My eyes widened as we approached it, the neon lotus flower glowing brightly next to the sign proclaiming 'The King’s Lotus.’ I glanced nervously over at Rex, clutching a little tighter to his arm as I wondered if this was truly coincidence or if Rex had somehow found out about my plans.
This was the same Indian restaurant where I’d gone to meet Wesley.
“After you,” Rex said as he held open the door, giving no indication that he had any suspicions, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, stepping through.
Now that I wasn’t so very focused on meeting with online criminal contacts, I noticed that the place did smell delicious, and I could see why someone would want to bring a date here. I was a big fan of Indian food, though not so much of the heartburn it tended to give me the day after I ate it.
“Hello, Rex, how are you, my son?!” a cheerful voice with a heavy Indian accent called out. A small, wiry man with a gigantic smile on his face met us, giving Rex an enormous hug. “So good to see you! Where is your brother?”
“He’s staying home tonight, Krishna,” Rex said, reaching out and giving me a gentle squeeze around the shoulders—the kind of squeeze that made me want to lean against him and press our bodies together. “I’m here with Mason tonight.”
Krishna’s entire face lit up like a lantern, his eyes shining bright and his smile erupting. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed, sounding as though he’d been told he won the lottery. “Wonderful! We get you set up at a very special table!” He turned to me, clapping his hands together. “So wonderful to meet you, lovely Mason! I am Krishna, and this is my restaurant. Rex is like a son to me! It is wonderful to meet you!”
With those words he hurried off with what could only be described as a skip in his step, leaving me giggling and Rex looking embarrassed.
“It’s like we’re having a date at your dad’s restaurant.”
He gave me a timid smile. “He really is like a father to me. Much more so than that other man.” He made a face, and I couldn’t blame him, not from what I’d heard about his birth father.
“So this man worked at your home?”
He nodded. “Yes, and he lived there too, with his wife, in a house on the property.”
Krishna returned then, clapping his hands excitedly. “Please, right this way!” We followed him to the back of the restaurant, where a two person booth sat next to a small window that looked out onto a bustling market area. The windowsill was covered with dozens of candles in a variety of colors, sizes, and scents, and incense was burning on the table.
“Jasmine, for love,” Krishna explained, and I swear that Rex’s face turned as red as the tablecloth.
“Seriously, Krishna?” he said, covering his face.
Krishna simply winked at me, and I grinned back, finding it way too much fun being on this side of the joke.
“You two be seated together, and I will bring menus and wine, along with some appetizers. Would you like red or white?”
“White, please,” Rex said as he settled into the booth, and I nodded in agreement, smiling at how difficult it was for the man to fit his huge self into such a small table.
“Wonderful!” Krishna gave us both a thumbs up before walking off to get the wine, or possibly to keep Rex from having a heart attack from sheer embarrassment.
“I am so sorry,” Rex muttered, shaking his head. “I had no idea he’s be like this.”
I waved the words away, grinning. “It’s sweet. He cares about you, and he’s excited that you’re out with a girl.” I decided I’d be nice tonight and leave off ‘who isn’t a prostitute’.
“Everybody wants me to date,” Rex said, frowning lightly. “But the truth is, me dating wouldn’t be fair to her.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?” I looked him up and down, appreciating how sexy he managed to look in a casual v-neck t-shirt and jeans. “I think any lady who gets you is probably getting a good deal in the end.”
Rex shrugged. “Except she won’t be getting it for long.” He touched his chest. “This heart is giving out. The doctors say that while it’s possible I could hit forty-five, I probably won’t make it more than five or six years in reality.” He sighed. “Felicia has seen her final days.”
I frowned. “What do you mean? What does Felicia have to do with your heart?”
Rex looked at me strangely. “Felicia is my heart. Or my heart is the only part of Felicia left. She was a little small for me when I got her since I’m such a big man, but I had unexpected heart failure and the heart meant for me was in Germany—too far away to make it. Felicia was a match, so I took what I could get. She’s been heavily strained because of it.”
I sat back, the puzzle pieces finally clicking into place. Of course. It made so much sense. A woman’s heart wouldn’t usually fit a man the size of Rex, but the woman in the picture had been extremely hefty, and as tall as a man. The words she’d written on the back—My heart is yours forever—hadn’t been for Rex specifically. They weren’t directed to anyone in particular, just to whoever ended up with her heart. She’d known she was going to be a donor. Except, there was one thing that didn’t fit…
“NO!” I said, hands clenching down on the edge of the table, my head shaking rapidly as I stared at him. “You’re lying again! You have Franklin’s heart, and his donor heart was from a man!”
Rex dropped his eyes, staring at nothing for a long moment before raising them again, meeting my blue ones with his brown. “I’m sorry I never told you, Mason… But I don’t actually have Franklin’s heart.” He swallowed hard. “I stole it for my brother, after I stole my brother’s heart for myself. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid you’d go after him instead of me, and he… he has mental problems. It would have really scared him.”
I stared at him in disbelief, still shaking my head. “No. No, I’ve heard you talk about your brother. You love him, more than anything in the world. You would never steal the transplant he needed. Never.”
“No, but my father would,” Rex said, voice cracking slightly. “Felicia was meant for him. She would have been a much better fit for his smaller body. He was scheduled for surgery. But I had heart failure, and my father insisted they put Felicia in me. Only my brother’s heart was going to fail, too.”
Tears welled up in Rex’s eyes, and he had to dab at them with his paper napkin.
“He was going to die. So as soon as I recovered from the surgery, I started looking for a way to save him. My father refused to invest the money to buy him a heart from the black market, and he was no longer top of the list since Felicia was supposed to be for him. My father even manipulated records to make it look like he’d received it.” His fists clenched, jaw tightening as he swallowed deeply, Adam’s apple bobbing. “He’s always wanted my brother dead.”
“Why would he want his own son dead?” I asked, horrified by the idea.
“Because my brother’s mother was a prostitute. My father never called him by his name, just Bastard, and he hurt him, badly." He paused, voice growing hoarse. "My father made me hurt my brother, too, which hurt him the most. That’s why he’s afraid of me.”
“That’s terrible,” I said, feeling sick.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I did it? Why I hurt my own brother?” he questioned, and I shook my head.
“Because you were a kid, and your abusive father said you had to. That’s obvious, Rex.”
He laughed, not a happy sound. “No, I did it because I’m a fucking coward and a wimp. I did it because I was too scared to protect him, even though I knew how to fight, and I knew how to shoot, and I even knew how to kill by then. But I couldn’t stand up to my father. So when my brother needed a heart, I found a match. I waited until it was in transport, then I stole it. I didn’t know who it was supposed to go to, but I felt guilty, so I wrote a stupid note that just said ‘sorry,’ because I didn’t know what else to say. I cried for days afterward, like the bitch I am, but Wesley lived.”
I stiffened, my who
le body going like stone as I stared at Rex. “Wesley?” I finally managed to choke out, wondering if now would be a good time to try and run for my life. “Your brother’s name is Wesley?”
Rex nodded, giving me a strained smile. “Yeah, his name is Wesley.”
“Wow,” I said, nodding rapidly and feeling like a total fool. “That’s a nice name.”
This made no sense at all. Wesley claimed he needed the heart for his father, but if what Rex said was true, his father was an abusive scumbag who deserved to be shot in the head. And as a Senator, he certainly didn’t design biosynthetic hearts at King Corp in his spare time.
This was so messed up. Seriously. I couldn’t continue with this. So much wasn’t right. So much didn’t make sense. The pain on Rex’s face. The knowledge that if Rex’s brother, Wesley, and my partner, Wesley, were the same, that the heart I stole might go to someone who treated his own sons like prisoners of war. The fact that stealing the heart wouldn’t do a damn thing to bring Franklin back, because my brother’s heart would still be inside Wesley Bennett.
“Do you hate me even more?” Rex’s voice was careless again, like it had been the day of my interview, when he’d spoken of his brother’s fear of him. And now I knew why. He hadn’t wanted me to press about why his brother was afraid. He was too ashamed. Ashamed of what was probably the one screw up in his life that he wasn’t to blame for.
“No,” I said softly. “I don’t hate you at all. Not anymore.” I swallowed hard. “I cried for days after that night, too.”
Rex nodded. “Of course you did. Your brother died.”
I shook my head, dropping my face so the curls would hide the tears rising in my eyes. “I mean that I cried about what I did. I was supposed to be there that night, at the hospital. But I wasn’t.” I raised my eyes, meeting his. “I figured that they do this surgery all the time, and that he would be fine. I was in theatre club, and it was opening night for our big musical. We were doing The Sound of Music, and I was playing the part of Liesl.” A small smile crossed my face. “I was amazing. Everyone said so. We got a standing ovation, and they wrote about us in the Brooklyn Eagle the next day. While I was on stage, giving my second bow to a crowd, Franklin was in the hospital, dying.” I sucked in a deep breath. “That’s why I had to get revenge. Why I could never let it go. Because as long as I could be angry at you, I wouldn’t have to be angry at myself for abandoning my best friend when he needed me most.”
Rex reached across the table, taking my small hands in his bigger ones and squeezing them gently, his thumb stroking lightly across my skin.
“Guilt is a bitch, isn’t it?” he said, voice cracking slightly when he said it, and I gave a short laugh, nodding.
“It really is. I don’t know who invented it, but I hope the dumbasses didn’t patent this shit. It’s worse than Hair-In-A-Can and Smartphone Finger Condoms combined.”
“I’ve always liked your sassiness,” Rex said, a small smile playing on his lips. “I don’t know what your boyfriend’s problem is—it’s your best quality.”
“He’s not my boyfriend anymore,” I said, returning his smile with my own. “Limp Luke was told to take a hike.”
“Really?” Rex said, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I’m sure Krishna will be thrilled.”
“Speak of the man himself!” Krishna called out, bumping up against our table with a tray of appetizers that I didn’t recognize but smelled delicious, along with a bottle of Chardonnay.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile as the grinning man poured me a glass.
“You very welcome! And Rex, I was thinking perhaps that—”
Krishna froze, his whole body going stiff as he cut off mid-sentence. He stayed like that for what had to be less than a second, then he whirled, a knife coming out of what I was pretty sure was an invisible purse made of thin air. It flew through the air even faster than Rex had thrown the ones at the bar, zipping straight into the hand of a man standing up at a table across from us. Straight into a hand that was in the midst of raising a gun.
Screams erupted as the gun dropped to the floor and Rex raced across the room, grabbing the man and twisting his arm around until he was forced down onto his knees. Krishna grabbed the gun, popping out the cartridge and tossing it across the room.
“Everyone, please remain calm!” he called out, waving his hands around. “We will be closing early tonight. Please come back anytime for a meal on the house to make up for this inconvenience.”
I sat in my little booth, mouth hanging open as a pudgy Indian lady rushed out and began herding everyone out of the restaurant. Meanwhile, Krishna and Rex were hovering over the still moaning gunman, staring down at him with eyes that practically screamed, ‘hi, we’re scary motherfuckers, and we’re here to kill you dead.’
“What the fuck’s going on?” I said as I climbed out of the booth, tossing back the rest of my wine before heading over to where Rex and Krishna were. It never hurt to have a little artificial courage in your veins when facing down a gunman. “And why does it seem like I end up saying that every time we go somewhere together?”
Rex shook his head, scowling deeply. “I don’t know, but I don’t like it. Lotus, you recognize him?”
“L-L-Lotus?” the man on the ground sputtered out, his eyes turning into saucers as he stared up at Krishna. “You’re Lotus?”
“Who the fuck did you think he was? Sunflower? Camellia? Bluebonnet?” Rex said sarcastically. “Don’t tell me you took a job without even researching who the hit really was?”
“If so, you deserved a knife to the eye not the hand,” Krishna said cooly, his gaze narrowed at the man.
“I locked the door, husband,” the pudgy woman said as she returned from the front. “And closed the blinds. I also called the police and let them know it was a false alarm.”
“You spoke to Detective Green?” Krishna asked, and the woman nodded solemnly.
“Yes, personally. He says he will make certain no squad cars respond.”
“Thank you, Marta,” Krishna replied, leaning over and giving her a quick kiss. “It seems this man did not bother to look into who he was asked to exterminate.”
“No, no! I wasn’t here to kill you!” the man cried out, looking frantic. “I was here to kill her!” I took a step back, eyes going wide, as he pointed his still bleeding hand at me.
Apparently that was not the right answer when it came to saving his own skin. Krishna’s eyes flashed with fury, and I honestly thought that Rex was about to snap the guy’s neck right there.
“You are here for Majesty’s woman?!” Krishna demanded.
The man made a gasping sound, and I swear the face he made would have been hilarious if I honestly hadn’t believed he feared for his life at the moment.
“Majesty?! He’s Majesty?! I thought Majesty was retired!”
“I am,” Rex snapped, sounding pissed. “But retired operatives still date, numb nuts.”
“I don’t understand,” I said, about ready to stop my foot in frustration. “Retired from what? And who in the world would want to kill me?!”
Rex shook his head. “I have no idea. But I bet this idiot does.”
“I don’t!” he said, clapping his hand over his heart. “The information was a dead drop, payment, too. Total anonymity.”
Krishna frowned, looking up at Rex. “You take the nice Miss Mason home and keep her safe. I will spend some time with this incompetent fool and see what we find out about the bad man who would take out a hit on such a lovely young woman.”
Rex nodded. “Thanks, Lotus. I’ll see you soon, okay?”
The man smiled and reached out, holding his arms open. Rex stepped into them, giving him a hug, then quickly followed it up with the woman named Marta.
“Come on, Mase,” he said, giving me a tight smile and squeezing me around the shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Okay,” I said, eyes narrowing, “but you are totally telling me what the hell is going on when we get back to
the car, or I am totally ripping your balls off. For real this time.”
Krishna smiled. “I like this girl very much. I hope she always carries her baseball bat.”
- mason -
“Okay, we’re out of the restaurant,” I said, my voice cold as I glared at Rex, “so if you like your balls attached to you, I have one question for you to answer: Who the hell are you?”
“Rex Bennett, last time I checked,” he replied in dry voice as we puttered along in the Pinto toward his ‘safe-house,’ whatever that was.
“You know what I mean,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at him. “I will have you know that until I started working for you, nobody ever tried to kill me.”
“Lucky you,” he muttered, sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. “Considering your attitude, I’m shocked.”
“Fuck off,” I retorted, because I was witty like that. “That Shady Lady weirdo was right, wasn’t she? You are a super duper secret soldier spy.”
Rex growled. “I swear, if you don’t stop saying that, I’m going to show you what a super duper secret soldier spy like me can do.”
“HA! So you are a su—”
“Dammit, Mason!” he shouted, making my eyes go wide as I realized I’d never actually heard him raise his voice before, despite how many times we’d argued throughout the years. “Yes, I am what’s called an independent intelligence contractor, which basically means that I received military level intelligence operative training from people who weren’t the US government and was paid money to make use of those skills. A long time ago. Now? I don’t take contracts anymore.”
I gripped my arms even harder, staring straight ahead as we crawled through Manhattan nighttime traffic. “What does that mean?” I asked, voice hard. “To take a contract?”
Rex sighed. “I can tell you, but you’re going to wish you didn’t know.”
“I want to know,” I snapped, and he sighed again.
“Imagine you’re in the middle of a war. You’re an independent soldier, trying to survive, with no rules or codes to rein you in and no one to report to. Consider what kind of things you might end up doing. Those are the things we’re contracted to do.”
Heart Thief (Black Market Billionaire Book 1) Page 18
