by Nicole York
Keesha
Keesha braced herself against the ceramic bathroom sink.
“You foolish girl,” she said to her reflection.
The woman staring back at her was almost unrecognizable.
Her hair was a wild, tangled, sweat-matted mess. Her makeup had run down her cheeks all the way to her jawline. The black lipstick Ashley had so immaculately applied was smudged, faded, and ugly.
She still wore Jon’s jacket and she had no intention of taking it off, especially now that Kate was here.
Kate.
She knew there was history between that woman and Marcus, and Keesha couldn’t compete with that. She had no place here.
She had no place with Marcus.
He’d tried to keep her at arm’s length but she’d fought against it. And now she was covered in his blood, standing half naked in his bathroom feeling sorry for herself.
“You don’t belong here,” she said through clenched teeth.
She turned on the tap and began vigorously scrubbing her hands. Marcus’s blood was under her fingernails and had seeped into the creases of her palms and knuckles. Her wrists were still angry and red and it burned when the water touched them. She winced, mentally told herself not to be a baby, and turned the water to cold, letting it run over her wrists.
Better.
Once she’d scrubbed all of his blood off her skin, including a patch on her neck from where she’d leaned against his shoulder when she helped him out of the tunnels, she patted her skin dry with one of his towels.
She needed to work up the nerve to go back out there and face all of them. Now that Kate was there, Keesha felt suddenly uncertain and out of place.
It was time to go home.
Keesha dragged her fingers under her eyes to wipe away some of the dark makeup stains. When she looked less like a raccoon and more like a cheap hooker, she decided this was as good as it was going to get. So she left the bathroom, shrugged out of Jon’s jacket, and handed it to him on her way to the door.
She noticed Marcus was no longer sitting near the kitchen table and spied him out on the balcony with Kate. His shirt was off and his skin looked cleaner than it had been when she slipped into the bathroom. He and Kate were standing shoulder to shoulder, leaning on the balcony railing, talking.
About what?
It didn’t matter.
“Where are you going?” Cole called after her.
“Home.”
“Now?” he asked sharply.
“I miss my daughter.”
“You shouldn’t go alone.”
She waved him off. “I’ll catch a subway ride. It’s only a five-minute walk from here.”
Cole hurried out in front of her and stood in front of the door. “Keesha, you’re not even wearing shoes.”
She looked down at her nearly black feet. The cute red pedicure she’d gotten a week and a half ago was as good as ruined. “Right.”
“Let me drive you.”
“I don’t want to be an inconvenience. You should stay with Marcus.”
“Keesha, there’s no way in hell I’m letting you leave on your own after what you just went through tonight.” He reached behind her and plucked Marcus’s keys from a hook on the wall. “I’m driving you.”
She planted a fist on her hip. “Marcus will be pissed you took his car.”
“He can’t be more pissed at me than he already is. I did shoot him, after all.” He smirked.
Keesha didn’t laugh. “Fine.”
“Do you want to say goodnight to the others?”
Keesha looked back over her shoulder. Jon had taken a seat at the kitchen table. One hand rested on the half-empty bottle of whiskey. He was watching Kate and Marcus.
Does he feel as insecure as I do about them being together?
“No,” she said finally.
Cole opened the door and stepped out into the hall. “Suit yourself.”
She followed him out. They moved silently down the hall to the elevator, rode it down to the parking garage, and returned to Marcus’s car.
Keesha scrunched up her nose when she slid into the passenger seat. “It still smells like blood in here.”
Cole started the engine. “Yeah, that won’t go away until Marcus has this thing detailed.”
They rolled down their windows as he pulled out of the garage and out onto the street. It wasn’t busy. It was nearly four in the morning. Keesha breathed in the smells of the city, preferring them to the coppery scent in the car, and she thought about how badly she wanted to hug her daughter.
“You kept your shit together pretty well tonight,” Cole said. “That’s rare, especially for a first time run-in with someone like Adam Cooper. You’re tougher than you look.”
“I’m a stripper. One of my talents is putting on a brave face.”
He eyed her and kept a steady hand on the wheel. “I’m sorry, for what it’s worth.”
She didn’t look over at him. She gazed out the window at the storefronts, empty bus stops, streetlamps, and traffic lights. “Can I ask you something?”
“Shoot,” Cole said.
“Who is she?”
“Kate?”
Keesha nodded.
Cole shrugged. “Beats the shit out of me. I think she’s with Jon and has been for a while, but from what I picked up tonight from conversation, she has a history with Marcus, too. There’s no bad blood between him and Jon though. At least not from what I could tell.” He paused as they slowed down for a red light. The brakes squeaked. “Why do you ask?”
“Never mind.”
Cole chuckled. “You like him, right?”
She shot him a dark look. “Does it matter?”
“Why shouldn’t it? You should talk to him about it. About this Kate woman, too.”
Keesha sighed. That wasn’t the answer she wanted. “I have a little girl, Cole. This life? I don’t think there’s room for someone like me. And I don’t want to invite this kind of thing into Beth’s future. What kind of mother would that make me?”
“I can’t answer that.”
Neither of them spoke the rest of the way to Keesha’s mother’s condo where Beth was staying the night. Cole pulled up to the curb and put the car in park, then turned in his seat to face her as she gazed up at the building. It was well illuminated at night, so well illuminated that she could see flowers beginning to bloom on people’s balconies.
“Keesha?”
“Hm?” She turned to him expectantly.
“Keep your chin up. Marcus will get his head out of his ass. The last few weeks have just been tough. He’s had a lot on his mind. We all have.”
She arched an eyebrow. “The only one with their head up their ass is you.”
He blinked. “What?”
Keesha opened the car door and swung her legs out. Her toes touched the lip of the curb. “You’re the one who shot your own man.”
Cole rubbed the back of his neck. “It was a misunderstanding.”
“People have misunderstandings in grocery store lines.” Keesha got out of the car and turned back to face him, resting one hand on the open door. “There aren’t usually bullets involved.”
Cole flashed her a smile. “Welcome to the underground, princess.”
She rolled her eyes. “Aren’t you supposed to be one of the good guys?”
He didn’t answer right away. His gaze shifted out the windshield and he stared off down the street as one of the streetlights flickered on and off. It had been doing that since Christmastime and no city workers had bothered to come and fix it despite the amount of calls Renee had made about it.
Keesha sighed, assuming he wasn’t going to answer.
Then he spoke. “I’m starting to realize the good guys can’t get anything done because the bad guys are always ten steps ahead.” He ran his palm over the steering wheel and let his hand fall into his lap. “It’s hard to have any sort of victory when the enemy is always willing to fight dirty and use innocent people as pawns.”
“So you don’t agree with the saying that good always triumphs over evil?”
“I think that’s something people who don’t have any power say to make themselves feel better. But those of us who are caught up in the fray? We don’t have that luxury. Marcus made the right call tonight. Me? I let my anger get the better of me. I could taste it. The triumph. And when I thought it was slipping through our fingers, I acted.”
Keesha licked her lips. “Marcus knows you didn’t want to shoot him.”
Cole nodded slowly and she had the sense he hadn’t forgiven himself yet. He cleared his throat and sat up straighter. “Go on and see your little girl. I’ll wait here and make sure you get inside.”
Keesha closed the door and thanked him through the open window. She knew she’d see him back at the club within a couple of days, but she still felt bad putting her back to him and walking away. He seemed like a man who needed to get a weight off his chest.
But that wasn’t her responsibility. Not tonight at least.
She had a little girl tucked under a floral bedspread that was due for some hugs and cuddles—both of which Keesha knew she needed more than Beth did.
23
Marcus
The night air was cold against Marcus’s bare skin, but he was too tired to shiver.
He felt Kate’s warmth radiating off her as she leaned both her forearms on the railing, and that was better than nothing. She clasped her hands together and he tried not to stare at the wedding rings on her left ring finger.
They were hard to ignore. He’d seen them before but they still surprised him. The Kate he’d known hadn’t been one for jewelry. Not jewelry like that anyway. The ring was elegant and simple with a giant diamond surrounded by a circle of smaller ones. He was sure there was a name for the style but he didn’t care to know.
“The one on your back will scar worse than on your front,” Kate said. “I don’t know what that blond guy was trying to do to you but he did a shit job.”
“Cole.”
“Whatever,” she said dismissively. “He seems like a buffoon. How hard is it to sew someone up? It’s like sewing fabric. Just thicker and wetter. Like you’re pushing it through a steak.”
“Always such a sweet talker.”
Kate flashed him a devilish smile. “Some things will never change.”
“What’s one more scar to add to the mix?”
Kate gave him a knowing nod before gazing out at the city lights spread out before them. “You should’ve known better than to tangle with Adam Cooper. It’s a miracle you walked away with your head still on your shoulders.”
Marcus shrugged and regretted it when pain lanced through his shoulder and chest. “Sometimes, you don’t have a choice, Katie. Sometimes, it’s just the way the game must be played. You of all people should know that.”
She bit the inside of her cheek like she always used to.
“It’s good to see you, Katie. Real good.”
Her name on his lips made her blush, but she looked up at him anyway. “It’s good to see you too, you big brute.”
He had questions. For starters, he wanted to know why she’d bothered to come all the way out here from New Orleans and leave her little homestead behind. Was she working? If so, what did she do now? He had a hard time picturing Kate doing a mundane nine-to-five job for ordinary people. She was the sort of woman who had to run the show wherever she ended up. Was she managing a team? Did she still work in the nightlife? Perhaps at a restaurant?
“I thought you stayed back in New Orleans while Jon came out here to help us out,” Marcus said.
Kate nodded. “That was what I wanted you to think. I didn’t like the sound of this job you guys were running, and I knew if you knew I was here in New York, I might distract you. I stayed at the hotel. Jon promised to call me when the job was done so I knew he was safe.” Kate reached over and put her hand on Marcus’s. Dried blood clung to both of their hands and it looked almost black in the night. “To make sure you were both safe.”
“You should’ve stayed home.”
“Perhaps. But when have you ever known me to hang back when the people I care about are running into a fight? I wanted to be close in case something went wrong. Close but not too close.”
Close but not too close.
That didn’t sound like his Kate at all.
He scolded himself. She wasn’t his Kate. She hadn’t been for a long time.
“Well,” he said, straightening up and gripping the railing, “I’m glad you showed when you did before Cole had a chance to turn me into a pin cushion.”
Kate laughed.
God, I’ve missed that sound.
She shook her head at him. “What are you going to do to him for shooting you?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Who are you and what have you done with my friend?”
Marcus chuckled. “He did what he thought he had to in the moment. And so did I. Luckily, Cooper is still breathing. Fuck. Never thought I’d say that.”
“Amen.”
“You know how it is, Katie.” Marcus turned his back on the city lights and leaned against the railing before folding his arms over his chest. His wound twinged a bit, but it was starting to go a little numb. His head was pleasantly fuzzy from the whiskey and the promise of sleep on the horizon made any remnants of pain bearable. Besides, he didn’t want to miss out on any time with Kate. “Sometimes in war, the right move is to take a step back.”
“Do you think your boss will agree?”
“Maybe not right away. But if he hears me out? Yeah, he’ll come around.”
“Good.”
Marcus chuckled and arched an eyebrow. “Worried about me, Katie girl?”
“Always.”
He nudged her shoulder with his while she stayed leaning over the railing. “Tell me about New Orleans. About this new life of yours. How does it feel being out?”
Kate spun her wedding ring around her finger. “It feels… quiet.”
“Is that a good thing?”
“Yes,” she said. The word fell from her lips like a contented sigh and he knew she was telling the truth. She liked the peace and the stillness of a normal life. “I still catch myself looking over my shoulder sometimes in grocery store aisles or in movie theater lines, but I suppose that’s a small price to pay for winning the lottery and making it out the other side. You still don’t think you’d ever want it? Normalcy, I mean?”
“Katie, this is normalcy for me. Bullets. Blood. Power. You know that. It won’t ever change. I don’t want it to.”
She nodded, understanding perfectly. “I know. I’m being selfish. If you got out, I wouldn’t have to worry about you.”
“I’m fine, Katie. I promise. And I’m in a good spot with my new boss. I run Kadia now.”
“So I’ve heard. She’s a beast of a club. Makes Expulsion look like child’s play.”
“Expulsion alone was child’s play,” Marcus said. The old club Kate used to run in downtown New Orleans had been nothing in comparison to Kadia. “But under your rule, Katie baby? It was everything.”
Kate flashed him a smile. “Are you flirting with me, Marcus?”
He chuckled and ran his hand over his head. It was so easy to slip back into how things used to be with her. Too easy. “Yeah, maybe I am.”
Kate turned from the city lights now too and braced herself against the railing. Her thigh-high boots and black ensemble looked killer on her. Had things been different, Marcus might have told her so.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” he said after a stretch of comfortable silence passed between them.
“I am and I’m glad you are too,” she said. “But please, for the love of God, don’t bring men like that dolt who shot you on jobs like Adam Cooper.”
Marcus laughed. “I won’t.” It was a lie. But it would give her peace of mind. He held no resentment toward Cole for shooting him. Sometimes, that was just how shit went down. The guy was still a rookie when
it came to this life. He was used to doing things by the book, the way he used to when he was a boy in blue. But things were infinitely more complicated when you stepped outside of the law. So much more was in your control—and out of it. Cole would learn how to walk the fine line and how to make the right call under pressure.
Tonight, he’d slipped up. In the future, he’d look back at this night and understand the miscalculations. Marcus had several mistakes and black marks in his past. It was all part of the process and moving forward. Nobody got ahead in this life without pulling a few too many triggers.
Kate pushed her hip out and bumped him with it. “So the redhead. Who is she?”
Marcus blinked. “Keesha?”
“Sure, the spicy chick with the fishnet stockings who was wearing my husband’s jacket.”
Marcus laughed and realized how from the outside looking in that might have looked odd to every other woman. “She works at Kadia.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Who is she to you, Marcus?”
Oh. How did he answer that question?
He gazed into his apartment and realized both Keesha and Cole were gone. He didn’t expect her to leave. She’d called her mother, so he assumed she was staying. What had changed that?
Kate. She bailed when Kate got here.
“She’s…” He trailed off and frowned.
“She cares about you,” Kate said. “That much is obvious.”
“How do you know?”
Kate laughed and shook her head at him, just like she used to do when she thought he was being foolish. “Because she’s here. Because she toughed it out and got your blood all over her and didn’t freak out or call the cops. And you clearly care about her, too.”
Marcus arched an eyebrow.
Kate continued. “Otherwise, Adam Cooper would be a cold corpse eight stories beneath the city. Am I wrong?”
Marcus held his tongue. Nobody had ever been able to get inside his head quite like Kate. Sometimes, he wondered how she could still be sane if she knew him so well. Kate knew him better than he knew himself even after all these years apart.
Kate sighed and took his hands in hers. “You were almost my happily ever after, Marcus. We just wanted and needed different things. But I need you to know something.”
