by M Never
“Right.” I shake him off uneasily and go to grab some clothes.
“That cocksucker isn’t going to be walking around much longer after what he did,” CJ says, pulling his pants on under the towel. He then discards it and pulls on his shirt.
“You got a plan?” Slade asks.
“Aside from a sniper rifle? Not yet, but I do have a mobile command center. So it’s a start.” He sits down on the couch and pulls out a laptop from a leather bag on the floor. “Babe, hurry up and get dressed. We need to talk,” CJ says, distracted as he boots up the computer. I hurry into the bathroom and get dressed; I brush the knots out of my hair but leave it to air dry.
I sit down next to CJ as he types away, Slade standing cross- armed opposite from us.
“Huh,” CJ grunts as he reads something on the screen.
“What?” I ask.
“Your cocksucking friend has quite the rap sheet. Assault and battery, robbery, possession.”
“Nino has always been in and out of trouble.” I wring my hands together.
“And he loves to bring other people down with him, huh?” Slade comments.
I stay silent.
“Do you know this girl?” Slade pulls up a picture on his phone of a young Asian girl with long black hair and a pretty smile.
“I don’t.”
“Never seen her at the club?” he interrogates me.
“No, never. Why?”
“She’s missing.”
“And you think Nino has something to do with it?” I pull my knees up to my chest.
“The number to the club showed up frequently on her cell phone bill but came across as Joe’s Pizza. All the calls were incoming.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know anything about that. Nino doesn’t like the girls to mingle. The only way I knew who was working for him is the wristbands. He was very specific with his instructions. You show up, work, and then leave. He wanted you to blend in and look like just another patron in the crowd.”
“Sophisticated business,” Slade mocks.
“I tried not to get too involved.”
“At least you had enough smarts for that. So what’s the next move?” Slade directs his question to CJ.
“Not sure yet.” He’s still focusing on his laptop. “I’m going to need to gather more info on Nino and the pros ring. I’m thinking maybe a raid or send in the local authorities. Come up with a cover story so the trail doesn’t fall back on Tara.”
“Sounds good. Let me know what I can do to help.” He puts his hand up to CJ for another fist bump. “I have to jet. Work to do.”
“Later then.”
“Sunshine,” Slade addresses me and then walks out the door.
I sit there for a second taking it all in. What a crazy twist my life has taken. Missing girls, raids, prostitution.
“How long have you been doing this?” I look at CJ wide-eyed.
“Been an operative you mean?” CJ tears his attention away from the laptop.
“Is that your official title, operative?”
“I’m a jack-of-all-trades. Handler, hacker, analyst, operative,” he says proudly. “But to answer your question, nine years. I always wanted to be in the military, and I followed my dream. ROTC in high school, attended West Point for college, and then enlisted right after I graduated. I was on the fast track until my helicopter crashed, ending my career right on the spot.” CJ clasps his hands together and looks down at the floor.
“That’s what Slade meant when he said you lost the love of your life?”
CJ nods solemnly. “It was a really dark time. I was lost, felt useless, and had no direction. I had no idea what to do with myself. That’s when Endeavor recruited me. They gave me a second chance. With my special forces background and knowledge of cyber security, I was a prime candidate for the organization.”
CJ takes my hands in his. “I wasn’t lying when I told you my job was demanding. It is part of the reason I’ve kept my distance. Being with someone who does what I do is challenging. It’s why I haven’t seen my family in three years or pursued a serious relationship.”
I frown immediately. I don’t like the turn this conversation is taking.
“Don’t worry.” CJ touches the crease in the middle of my brows. “You’re the first woman who’s ever made me want more. Made me want to try and have it all. I have no idea how we’re going to make that happen.” He laughs light-heartedly. “But if Kayne and Ellie and Jett and London can make it work, so can we. You know, if you’re willing, now that you know the truth.”
“I’m willing.” I can barely contain myself. “I’m willing to try anything you need me to do.” I slide across the small couch and into his arms.
“Good because I really don’t think I can live without this.” He kisses me firmly, slipping his tongue between my lips as he traps me flush to his chest.
“I don’t think I can live without it either.” I sigh contentedly against him.
“You’ll never have to until you send me away.”
“Can I tell you a secret?” I ask him flirtatiously.
CJ nods. “You know I love secrets.”
“I will never, ever send you away. I know what life feels like to be without you, and it’s definitely not for me,” I murmur against his lips.
“I’m very happy to hear that.”
“I’m very happy to tell you that.”
“It’s settled then.”
“What is?”
“You officially belong to me.”
“I have always belonged to you. Always, and only you.”
“Ditto.” He runs one finger through my hair and kisses me forcefully again. The embrace is so hot, it could melt the frost right off the windows.
“I have something for you.” He reaches into his laptop bag, pulls out a package, and hands it to me. “I ordered this before everything went down.”
I shake the long, brown shipping box, before I rip it open like the child I am. Like nesting dolls, I pull a long, black velvet box out from a white cardboard one, popping it open with a start. Inside is the most beautiful necklace I have ever seen. It’s thick with what looks like a thousand tiny diamonds strung together like filigree. I instantly fall in love.
“I told you it would be fit for a queen.” CJ pulls it from the box and holds it up. I realize it’s the collar I had agreed to wear.
“I had a vision when I bought this.” He fastens it around my neck, fitting perfectly.
“Do tell.” I hum seductively as he urges me to straddle him.
“Mmm.” He plants his hands all over my body. “I should be working, but I’ll indulge you.”
“I think you want me to indulge you.” I undulate against him, feeling his erection grow.
“It was you,” he pulls my shirt over my head, “wearing nothing but that collar, riding me dry.”
“I think I can make that vision happen.” I flick my tongue between his parted lips, turning up the heat.
CJ moans wantonly. “You are going to be so very good . . . and so very bad for me.” He attacks my mouth while nearly ripping my jeans in two.
Sometimes I just love being bad.
I SIT ON THE COUCH watching Tara sleep. It was one hell of a morning. Once that collar was around her neck, the fuck-a-thon was on. First she rode me on the couch, then I fucked her on the floor, before finally ending up doggy style on the bed. The woman has a hypnotic effect. Like a Siren luring a sailor.
It’s amazing I can even freakin’ see straight right now.
Her phone vibrates on her makeshift plastic nightstand. I ignore it, wanting to let her sleep. It stops and then starts up again. I become a little suspicious, but still, I leave it alone. The third time has me striding across the room to answer it. The name Nino is flashing across the screen. My blood instantly boils. I know I shouldn’t pick it up, but my rage gets the better of me.
“Hello?”
“Who the fuck is this?” he snarls on the other end.
“You
know exactly who it is,” I respond frigidly.
There’s a momentary pause before he answers. “Tara’s free pussy,” he says with disdain.
I tighten my jaw. “She’s finished with you.”
“Says who? You?” He laughs at me. “You want to finish it? You know where to find me if you have the balls.”
I glance down at Tara and exhale a furious breath.
“Oh, I have the fucking balls . . .”
I’VE BEEN PACING THE APARTMENT for nearly two hours. When I woke up, CJ was gone. No note, no nothing. At first, I thought maybe he ran out to get something to eat, but as the time ticked by, a bad feeling grew in my gut. Now, I’m worried out of my mind.
A hard knock on the door makes me jump. I fly across the room to open it. Please be CJ . . . Please be CJ . . .
Standing on the other side are the last two faces I ever expected to see.
“You going to invite us in or what, little sis?” Kayne glares down at me with his arms crossed and Jett just behind him.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, feeling ambushed.
“CJ called us,” Kayne informs me.
“CJ called you?” I turn white.
“Why else would we be here?” They both walk into my apartment, taking over the place.
“What did he tell you?” I swallow the golf ball-sized lump in my throat.
“Everything,” Kayne says stoically.
My lip quivers. “Did you tell Ellie?” I automatically picture my sister’s disappointed face. She never liked Nino, and if she finds out what I got myself wrapped up in, I can only imagine the verbal lashing I’d get.
“No.”
I sigh with relief.
“Not yet, at least.” Kayne gets in my face. “I don’t keep secrets from my wife, Tara. They’re the fruit of the poisonous tree.” He glances quickly at Jett. “We’re here to fix this, and when it’s all over, either you will tell her what you got mixed up in, or I will. One way or another, she’ll know.”
I stand there staring defiantly at Kayne. I have never been good with ultimatums.
“I take it she doesn’t know you’re here then?” I challenge him.
“She knows what she needs to for now.” His weird eyes flash with malice. It’s clear he doesn’t like the fact I’m talking back to him, but I’m on edge as it is. I don’t need my overbearing brother-in-law’s bullshit, too.
“Okay,” Jett interjects, “a standoff is not what we need right now.” He separates Kayne and me like he’s parting the Red Sea. “Where is Juice?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him as calmly as possible. “When I woke up, he was gone.”
“How long ago was that?” Kayne demands.
“About two hours ago.”
Kayne and Jett exchange a silent look.
“What?”
“I hope that stupid moron didn’t take matters into his own hands,” Kayne fumes.
“We don’t know what he’s doing.” Jett tries to keep everyone level headed. But this time I have to side with Kayne. Something is wrong. Very, very wrong. I can feel it.
My phone rings, causing all three of us to look in its direction. I grab it off the nightstand, seeing Nino’s name flash on the screen. I curse under my breath, then answer it.
“Hello.”
“How’s my girl?”
“I am not your fucking girl!” I shout as Jett and Kayne crowd around me. Just their mere presence makes my apartment go from feeling like a shoebox to a ring box.
“That’s no way to talk to me, especially when I have something you want.”
I grip the phone as I hear unintelligible moaning on the other end.
“Nino, don’t hurt him!”
“It’s a little too late for that, Tara.”
“I’ll give you anything you want, just let him go!”
“I’m glad to hear that you want to cooperate.”
“Put it on speaker,” Jett urges.
I do as he says and continue talking.
“What do you want?” I ask him anxiously.
“What belongs to me, of course.”
“And that is?”
“Tara, don’t be so stupid. You know it’s you that I want.”
I look back and forth between Kayne and Jett. They’re both shaking their heads.
I stand there quivering, holding the phone. I have no other choice.
“Fine. You can have me. Just assure me you’ll let CJ go.”
“Tara!” Kayne snarls at me.
“So your free pussy has some friends, huh?”
Kayne swipes the phone from my hand and brings it to his mouth. “You’re goddamn right he has some friends,” he says so menacingly, he becomes a completely different person in my eyes. “And they will crack your fucking skull wide open with a crowbar if anything happens to him.”
“You better hurry up for my sake then.” Nino doesn’t sound the least bit threatened.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Kayne asks.
“Just do as I say.”
There’s suddenly banging on my front door. Both Jett and Kayne pull guns from out of nowhere.
“Tara!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Tara! Let me in!”
“It’s Philly.” I go for the door, but Kayne yanks me back, opening it himself. He holds the gun right up to a startled Philly’s face.
“Whoa!” He puts his hands up in surrender.
“It’s fine.” I pull on Kayne’s arms. “It’s fine!”
Kayne drops the gun with trepidation but lets Philly inside.
“Go with him, Tara. You know where to find your free pussy,”
Nino says lastly.
Then, click.
I nearly hyperventilate as the line goes dead.
“What did he mean? Where’s CJ?” Jett asks forcefully.
I look at Philly, and he nods.
“At a club called Clip.”
“Where is it?”
“Hell’s Kitchen,” Philly answers. “There’s a room on the second floor. Behind his office. You’ll find him there.”
Kayne slams Philly against the wall and raises the gun to his head. “If we go there and you’re lying, I have a bullet with your name on it.”
“I’m not lying.” Philly squeezes his eyes shut. He’s so anti-violence it isn’t funny. I hate seeing him caught in the middle of all this.
My heart is pounding so hard it feels like a swarm of bees is circling in my chest.
Kayne drops the gun, and Philly nearly drops dead.
“Let’s go, Tara,” he says, shaken up.
“Go? You think we’re letting her go anywhere with you?” Kayne sneers. “We’ll go get Juice, and then we’ll handle the idiot on the phone.”
“We have to go! If I don’t have Tara outside in five minutes, he’s going to burn my entire apartment building to the ground. Families live there!”
“You actually believe he’d do that?” Jett asks calmly as if he’s talking to a suicidal mental patient.
Philly turns his head and looks directly at Jett. “My brother has always been unstable, and he’s getting worse by the day. I wouldn’t put anything past him anymore.”
Jett gazes at Kayne with stern aqua eyes. “Let her go.”
“Are you fucking nuts!?!” Kayne takes a step toward Jett.
“Where are you taking her?” Jett goes on, not fazed by Kayne at all.
“I don’t know! We’re just supposed to be outside, now!”
“Wonderful.” Kayne grabs a fistful of hair.
All this fucking chitchat is making me nuts.
“I’ll go! Please, let’s just stop talking! CJ is out there, and God knows what Nino has done to him!”
Three pairs of eyes focus on me as if they’re just remembering I’m in the room. I slip on a pair of sneakers without socks and grab my coat.
“Tara,” Kayne protests.
“I’m with Philly. I’ll be fine,” I try to reassure him.
; I hope.
Before we hurry out the door, Kayne catches Philly’s arm. “Forget the bullet.” He flat out threatens him once again. “If anything happens to her, I’ll filet you open right in front of your mother.”
Both Philly’s and my eyes widen frightfully. I have no idea who my sister married, but he’s scary as shit.
Outside, there’s a black Town Car waiting for us. Philly ushers me inside and then slams the door closed. I don’t recognize the man driving.
“Cell phones.” He reaches his hand behind him. Both Philly and I reluctantly hand him our phones. He then opens the front window and tosses them out before he drives away.
Shit.
“I told you!” Philly hisses at me. “I told you not to get involved with him!” he seethes under his breath. “You never listen! Now look! Fuck, Tara, we are in shit up to our eyeballs!”
I retreat into myself, wishing my ski jacket would swallow me whole.
“I know, I’m sorry,” I whisper regretfully. But as scared as I am for Philly and myself, I’m more terrified for CJ. Philly is right. Nino is completely unstable, and there’s no telling what he’s capable of. I shove my hand into my pocket and rub CJ’s watch obsessively. I found it on the bed when I woke up this afternoon and swiped it before we left. I make a promise right here and now that I will give it back to him. It’s my oath to persevere, to survive whatever’s coming. I just pray to god he’s not a corpse when I do.
I WALK INTO THE QUIET club. With the lights on, it looks like a shithole. Drab floors, dingy walls, and dusty bar tops. I swept the place with infrared before I entered, surprised to find only one person in the entire building. Going on instinct, I decided to enter. I’ve taken on more than one opponent before. I can do it again. Besides, I know guys like Nino—pride fuels them. He’s going to want to beat the shit out of me himself.
I walk into the center of the dance floor. “I’m here cocksucker, with my balls,” I shout.
“I see.” He materializes on the second-floor landing. The exact spot I positioned myself the last time I was here.
“I feel a little like I’m in high school.” He descends the stairs, taking one slow, measured step at a time. “Fighting over a girl in the parking lot.”
