by A. J. Macey
Rolling my eyes, I ran a hand over my wig to assure it was smooth and pulled open the door. The carpeted hall was empty, most of the visitors either gambling and drinking in the casino or already in their room for the night. Especially that one. I felt my brows raise as I passed a room that was very clearly… and very loudly, having a good time.
I reached the elevator and hit the call button to go up. It dinged not too long after, and I stepped inside, but when I went to hit the floor button, I realized I was missing a room key to get to the second floor.
“Any way you can get me up?” I eyed the panel to see if there was any shortcut around the security precaution.
“Oh shit, give me a few minutes,” Elliot muttered, but I spotted a faster route striding towards the elevator.
“Oh, thank goodness,” I cooed in a thick Texan twang. “Do you think you could scan me to floor two? I must have left my keycard in the room.”
“For you? Of course,” the man responded. His voice was deep as he leered. Pressing one hand to my chest, I brushed the other against his suit jacket.
“You are absolutely the sweetest.” My flirtatious act worked, and I kept up the soft banter as the elevator brought us to the second floor.
“You have a goodnight, gorgeous,” the man called as I stepped out. I flashed a flirty grin and a tiny wave and continued walking.
“Why didn’t you get his name or number, K?” Elliot challenged.
“Fucking excuse you,” Brooks snapped.
“I meant for me! Calm down, killer.”
“Didn’t you just spend the night with Rider, E?” I countered. Elliot was silent, but I could hear Chase’s chuckle that clearly said I was right.
“Coming up on the walkway,” Chase relayed a few moments later. “Looks like there are no guards near either side, but there are near the staircase, so be careful.”
I schooled my expression and continued as if I belonged here. It didn’t take long to walk over to the casino and even less time to make it to the elevator. As soon as the shiny door was closed, I reached into my waistband and dug out the security badge I had created over the last couple of weeks.
“Doing great, Kittycat,” Chase told me, his voice keeping my adrenaline at bay as I scanned the fake ID. The moment it took to register felt like ages.
My heart skipped a beat until the light finally turned green, and I tried to school my face into a bored expression. Yep, definitely nothing exciting to see here, folks. An exhale I couldn’t stop whooshed from me as I hit the button labeled ‘LL2.’ If I was correct, the bottom floor of the two-story sub-levels was where Garrett would more than likely be held.
“Fuck, we have a problem,” Elliot exclaimed urgently. My adrenaline was pumping at his panicked sound.
“What is it?” I asked, but before he could explain, the elevator door opened, and I came face to face with Jace.
Time seemed to slow, his eyes turning from where he was wiping the blood from his hands onto a rag to me. It took only a moment for the recognition to light within his eye, and a sharp grin spread across his face. The cold expression that lit his face was a disarming blend of excitement and hunger, and looking back on that moment, I knew I’d have to admit that I froze. Just for a second, but it was enough. Try as I might to get my weapon from my lower back, I wasn’t fast enough. Jace rushed me, pinning me to the elevator wall and trapping my arm behind me and out of reach of my gun.
“I knew you’d come,” he murmured. I heard the guys panicking in the comm, but I wasn’t paying attention, focusing on trying to figure a way out of this shitty situation. “Ah, I see, too busy listening to those little boys to notice me.” Reaching up with his free hand, he dug out the ear bud, looking it over before sticking it in his ear. “Who do we have here today?”
It was silent for a few moments, but Jace’s brow rose and he leaned forward, licking my cheek. I pulled my head back as far as I could, but the wall kept me prisoner. A gravelly chuckle filled my ear, and Jace’s rough lips brushed over my cheek as he spoke. As Jace continued to listen to my men, his fingers trailed against my arm until he reached my neck. Wrapping his hand around my throat, he squeezed. I didn’t show any emotion as it became hard to breathe, but he started to smile, no doubt seeing my face turn pink. He finally released, and I gulped down the fresh air, stars blooming in my eyes at the sudden intake. Kissing my cheek, Jace pulled back far enough to look at me.
“Based on such hatred being spewed on the line, we have Chase Yarwood, or should I say Ciar, whichever is truly listening. I’m sure Brooks and Stone are there, but who was that other voice? Could that be Elliot Cavanaugh?” His intense gaze shifted to calculating, but I was frozen, numbing myself as much as I could while I stared a hole in the wall to my right. “Called in some friends, Kiera? I’m flattered, and as much as I would love to continue to aggravate these little boys, we have a meeting to get to.”
Jace took out the ear bud, holding it up to the camera in the corner before dropping it on the ground and smashing it. While he was distracted by putting on a show for them, I struck. Kneeing him in the groin, I pushed his body away from mine and was able to get my fingers wrapped around my gun.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Jace sing-songed, the tip of a knife poking into my neck. The sharp steel was cold, the prick of pain as he pressed it in a stark reminder that he had always been faster than me. “Let go of the gun.”
“Or what? You’ll kill me?” I snapped, my response only seeming to make him happier.
“Of course not.” Reaching around me, he grabbed my gun and ejected the magazine as well as the round in the chamber. “We’re going to go talk to your father, and then you get to come with me. Now, be a good girl. It’s only a short elevator ride, but I have no issues stopping it if you want to play rough.” At the end of his statement, we hit the top floor of the building.
Swallowing the bile that rose in my throat, I stood still, counting the floors as we continued to the top floor of the casino. It didn’t take long, half of me thankful for that, while the other was slowly growing nervous at the thought of seeing my father. As the elevator opened and I saw the elaborate door at the end of the marble hall that led to my father’s office, a whole slew of emotions flared. Disgust, rage, fear. This was the first time I would be facing him since I walked out of his house of horrors when I was eighteen. I thought I was ready, but as soon as the door was open and I spotted the cold perfection of my father, I knew one thing.
Nothing could have prepared me for this.
“Kiera.” His voice brought back an onslaught of chilling memories that I had long since tried to forget. Flashes of my mother’s eyes as she smiled down at me. Her voice soft in the silence of our room as she read. The sniper's nest I had been forced to sit in when he murdered her. Each session and moment stolen. Everything he had ever done rapidly flashing before my eyes. Concentrate! I mentally screamed at myself. Shoving the wave of fury that had flared, I focused once more. “You look absolutely ridiculous in that petty disguise.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Jace stated before reaching up and yanking the red-haired wig off.
“I see you’ve gone a little overboard with the tattoos,” my father judged, getting up from behind his lavish wooden desk to come over to me. Now that my wig was gone, my neck tattoo was visible. “Not very good for business to have my employees so marked, but I suppose it will do.”
“Fuck you,” I bit out. How fucking dare he think I would ever go back to his employment.
“Just like your stepbrother. I think you two have spent too much time together over the years.” He looked to Jace who stepped away from me and farther into the office. The one-eyed bastard took up position near the bar cart, his good eye watching us intently as he poured himself a drink. “I think you will be better suited for her than my employment.” I gaped, Jace’s crooked grin appearing at my father’s suggestion.
“Jace? You think I’d fucking go with him?” I couldn’t help it; I started to laugh. “You…
have got to… stop sampling your own… drugs,” I wheezed out.
“Enough!” Frankie shouted, but it only made me laugh harder. I wasn’t laughing because the situation was funny. No, it was actually quite the opposite as fear continued to slide through my veins. The reason I couldn’t stop my laughter was that I could nearly taste my revenge.
Before the sun comes up, my father will be dead at my feet.
Chase
“God damn it!” Brooks shouted, punching the side of the crash vehicle. “Now he has both Kiera and Garrett. What the fuck are we going to do? There are civilians in there. We can’t just go in guns blazing.”
Elliot and I sat in silence, Stone and Val standing with Brooks outside the open back of the SUV. All of us frantic in thought on what to do now. We had our orders from Kiera: storm the casino. Her father would expect something, she had said, but nothing to that extent, never believing that she would have so much as an army.
“Fire alarm,” Valerian stated after a few more moments. “Clears out the entire casino quickly. Knowing the kind of men these are, it wouldn’t actually be hooked up to the emergency system to alert first responders.”
“One of us goes in, rest count to ten then follow?” Elliot hedged, his statement going up more like a question. “I’m down. They’re going to know we’re there regardless, no element of surprise after Kiera was taken.”
“I’ll pull the fire alarm,” Val volunteered. “I’ve never stepped foot in Reno, so they more than likely won’t recognize me. Elliot, Chase, tell the hacker to corrupt all footage from the last two days including today.”
“Thank you,” I said softly, climbing out of the back of the old vehicle as Elliot got to work. “She means the world to me, and I want you to know it means a lot that you’ll be with us.”
“For you, Chase, always,” Val told me, his hand coming to clasp my shoulder.
“I’ll make sure Kittycat doesn’t murder Jace so you can have him,” I stated, hoping she would understand why Val should be the one to break him. I had tried to bring it up before the heist, but she had been in her zone, and I knew asking such a thing might have distracted her.
“She can have some fun with him first, but I would appreciate it. He has a lot to pay for for what he did to my sister. Once I have him, I’ll be leaving. Quite difficult to be in a firefight when you have a prisoner.” I nodded to Val, giving him my acknowledgment before he ran a hand through his hair. “Time to get this show on the road.”
“I’ll give the signal,” Brooks said, digging out his phone. A few moments later, the text containing the ‘go’ code was sent to the patch holders. All the men were stationed in groups around the various exits of the casino and resort now readying to enter the building.
“Ready?” I mentally questioned, Ciar’s cold blanket of emotions brushing against me as I pulled out our guns.
“I was born ready. Let’s go get our girl back.”
Kiera
It took a few moments to finally get control of myself. My stomach ached with how hard I had been laughing; meanwhile, my father stood stone faced, fuming at my blatant disrespect. Out of the corner of my eye I kept tabs on Jace while never looking away from Frankie. Jace sipped his liquor leisurely, a hand coming to the front of his slacks to adjust himself, and I found myself sobering quickly at the motion.
“Are you quite finished?” The question was whispered, my father’s tone ice cold as he stepped closer. “I have some big plans coming up, and you and your meddlesome crew have been a pain in my ass over the last few months. To ensure that my well-constructed expansion goes off without a hitch, you have been promised to Jace. He’s been quite adamant about finally getting a permanent play toy.”
Do I look like a fucking play toy to you people? Yeah, I didn’t fucking think so either.
I opened my mouth to snap back, but a blaring alarm sounded, the announcement of a fire filled the speaker system. When I realized what was happening, I couldn’t stop the smile that spread.
“The cavalry is here,” I sing-songed as my father stepped back behind his desk to scan the security cameras.
“She’s right; looks like all of those fucking MC members plus a few extras,” my father explained to Jace before glaring at me. “We will finish this conversation after my men handle the situation. Take her to the cells.”
Jace nodded, setting his now empty glass back on the cart and striding over to me. Before we exited the office though, I heard and felt the cold clinking metal of handcuffs encircling my wrists. At least the fucker learned his lesson about taking chances with me.
“Let’s go, Kiera. Time’s a wasting for me to go hunting,” Jace growled, his lopsided smile appearing as he maneuvered me roughly out the door and down the hall.
Taking deep breaths, I steadied myself, keeping the adrenaline from overwhelming me as he led me to the cells I knew were housed in the lowest level of the casino. The elevator was cramped even though it was just the two of us. Being so close to Jace as well as being in the same room as him and my father only moments before had set me very close to the edge, the last of my chuckling quickly fading the closer we moved to the basement.
I forced myself to keep my face flat and not try to run out of the elevator as soon as it opened. Not that I would get that far with Jace’s iron grip on my elbow, fucking bastard. The rest of the men were scurrying about, running every which way and not paying much attention to us, but there were a few faces I recognized. They did stop and stare, some even laughing.
Well, at least until I couldn’t take it anymore and spit on them.
Hey, I’m handcuffed, not muzzled.
“You little fucking bitch,” one shouted, his arm whipping out. Before his hand could make contact with my face, Jace yanked me out of range and kicked out. The sounds of bones cracking and a shrill shriek filled my ears, disbelief overtaking me as I watched the other man crumple to the ground.
“I’ll be back to deal with you in a moment,” Jace hissed. “Let’s go, Kiera.” Tugging on my arm, we continued down the hall, but my eyes continued to glance over at the crying man.
Why would he fucking do that? my mind screamed, confused as hell at the fact that Jace just shot one of my father’s men. When he stopped walking, the sound of a key ring jingling reached my ears, and I shook myself. Focus!
“Look at that, a little family reunion,” Jace cooed sarcastically, slamming the barred door behind me. When I realized who was leaning against the wall, I tried to run to him, but a firm tug on the handcuffs kept me in place. “Now, now, my Kiera. You can go say goodbye to Garrett after I take the cuffs off.”
“Then do it already,” I snapped, glaring at him over my shoulder before looking back to my asshole stepbrother.
Garrett was beaten and bloodied, one eye swollen closed, and he cradled an arm across his chest. The only reason I didn’t worry too much was that he had started to shift away from the wall. If he could move on his own, then he wasn’t dying.
At least that’s what I’ll keep telling myself.
“Say your goodbyes,” Jace started, the hard rings of the handcuffs finally free, and I ran to Garrett, falling to my knees next to him. “Because I’ll be back to take care of you, Garrett, and take you home, Kiera… after I kill the rest of the men who dared to put hands on my woman. No one touches what’s mine.” His growling tone and hard gaze as he glared at Garrett was the final clue as to what Jace wanted, but he was walking away before I could respond. A gunshot echoed through the space. Jace’s hollering from down the hall reached us shortly after. “That’s what will be coming soon, best friend, best be prepared.”
“Holy shit, Jace is obsessed with me. Like stalker obsessed.” I gawked, turning back to Garrett when he laughed. “What is so funny? Are you even supposed to be laughing? You could have bruised or broken ribs, I mean, fuck, Garrett, you look like shit.”
“Sometimes you’re so smart, and other times I’m so surprised you can do what you do, Kiera,” he murmured betwe
en his bouts of breathy laughter.
“Yeah, Abby says the same thing, and yet I’m still here,” I countered, brushing the hair out of his face, all humor and banter falling to the wayside as I looked at him. My chest squeezed, my mind struggling to believe that he was right here. That he was safe despite looking as though he’d been run over. Blinking, I kept the tears that started to build at bay. Now is not the time to cry. “You scared the shit out of me.”
“Yeah, well, I’m still alive and kicking,” he told me with a smirk. “Too stubborn to die.”
“Good because the cavalry is here, meaning we have to fucking get out of this stupid cell. But first—” Darting forward, I pressed my lips to his, not caring about the dirt, blood, or sweat that coated his skin. Garrett was safe, and that was what mattered.
“Okay, I can die a happy man now,” he murmured against my lips. Scoffing, I smacked him in the arm, making him grunt. “Sorry, bad joke.”
“Yeah, no kidding, asshole. Let’s go,” I grumbled, looking through the bars and seeing what and who was around. “It seems like Jace forgot that I was a thief and not just Frankie Casterelli’s bitch of a daughter. Fucking figures.” Reaching into my jeans, I pulled out a lock pick set they hadn’t found. The one taped to my underwear.
Go ahead and laugh, but who’s getting out of here? That’s right, me.
Suck it, people, sometimes being weird has its uses.
“Are you okay to move on your own?” I asked, working on the lock as I did so. Garrett groaned, getting up from where he was still seated.
“Yeah, shoulder, ribs, and face are a bit fucked up, but I don’t think they anticipated any kind of response so quickly. Besides, I forgot how much he liked to talk about himself.”
