“You know the important shit,” Justin replies just as low.
Aedan lets out a long breath and asks, “So what’s the plan?”
“I’ve been doing some digging. Paulie has a mistress. He’s been seeing her for the last four years. His wife doesn’t know about her, but I’m guessing if she did, she wouldn’t be happy,” Justin says, and I cut in.
“I don’t know what you heard, but Paulie’s been stepping out on his wife for a long time. No way a woman, any woman, could miss it. My guess is she just doesn’t give a fuck what he does, as long as she gets to live the high life.”
“You’re right. She couldn’t care less about the others. But this woman is different, and I have a feeling she won’t like what’s been going on,” he says, pulling up a picture on his phone of a young girl with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and giant fake tits. “Her name is Anita Lynn. She’s twenty-six. Paulie met her at a club she was stripping at and moved her into a better place right away, only to move her into a bigger place four months later. Her house is twice the size of the one he shares with his wife, and he just recently found out she is pregnant with his child. Paulie’s been moving money around so that when he asks his wife of the last thirty-two years for a divorce, she won’t be able to take him to the cleaners.”
“You’re right. She won’t like that,” Kenton murmurs, handing Justin his phone back.
“Lane is our in to Paulie, but before we take him out, we are going to rattle his gilded cage. If things with his wife go how I think they will, she’ll send him packing. This will be unexpected, so his guards will be scrambling to cover him. That’s when we’ll strike, using Lane to contact his man and tell us where Paulie is.”
“Sounds a little too easy,” I mutter, and Justin’s eyes move to me.
“Most wars are ended in silence,” he says quietly, and I see Aedan’s head shake and his lips twitch.
“Justin is one scary motherfucker. I don’t even question it anymore.” He shrugs then stands. “I need to get back to business. As soon as you guys have a plan in place, call me. My brothers won’t ask questions, and you’ll have more backup,” he offers, patting Justin’s back then shaking each of our hands before walking out of the office.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that Aedan is Aubrey’s brother,” Kenton gripes, and Justin stands.
“It’s not important. You know what she is to me, and that’s all that matters,” Justin says, standing and putting a gun into the back of his jeans.
“I didn’t even know you had a girlfriend.” I frown, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I don’t have a girlfriend,” he mutters then grins. “I have a wife.”
“What the fuck?” I whisper.
“Why isn’t she here?” Kai asks, studying him.
“She’s never coming back to Vegas. She’s with my mom and dad. My dad, who owns more guns than even you. She’s safe with our daughter at my parents’ home.”
“Did I fall down the fucking rabbit hole?” I ask, looking around, hearing Kenton chuckle at my side.
“This information is making me second-guess your relationship with Aedan,” Kai says, and Justin’s eyes move to him and his back straightens.
“I personally don’t give a fuck about the guy. My wife was scared out of her fucking head when she ran from him and her family. I know he loves his sister, but he will always put business first, and that shit isn’t okay with me. If you doubt my loyalty, then that shit’s on you. I have proven on more than one occasion where my loyalties lie.”
“No one in this room is questioning your loyalty,” I assert calmly, and watch his body visibly relax. “But you know, Justin, even if you don’t have a relationship with Aedan, you’re tied to him, and that is something we should have heard about before now.”
“Aubrey doesn’t exist for anyone. She’s been through enough. We all have one goal, and that’s to take Paulie out. I think you can each understand now why this job is just as important to me as it is to any of you,” he says, moving toward the door. “Now, if we’re done gossiping, let’s get back to the house. I have some shit to take care of before we take Lane on a trip out to Dino’s.”
“Lane’s mine.” I look at each of them, making sure they understand. “He drugged Maggie. I don’t know what his plan for her was, but I’m not naive enough to think he didn’t plan on taking advantage of her,” I finish, feeling the anger I’ve been holding in expand with each breath.
“He’s yours,” Justin affirms quietly, and I can see in his eyes that he knows what I’m feeling, but when he speaks, I can hear the pain in his words and recognize that he, more than anyone, knows what could have happened. “Paulie Jr. drugged Aubrey. She…” He shakes his head, running his hands over his hair and dropping his eyes to the floor, and his voice catches when he speaks. “She went out with some girlfriends, and he drugged her after she didn’t give him the attention he wanted. I’m grateful the drug erased her memory of what happened, but she still knew after she woke up in the hospital that she had been violated. If I had known what happened to her when I killed that motherfucker, I would have tortured him before taking his life. His death was too quick, and far too painless.”
“Jesus,” Kenton whispers, while Kai growls, “Motherfucker,” under his breath.
“I’m sorry, man,” I say, but the words aren’t enough.
“It didn’t happen to me, but I promised my wife it wouldn’t happen to anyone else. That drug—the drug Paulie used on her and the one Lane used on Maggie—they were the same. I’ve never heard of it used outside that circle.”
“That’s why you’re here?”
“That’s why I’m here,” he agrees then looks through us before heading out the door.
*
“This place creeps me the fuck out,” Justin says from the driver’s seat as we head down a sandy dirt road in the middle of the desert toward a house. I can barely make it out through the headlights and dust Kai and Kenton’s SUV is spitting up in front of ours.
“Exactly what is this place?” I ask, and Justin looks at me, the lights of the dash bouncing off his face.
“Imagine a horror movie, and then add the mob to that shit, and this is what you would come up with,” he explains, and I look over my shoulder at Lane tied up in the backseat, and even in the dark, I notice his eyes are filled with fear.
“You picked the wrong side,” I tell him quietly, hearing him groan through the gag and duck tape covering his mouth.
Pulling up to the dark house, I watch a large man wearing a wife-beater, jeans, and boots, with a shotgun resting over his shoulder, walk up to the passenger side of Kai’s SUV. Seeing him nod and walk off toward the house, he comes back out a few minutes later, getting on a four-wheeler. Following behind him and the SUV in front of us, we drive out for miles, ending in the middle of the dark desert. Getting out when we stop, I look around then watch as the guy, Dino, heads a few feet away and pulls open a hatch.
“What the fuck?” I hiss, seeing that down a set of stairs set into the ground is a concrete room. The walls are covered with different tools, with a metal-framed chair set in the middle bolted to the ground.
“Told you this was the shit scary movies are made of,” Justin whispers from my side, and I look at him then open the back door, drag Lane out, and then yank him down the stairs into the room.
Pushing him into the metal chair in the middle of the room, I rip the tape off his mouth and pull out the gag, tossing it to the floor.
“I can’t believe you betrayed me,” I murmur, cutting the plastic ties holding his wrists together. As soon as he’s free, he does what I knew he would do. His arm swings out. Ducking under his fist, I lift my elbow, ramming it up under his chin. His head flies back and his teeth gnash together so hard, I wouldn’t be surprised if a few broke. Grabbing a long leather strap off the wall, I wrap it around his throat and pull back. His hands rip at the strap trying to pull it off, but I hold it tighter.
“What the fuck we’re
you thinking?” I ask close to his ear, as his face turns purple.
“Pretty sure he can’t answer if he can’t breathe” Kenton says blandly from my side, so I loosen the strap and listen as Lane sucks in hair while Justin secures his hands to frame of the chair.
“You’re gonna die.” He laughs, rolling his head on his shoulders. “You’re all gonna die.”
“What did they offer you?” I ask and his eyes focus on mine, a creepy smile lighting his eyes.
“You’re dead,” He licks his lips, and I notice blood coating his teeth. “I was going to make her my whore,” he whispers and my blood turns cold. “Take her from the club, say I dropped her at home, take her away, so you wouldn’t have been able to find her. She would have been mine.” He laughs. “I would have fucked her in every hole in her fucking body, and when I was finished, I would have passed her along to someone else to use,” he says and I search the walls of the room looking for something worthy of him. My eyes stop on a pair of lawn sheers with dark silver blades and long black handles.
“That was your plan when you drugged her?” I ask nodding to the wall. Kai’s eyes flare as he pulls the sheers down, passing them to Justin who hands them to me.
“I wouldn’t have taken her when she was drugged.” He smiles his creepy smile again as I test the weight of the sheers. “I would have waited until she knew it was me fucking her in the ass.”
Nodding, I flip the sheers over and use both hands to cut off his fingers one by one. Roaring in agony, his face pales as his blood drains onto the floor. Dipping my face closer to his, I mutter, “Now I’m gonna cut off your cock.” Seeing fear in his eyes, I smile. By the time I’m done with him, he’s unconscious and we’ve learned everything we could from him including who his contact with Paulie is.
*
“Are you fucking shitting me?” Justin roars into his phone as he slams the door to the Suburban. Stepping around the back, I watch him pace then feel Kenton and Kai come up next to me.
“What’s going on?” Kenton asks, and I look at him and shrug then back at Justin when he pulls back his arm, tossing his phone off into the distance.
“His wife fucking killed him!” he roars, reaching his hand up and pulling his hair.
“What?” I ask, taking a step toward him.
“That was Aedan. Police swarmed Paulie’s house ten minutes after Aedan and his boys heard a shot. They just watched the police drag Paulie’s wife in a pair of cuffs to the back of a squad car. One of his boys was able to get close and heard the cops say she killed her husband—shot him in the fucking head at close range.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Kenton asks, and Justin’s swings around toward him.
“No,” he clips then closes his eyes. “What the fuck?”
“This is good,” Kai mutters, and Justin’s eyes open to meet his. “It’s done. We didn’t even have to get our hands dirty. I don’t know about you, but I have enough black on my soul.”
“All this shit was for nothing. I could have fucking sent her that shit weeks ago. I’ve been away from my wife for weeks dealing with this shit. You guys came out here to deal with it, and now—”
“It’s done,” I repeat Kai’s words, cutting him off. “Aedan gets what he wants, and we leave all this shit behind us. I got my vengeance, and now I’m going to get my girl, take her home, and then tell her in the morning that we’re getting married. At the end of the day, we all got what we wanted. None of the other shit matters.”
“Sven’s right, Justin,” Kenton says quietly. “Paulie and his son are both dead. You know where they were making the drugs thanks to Lane, and the cops are shutting the lab down, probably as we speak. It’s time to go home. You know Aubrey and Jenna need you there with them.”
Visibly swallowing, he fists his hands at his sides and I now understand what changed about him. It’s not that he suddenly became hard. He suddenly found himself caring for two people who he feels he needs to protect from the world. “Your girls are lucky to have you, man,” I whisper, meeting his gaze. “But I guarantee they just need you. Believe me when I say that.”
Nodding, his head drops forward and he pulls in a breath. “Do you want to help me find my phone?” he asks after a moment, and we all laugh, but then we spend the next forty minutes searching for his cell. Once we find it, the sun is starting to rise and we head back to Kai’s. All of the girls are awake, so we stay for breakfast then say our goodbyes and head home.
Chapter 13
Sven
True happiness
“I’m marrying Maggie. If you want to walk her down the aisle, you need to be at the Harmony Chapel in an hour,” I tell Maggie’s dad as soon as he picks up the phone.
“I’m guessing I can’t talk you into waiting a few months?”
“Nope,” I deny, smiling at the ground under my feet.
“Does my daughter even know she’s getting married?” he asks, and I laugh, looking toward the store I sent Maggie into after she told me there was no way she is getting married without at least wearing a dress.
“She knows,” I mumble, hearing him laugh.
“We’ll be there,” he replies, hanging up.
Shoving my cell into my pocket, I look through the window, seeing Maggie talking to one of the sales girls. Knowing she’s okay I walk to the building next-door and go inside to pick up one more item before we make our way to the chapel.
Watching Maggie walk toward me with her arm entwined with her father’s I feel my heart beat kick up. She looks more beautiful than I have ever seen her. Her strapless white dress hugs each of her curves perfectly; her eyes are shinning with love, and the smile on her face, fuck that smile is a smile I would kill for.
“You look beautiful,” I whisper, taking her from her father at the top of the aisle.
“You look very handsome yourself,” she whispers back.
Pressing a brief kiss to her lips, I nod at her dad then turn her toward the minister to make her my wife.
*
“We could have at least had dinner with my parents,” Maggie complains as I guide her into the private elevator blindfolded.
“We could have,” I agree picking her up when the elevator comes to a stop. “But then I would have sat with a hard on all through dinner, thinking of all the ways I want to remove this dress,” I explain, nibbling her ear as her arms wrap around my shoulders.
“Where are we?” she asks as I set her on her feet.
“We don’t have time to take a honeymoon right now.” I pull off her blindfold, watching her face light up. “I figured we could spend a few days here naked instead.”
Biting her lips she spins in a circle taking in the penthouse. “Oh my god,” she whispers in awe, walking to the swimming pool in the middle of the room.
“Naked in this place with you for a few days is better than any honeymoon I could have dreamt up.” She grins, walking backward and I start to prowl after her. Then I laugh when she takes off running, catching up with her when she traps herself in the bedroom, I push her down onto the bed. Lifting my weight off her, I search her eyes then lower my mouth over hers. I will never be worthy of the love I see in her eyes, but every fucking day I will try to earn it.
*
Maggie
Heading to the bed from the bathroom, I stop in my tracks as my eyes land on my sleeping husband. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen him shirtless, but I know it’s more times than I can count. I’ve also memorized the way he looks naked, how he feels pressed against me, how he tastes, what it feels like when he holds me. I’ve memorized everything about him, but the visual I have now is one I want forever.
I used to think love was a fairy tale, an impossible dream, but having what I have with Sven, I know that not only is it possible, but it’s something that happens when you least expect it. It takes you for a ride you may not be ready for, but it leaves you steady on your feet when you get off.
Moving quietly to the bed, I put my knees on the mattress
and run my finger over the thick platinum band on Sven’s finger, admiring what it is and what it stands for.
“Why are you up?” he asks, opening one eye to peek at me while his fingers wrap around mine.
“I couldn’t sleep,” I tell him, falling to my side and scooting closer to him.
“You couldn’t?” he asks, getting up on his elbow while his fingers run down between my breasts.
“No.” I smile, parting my thighs.
“Eager, are we?” He grins, leaning down to kiss me as his fingers roll over my clit, making my hips jerk.
“I like my husband’s fingers,” I breathe, running my own through his hair.
“Just my fingers?” he asks, sliding one then two deep, rolling them over my G-spot, causing me to gasp.
“I don’t know. I also like your mouth and your…you know.”
Chuckling, he scoots down the bed, swings one of my legs over his shoulder, and licks while his fingers pump. “I think you should tell me what your favorite is out of the three.” He licks me again and my hands move to hold him in place. By the time he’s done, my eyes are heavy, and if I had to tell anyone what my favorite was, I wouldn’t be able to, because he’s a master with all three.
*
Kenton
Rolling over, I place my hand out on the mattress and come up with air. “What the fuck?” Opening my eyes, I lift my head and see the bed is empty, but the light in the attached bathroom is on, and I can hear whimpering coming from in there. Getting out of bed, I don’t even bother finding my pants. I pick my gun up off the side table and slowly make my way to the bathroom door, which is open a crack, where I can see Autumn through the mirror, standing naked in front of the sink with tears in her eyes. “Baby, what the fuck?” I ask, swinging the door fully open, watching her jump when our gazes connect.
“I…I can’t believe it,” she whispers, smiling while more tears fill her beautiful eyes.
“Believe what?” I ask quietly, setting my gun on the counter so I can take her into my arms.
“This,” she whispers, reaching behind me then tucking her arms between us.