Tiger Mom (Killer Moms Book 4)

by Eve Langlais

  At the mercy of a bastard. He needed to find them. Fast. But for that, he needed help. First, though…pants. A man with his dick and balls hanging out wasn’t exactly inconspicuous.

  This time of night, few clotheslines held any items. Still, he managed a sarong of sorts with a blanket left hanging over a rickety fence. Loins covered, he still lacked a weapon or a phone.

  It was maybe a half-mile of aimless wandering from where he’d been dumped before he saw a guy wearing his shirt and shoes. Could it be that he had other items of Ted’s, too?

  He slipped into an alley and waited for the guy to pass before grabbing him, slamming him into a wall and growling, “I think you have some shit of mine.”

  The guy didn’t have his phone, but he knew the fellow who did, and he took Ted to him once they’d chatted a while with fists.

  Recovering his phone, shirt, and shoes, but still wearing a fucking blanket skirt, he placed his first call. “She left!” he barked the words into the phone as soon as Marie answered.

  “What happened?”

  He offered a quick explanation that left Marie cussing up a storm.

  “That idiot!” Macey’s handler huffed. “She should have waited for aid.”

  “Can you blame her? She panicked once she knew that her ex had the girls. What a clusterfuck.” Ted raked a hand through his hair.

  “He won’t harm the girls.” Marie sounded mostly certain. But there was a bit of hesitation.

  He felt it himself. Along with a cold dread. “But he will hurt Macey.”

  “Most likely.”

  Anger boiled. “This could have been avoided if you’d just had him killed.”

  “We couldn’t.”

  “What do you mean couldn’t?” he snapped as he paced. “You’re an agency of professional assassins.”

  “And we tried when we first extracted her. It resulted in two deaths and a third operative put in the hospital, who retired after. Each attempt resulted in abject failures. So, we stopped.”

  “Why didn’t Macey engineer something? Isn’t she supposed to be some kind of whiz? She could have concocted something to take him out without ever coming close if her reputation is true.”

  “Oh, it’s true. But the thing is, love and hate are a complicated thing. Especially when children are involved.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Let me put this more clearly for you. How do you kill someone’s father? Could you kill, let’s say, the twins’ father?”

  “Hell yeah,” he quickly blurted. “The guy is scum.”

  “Let’s say you did finish him. Would you tell Portia? The twins?”

  He thought about looking them in the face and admitting what he had done. Would they thank him? He’d read the texts the girls had exchanged. Excited about meeting their dad. They’d gone in with high hopes. What if, for all his faults, the guy was a good father? What if the twins loved him?

  Could he still kill the man?

  “They’d be better off without him around.”

  “Yes, they would. Hence why we tried in the early years. However, as time passed, despite Portia’s fear of Ronin, she could never bring herself to strike that final blow. Which meant, we couldn’t act either.”

  “She should know better than to bring sentimentality into it.”

  “And yet isn’t that what you’re doing? You’re determined to rush in and kill, kill, kill.”

  “He’s a threat.”

  “Yes, but the true mission isn’t his fate. It’s that of Macey and the girls. We need to locate them and extract them in a way that harms no one.”

  “And how do you suggest we do that?”

  “I don’t know.”

  The three scariest words he’d ever heard.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Portia regretted drugging Ted, especially given the look of betrayal in his eyes. The good news was that it would last just long enough for her to get this meeting over with.

  She didn’t want to leave him helpless for long. Ted had left her no choice, though. She couldn’t risk angering Ronin. Not with the girls possibly in his care.

  She didn’t believe for a moment that the message she’d received had come from Mae. Which meant that he’d sent it. If Ronin thought for one second that Ted was a threat…

  Better that she did this alone. She’d survived Ronin’s abuse once before when she was young and dumb and unable to defend herself. Stronger now, she knew he couldn’t break her.

  Brave words. Courageous thoughts. They lasted until Portia walked into the greasy restaurant and saw him again. She’d spent a decade picturing what she’d say if she ever came face to face with Ronin again. Most of her speeches were profane. Involved yelling. Tears, too.

  Then she really looked at him. A man who hadn’t aged much and stood as she entered. Even dared to smile.

  A part of her wanted to scream. Shrink. Run away. It took effort to keep her shoulders straight as she scanned the restaurant for her daughters.

  “Macey. You’re looking beautiful, as always.”

  His voice should have repulsed. His face. Body. Everything should have been gross to her, but looking at him, he remained as handsome and smooth as ever. She dug her nails into her palms.

  “Where are my girls? What have you done to my children?” The wrong thing to say.

  His expression hardened. “Our daughters are currently indulging themselves in a villa I’m renting.”

  “You had no right to take them.”

  His brows lifted. “No right? On the contrary. Given your actions, I’m the only one with any rights. Faking your death, stealing my children, lying to them. To me. Once I’m done with you in court, you’ll be lucky if you get to see pictures of them a few times a year.”

  She lunged for him. “How dare you?”

  He caught her wrists and yanked her close. “I dare because they are my daughters, my blood. Just like you are my wife.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  “We’re not divorced, my love. Nor am I widowed anymore. Instead, I have you back in my arms. Where you belong.” The words had an ominous lilt.

  “I’ll kill you.” She said it and meant it. She never should have hemmed and hawed over the years. Never should have wondered at the morality of killing the twins’ father. A mistake, she realized now. An error she’d rectify.

  Lucky for her, he’d not yet thought to have her searched. He didn’t know about the gun strapped to the inside of her leg.

  “You are welcome to try and kill me. Rumor has it you took out Chen.”

  “I’ve taken out more people than you can imagine.”

  “Have you really?” His smile stretched. “I look forward to hearing about your conquests.”

  “How about I show you?” She smiled sweetly.

  “Or you could try being less tedious. Acting as if you are the aggrieved party. Given your subterfuge, my patience is stretched rather thin. It would be a shame if it snapped, and I took it out on someone.”

  “Go ahead and hit me.” She lifted her chin, daring him. Maybe someone passing outside would see and call for help.

  “Never said I wanted to strike you. We’ve just been reunited. Which is a cause for joy. As is becoming a new father. Although, I will admit, I’m already discovering that being a parent can be trying. Apparently, only one of us is a proponent of spare the rod, spoil the child, as you Americans would say.”

  The threat chilled her to the bone. “Don’t you dare lay a hand on the girls.”

  “If you wish them to remain unharmed, then you will behave. Be a proper wife and mother. Earn my forgiveness. Or they will suffer my wrath. Your choice.”

  It was the one threat she couldn’t ignore. But she did have to wonder… “Why me? Why does it have to be me when you could have anyone?”

  “It is exactly because I can have anyone that you must be the one to submit. Shaming me. Choosing to consort with another man.” Ronin’s lip curled. “The irony is, you can thank Grady for me f
inding out you’re alive. He poked around somewhere he shouldn’t have. Looking for someone who was supposed to be dead. But I’d always wondered. What if my wife hadn’t perished in that crash? What if the ring found in the wreckage wasn’t on her finger when it burned?”

  “You suspected that I was alive?”

  “More like hoped, my love.” He said the term almost mockingly. “Which is why when it was brought to my attention that every single record of you had been removed, I created one subtle entry and had an electronic trace attached to it. Then, I waited.”

  The patience and thought behind it had her gaping. “You set a trap.”

  “More like cheese for a mouse. And someone took a nibble at it. I will admit, though, you did a most excellent job of concealing yourself. After ten years, I’d just about forgotten about the little trap I’d set. Funny how it takes only one thread to unravel everything.”

  “You could have just left us alone.”

  “Are you really going to blame me?” He pretended to be the injured party. “I will note that it was our daughters who reached out to me. Who asked to meet their father. Ironic that the very people you protected betrayed you.”

  Ronin still knew how to inflict the most pain with just a few words. It did hurt that the girls had gone behind her back and lied. But they’d only done it because she’d lied first.

  “I want to see them.”

  “Say please.”

  She gritted her jaw. “Please.”

  “Not good enough.” He pointed to the floor.

  Her fists clenched. She knew what he wanted. For her to beg.

  She wanted to tell him to fuck off.

  She wanted to dive at his face and rip out his eyes.

  She wanted her daughters most of all.

  Her knees hit the hard concrete. She stared at his shoes rather than glare at his face as she said, “Please, Ronin. Let me see my girls.”

  “Only after you show me how much you’ve missed me.”

  He expected sex. How pathetic.

  “Going to make me whore myself?”

  He laughed. “You think highly of yourself. As I recall, your skills left much to be desired. No, my love, I won’t need your tainted lips touching me. But you will show proper obeisance.”

  “I won’t be your slave.”

  “Then I guess we’re done.” He walked past her, and she had no doubt that he’d leave and make sure she never saw her daughters again.

  “Wait.”

  He paused.

  She shuffled forward, her head bowed. “I’m sorry I left.”

  “Sorry…what?”

  It soured in her mouth to say, “My love.”

  “Was that so hard?”

  She couldn’t help but glance at him, only to catch his triumphant smirk. He thought he’d won, and she’d wager that he believed her to still be the weak Macey of before. The woman who would bow at threats.

  Let him think that.

  Let him underestimate her.

  She ducked her head again and bowed even lower, using the bend of her body to hide the movement of her hand as it slid under the skirt of her dress, reaching for the gun holstered to her thigh.

  “I wouldn’t try that if I were you,” was his soft warning. “Shoot me, and one of the girls will die. I left orders with those guarding them. It’s up to you. Is my death worth losing one of our children?”

  “Bastard,” she hissed.

  “Hardly. But I am also not stupid like Chen. Attempt to harm me, and there will be repercussions. Now, if you’re done testing me, shall we go? You might want to hurry to decide. I also left orders about the timeframe in which I expected to return. We’re cutting it close.”

  She shot him an angry glare. “You’d truly kill your own daughters?”

  “If one dies, I still have the other.”

  The coldness of the remark had her slumping. He’d won. She couldn’t risk her daughters. “I’m coming.” She rose to her feet. When he gestured for her to go ahead, she shuffled to the door and got into the car that pulled up outside.

  Funny how in all her nightmares, not once did she ever walk to her doom of her own volition.

  Reality proved most frightening of all.

  Chapter Twenty

  The Twins

  “Ronin is not a nice man,” Lin declared less than twenty-four hours after they’d met him, and only after disabling the camera and microphone in their room. Who put listening and surveillance devices in a young girl’s room? And recently, too. The plaster and concrete silt from their installation still dusted the dresser under it.

  Despite Mae agreeing with her sister’s assessment, she couldn’t help but feel ornery about it. Because admitting that their father was a jerk, meant having to fess up that she’d been wrong. That perhaps Mother knew best. But she was still mad at her mom.

  “He is exactly how a father should be. Well-dressed. Hard-working.” Or so it seemed, given how he barked, and people listened. “He knows how to command.” And possessed a stern mien, along with old-fashioned ideas like having the girls dress for dinner and waiting to be told to speak. Mae didn’t have a hard time with that one as she went silent for most of the meal. However, Lin gushed about everything. It irritated Father as they had sat at the formal dining table the night before. She could see it in the tic jumping by his eye.

  Lin didn’t get any of the subtle hints, but she did snap her mouth shut when Father finally barked, “Cease your useless prattling.”

  Mae’s mouth opened. How dare he speak to her sister like that? How dare—?

  He slewed a cold gaze in her direction, and Mae kept her lips sealed.

  Even now, despite the camera being disabled—because Lin, being less than subtle, had actually removed it from the wall—she had to wonder if there was another watching. What if Father had more eyes and ears?

  Lin either didn’t think of it or didn’t care. “You forgot to add that he’s arrogant and just plain mean. Did you hear how he talks to the staff?” Trust Lin to be more worried about others than herself.

  “He’s an important man.” Mae could think of a thousand excuses. Did any of them justify his behavior? Then again, perhaps it was because they didn’t know each other. Strangers that had known each other less than a day. Perhaps over time, he’d soften?

  “I don’t like him. I want to go home.” Lin’s lower lip jutted.

  “We don’t have a home, remember? It burned down.” Burned down on Ronin’s orders. What kind of person did that?

  The tears truly welled in her sister’s eyes. “All our stuff is gone.”

  Mae had been doing her best to not think about that. If she did, she might let out a never-ending scream. She had to remain strong, now more than ever. For her sister.

  Because I screwed up.

  “I want Mom.” Lin’s lips trembled.

  “Me, too,” Mae admitted. What had started out as an adventure had turned into a nightmare. “Let’s find a way to call her.”

  “How? We left our tablets on the boat.” With their handheld devices and some Wi-Fi, or a cell connection, they could have contacted her.

  There didn’t appear to be any phones lying around the villa. A lavish place of concrete walls layered over in many rooms with a textured plaster. The staff didn’t say anything to the girls. Just brought them whatever they asked for. And chances were they reported to someone who would tell their father.

  “We need to get our hands on something we can connect to the internet.” If they asked for a device from the staff and claimed they needed it for entertainment, would they give the girls one? Maybe they should just try filching one. But that would require them running into someone carrying a phone.

  “Come on,” Mae said suddenly, rolling off Lin’s bed. “Let’s go outside for some air.”

  “I don’t want to go outside,” Lin pouted.

  “Trust me. You want to go outside,” Mae enunciated. Her sister was miserable, and Mae wasn’t feeling too happy herself. Time to e
xamine the problem and figure out a solution.

  “You suck.”

  “I know.” She dragged Lin down the long hall in the wing with their adjoining bedrooms. The coral floors, preserved under a clear coat, let them walk barefoot without any jaggedness. At the end of the hall, patio doors led into a courtyard, walled all around, twenty paces by thirty paces. It provided a secure and beautiful garden surrounding a plunge pool, the greenery of the topiaries lush. A pair of lounge chairs flanked a short table. If they sat out here, someone would bring them a drink.

  If they went for a swim, they’d find a towel for each of them folded by the edge. Someone was always watching. Despite their father’s demeanor towards them, the girls received all kinds of pampering. Their treatment was luxurious, as were their rooms. A shared bathroom joined their bedrooms, both of them much bigger than the one they used to have.

  There was a giant living room with a massive television. A dining room with way too many chairs. At various points throughout the house, armed men could be spotted in the halls, the windows not facing the courtyard electronically locked at all times. The girls had received a warning that they weren’t to leave the house without permission.

  A pretty prison.

  As Lin flopped onto the seat, Mae glanced around, wondering where the camera was located. The climbing vines hid most of the cement-block wall to the second floor. A slight movement drew her attention to the man standing in shadows on the second-floor balcony. It ran around the entire space, and she’d wager there was a matching sniper concealed on the opposite side.

  What kind of man required such intense security?

  And the more disturbing thought, how would Mother manage to take them back? Because Mae had no doubt that Father had meant what he said. He was keeping his daughters. He had the power and wealth to do it.

  Mae needed to get a message out.

  She sat in the other chair and waited. Someone would arrive any second now with a drink. She could then ask for a tablet or phone to entertain herself. The worst that could happen was that they’d say no.

  “I want to go outside. Somewhere other than this garden.” Lin’s petulance proved contagious.