Drive,” I barked at Sawyer.

  He pulled out of the parking lot and hit the streets. It took him all of two fucking seconds to open his mouth. “You need Luna.”

  “Goddamn it, I know, okay? I fucking know.”

  Sawyer made the call through the SUV’s Bluetooth.

  Luna answered on the first ring. “Sawyer, what’s going on?”

  “We’re both here,” I answered. “I got her name.”

  “Hold up.” I heard a door open and close then the scrape of his chair across the floor in the command room at the office. “Okay, what do we got?”

  “Brooke Barrone,” I spit out.

  “One R or two?” Luna asked.

  “No fucking idea.”

  Sawyer silently drove toward the office.

  Luna typed for a few seconds. “Two. B-A-R-R-O-N-E. Twenty-seven. No employment history. Last known address…” Luna paused while he typed.

  “I don’t need her last known address. I got her current one. She’s shacked up with Nathan Xavier Lewis.”

  Silence. Then. “What did you just say?” Luna asked, incredulous.

  “She’s living with X,” Sawyer answered.

  “Madre de dios,” Luna muttered. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “No,” I ground out.

  “Jesu-fucking-cristo. Lewis is the most notorious money launderer in the States, hell, this fucking hemisphere. The Feds have been after him for years, but no one can make anything stick. He’s like fucking Teflon. And rumor has it he single-handedly kept the cartel afloat after their head, Maldonado, was cut out of the picture. Not only is he untouchable, he’s protected.”

  “Not my problem.”

  “Not your problem?” Luna practically yelled. “He’s the biggest problem you’ll ever fucking have.”

  “I’m not engaging with him.” Now.

  “Not engaging with him?” Luna repeated like a fucking parrot. “Did he see you? Did you confront him? Did you follow her to his place?” He didn’t wait for a response. “Jesus fucking Christ, Collins, if he saw you, you might as well have put a fucking target on your chest.”

 
“He saw me.” So fucking what? I didn’t give a shit. The kid was mine. He knew it. I let him know I knew it.

  “He saw both of us,” Sawyer added. “He also has six armed guards. All are civilian, no training, except one. One is ex-military. Sending you a screen shot now of him.”

  Luna let out a string of curse words in Spanish. “You of all people should fucking know better, Sawyer.”

  “He doesn’t know who I am,” Sawyer countered calmly. “I was downrange when my father was dealing with him.”

  “Jesucristo,” Luna muttered again. “I don’t even know what to say. Lewis is beyond my scope. He’s connected, protected and has a decade’s worth of connections I couldn’t begin to touch.”

  “We may have an in,” Sawyer reminded him.

  “What? Because one guard served?” Luna was incredulous. “That doesn’t mean shit. He could be a trigger-happy deranged fuck selling himself to the highest bidder.”

  “It’s an opening,” Sawyer countered calmly. “He didn’t look thrilled to be there.”

  Luna snorted. “Fucking great, a cartel launderer with a pissed-off guard and Collins wants to jump in neck deep and take this guy’s kid.”

  “It’s not his kid,” I ground out.

  Luna grunted. “Does Lewis know that?”

  “I don’t fucking care.” Fuck Lewis.

  “And the chica, does she care?” Luna asked, sarcastically.

  I didn’t bother fucking answering.

  “Mierda,” Luna cussed. “Is she even there voluntarily?”

  I didn’t know if she was or not. “Like I said, not my problem, but my kid’s there.”

  “Fuck.” Luna drew the word out, but his tone had turned to resignation. “You sure you want to do this? There’s not gonna be any guarantees, and it’ll get ugly as fuck before it gets manageable. That’ll be the only thing you’ll be able to count on.”

  “I don’t want my kid raised in the same house as a fucking cartel money launderer.” So yeah, I was fucking in. Whatever I had to do.

  “Fine. You want to do this, we do this.” Luna paused. “But we do this right. We get something on him before we go in, no exceptions. You copy?”

  “Copy,” I reluctantly agreed.

  Luna exhaled. “I have to ask—you got conformation the kid is yours?”