Merciless

by Sybil Bartel

  “She said he was, but I need a paternity test.” In my head, there was no doubt. The second I saw him, I fucking knew. Just like I knew my own face when I looked in the mirror, the kid was mine, but like Luna said, I needed to do this the right way. If I had to fight her in court, I wanted my shit in order.

  “All right.” Luna inhaled. “First things first, we’ll get that set up. I know a doc you can use. Call her and tell her—”

  “I can’t call her.”

  Luna typed some more. “I’ll get her number for you.”

  “That’s not the issue.”

  Luna paused, then his tone dialed down a notch. “Amigo. If she’s the madre of your kid, you’re gonna have to learn to communicate with her.”

  “That’s not the issue.” I stared out the window at the fucking madness of midday traffic. Everything looked one way this morning when I woke up. Now shit looked different. A hell of a lot different.

  “Then what is the issue?” Luna asked.

  “She said Lewis would kill her if I called.” For the first time since I laid eyes on her, I was beginning to wonder if anything I thought I knew about her was real. “She wouldn’t give me her number.”

  Luna whistled low. “All right, all right.” He paused for half a beat. “Let me ask you this. You done with her? For real? You over this chica?”

  No, I wasn’t fucking over her. I was goddamn irate. “What’s your point?”

  “The way I see it, you have two choices,” Luna replied.

  “Which are?” I asked, but I already knew what he was going to say.

  “We extract the kid or we extract them both.”

  And that was why I was so fucking pissed off. Beyond her having my kid and not bothering to say one fucking word when she knew, she knew, where I lived. She fucking didn’t trust me. She’d never trusted me. I’d offered that woman everything. Everything a Marine has while he’s downrange, I fucking laid it out for her. My place, my trust, my goddamn hope. I fucking gave it to her.

  But she didn’t give a single fuck about any of it.

  I saw the footage of her with Lewis in the hallway outside my condo. I fucking relived it every goddamn day for a year before I learned to put that shit out of my head. It was one thing to have a woman fuck you over. It was another to see it.

  And I fucking saw it.

  I also saw her walk back into my place, get my keys and walk back out.

  Not once in those few seconds did she pause.

  She didn’t look toward the living room, she didn’t look toward the bedroom, she didn’t call out for help, she didn’t make a run for it or try to get my attention. She didn’t do shit. Except steal from me.

  Now she had my kid, was shacked up with America’s most wanted, and I was supposed to make a fucking decision about her safety? Her future?

  “Collins,” Luna prompted as Sawyer turned onto the street that Luna and Associates was on.

  For the first time in my life, I didn’t want to be someone’s hero. “Yeah, I’m here.” I wanted to be someone’s priority, goddamn it. Three years ago, I’d wanted to be her priority.

  “Your hesitation speaks volumes, mi amigo,” Luna said compassionately.

  Sawyer pulled into a parking spot in the underground parking at Luna and Associates and threw the SUV into park. “We’re here.”

  “Come on up,” Luna ordered. “We’ll make a plan to get them both out.”

  FOR TEN DAYS I DIDN’T leave Nathan’s pool house except to do my runs.

  Dry cleaners. Post office. Car wash.

  Forty-two stacks in seven pairs of pants at the dry cleaners.

  Three stacks put in a P.O. Box at a mail store.

  Five stacks left in the center console of the truck at a hand-wash car wash.

  Five hundred thousand in cash, Monday, Wednesday, Friday. My days were exactly the same as they’d been for almost three years.

  Except they weren’t the same.

  At all.

  Nathan showed up and took Maverick before every drop. He wouldn’t let me take my son with me, he wouldn’t let me take him to his preschool, I couldn’t even take him out of the house.

  Nathan watched me like a hawk.

  But despite what Garrett had said to him ten days ago outside the front gate, Nathan never sent any of the armed guards with me. He’d never made any pretense of caring about me. Not since I was a teenager working at two fast food chains to pay the rent my dad was too sick to handle. Inhaling, I pushed the useless memories and thoughts aside, but as soon as I did, the other thought I’d desperately been trying to avoid came flooding back.

  Garrett.

  He said he’d be in touch.

  He’d lied.

  Not even on my runs had he so much as shown up in the same parking lot.

  For a week, I’d stupidly held on to the hope that Garrett really did want to get to know his son. But he never showed, not on my runs, not at the estate. He never even so much as gave me a sighting of him while I was out.

  So now I was sitting on a couch that wasn’t mine, in a pool house on an estate that would never be home, living in close proximity to the monster who’d turned me into a criminal.

  A criminal the monster could never afford to lose control of.

  As if he knew I was thinking about him, the French door that led to the lanai around the pool that acted as my front door opened and Nathan waltzed in.

  His shrewd gaze took in my cutoff shorts and bikini top and a fake smile spread across his face. “You always were gorgeous.” Too close to me, he sat down too close on the couch and fingered the fraying hem of my shorts with disdain. “But I never did understand why you chose to dress like a homeless person.” He spread one of his dress-shirted arms across the back of the couch behind me. “Except,” he mused, rubbing his forefinger and thumb over his chin, “I guess that whole ploy worked for you last time you ran.”

  I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t gage where he was going with this conversation, and I didn’t want to talk to him about Garrett.

  “I never did ask.” He chuckled. “Where did you get those awful clothes? Flannel. Really?” He shook his head.

  When I’d run out of money for the motel and landed on the streets, it was the rainy season. Everything I’d run away with had gotten soaked. When you’re stealing from a thrift store just because you want dry clothes, you don’t give a shit what you wear.

  Nathan smiled like he was remembering a fond memory. “How did you wind up at that bar?”

  I didn’t answer. I glared at him. Nathan may not have come from much, not that I knew shit about his background because he kept everything close to his chest. But I was sure he’d never had to use a gas station restroom sink to “shower” or dig through a dumpster for cardboard because it was the only thing between you and a south Florida afternoon thunderstorm.

  He chuckled again. “Okay, angel, keep your secrets.”

  “What do you want?” It was Thursday.

  As effortlessly as if he had a right, as if we were lovers, he slid his hand behind my neck. “Maybe it’s what you want.” He leaned forward until his breath, mint and cigarettes, drifted over my face. “Is he down for the night?”

  If I said yes, he’d try to fuck me. Maybe. I never knew anymore. He got his sex from somewhere else, and I didn’t ask. All I knew, it wasn’t me and I was thankful as hell for that. He didn’t rub other women in my face, but I knew they were around. You’d have to be a fool not to know that about Nathan. He was all about the angle, what he could get out of someone. That’s what made him tick. Not orgasms. Unless he was getting an orgasm directly attached to something he’d conned. Like a blowjob from some asshole’s wife who owed him money. Not that I’d ever seen him do that, but I’d heard him threaten it once.

  Out of patience, my nerves shot, I asked again, enunciating each word. “What do you want?”

  His mouth landed on mine and he forced his tongue in.

  No self-respect, I didn’t fight him. I�
��d learned years ago not to. I had the scar to prove it. So I let him kiss me. His thumb swept across my cheek as he cupped my face and he swept his tongue expertly through my mouth. But Nathan didn’t kiss with passion. He didn’t even kiss with feeling. It was as if he were trying to be gentle, but ran out of patience.

  When I didn’t kiss him back, he leaned away and looked at me like I was a puzzle. I knew the look. Nothing about it was sincere. He was calculating.

  “You know…” He trailed off as he stroked my cheek. “You were my first.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. I was a virgin when I’d met him, but he was most definitely was not. “If you think I’m dumb enough to believe that you’d never had sex before me, then you’re out of your mind.”

  He smiled at me like he was humoring me. “I didn’t mean that you were my first sexual partner, love.”

  Love? He’d never called me that. Ever. Not even when I was stupid enough to think he was my boyfriend. He was either upping his game, or he really wanted something from me.

  His thumb dragged across my bottom lip as his expression turned pensive. “You never asked me why you got pregnant. Do you know that?”

  My breath caught and my back went ramrod straight. “What are you talking about?” I got the shot. Every three months like clockwork, Nathan had given me the shot. I’d never questioned it. When he first started doing it, he said it was so he didn’t have to wear condoms. I couldn’t afford birth control on my own, and I’d thought it was sweet of him to take care of me like that. When I’d gotten pregnant, I’d chalked it up to that margin of error. I was that one percent, or whatever it was.

  But now…. Oh my God.

  Oh my God.

  My breath stuck in my lungs, my mouth went dry. “You messed with my birth control shot?”

  No remorse, he nodded. “I thought it would be me though.” His gaze fixed on his hand, he fingered a lock of my hair. “I thought you’d have my son.”

  Nathan didn’t ever not look at me. He wasn’t shy, he wasn’t timid, and he most definitely wasn’t bashful or reserved.

  He was calculating.

  About everything.

  “You wanted me to get pregnant.” Bile rose in my throat. “But you never asked me about it?” My nostrils flared. “You didn’t even discuss it with me.” My anger transcended a new level, and I didn’t think I could despise him or myself more. “You fucking bastard.” I knew immediately why he’d wanted me pregnant. Another layer of the trap he’d laid out for me that I’d willingly fallen into.

  As if I hadn’t just sworn at him, as if this was a tender moment, he took my face in both of his hands and looked at me like a man in love looks at a woman. “I was losing you.”

  I yanked out of his grasp. “You never had me!”

  “Lower your voice,” he warned.

  “You never had me,” I whisper hissed, not because he told me to keep it down and not because I didn’t want his fucking guards to hear, but because I didn’t want to wake Maverick.

  “I did,” he retorted confidently, his expression turning to complete disinterest.

  “When?” I demanded.

  “The first time we made love, the first year. Probably the year after that.” Like he’d flipped a switch, his fake love look came back. “Then things changed.”

  Oh my God. “You told me to steal the restaurant deposits while you were still inside me!”

  “You told me your father needed meds the insurance company wouldn’t cover.” He shrugged like that justified everything.

  “Don’t.” I held my hand up. “Don’t give me that justification bullshit or pretend for one second I wanted any of this. I was in a desperate situation and you took advantage of me. You were a hustler before I met you, and you’re still one. Just on a larger scale.” Much, much larger scale.

  He spread his arms out wide and gave me the smile that made people do his bidding. “I’m a hustler because I provide you with a home?” He winked. “Although, why you insist on living in the pool house is beyond me.”

  Blond haired, blue eyed, and a face that was made for movies, Nathan Xavier Lewis was as pretty as a man could be. But make no mistake, his smile was bait, and he was soulless and ruthless and cunning.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” I dripped sarcasm. “Maybe because I’m a fucking prisoner to your life?”

  Leaning back, he frowned as he crossed his ankle over his knee. “Don’t be dramatic, Brooke, it doesn’t suit you.”

  “Fuck you.” How was that for dramatic?

  “Say where and when,” he easily countered.

  I dropped the attitude, and for the second time in ten days, I begged a man. “Just let me go, Nathan. Please.” I took his hand even though the last thing I wanted to do was touch him, but I knew Nathan and I knew how to play his game. “I’m asking you. Let me and Mav go. You don’t need me anymore.” I was sure he had other people making deposits. Not that I ever saw any. “My father’s dead. There’s no one else to tie us together. Your bodyguards will never say anything.” He’d have them killed if they did. I was sure of that. “It doesn’t matter what I did all those years ago to get my father his medicine.” I carefully didn’t say we because that was the game Nathan played. He made everyone else do his bidding. “It’s over and he’s gone.”

  His gaze narrowed. “What you did?” He leaned back on the couch, and I caught the glint of the switchblade he still kept hooked to the edge of his front pants’ pocket. It was the only tell to a previous life where he used to wear jeans and T-shirts with his knife instead of custom-made dress shirts and suits. “What exactly are you implying, Brooke?”

  “You know exactly what I’m talking about. The bank deposits I lifted from the two restaurants where I worked, the cars I stole.” The ones he’d taken to chop shops. “The jewelry store downtown I robbed.” The one he’d had me go in and ask to see expensive diamond engagement rings. Then he’d paid two homeless drunks to get in a fight right out front while I was inside. They threw bottles at each other that smashed the front window of the store. In the resulting chaos, I’d slid out the back with handfuls of jewelry while he waited in a stolen getaway car. Turned out what I’d grabbed was worth half a million and it became the down payment on a real estate deal that put Nathan on the map.

  “Oh, Brooke.” A lecherous smile spread across his face. “What a sordid life you lead.” He reached out and cupped my breast, twisting the nipple that was hard from air conditioning between his thumb and forefinger.

  Fighting back revulsion and the physical urge to jerk away, I held perfectly still. “Let me and Mav go.”

  Leaning forward, he put his fingers inside the waistband of my shorts and whispered, “Now why would I do that?”

  My heart raced and bile swam up my throat. “What are you doing?”

  His hand sank dangerously lower. “Over two years and you’ve never asked me for birth control again.” His fingers skimmed the top of my sex. “Why is that, Brooke?” His thumb swept over my nipple. “Hmm?”

  Cornered by his body, trapped by his manipulation, panic flooded in and my mind froze. “Take your hands off me,” I choked out.

  “Why?” One of his eyebrows rose. “You always liked it when I fucked you.” His hand sank lower in my shorts. “You always came.” The tips of his fingers coasted over the small patch of my pubic hair. “Maybe you want my kid inside you?”

  Choking on bile, I wanted to hurt him.

  But mostly I wanted out.

  I wanted Mav safe.

  My son.

  My brown-eyed, brown-haired, sweet, smiling angel of a boy who looked nothing like this monster in front of me. Nothing.

  “Take. Your hands. Off me,” I warned.

  “I think you want my hands on you.” Nathan shoved me back at the same time he shoved his hand all the way down my shorts.

  “No,” I screamed.

  The French door to the pool house flew open and Ty stood there, a scowl on his face. “Boss,” he ground out
, glaring at me like I was trash before looking back at Nathan. “It’s urgent.”

  Nathan removed his hand and stood. Fixing his shirt cuffs, he spared me a glance. Then he sank me. Pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he slowly, deliberately, turned off the voice recording app.

  Shock followed by rage choked me. “You recorded me?”

  “Do you know how much a child goes for on the open market?” He didn’t wait for a response. He leaned close to me. “You’re lucky I didn’t need the money three years ago.”

  Enraged, terrified, I spit out two words. “You’re sick.”

  His voice dropped to a lethal warning, and for the first time ever, I saw Nathan completely lose his composure. “Do not forget who you’re talking to,” he seethed. “I did this all for you. For you,” he bit out angrily before he straightened to his full height and his expression turned to ice again. “You’re not going anywhere.” He pivoted and strode to the door, then he paused to throw me one last warning look. “Put some fucking clothes on and stay awake. I have business to take care of, then you’re making a deposit tonight.” He walked out without bothering to close the door.

  Not looking at me, Ty did what Nathan didn’t and shut the door.

  Shaking, my legs barely holding me up, I half ran, half scrambled into Mav’s room and looked down at my sleeping angel in his crib.

  Then I sank to the floor and dissolved into silent tears.

  STARING AT THE SECURITY FEED on my monitor, I watched the asshole walk into the pool house.

  Ten fucking days and he hadn’t gone in there once. Not once.

  What the fuck was he doing?

  “Come on, come on, come on.” My knee bounced and my gaze cut between the time stamp in the corner of the screen and the footage. “Seven minutes, asshole. Get the fuck out of there.”

  Ten days.

  Ten fucking days I’d been going out of my mind.

  It took three to realize she didn’t live in the main house with him. Four to realize she wasn’t there by choice.

  Sawyer and Tank had gone back that night and gotten security cameras up across the street and in the backyard of a neighbor, and we had views of three sides of the house, including the backyard, the pool, and most importantly, the pool house. Lewis’s security was so fucking oblivious, they never swept outside for surveillance. We could’ve gotten the cameras closer, but it turned out, Luna knew a man on the inside.