by B. B. Reid
Too close.
She came way too close.
And someone was going to die for it.
* * *
“What was that about?”
“What was what about?” I asked absently. My only concern was getting her away as quickly as possible. If Arthur decided to change his mind and kill us both, I wasn’t so sure I would be able to save us.
Just as I peeled out on the main road, I winced slightly at the unexpected jab in my arm. I realized it was a stupid question and blatant attempt to avoid the question.
“Don’t do that. You know exactly what I mean. Why is he here? What’s going on?”
“Which question would you like me to answer first?”
“The first one!” she growled.
“He’s here for me, Monroe, and until today, he knew nothing about you.”
“He sure as hell didn’t act like it.”
My head whipped around to watch her seething in the passenger seat. “What do you mean he didn’t act like it?”
She shrugged as if it was inconsequential, but I could see the nervous twitch she always got in her eyes. It used to be reserved only for me. I can’t say I miss her fear, but I sure as hell didn’t enjoy seeing it because of someone else. It made me want to hurt someone. “He said he heard a lot about me and had been waiting to meet me.
“Son of a bitch. Anything else?” She flinched at the hard edge in my voice, but I was too pissed to care.
“Just that he always kept eyes on his interests. Keiran, you have to tell me what is going on. Why is he here for you? How did he find you?”
“My bail was denied, and with Mitch on the loose and Keenan in the hospital, I had to find a way out of jail. There was no way in hell I was sitting by until trial. And then there was you.”
“What about me?”
“When I realized you turned me in, my resolve to stay away from you once and for all, vanished. I would have done anything to get to you. I wanted to hurt you, Monroe.”
“So what changed?”
“What makes you think anything’s changed?”
“Because all you’ve done so far is to give me severe whiplash.”
“What were you doing out here?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I, uh… I was meeting Jesse for dinner,” she answered nervously and began to fidget in her seat. I slammed on the brakes and jerked the car onto the side of road haphazardly.
“Come again? And before you answer, I want you to think real hard about the words you are about to let come out of your mouth.”
“What’s your problem? I don’t answer to you.”
My fist was in her hair, and the other followed suit, snapping open her seatbelt and yanking her by the waist of her jeans across the console. I ignored her yelp of pain and anchored her in my lap. Here I could get a good look in her eyes.
“Hear me now, Monroe. You will always answer to me.” I quickly kissed her lips and then bit down on her cheek to stifle the smart remark that was sure to come out of her mouth. God, I needed to keep her mouth shut. It did things to my dick that not even the world’s best blowjob could do.
“What world are you living in, Masters? I’m my own woman now. Your intimidation tactics don’t work anymore. It’s… old… news.” She smirked as if she’d won some great argument.
“No? Well, maybe I can just fuck you harder than I’ve ever taken you right here until you see things my way.” I returned her smirk when the pulse at her neck quickened.
“I would have to let you touch me, and we both know that isn’t about to happen again.”
“But you want it to.”
“Don’t be so sure about that. Your ego needs to take a nosedive.”
I let out a deep yet ironic laugh and tossed her into the passenger seat none too gently. If I didn’t take my hands off her fast, I would show her just how much she wanted me right against the steering wheel. “I kind of missed the fuck out of you, you know that?”
“It’s only been two weeks,” she snapped. Her eyes widened the exact moment she realized her slip. She had been counting. I could have taken it as an opportunity to humiliate her, but decided to show a little mercy.
Once she was settled back into her seat, I dialed Mario and headed back to Six Forks. “I need you to double security,” I said by way of greeting. He didn’t miss a beat or bother with the nuisance of conversational courtesy bullshit.
“What’s up?”
“I just saw Arthur. He touched my girl.” I heard the intake of breath from the passenger seat but chose to ignore my slip-up. I was still reeling from the reality that I’d just come face to face with the man who thought he could own me.
“Shit. Is she all right?”
“Yes. I want to know how he could possibly know about her?”
“What do you expect, man? You haven’t exactly been laying low when it comes to the girl.” I gripped the steering wheel tighter, realizing he was right. Monroe drew me like a moth to a flame, and even when we were practically enemies, I still found reasons to be near her.
“He was going to grab her as payment for not delivering you. We need to move faster.”
“We can’t move faster. I don’t have everything in place.”
“You don’t have what in place?” I barked. I could see Monroe jump from the corner of my eye. She turned her wide eyes on me while her hand fluttered near her chest where her heart lay. I wondered what she saw when she looked at me.
“I need to make sure I have concrete evidence in place to put him away forever. I’ve already lost my career to this motherfucker. I want him to get a lethal dose of what it’s like to fuck with me.”
“If you want him dead, you should have just said so. I can end this now.” I was tempted to turn the car around and do just that. I had to protect Monroe. She was part of the stakes now.
What about your brother?
I forced myself to shake off the thoughts. Arthur had successfully planted a seed in my head that was spreading faster than a deadly disease. I had no reason to betray the man who’d given me a shot at life. It was Mario who had brought me home, and it was Mario who was there when I was released from juvie, ready to do anything I needed to exact my revenge against the bright-haired, blue-eyed drug sitting next to me.
There was no way I could double cross him.
But there was no way I could let my brother die when there was a way to save him.
“No,” he rushed out. Suspicion naturally perked up at his rejection, but I shook it off. “We don’t kill him.”
For some reason, I heard the unspoken ‘yet’ in his statement.
“Why not?”
“Because if we kill him then another will take his place. It won’t bring down his organization. We need to do this carefully. We need evidence, and we need Arthur vulnerable. If we flush out everyone, we can take his organization.”
“I don’t want to take anything. I want him dead or rotting in a jail cell. Either way, he suffers.”
“You know that’s not what I meant,” he laughed.
“Just fix it, Mario.” I hung up the phone and texted Q and Dash to meet me at my place. First, I needed to get her home.
“How did you find me?” Her small voice infiltrated my attempt to block her out.
“Would you believe me if I told you I was passing by?”
“No.”
“It’s true. I passed you on the way into town. I wasn’t going to follow you, but that lasted only a few miles. I had no clue where you were going, but—”
Hell, I had no clue what I was doing. I was prepared to track her all night if need be. This had to be the first time when my obsession with her came in handy.
“But what?” she pressed.
“But nothing. I’m just glad I did.”
“So if he knew how to find me, why did he come after me and not you? He said he wanted to take me as an alternative payment.”
I felt my blood boil and my knuckles whiten further as I gripped t
he steering wheel tighter. I was surprised it didn’t bend under the pressure.
“He was likely going to use you as leverage rather than payment. He still wants Mario, and as long as I can deliver him, he won’t do anything drastic.”
“You don’t call public kidnapping in broad daylight drastic?”
“He could have killed you.” I couldn’t resist meeting her gaze if only for a moment.
“I am done getting caught in the middle of your shit storm, Keiran.”
“I tried doing the right thing and letting you go. You are just as much to blame.” When she turned me in, she broke any resolve I managed to build to stay away from her, and now my biggest enemy knew about her. Of course, I had no idea who was feeding him information, so it was likely she would have been a target whether I stayed away or not. It all began when I decided I had to have her and used revenge as an excuse.
“You killed Trevor and Anya!” she shouted.
“You’re beginning to sound like a broken record.”
“What are we going to do about my car?” It only just occurred to me that it was left behind. I wasn’t even sure what station it was we had just left. From the corner of my eye, I watched her pull out her phone as she sent a text message.
“What were you going to dinner with Jesse for?” I asked instead of answering her question.
“I don’t know. What do people usually go to dinner for?”
“Have I ever told you that I find your sarcastic nature sexy?”
“Don’t make this about sex, Keiran.”
“It’s always about sex.”
“Yeah, well… I’m not your sex toy anymore so you’ll have to get reacquainted with your hand.”
“I’d rather get reacquainted with your pussy.”
I enjoyed the answering, lustful growl disguised as anger that passed through her lips.
Chapter Eighteen
Keiran
Ten Years Ago
We traveled for a long time, and in that time, I got to see a world outside of the compound. I’d only ever been in the compound, and any time they took me out to train, I was blindfolded. Mario wouldn’t tell me where he was taking me or why. He would only say it was for my own good.
After a long flight, we landed and then drove for what seemed like hours. This was the first time I’d been in a car without blindfolds, yet I couldn’t find any excitement over the scenery. Mario had never done anything to hurt me, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t. After my father made me kill the lady he said was my mother, he had left. Alone and hungry, it was days before I found the courage to leave the house. I took the gun for protection just in case they came looking for me. Two days later, Mario found me on the street digging through garbage. The number he had left me to call him was tucked in my pocket, but without a way to call him, it was useless.
We pulled into a lot surrounded by partially built buildings and lots of dirt. There was a large truck already waiting and a man standing beside it. He was tall with dark hair like mine. My nervousness picked up when the car slowed to a stop in front of the man. Mario didn’t waste time exiting the car. He motioned for me to stay put and then approached the man. I waited for the customary handshake I was used to seeing men make when they met, but there was none between Mario and the strange man.
The man wore a deep frown on his face as he listened to whatever Mario was telling him. He looked toward the car suddenly, and I met his stare. It looked as if Mario was still speaking when the man stepped away and headed for the car. Mario made no move to stop him, though he wore a frown on his face. I was too guarded to keep my hand away from the knife inside my jacket.
Wearing a jacket was also a first. It felt constricting around me, but the good thing was it kept me warm from the harsh winter air.
The man’s hand reached for the door handle, and I quickly scrambled to the other side. Mario must have come to his senses because he moved toward the car and stopped the man. I could hear them arguing outside the car while I watched on.
Was I here to kill this man? I figured this had to be a test, and suddenly, I felt unwanted fear snake its way in.
When they finally stopped arguing the man stepped back, and Mario turned to open the door. He leaned down to peer inside. When he noticed the way my hand clutched the knife inside my jacket, he chuckled.
“It’s okay. No one is going to hurt you, and this isn’t a test,” he said, reading my mind.
After a few moments spent looking between him and the stranger waiting for me to exit the car, I finally got out. He stepped forward immediately, and I showed my teeth the way I often saw the guard dogs in the compound do when they felt threatened.
“Gabriel?” His shock was obvious. “Is that you?”
I watched the shell-shocked man approach me, hesitantly this time. I had no clue who he was, and he must have mistaken me for someone else.
I gripped the knife under my jacket again, ready to defend myself if need be. He must have noticed because he stopped and looked me over carefully before looking back up at Mario.
“Be cool, little man. This is the uncle I told you about.”
The strange man glared at Mario before his eyes lowered to meet mine. His gazed softened as he said, “It’s okay, Gabriel. I’m not going to hurt you. My name is John. I’m your uncle.”
My eyes narrowed. His attempt to console me only strengthened my distrust. “Yeah, but I could hurt you,” I countered.
“Gabriel—”
“My name is Keiran.”
I was only ever called two things in my life. Slave and Keiran. Gabriel was someone I never got to be—and someone I never would be.
Keiran was here to stay.
I don’t know exactly when I accepted the name Lily gifted to me, but I suspected it was the moment I freed her.
“What?”
“You say you’re my uncle, but you call me the wrong name. My name isn’t Gabriel.”
He looked at Mario in confusion before turning back to me. “I’m sorry… Keiran. It’s just that your mother named you Gabriel, but if you prefer Keiran, then that’s what we’ll call you.”
“My mother? You knew her?”
Pain filled his eyes when I mentioned her. It was deep and unmistakable. I didn’t know much about her, and even for the short time that I knew her, it wasn’t until the end of her life I discovered who she was.
“Yes, I did, son. Your mother and I were very close. She would have wanted nothing more than to be here to meet you.”
Do I tell him that I’ve met her? That I was the reason she wasn’t here now? I thought about the man who said he was my father and what he made me do. I should have been able to trust him, but he was the exact opposite of what I thought he would be. All those kids who would cry for their parents night after night made me think parents were good people.
“Who is we?” I asked since my mother is dead and he stood alone.
“Yes, you have a cousin who is only a year younger than you. His name is Keenan and he’s my son.”
Instead of acknowledging his mention of more family, I looked up at Mario who watched on silently.
“Why am I here?” After meeting my father, and after what he made me do, I was afraid.
Mario stared at me for what seemed like forever before he met the gaze of my uncle and held it for long moments.
My uncle finally took the hint and spoke up. “Because you belong here.”
My gaze passed between the two men, and when I realized it was for real, I didn’t say more. Maybe this time it would be a good thing.
John seemed to sense my acceptance and reached out to grab my hand. I stared at it for a few moments before taking it. He led me to the car, but then Mario called out to him.
“Wait. There’s something else.”
“What are you talking about?” A frown now covered my new uncle’s face.
“I need you to do something for me.”
“Excuse me?”
Mario walked back to the car
and opened the door. That’s when I realized I almost left without saying goodbye.
“Who is that?” John asked.
I decided to answer him because I knew Mario didn’t know his name.
“His name is Quentin.”
* * *
PRESENT DAY
“Keiran. You know I choose not to say much about anything you do, but now isn’t one of those times. What the hell are you doing, man?” Quentin had been waiting outside my place by the time we pulled up. I ignored the numerous protests from Monroe when I dragged her to my house. She was even more pissed when I ordered her upstairs.
“Whatever it takes.”
“When is it going to be enough?”
“It may never be. What’s your point?”
“You trying to ruin that girl?”
Five months ago, it was exactly my plan. But now, I didn’t know what I wanted from her. I just knew she was someone I needed. Period. I shrugged, feigning nonchalance, but he knew better. The look he gave me said so.
“She’s different now, you know.”
“What’s it to you?”
Since when did Quentin nag? That’s what I had Dash for. Quentin usually gave less of a fuck than I did. It was why I called on him for all the illegal tasks. Dash dubbed himself my moral compass, and I’d only ever wanted to protect Keenan.
“She’s not going to make it easy for you. Whatever you decide. She will fight you.”
“She won’t win.”
“You might let her.”
“Q… Fuck off.”
“Look,” he said, getting in my face. “She’s yours. I don’t give a shit what you do to her, but these games you’re playing with Arthur is going to get you killed.”
“Maybe so, but he’ll be taking his last breath with me.”
Quentin gritted his teeth and shook his head, looking away for a beat before turning back to me with angry eyes. I knew my stubbornness was pissing him off, but I didn’t know how much until now.
“I remember, okay? I remember how it was. I remember all the fucked up things they made us do. It would have only worsened.”
