Fever

by Carnal, MJ

  I knock once, putting my hand on the gun in the waist of my pants, and I hear something mumbled from the other side, footsteps, and then a lock being turned. The door swings open and a tall woman with dark-red hair, which I can tell is natural 'cause it looks almost identical to Autumn’s, wearing a pair of jeans and a black, skintight T-shirt looks at me with wide eyes.

  “This area is off-limits,” she says.

  I scan the room behind her and see that it’s an office with a desk, a chair and a couch. I can’t see any doors, so I know she’s alone.

  “We need to talk.” I start herding her into the room.

  “No, we don’t. Justice!” she yells, backing up.

  I’m sure Justice is her bodyguard who is currently taking a Kai-induced nap.

  “Do you know a guy named Vincent?”

  Her eyes flash with understanding and she shakes her head, looking around the room.

  “Where is he?” I ask as she goes behind her desk, trying to put space between us.

  “I don’t know,” she whispers.

  “Where is he?” I roar, my hand going to the top of her desk, sweeping everything off.

  Her chest is moving rapidly as her eyes go from me to the floor. I look to where her eyes are pointed and they land on a photo that is now on the floor lying faceup. The painted, black, wooden frame shows off the photo of a little boy, a man who I know to be Vincent, and Abigail. They look like an everyday American family, all of them wearing the same dark jeans and white button-down shirts. They are sitting out in an open field of grass, and Abigail is looking down at her son with a smile on her face that says he is the love of her life. Vincent has a smile on his face as well, but his seems forced, and even through a picture, I can see the kind of man he is, almost like he has no soul.

  “How long have you been together?” I nod towards the picture. Her eyes come to me and tears begin to fill them. “He shot my fiancée at close range two times, once in the face and once in the shoulder,” I tell her, reminding myself why I’m here. “I won’t stop until I get him. I’m sure you know I’m not the only person looking for him. I’m sure members of Lacamo have been here looking for him. I would hate for something to happen to you or your boy 'cause you're protecting him.”

  Her face softens and her hands wring together. “I found out he was having another affair two weeks ago and kicked him out. Last I heard, he was staying with his latest piece in the penthouse at The Guardian.”

  I pull my phone out and send a text to Justin. It takes two minutes to get a message back letting me know that the penthouse has been rented out for a little over a week to a woman named Layla Harden. I look up from my phone after reading the message. I have a feeling that anyone who has any kind of relationship with Vincent at this time is in danger. He has screwed over the wrong people, and those people's moral compasses are fucked up.

  “You need to get your boy and get out of town for a little while.”

  “I have a business to take care of.” She shakes her head.

  “Find someone you—” I’m cut off mid-sentence when there is a loud bang in the hall followed by a lot of grunts.

  We both turn towards the door when it’s thrown open. I pull my gun as the bodyguard from downstairs crashes into the room with both Sven and Kai trying to hold him back. If this situation weren’t so serious, I would laugh.

  “Justice, stop! I’m okay!” Abigail shouts, covering her mouth as she watches Kai and Sven attempt to take this guy down.

  His eyes go to her, and I can see worry etched in his face. “Get the fuck off me!” he barks, batting Sven and Kai off him. He storms over to her, holding her face and looking her over. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” she answers as tears slide down her cheeks. “I have to get out of town.”

  I watch understanding light across his face, and he nods, looks over at me, and says, “You're lucky I didn’t have my gun on me or you would have a bullet in your head.”

  “Justice.” She slaps his arm, bringing his attention back to her.

  “Babe,” he replies softly, and her eyes lower from his as a light blush creeps across her cheeks. “I know a place we can go. Dex will love it.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She looks away.

  “No more bullshit, Abi.”

  “I told you I can’t see you like that,” she tells him.

  “And I told you I don’t give a fuck what you say anymore. I know you feel the same way I do.”

  “But Dex...” she whispers, closing her eyes.

  “I love that kid. I’ve been a part of his life since he was born. Do not use him as an excuse,” Justice growls.

  “As sweet as this moment is, we've got shit to do,” Sven says, breaking in.

  I look at him and nod.

  “I’m sorry about your fiancée,” Abigail says sincerely. “I know it doesn’t make it any better, but I’m sorry, and the Vincent I fell in love with years ago would have been sorry too.”

  I doubt that, but love is blind.

  I turn to look at Justice and pull my card out of my pocket. “If you find you can't keep her and her boy safe, you call me.”

  His eyes narrow, but he takes the card with a nod of his head.

  “Are you going to kill him?” Abigail asks, looking at me.

  “No,” I say, telling her the truth.

  “Amidio is looking for him, and I doubt he wants to have afternoon tea. If I were you, I would find a way to prepare your boy for what’s to come,” Kai tells her.

  She nods and understanding flits across her face before she grabs Justice's hand.

  “Let's roll,” I tell Kai and Sven.

  ~~*

  I watch from down the hall as the small housekeeper I just paid a thousand bucks walks up to the large double doors at the end of the hall and knocks.

  “Housekeeping!” she shouts through the door.

  When I see the door open and a woman wearing nothing answer, I make my move, pulling my gun and heading down the hall. The housekeeper runs away and the woman, who I’m assuming is Layla, screams at the top of her lungs when I shove her inside. Vincent comes around the corner with a towel around his waist and a gun in his hand.

  “Drop it,” I grumble.

  “Fuck you.” He raises the gun towards me and an almost silent shot goes off from behind my back. He falls to the ground, clutching the hand he was holding the gun with to his side.

  I turn my head, expecting to see Sven or Kai, but it's one of Amidio’s men who has his gun raised. Kai and Sven are both behind the other three members of Lacamo, looking ready to kill.

  “You following me?” I ask.

  He shrugs, and I walk over to Vincent, putting my boot to his hand, which is trying to pick up the gun, and I crush a few bones. He grunts pulling his hand to his chest.

  “We’ll take it from here,” one of Amidio’s other men says, bringing Vincent to his feet.

  His face is now pale from the amount of blood he's lost; I’m sure an artery was hit. One of the men brings over a towel, wrapping it around Vincent's wrist while the others start to clean up the mess.

  “We had a deal,” I remind them.

  “Deal still stands. Right now, boss has some questions for him. We'll be in touch,” he says as he and another man drag Vincent from the room while another man talks to Layla, who is crying hysterically.

  “Now what?” Sven says, looking between Kai and me.

  “Now, we wait.”

  It isn’t until two in the morning that Kai gets a message to head downtown. When we arrive at the location, I’m surprised by the amount of cars gathered outside.

  “What the fuck is going on?” Kai asks, looking over at his man, Frank, in the driver's seat. How the hell he got the name Frank when he’s Hawaiian and looks like he could be a sumo wrestler is anyone’s guess.

  “Don’t know. You want me to come in with you?”

  “Nah.” Kai shakes his head, looking around at all the cars. “These men kn
ow not to fuck with me.” He gets out of the SUV and bends over, pulling something out from under the seat and putting it in the waist of his pants. “Keep it running and use your gun if you have to. If something seems off, leave, get Myla, and head to my parents'.”

  “You just said they know not to fuck with you,” Frank tells him, pulling his gun from his inside coat pocket.

  “Doesn’t mean they aren’t stupid, brother,” Kai mutters, slamming the door.

  “Myla won't be happy,” I hear Frank say as I slam my door.

  When we get to the building's entrance, one of the guys from the hotel earlier meets us out front and escorts us inside and down a hall.

  “What the fuck is going on?” I ask when we’re taken into a large room.

  It is full of men of all different ages yelling at the top of their lungs as a man in the center of the room pulls a pair of metal cutters from his pocket and walks to Vincent, who is strapped to a chair. He picks up Vincent’s hand and touches each of his fingers with the tip of the clippers before settling on one.

  Vincent doesn’t even flinch when his finger is clipped off and it rolls across the floor. His body is now black and blue, and he’s bleeding from his nose, mouth, and other wounds. I can tell just by looking at him that he’s in shock. The good in me fights to the surface, not wanting any human being to suffer like he is, but then I remind myself of the shit he’s done and how much pain he’s caused and the urge to end his pain is beat back as anger is put in its place.

  “You're up next,” Paulie Jr. says, walking up to me and handing me a knife. “What’s going on?”

  “Payback. He betrayed a lot of people, and all those people get their pound of flesh before he’s ended,” he explains.

  “Take this back.” I hand him back the knife and pull my gun.

  “You can’t kill him, and you only get one hit,” Junior tells me.

  “I won’t.” I walk past him to the center of the room.

  Vincent raises his eyes, but at this point, with the kind of damage that's been done to his body already, I would be surprised if he even understands what’s going on. When I reach his side, I put the gun to his shoulder at the same place he shot Autumn. Then I think about her face, the damage that's been done, and how, regardless of how much she heals, every time she looks in the mirror, she will be reminded of what happened. I pull the gun away from his shoulder and walk around to the front of him. My hand moves to his jaw and I pull it open.

  “I told you, you can’t kill him.”

  I ignore him, put the gun in Vincent’s mouth, and lean it to the side so the muzzle is sitting against the inside of his cheek. I feel a gun come to rest at the side of my head, and I start to say something when Kai comes over and whispers inaudibly to Paulie Jr., making him back up.

  “You shot my girl,” I say quietly, tilting his head back and forcing his eyes to mine. “You know I could kill your son and wife and you can’t do shit about it,” I taunt only loud enough for him to hear.

  His eyes widen and I know he understands. Before he can respond, I pull the trigger, and blood and flesh spray out across the room and onto some of the people who are standing too close.

  A loud cheer goes up as I make my way back to Sven and Kai. When I reach them, I notice a man talking to Kai. He’s young—I would guess mid-twenties. He’s wearing a suit and his blond hair is pulled back into a ponytail. His posture is casual, but the expression on his face is anything but.

  “We good?” I ask, stepping into the mix when the man presses his chest into Kai’s.

  His eyes come to me and he looks me up and down before looking back at Kai. “Tell Myla I send my love,” the guy says, starting to walk off.

  I put a hand to Kai’s chest when I see a look I've become familiar with over the last few weeks come across his face.

  “You don’t even get to say my wife’s name!” Kai growls, grabbing the guy around the throat.

  Wife? I look at Kai’s hand and notice for the first time that a very thick band is wrapped around his left ring finger.

  “What’s going on here?” Paulie Sr. asks, walking up and putting a hand on Kai’s shoulder.

  “Just making a few things clear,” Kai says, shoving the guy away from him. The guy looks like he wants to say something before thinking better of it and walking away. “Let's get the fuck out of here,” Kai says, shrugging off Senior's hand.

  I look at the older man and give him a chin lift before leaving the warehouse.

  “You okay, man?” Sven asks Kai, and he nods, but I notice that his body is still tight and his fingers have started rolling his wedding band around his knuckle. I don’t say anything, but I do watch closely as he and Frank have some kind of silent conversation. Sven looks at me and shakes his head, saying, “I’m gonna call and have the plane ready.”

  “Thanks, man,” I tell him, sitting back. I pull out my phone, sending a message to Autumn, telling her that I love her and I will be home soon. It didn’t take long for her reply to come through. The simple “I miss you” message has me smiling to myself. A few more hours and I would be home with my woman, leaving all this shit behind us.

  Chapter 11

  Future, Meet Past.

  Autumn

  I look in the mirror and turn my head to the side, taking in my face. My jaw is still slightly swollen, but for the most part, I have healed completely. I know I'm the one who said that I hated being beautiful, but when I was able to see myself in the mirror at the hospital for the first time, all I could think about was how disgusting I looked. My face was swollen and deformed, my lips cracked from being so dry. It wasn’t so much that I cared what I looked like, but I was worried Kenton would see me and the look of love I was so used to receiving from him would turn into something else. I didn’t want that.

  I should have known better though. The first time he saw me without the bandages covering my face, his hand gently cupped my cheek while his eyes told me everything I needed to know. I knew he loved me before everything happened, but now, I will never doubt it again.

  I look down at my hand and remember when I saw my engagement ring for the first time. I was sitting up in bed, my head swimming due to the pain medication I was on, but Kenton was there to see me and I never wanted to go without spending a single second with him. We were talking. Well, he was talking; I was writing everything down on a white board they had given me. My face was bent towards my hand when my eyes caught on something on my finger. At first, I thought it was a bug, but then my eyes focused on the sapphire and diamonds and my breath caught in my throat, making me feel like I was going to pass out from lack of oxygen.

  “Breathe, baby,” I heard him urge, and I gulped down a lungful of oxygen as my eyes filled with tears. “Will you marry me?” His hand covers mine on the whiteboard before I could write YES. “I already told everyone you’re my fiancée, so you have to say yes. Maybe I should take your pen from you so you don’t have a say,” he mumbled, and I growled. “So what will it be? You gonna make an honest man out of me?”

  His hand left mine and I wrote MAYBE in large, bold letters on the board.

  “You must feel better if you’re fucking with me.” He smiled and my heart contracted. “Now, will you please just fucking say yes?”

  If I could have smiled, I would have. My head bent and I wiped the board off before writing YES across the whole surface. The smile that lit up his face was one I would never forget until the day I die. His fingers went to the ring, rolling it back and forth on my finger.

  “We're getting married,” he whispered. I nodded, feeling tears fill my eyes. “Thank you.” His forehead touched mine. I lifted my hand and held it against his cheek.

  I shake my head out of my thoughts when I hear something coming from down the hall. I peek my head around the corner just in time to see Tubs running with a pair of Kenton’s boxers, taking them with him down the stairs. I shake my head and go back to getting ready, figuring that Kenton can deal with him. I hear Tubs bark and Ke
nton growl, and I start to laugh.

  When my eyes go back to the mirror, I see the dimple in my cheek I didn’t have before the shooting. My hand lifts and my finger runs over the mark. It's funny how something that seems so innocent can come out of something so painful.

  I clear my head and finish getting ready. Tonight is the night I marry Kenton. Well, kind of. When I got out of the hospital, Kenton wanted to go right to the courthouse and get married, but I wanted to at least have his family there to witness us starting our lives together.

  He didn’t agree with me. He didn’t want to put it off another day, so we compromised. We got married two days after I was released, and he promised me that, when I was completely healed, he would throw me a huge reception, where I could wear a dress and he would wear a suit, and that way, I could have the wedding pictures I really wanted.

  I finish my hair and makeup, and when I hear someone coming up the stairs, I smile as Tara calls out my name.

  “In the bathroom!” I yell, touching up my lipstick.

  “Your dog molested me when I walked into the house. I think it’s time you got him fixed.”

  “We can't. Not yet anyways. Only one of his balls has dropped,” I tell her, walking into our bedroom.

  “Seriously?” she asks, and I can’t help the laugh that escapes me.

  “Seriously, but don’t bring it up in front of Kenton. It’s a sore subject.”

  “What’s a sore subject?” Kenton asks, walking into the room, wearing his usual jeans and T-shirt. I cannot wait until later—when I get to see him in his tux.

  “Your dog having one ball,” Tara teases him.

  His eyes narrow and I shake my head.

  “What time are you heading to your mom’s?” I ask in a rush, knowing what’s coming if I don’t change the subject.

  “I’m leaving now. I just came up to kiss you,” he says sweetly.

  I smile as he walks towards me. His eyes move from my mouth to my cheek and then to my eyes. I see pain cross his features, but he quickly covers it. He told me the other day that he loves my dimple, just hates what it reminds him of. I can’t imagine being in his position, thinking he was going to die. He hasn’t talked much about what happened while I was in the hospital, but before he left, I could sense that he was ready to snap at any moment.