Jagger (Broken Doll Book 2)

  Cuchillo aimed the barrel at my head. “Move out of the way and tell me where you are hiding the cunt.”

  The monster inside snarled at the sound of Miri’s name falling from Cuchillo’s lips. That, along with the slur he aimed at my doll, had the monster begging to rip into his flesh, spill his blood, and spit on his lifeless corpse. “Over my dead fucking body.”

  A gruesome smile twisted his face. The man no longer looked human. He was disheveled, blood misted on his previously white shirt. His hair was sticking up in all directions. Life on the run hadn’t been kind to the motherfucker. Good.

  “I will make that happen soon, cabrón. After I slowly kill the puta in front of you.” He took a step forward and I readied my hands to catch my blades. He would have time to shoot me, but I could still take him out before he could get to Miri. I meant what I said about him having to kill me to get to her. At that moment I cared nothing about my own life, only hers. “Now where is she?”

  Just because I was willing to die, didn’t mean I would make this easy for him. A low growl rumbled in my chest. “She’s not here. You’ll never touch her again, Cuchillo. I’m going to tear you apart.” I stepped toward the man, trying to throw him off his game and get close enough to ensure my aim would be accurate.

  Cuchillo grinned again, this one even more hideous than the previous. He scoffed, waving his hand in the air. “You think I’m estúpido, pendejo? That weak little man at the gas station told me the redhead came by yesterday. Right before I put a bullet between his eyes.”

  Over the lunatic’s shoulder, I saw a flash of red hair and a single green eye.

  No! Goddamn it, Miri, stay the fuck upstairs!

  Cuchillo narrowed his dark eyes, catching the bolt of fear as it tore through me. I made my face blank, unwilling to give away Miri’s presence even though every cell in my body was urging me to scream and tell her to run.

  Oh fuck.

  Standing in the open doorway, behind Cuchillo, was a big-ass motherfucker. A huge, snarling Mexican dude with a gun of his own at the ready. And my Miri was on the stairway between Cuchillo’s henchman and Cuchillo himself. I had to do something, or Miri would end up dead.

  I took another step forward, ready to end this shit. My blades were at the ready. All I had to do was flick them out and throw, making sure their mark was true. I could only hope Cuchillo’s aim would be off once he was hit with the knives. I locked eyes with El Cuchillo, the man who broke my doll right as she was beginning to heal from the horrors of her young life. He touched her. Tortured her. Made her scream. And according to Miri’s report from the doctor, he did it all while she was fucking pregnant with my child!

  Cuchillo was going to die for his crimes.

  I tensed my wrist, about to release the knives, when my sweet doll stepped out of the hall. A handgun was clutched in her tiny hands, looking enormous by comparison. The monster in the doorway raised his own gun, aiming at my doll. Miri was trembling as she lifted the gun. There was no way I could hide the anguish on my face. Cuchillo sensed the change in the atmosphere. The electric charge that sparked as fear rippled down my spine. He took his eyes off me for one second.

  One second was all I needed.

  I dropped to the floor and threw the blades as a gun went off.

  Cuchillo jerked forward, his eyes wide in surprise. My blades landed true, both protruding from the middle of the henchman’s neck. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and he slumped to his knees before landing face-first on the floor. Stunned, I rolled to my side and stared at El Cuchillo. His gun went off, didn’t it? I should have been shot. I ran my hands down my torso, finding nothing. Glancing over, I noticed a palm-sized circle of blood around a small hole in the center of Cuchillo’s back. Pushing my upper body off the floor, I found Miri frozen in place, trembling. Her knuckles were white where she clutched the gun with both hands, the weapon still raised in front of her.

  Miri. Miri was the one who pulled the trigger. Not Cuchillo and not his accomplice.

  “Miri? Lower the gun, doll.”

  Sammy moved past me, headed for the man on the ground in the doorway with my knives sticking out of his throat. I let him handle it, unable to tear my gaze away from Miri.

  Slowly, I rolled to my feet, afraid if Miri was in shock I might startle her into firing again. I didn’t need to worry. Her arms fell to her sides and the gun slipped from her fingers to thump on the floor. Miri began to shake all over, and she let out the most heartbreaking wail I’d ever heard. I rushed to her side and pulled her against my chest, whispering soothing words as she sobbed.

  “It’s okay, doll. You’re okay now.”

  “Boss.” I turned to see Sammy back next to Frank, pressing a towel to Frank’s shoulder. “We need to go.”

  Right. I shifted Miri to my left side, keeping her tucked under my arm. With my right, I dug out my phone and called a “cleaning service” I had used before. They would wipe the house of any evidence and get rid of the body and Cuchillo’s car. I hung up and wrapped Miri back in my tight embrace. I would never let go of her again. Never.

  I stared down at the man who caused so much pain and horror. Fuck, I wanted to spit on the piece of shit so badly, it physically hurt to hold back. But evidence was evidence, and no way was I going to leave my DNA on that piece of shit. He wasn’t worth getting caught. I walked past him to the dead man in the doorway. Using my foot, I held the body down and pulled out my throwing knives, grimacing at the blood.

  Nasty motherfucker.

  Suddenly, Miri was next to me, beating her fists on the large man’s unmoving chest.

  “You fucking asshole! I hate you!” She was screaming, hitting him over and over.

  “Doll.” I grabbed her by the waist and hauled her back. “Stop. He’s dead.”

  Her voice hitching from the sobs, Miri turned in my arms and whispered into my shirt. “That’s the one. The one who…”

  My body stilled, turning as cold as a glacier. “He raped you.”

  I felt her nod against my chest.

  Motherfucker. My blood boiled and I wished I could kill the piece of shit all over again, starting by cutting off his cock and shoving it up his ass. Miri was full out crying now, her tears wetting my shirt. Shit. I had to be strong for her no matter how badly I wanted to inflict more damage on the bastard’s corpse.

  “Shhhhh, he’s dead now, doll. He can’t hurt you anymore.” I stood there, holding Miri, soothing her, until the sobs turned to sniffs and she wiped her red eyes. I held her face in my hands. “Are you okay to go home?”

  “I want to get out of here.”

  That was good enough for me.

  Sammy packed up his gear while I wrapped my knives in a towel, grabbed everyone’s stuff, and threw the bags into the trunk of the SUV. By the time we were loaded, George had arrived.

  “Take Frank to Dr. Silvio’s. It’s closer than going all the way back to Austin.” George nodded and pulled out of the drive with Frank and Sammy in the backseat, Sammy still putting pressure on Frank’s wound. The cleaning service would return Miri’s rental car, so we didn’t have to worry about that.

  Miri and I climbed into the SUV and pulled out onto the desolate street. Even in the middle of the day, there wasn’t a single other car in sight. No words were spoken the entire ride back to Austin. None were needed. Miri alternated between leaning against my shoulder, clinging to my arm, and staring blankly out the window while I kept my hand on her thigh so she knew I was there for her. Besides, I didn’t think I could ever stop touching her

  My girl was strong, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t worried how she would react to killing someone. Even a bastard as deserving as Cuchillo. We pulled into the drive of the mansion and Miri spoke for the first time since she shot and killed the man.

  “I thought we were going to the hotel.”

  I slid my hands behind her head and gently kissed her. “No, doll. It’s safe now. He’s gone.”

  She exhaled a shaky breath. “Ca
t—”

  “Everyone is already inside.” I rested my forehead against hers and her eyes fluttered closed. “You okay to go in?”

  Miri swallowed. She met my gaze and nodded. “Yes. I-I think it’s time to start from scratch.”

  I leaned back, my brows pulling low. “What do you mean?” Did she want to start over without me? No way would she leave. I wouldn’t allow it.

  “I mean, let’s start over. Forget the past and go forward from here.” Miri dropped her gaze and bit her lip. “I don’t want to be a junkie anymore. I want to be Miri Murphy again.”

  I released her and slipped out of the SUV. Miri tracked my movements as I circled the front of the vehicle and opened her door. Wordlessly, I gripped her tiny waist and lifted her from her seat, placing her on her feet in front of me. God she was so fucking strong. I was so damn proud of her.

  “I don’t want you to be Miri Murphy.” She frowned and her big green eyes shimmered with tears. “Shit, I’m fucking this up.” I took her hands and fell to one knee, ignoring the gravel digging into my skin. “I don’t have a ring. I wasn’t planning… I didn’t expect so soon…” I huffed and shook my head. “How do you feel about becoming Miri Bosman?”

  A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she shook her head. “No.”

  “No?” Fuck, had I misread this entire relationship?

  “I won’t be Miri Bosman, but I’ll be Miri Sinclair.” I must have looked as confused as I felt, because Miri laughed. “Your new identity, remember?”

  Damn, no, I hadn’t remembered. “Jack Sinclair.”

  “Yes. So, does the offer still stand?” she asked, the corner of those pink lips twitching.

  “Is this because you want to marry me or because you hate your new name?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  She giggled, and it was the sweetest fucking sound I’d ever heard. “Both.”

  I stood and crushed her in a hug, whispering in her ear. “I’ll take it. I would hate for you to be stuck with Madeline Grossman.” I tried to hide my amusement and failed, my shoulders vibrating as I chuckled.

  Miri gently pushed my chest. “You jerk. I knew you hated it.” She made a face. “Grossman. I mean, really.”

  I took her chin between my thumb and forefinger, holding her gaze. “So you’re serious? You’ll really marry me?” I watched her eyes carefully, studying her reaction. They softened and she gave me a shy smile.

  “I’d love to marry you, Jag.”

  I lowered my mouth, capturing hers in a perfect kiss. Miri slipped her arms around my neck and pulled me down, begging for more. I palmed her ass and picked her up. Miri automatically wrapped her legs around my waist and I turned and held her against the SUV, thrusting my tongue deep into her mouth, letting her know she was mine and I would never let her go. She returned my kiss with just as much enthusiasm, opening for me, allowing me to take charge as I devoured her until we were both gasping for breath.

  “Let’s go inside,” I murmured against her lips, my voice raspy with lust.

  “Take me to your room, Jag,” she purred, thrusting her hips against my rock-hard dick.

  She didn’t need to ask twice.

  15

  Three years later

  Jag

  I stared out the window of my office, entertained by the tiny sandpipers that ran back and forth in a frantic bid to escape each wave before it crashed on the shore. I would watch them all day if I didn’t have work to do. Miri would kill me if I didn’t finish the accounting so she could close the Center’s books by the fifteenth of the month.

  “Jag? Are you upstairs, honey?”

  The multiple muffled thumps of shoes being kicked off followed by the pounding of feet on the stairs let me know I was about twenty seconds from being pounced on. I spun the office chair to face the door and opened my arms, ready and waiting. A colorful blur burst into the room and took a flying leap onto my lap.

  “Oof!” I clutched my stomach and pretended to have the wind knocked out of me. “You’re getting big. Pretty soon I’m going to pop like a balloon when you do that.”

  A pair of enormous green eyes framed by the darkest, thickest lashes I’d ever seen blinked up at me. Slowly, the confused expression turned into a wide smile. “Daddy, you makin’ that up. Mommy says no lying.”

  My mouth dropped open and I huffed in pretend shock. “I am not making it up. You’re enormous!” I grabbed my son by the waist and tossed him into the air, suspending him above my head. He squealed and giggled uncontrollably, the delightful sounds of childhood warming my heart as my son begged for more. “C’mon! Fly me, Daddy. Fly me!”

  “Why don’t we fly downstairs and find Mommy. What do you think?”

  Ace nodded furiously. “Mommy, Mommy!” At two and a half, my son was full of energy, unpredictable, sometimes whiney, and was the shining center of my universe. He made sputtering airplane noises while I flew him down to the first floor.

  I found Miri in the kitchen, unpacking a small bag of groceries. Wanting to greet my wife, I put our son on the floor and he took off running, probably to go tear the house apart. I couldn’t have cared less. My attention was on the gorgeous redhead holding a box of Cheerios in one hand and a jug of milk in the other. I took the items, put the cereal on the counter and the milk in the fridge, and slid my arms around my wife’s waist.

  “Hey, doll. Long day?” For a brief moment, my eyes closed and I breathed in deep, letting her scent envelop me.

  Before she could answer, I tipped her head back and gave her a long, deep kiss. Miri had only been gone six hours, but it may as well have been six days. My attraction to her was just as strong as the day she stumbled into my life. I still wanted her all the time, even if it was simply quiet time snuggling on the couch.

  “Mmmmm, nice,” she said when I reluctantly released her mouth. Miri laid her head on my chest as I gently rubbed her back. “Not long, just frustrating.”

  “Problems at the Center?”

  After receiving our new identities, we relocated to Rhode Island and bought a three-story house right on the beach. Miri and I wasted no time getting married, the quick ceremony held on the strip of sand between our house and Narraganset Bay.

  Cat lived with us the first seven months while we purchased a building and the three of us worked on the renovation with our project manager. Ace was born two weeks before the Center for Abused and Addicted Women opened. Cat stepped up and took charge, coming into her own as the Center’s director while taking night classes to become a certified counselor and dating a fireman she met when doing an anti-drug speech at a high school. Miri worked with the women to help them find apartments and jobs and spoke to them about her own experience with drugs.

  There was enough money that neither of the women had to work ever again, but I had to give it to them, they really wanted to make a difference. And they did. Every single day. While we were in Austin, researching where we wanted to relocate, Cat was the one who suggested the smallest of the US states. It blew my mind to find out Rhode Island had one of the worst drug problems in the country. Heroin laced with the powerful prescription painkiller, fentanyl, was causing more and more overdoses and deaths every day. The mafia, while not as prevalent in New England as it used to be, was still a powerful force. They controlled most of the drug trade in the state, similar to my reign over Austin. While I refused to allow Miri or Cat to end up anywhere on the mafia’s radar through their work getting addicts clean. The Center saw more than a few women that had been abused by the crime family step through their doors.

  “Nah, I’m just tired. I think I just need to give in and hire another assistant.” Miri tried to step out of my hold to finish the groceries, but I spun her around and pressed my front to her back. Sliding my arms around her waist, I splayed my palms over her midsection.

  “Any chance you’re tired because you have another little Sinclair growing in there?” I nuzzled her ear and laughed when she shivered and playfully pushed her ass into my groin.
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  “Maybe,” she teased. “I haven’t taken a test yet.”

  We’d recently decided to give Ace a sibling and Miri had ditched her birth control. With our inability to quell the fire between us and the fact that we both were all over each other all the time, I figured it wouldn’t take long for baby number two to be on his or her way.

  Growling, I thrust my hardening cock into the cleft of Miri’s round ass and groped her breasts. She moaned when I licked a path from her neck to her ear. “What are you waiting for, doll?”

  Miri blindly reached for the grocery bag and stuck her hand inside. She pulled out a pink and white box, holding it up where I could see it. “Who said I was waiting?”

  “Mommy, Daddy, I wanna go beach!” Ace raced into the kitchen on stubby legs, and in typical toddler fashion, tripped and crashed right into my leg. The little guy bounced off and landed flat on his butt. Miri and I looked down to see that fat lower lip tremble and those huge eyes fill with tears.

  Miri scooped up our son and did damage control while I tried to hide a laugh. Ace had apparently taken it upon himself to get changed into his bathing suit. Unfortunately, he had put it on wrong, stepping into a leg hole, so both of his feet protruded from what should be the waistband. It looked like he was wearing a really tight skirt with an extra leg opening hanging off the side. I had to turn my head to hide my smile.

  “Sweetie,” Miri crooned. “Don’t cry.” She peppered his red face with kisses. “Daddy will fix your suit and put your sunscreen on while Mommy uses the bathroom and changes, okay?” Miri gave me a knowing look, the pregnancy test clutched in one hand.

  “Right.” I took Ace from her arms and mussed his dark hair. “We’ll get ready and meet Mommy outside. How does that sound?”

  Ace wiggled until I put him down. I no sooner fixed his bathing suit and he was off. Like a tiny tornado, Ace scurried to the mudroom, snatched a towel off the pile, which subsequently toppled over, and grabbed the bottle of sunscreen before circling back to me.