by B. B. Hamel
“All right, Kaspar. You got me to come out to your little farm and I followed you into this field. We’re alone. It’s time we talk business.”
“I agree. First, I need to know how things are going with your takeover.”
“The help you sent was appreciated and useful. I have things well in hand now.” He nodded toward me and I smiled.
“Glad I could help.”
“I want to get this over with. I’m sick of feeling as though I’m in your debt.”
“Fortunately, I want to get this over with, too. The faster we hit Maeve, the better.”
“When are we moving?”
“I have a list of her main holdings. She runs a spy network staffed by low-level dealers all over Chicago and in a few other major cities. We’ll split that in half and each take the most important targets. This will take some coordination.”
“I can handle that.”
I wasn’t so sure he could, but didn’t say so out loud. “Once this is in motion, there’s no going back.”
He barked a laugh. “I’ve already come this far. What’s a little bit more? The other Oligarchs haven’t recognized my power yet, but this’ll make sure they accept me. I’ll spear old Maeve with my cock and then they’ll see.” He threw back his head and laughed.
I tried not to cringe. The stupid bastard was desperate to seem strong. It was pathetic.
“Don’t underestimate her. Even with both of our forces, it won’t be easy.”
“What’s with you? One second, you’re chomping at the bit, and the next you’re worried old Maeve’s going to be a problem. This new girl of yours making you soft? Penny Servant ruining you?” He grinned, showing teeth. I glanced at the little scars on his cheek.
He knew what he was doing. Baiting me like that. He was still angry about what happened in Rome and felt as though he had to regain some of his lost strength.
Pathetic.
“Leave her out of this.”
He waved me away as if I wasn’t willing to kill him.
“I’m only wondering what you think’s going to happen with her. She clearly hates you. Even I can see it, and I’m not exactly a good study of people, I’ll be the first to admit it. Why do you think she’s going to be your wife?”
“It’s not your concern, Redmond. Only Maeve’s your problem.”
“Ah, come on. A wife that hates you is much worse than no wife at all. What are you thinking?”
I clenched my chair and leaned forward, sucking in deep breaths to keep myself calm.
“She’ll come around.”
“I doubt that very much.”
“Redmond. If you mention Penny one more time, I’m going to beat your skull into pieces before your soldiers can come save your weak little life. Now close your fucking mouth.”
Anger flared in his eyes, but he didn’t speak.
At least he wasn’t completely dumb.
I stood up and paced behind my chair.
“As soon as we move on Maeve, she’ll know we’re coming. Which means we hit her fast and hard before her spy network has a chance to react. Do you follow?”
“Yes, I follow.”
“Good. Go speak to my head of security, he’ll give you all our information. Study it and we’ll speak again soon.”
Redmond stood. “Is this a dismissal?”
“Something like that.”
“You aren’t my boss. You understand that, don’t you?”
I rubbed my temples. “I helped you depose your father because I thought you’d be more amendable to change. However, so far, you’re proving much stupider and more difficult than I ever imagined. Now, please, before you spout off some mindless garbage, go back to the house and think about what we’re doing here. It’s not some little schoolyard game. We’re trying to kill another Oligarch, and this one isn’t your daddy.”
Redmond turned pink with rage. He practically trembled and took a step closer. I wanted him to attack me, craved a little physical violence. That would go so well with my recent memory of pinning down Penny and licking her delicious pussy until she came in a glorious spasm of bliss.
Except he only shook his head. “One day you’ll realize you don’t know everything, Kaspar.”
“I doubt you’ll be around to see it.”
He glared at me but stalked back into the corn toward the house.
I sighed and sank down into a chair.
Redmond was a liability. I knew it, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I needed his help to take down Maeve, and none of the other Oligarchs would be willing.
He remained a useful pawn, if a particularly difficult one.
17
Penny
Present Day
Somewhere in the Midwest
Over the next few days, more and more men came to stay at the farm.
The other buildings filled. They were soldiers, lean, hungry, vicious men with rough, loud laughter and hate in their eyes. Kaspar’s men, killers each and every one. They appeared in twos and threes and were welcomed with open arms.
I woke afraid and went to bed terrified.
Kaspar protected me. None of them would touch me, but I couldn’t help picturing the worst-case scenarios: beaten, bruised, taken against my will. These were men that didn’t give a damn about human dignity, and I was like an ant beneath their boots.
At least none of them were staying in the main house. The other structures accommodated them well enough, and I was only bothered by them when I ventured outside to watch the commotion.
They were training for something. Preparing some kind of attack. I didn’t know what type, but drones buzzed through the sky as they drilled in weapons and in small groups. Kaspar was going to attack someone, and he planned on doing it soon.
The men brought noise, chaos, and opportunity.
Cards taught me a lesson. Kaspar’s men were loyal, and even if they weren’t, he’d catch me trying to use them. They were a dead end.
He had eyes everywhere, but he wasn’t perfect.
More people meant resources were spread thin. The drones could only watch so much space at once, and the cornfields were a perfect screen. As I lounged around, sketching in a small notebook, drawing guns, angry faces, bodies in different poses, I kept an eye on the different paths I could use to run away.
Some part of me wanted to stay. It was a stupid, weak, horrible part, but I felt the draw toward Kaspar growing. His tongue was like heaven and hell, and when I came, I nearly lost myself completely. He left me a twitching mess, dreaming about his touch, craving it like an addict, weakened down to nothing. I was scared that I’d never get over this churning, mind-numbing lust.
Kaspar leaned against the back doorframe as I sat drawing some of his men lounging around an outdoor table drinking beer and laughing together. I looked back and flinched. How long had he been watching me? He could be so quiet sometimes.
“You’re pretty good.” He wandered over, looking down at the drawing in my lap.
“I haven’t drawn anything in a long time,” I admitted, turning the paper over so he couldn’t see it anymore. “I’m not any good, but it’s something to do.”
“I disagree. I think you have talent.” He leaned against the railing, studying me. “You’ve been watching the men lately.”
“It’s not what you think.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And what do I think?”
“It’s not—” I stopped myself. I was about to say, sexual. But he wouldn’t think that, not without lashing out. “There’s just nothing else to do.”
“I know you’re bored. It won’t last forever. We’re stuck here now, but soon things will be in motion, and you’ll wish you were back in the quiet again.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
He shrugged and looked out toward the corn. “I know you’re wondering how you can use all this to escape.” He didn’t look at me as he spoke and I studiously glared down at my lap, livid that he knew, and annoyed with myself for thinking
for one second he might not. “It seems like a good opportunity if you hadn’t considered it yet. But don’t bother. Of all the people here, I’m watching you the closest.”
A shiver ran down my spine. A small group of men jogged past. I watched them go, avoiding Kaspar’s gaze.
His ever-present stare.
“I was thinking about making a break for the corn.” I spoke quietly and mostly to myself. “I figured the drones would have a harder time following me there.”
He nodded and squinted into the sky. “It’s not a bad thought. But which way would you go? Do you have any clue how far we are from other people right now?”
“I don’t, but we’re not on an island. Someone is somewhere, and all I have to do is run until I find them.”
“It would never work. The drones have infrared cameras.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. Of course they did. Even if I got lost in the corn, they’d be able to pick me out using my body heat.
“You really thought of everything.”
His smile was strangely sad. He stood up suddenly and held out a hand. “Come with me.”
“Where?”
“You’re bored, right? Let me entertain you.”
I hesitated, then accepted his offer. I really didn’t have anything else to do, and besides, maybe I’d find some advantage in this.
I left my sketches behind as he led me down into the yard. More men drilled in the large courtyard between buildings, some of them doing calisthenics, some of them sparring with foam knifes and padded helmets. They kicked and punched each other, ferocious and deadly, and yet they all looked at Kaspar like he was the worst of them all.
The way they gazed at him made me think back bitterly to my stupid plan to use Cards against him.
I could be such a fool.
But then again, he let me fall into the trap. He wanted me to think I was lost, beaten, and left behind.
I held my chin up. I refused to fall prey to self-pity.
He took me to the far side of the compound, toward a long range of targets. Kaspar opened a small shed and came out with a large black crossbow and several bolts tucked into a nylon sheath. He held it out to me and I took it uncertainly.
It was surprisingly light.
“Carbon fiber,” he explained. “It’s for hunting. My men aren’t here to kill deer, so they don’t bother with this stuff.” He steered me toward a large crate and placed the crossbow and the bolts down on top.
For the next ten minutes, he showed me how to pull back the string, how to notch the bolt, and how to shoot. I lost myself in the simple mechanics of pull, load, fire. I was terrible and missed the target more than I managed to hit it, but the power behind each strike, the ease with which Kaspar positioned my body and walked me through the steps of aiming and squeezing the trigger was strangely alluring and hypnotic.
I forgot about my family. I forgot about my freedom, and Cards, and Kaspar himself, even though his hands were on my hips and his lips were next to my ear, speaking to me quietly as I aimed down range. I shot the bolt, missed, and tried again. Over and over, until I hit it several times in a row.
“Not too bad for your first time,” Kaspar said as we collected the bolts. “My father taught me how to do that when I was nine.”
“You don’t talk about your parents much.”
He nodded, gazing away. “There isn’t much to say. They’re dead now.”
“What happened?”
“My father was killed by an enemy mafia. The other Oligarchs all say it was an accident, but I’ve always wondered.”
“I thought Oligarchs weren’t supposed to attack each other.”
“That’s what the rules say.” His smile was bitter. “Rules are meant to be broken, or at least bent.”
I chewed on my lip. Darren and Roman knew that better than most. “And what about your mother?”
“She left after my father died. She wanted to get away from this life before she ended up like him. I heard she married a flight instructor and ended up smashed on the side of a mountain when he decided to fly in bad weather.”
I sucked in a breath and let it out. The Oligarch families had money, power, and influence, and yet they were all traumatized, broken, and irrevocably scarred. None of us got out clean. None of us survived intact.
Kaspar steered me to the shed. I helped him put the crossbow away and as I turned to leave, he stood in the doorway.
“I don’t talk about my parents,” he said quietly. “Even when they were alive, they were never kind. My father taught me to shoot by hitting me with a plastic switch every time I missed. My mother treated me like an errand boy one day and like a nuisance the next. I wasn’t sad when she died. I was happy when he was murdered. Does that surprise you?”
“No,” I said honestly. “I grew up with Oligarchs. I know what they can be like.” I paused, softening a touch. “You don’t seem like the kind of man to pity the dead.”
“I don’t pity anyone.” He stepped closer. “Life is suffering and pain. Even for people like you and me, Penny.”
“I’m not like you.”
I wasn’t shattered and destroyed.
I was still a human.
So far, at least.
“You are. It’s hard to see from the inside, but to all those people out there, we’re freaks and monsters.”
“It doesn’t have to be like that. My brother and Roman want to make the Oligarchs better.”
“Your brother and Roman might be right, but I’m not interested in playing their game.”
“So what game are you playing?”
“Revenge.”
I let that sink in. “Revenge for what? Against who?”
“Against Maeve. For you.”
I shook my head. “I have no reason to hate Maeve.”
“After all these years, you still don’t see it. She’s like a blind spot. There, but not really.”
“Who?” I took a step back, away from him, heart racing. I backed into the wall and a nearby bucket of old fishing rods rattled.
“Alice.”
I sucked in a breath. We hadn’t spoken of her since that day, so many years ago. She was the ghost that lingered between us, and her death was the reason I pushed him away. Alice was the catalyst for my hate.
I knew death and pain. I lost Livvie and that nearly broke me.
But Alice was different.
There’d always been something strange about my roommate. She was too quiet, paid too much attention to me, but she seemed twisted and bent out of shape like so many other kids I knew. She’d had a hard life, and I got the sense she didn’t have many friends, if any at all. I tried my hardest to get close to her, but there was always a barrier between us.
Then Kaspar came along. She was ambivalent at first, but eventually pushed me into going out with him. I thought she was crazy, but I listened.
He won me over.
“I don’t like talking about her. Especially not with you.”
“Do you ever look back and wish things could be different?”
“Sometimes.”
“I don’t. Not once in all these years have I once regretted what happened.” He stalked closer. My heart threatened to shatter my ribs. I wanted to yell and scream. I wanted to run.
Instead, I was frozen, the memories assaulting me.
That first date under the heater. Kaspar, charming, happy. Alice rolling her eyes, grinning at my bad jokes. Lounging on the lawn. I wanted to go back there—those were perfect days.
Happy. There was so much potential.
Then Kaspar had to go and ruin it all.
“Why?” I choked out.
He stopped inches away. Powerful, muscular. He was a force of nature, a typhoon, a hurricane. He could batter me to pieces with his bare hands if he wanted.
I felt so small and weak. I hated myself for it.
“Why what? Why did I do it?”
I nodded, met his gaze.
He stared back intently.
I reached out and pushed against his chest. It was like leaning into a steel beam.
“Why did you murder my friend?”
My words hung in the air.
I could still see it. Alice’s lips purple-blue. Kaspar’s hands wrapped around her throat.
The gun on the floor.
My life was never the same after that. Pain followed me around. Misery haunted me. Livvie died and there wasn’t much left to keep me together.
I never got an explanation. Alice’s body was taken away, her murder covered up, and Kaspar continued on. He took over his family and reigned as an Oligarch.
Untouchable.
I hated him, hated him so much. His intense yearning for me only made it worse.
He killed my friend and I didn’t understand why.
“Do I seem like the kind of man to kill for no reason?” His voice was soft, velvet-smooth. I wanted to jam my thumbs into his eyes.
“Yes, you do.”
He grimaced slightly. I hurt him. That was surprising.
“Then I’ve done a bad job letting you know me.” He put a massive hand beside my head, leaning closer. I was pinned, controlled. “Alice had to die. I know you don’t understand now, but I swear, you will.”
“You’re insane if you think I’m ever going to be okay with what you did.” Anger flared then. It pushed back the fear enough to make me act. I shoved at him again, struggling to get away, but he grabbed my wrist and pinned me tight against the back of the shed.
Outside, men marched past, laughing with each other.
His lips were so close to my throat.
“I don’t expect you to take my word for it. That’s why I’m going to burn down the Oligarchs to prove that I’m not a liar.”
“You’ve lost your mind, Kaspar.”
He kissed my neck. His lips were bitterly soft and I refused to moan. His hand gripped my wrist tighter—I thought of his mouth between my legs—
“You’re right, I did lose my mind. Years ago, when I saw you at Blackwoods, I lost all sense of myself. Do you think I enjoyed following you around? Calling you all the time?”
“You got some sick pleasure from it.”
“It ripped me to pieces. I tore me up inside. Every time I dialed your number, it was like gagging on hot coals. I hated myself, disgusted with how low I was willing to stoop, but I couldn’t stop. I had to have you. I needed to prove that I was perfect for you, that we could be good together. I couldn’t stop dreaming about your lips, your curves, your eyes, your voice. I had to hear you purr my name.”