Camouflage (Predator and Prey #1)

by Angelica Chase

  Daniello remained quiet as I slowed past our old farmhouse to study its state curious about my father.

  “He died a few years ago, heart attack.” I nodded, knowing that it had everything to do with meth and wondering why fate had taken so long to take him. Daniello’s stare burned a hole through me in the rearview as he caught my eye, no emotion in my face. I concentrated on Laz as I pulled to a stop on the dirt road that separated our old houses. I looked at Daniello then back at Amber.

  “There is forty grand and a cell phone in my bag in the trunk. Use it to start over, Amber, get Joseph back and leave. I have a friend named Cedric programmed in the phone who knows about you. He will get you to Charleston.”

  “I will get her to Charleston,” Daniello spoke up. “You do not need to go alone.”

  “Please, we agreed,” I pleaded. Daniello glanced out the window and nodded.

  I gave him a long look, memorizing his features, and he refused to look at me. I could see the tenseness in his body. He was fighting with everything in him not to end this on his terms.

  I made my way down the dirt road toward our pond, a thousand memories hitting me like painful bricks. I took a deep breath as I saw the truck that Laz had driven last night.

  “He with you?” I heard as he rounded the truck bed and looked past me.

  “He’s in the car,” I answered. “So is Amber. I’m taking her home with me, to get clean, for her son.”

  Laz stood a few feet away, his features showing exhaustion.

  “Thank you for taking care of her, for being there. Laz, I’m sorry about what happened. I’ve—”

  “Bullshit,” he snapped. “You didn’t give a shit about me then and you don’t now. You just want a clean getaway.”

  I took a step toward him. “I want that, yes. That’s all I’d ever wanted, Laz. I’m sorry.”

  He pushed a rock around with his boot then without hesitation met my green eyes with his blue. I couldn’t help the familiar pain that spread through me as I remembered better days at this pond. I could see the recollection in his eyes, too.

  “Pretty smart asking me here.” He grinned menacingly. “Take your sister and leave.”

  “That’s it, no more games?”

  “If I decide it that way.”

  “Laz—”

  He reached for my throat with both hands and squeezed hard as he bit out his words. Clawing at his hands, I felt the burn from lack of oxygen as my head pounded and realized what a fool I’d been.

  “You fucking owe me, Red, more than you will ever know. And when and if I feel it’s time to collect, I fucking will. You and that man you decided to bring to my fucking house won’t be able to do shit about it. Now get the fuck out of here before I change my mind.”

  I gasped as I fell to the ground, seconds from unconsciousness, tears welling in my eyes. He kicked me solidly in the chest and I felt a rib crack under the weight of it. I reached for the gun behind me and pulled it around as Laz kicked it from my hand then backhanded me. Blood immediately started pouring from my nose as I stood slowly and glared at him, ready to fight tooth and nail.

  “If you think you would’ve ever won with me, bitch, you are sadly mistaken.”

  “No,” I hissed through my pain. “I lost with you a long time ago.”

  No matter how much time had passed, here at our place, memories of soaking up the sun with the blue eyed boy I loved ran through me like waves, forcing the point of loss home. My Laz was completely and utterly gone and replaced by a monster I didn’t recognize, and that I refused to surrender to.

  He smirked as he watched me wince in pain and I took a step full of contempt toward him, chin lifted, ready for war. I knew I would lose but not without inflicting lasting pain. I heard Daniello’s shout from a distance and saw Laz grip the gun in his pants before leaving it where it sat on his hip and walking toward his truck.

  “I’m not doing this for you,” he hissed as he ripped his cab door open.

  “I know,” I said, looking back to see Daniello coming toward us full force, eyes blazing in anger, his gun pointed at Laz.

  “Get him the fuck out of here, Red,” Laz bit out as Daniello’s first bullet ripped through the metal in the side of his truck. I saw their eyes connect and the hate that ran between them and stepped in front of Daniello’s next shot. He roared in anger as Laz sprayed gravel with his departure.

  “Goddamn you, woman!” Daniello yelled as he caught up with me, fury all over his face. He ran after the truck, cursing in every language he knew while unloading his gun.

  “I know, I know, no one can abuse me but you.” He moved toward me and gripped my head, his eyes roaming what I was sure was a purpling neck. I pulled my head away as he inspected my nose. “I’ll let you strangle me next time, okay? Can we please just leave? It’s over.”

  “He will be dead by morning,” he promised, glancing over my shoulder for the long gone truck.

  “NO!” I didn’t know how to make him understand. “Please, it’s over,” I lied. “Promise me. Promise me right now, you will not hurt him.”

  “You ask too much of me.” He closed his eyes as I wiped the blood away from my nose and onto my t-shirt.

  “It’s over. Take me home.” He nodded.

  “This I will do.”

  “Promise me.”

  “No.”

  He gave me a deadly glare as he checked over my appearance and seemed satisfied I was in one piece. We walked silently back to the car, Daniello glanced in my direction every few seconds with what I thought was concern. Amber was waiting next to the car door, fidgeting nervously.

  “Let’s go,” was all I said as I rounded the driver’s side. “I drive,” Daniello muttered, pointing to the passenger seat. I got in without argument as we made the bone aching drive back through Dyer. Daniello routed us back through without needing any direction and slowly drove through town, taking it in for a second time.

  “Can you please stop on Maple Street? I want to see Joseph before I leave.”

  Daniello looked at me with question. “Take a right up here.”

  Daniello eased onto the street, my Chevelle sticking out like a sore thumb. But the street, like every other road, look deserted and I was sure we went unnoticed.

  “Stop here, please.” Amber quickly exited the car and walked up to what looked like the most well-kept house on the block. I watched her knock before she was greeted by an older woman, who I swore I recognized. She quickly made her way into the house and I sighed a little in relief.

  Daniello got out of the car, taking long strides away from it. Puzzled, I followed him until he was at the end of the street, looking each direction.

  “What are you doing?”

  He turned to me with more emotion in his face than I ever thought possible. “This place ...Jesus Christ, this is where you come from?”

  I felt the lump gather in my throat as he looked around, desperate for some sign of life, some sort of way to believe places like this didn’t exist. He got no relief. My lover was full of untold emotion and words as he turned to me.

  “Don’t pity me, Daniello. I—”

  He gripped my arms and looked down at me, completely exasperated. “I do not pity you, Taylor Ellison. I could never pity a woman I admire. You ...what you have done, leaving here, the woman you have become.” He leaned in, claiming my lips and covering me in warmth as he held me tightly to him, giving me the most passionate kiss I’d ever received in my life. I ignored the pain burning through my side as I let him have his way with me. Just when I thought I couldn’t get any closer, he pulled me tighter to him, roaming my mouth with his tongue, his strong arms not giving any leeway. He pulled away after several minutes, my body molded to his and whispered to me, “Phoenix.”

  As his realization dawned, so did mine. This man understood me.

  Amber’s shriek interrupted our moment as she begged the woman at the door for her son.

  “Please, he belongs with me. Please, just let me have
him!”

  Daniello and I headed her way as she sat on the steps in front of a closed front door.

  “Leave me here. I can’t leave him. I can’t,” she said with a shaky voice.

  “If you want him back, come with me. I will help you. We can get you on your feet. It’s the only way.”

  Daniello remained silent. I was sure all of this drama was far from what he was used to dealing with. Then again, he had a sister with nine children. He stared at Amber absently and I nodded my head toward the car.

  “Amber, there is no future here, you know that. It won’t be long. I’ll hire the best lawyer in the U.S. You just have to do your part.”

  She nodded as she looked back at the door.

  The ride back to Charleston was odd to say the least. Maybe it was the reprieve from the severity of the situation that had us all in better spirits. The minute we were miles from Dyer, Amber’s eyes lit up as she looked around her wistfully.

  “Have you ever been out?” I asked as she shook her head.

  “Never, not even to Memphis.”

  “Get ready for a little culture shock,” I said, looking at her in the backseat. “I live near the ocean. That’s the first place we will go.”

  She smiled then, a deep genuine smile, though I knew her skin was crawling with need. It would take weeks to break her habit and she was handling it better than I thought possible. I would get my doctor to write her a prescription to help her sleep most of it off. I was curious about Joseph, but didn’t want to bring up such a painful subject while she smiled. Daniello tapped his fingers to Breaking Benjamin’s “Sooner or Later” as I played DJ most of the way. He seemed to like my taste in music as he test drove my Chevelle through Tennessee.

  “I think I will get one of these for home,” he mused and then added, “Maybe one that smells better.”

  “Uh, yeah, sorry about that,” Amber muttered as she kept her eyes closed, the pain of withdrawal hitting her hard.

  I had tried last night to get the smell out as I cleaned up my sister’s vomit out of my sixty thousand dollar classic car, but the scent still lingered.

  When we finally arrived in Charleston, I saw Rocco sitting idle, waiting. Daniello parked the car with ease next to my collection in the garage.

  Amber wandered into the condo as Daniello turned to me.

  “I will return.”

  I chuckled at his attempt at a more stable relationship. We were so screwed.

  “Will you call, too?”

  “No,” he barked as he took my lips and then walked out the door. I shook my head and raced after him, my rib screaming at me for it.

  “Hey, you.” I caught up to him and placed a slow kiss on his lips. “I like you now.”

  His slow smile made my whole body flutter with need. “Ah, Taylor, you have always liked me.”

  “No, no I haven’t,” I said, truthfully. He laughed loudly as he took my lips again before whispering in my ear. “Enjoy your family union.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to correct him but he gave me a knowing wink.

  Rocco’s stare out of the damaged SUV was deadly. I gave him a wink and a wave as Daniello climbed into the passenger side.

  I wondered if he was going home to Barga. I wondered how our relationship would change with my sister living with me, even if it was temporarily. I smiled as I remembered his description of me.

  “Phoenix,” I whispered, remembering a quote from a lit class at Harvard.

  Rising from the ashes, you spread your wings to fly Reaching now for those final dreams, belief will never die

  Beautiful and so glorious, the eternal bird of fire Soaring up into the sun, leaving behind the pyre

  Dreams are now your destiny; reach with all your might

  You’re a powerful inferno, ablaze and in full flight Yesterday is over, today has just begun

  The sky is now your playground your home is now the sun –

  Laz

  Auburn Sunset 43.

  I stared at the box before I barked my order. “You fucking done yet?”

  “In a minute!”

  “Rub it in good.” The itch raced through me as my blood boiled with thoughts of her still running through my head. All of that fucking beauty and I had smashed it with the back of my hand. I’d squeezed the life out of it, almost to the point of no return. I plucked a cigarette from my pack and lit it with a slow inhale.

  She fucking broke me.

  And after all this time, I’d wanted to return the favor more than I’d ever wanted anything. Killing her with my bare hands would’ve been the most righteous way. She deserved to die at the hands of the man who had made her. I’d shaped her into the woman she was and she was fucking some foreigner who had no rights to her.

  She was supposed to be mine as she had promised.

  “Now, right fucking now,” I ordered as I crushed my cigarette into Lucy’s expensive carpet and pulled out my cock. I’d been hard all day thinking of crushing the bones in her perfect face and watching her lying lips go blue. I’d sacrificed more for her, done more for her than I’d ever thought I would do for anyone.

  She didn’t appreciate shit. She’d never loved me. Her eyes lied, her lips did the same.

  Lucy came out of the bathroom wearing nothing but the same shade of hair that’d I’d ordered her to keep up. My skin itched and I needed release as I jerked her by the arm and slammed her head down on her kitchen table.

  “Please, don’t hurt me.”

  “Please shut the fuck up and take your medicine.” I spit into my hand and rubbed it over my cock before positioning my head at her ass. “Fuck you,” I hissed, slamming into her and hearing her scream. I gripped the red locks, pulling hard and feeling a few give in my hand. I fucked her hard as I cursed her for every fucking thing she’d ever done.

  “Liar, whore, thief.” I shook with rage as I pounded into her over and over, hearing her cries. Each prayer from her lips fueled me as I shoved into her, all of my frustration centered on my cock.

  It was only when I saw the blood that I slowed and released her. She crumpled onto the floor, broken as I unloaded in the hair shielding her face. “FUCK YOU!”

  Minutes passed as I sat in my jeans at the table and smoked a foil as she gathered herself from the floor.

  “NO MORE!” she screamed. “I can’t do this anymore! Laz, please, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to—”

  “You cost me my son, you fucking cunt!” I stood and slapped her back to the floor where I watched her fall apart. “You and that fucking running mouth of yours. Couldn’t leave it alone, could you? Had to spray the habits of everyone in town with that fucking mouth!”

  I pulled my cell from my pocket and saw the text.

  Amber: Here.

  Me: Good girl. I know you can do this. Get our son back.

  I would’ve killed Taylor today had I not needed her, but I figured with the sacrifices I’d made she owed me this before I took her life. I wasn’t sentimental, not anymore. I needed her connections and money to get the only thing that mattered back to me.

  Joseph.

  And when Taylor served her purpose, I would show her just how much mercy I had displayed today.

  She really should have stayed gone.

  LISTEN TO THE CAMOUFLAGE PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY

  To my Betas and Sexy Stalkers - Sharon Dunn, Stacy Hahn, Anne Morrillo, Patty Tennyson, Julie Kerchkof, Cindy Gordanier, Sophie Brighton, Susan Decker, and Yamara Martinez, Beatrice Perez, Lina Linalove, Malene Dich, there is no book world for me without you ladies. Seriously I can’t do it without you. Thank you for pushing me, picking me up and bitch slapping when needed.

  Christin Stanley - I adore you and your blunt ways. Thank you so much for everything you do.

  Jessica Berthlelot-Thank you for all your hard work on all of my books and dealing with my insane schedule. I love you to pieces.

  Alessandra Torre - Thank you for your friendship, for your encouragement and for all of your guidance this las
t year. You and your sexy books rock my socks.

  Juliana Cabrera - You should have fired me a long time ago. I thank God every day you haven’t. Birds of a feather we are, and I plan on sticking together with you even if you try your best to tell me to kick rocks.

  Edee M. Fallon - Editor and chief of all things Angelica, thank you for a solid year of so much fun. I’ve had a blast writing these books and you have been right there weaving my words into polished magic. Thank you for being my friend and editor. You are such a gift. Happy Anniversary!

  Bloggers how I love thee - I have named you ladies over and over in my books because of your tremendous support and I’m not stopping now. THANK YOU SO MUCH.

  Sue Bee, Christy B, Beverly, Patty, Allison, Milasy, Mel, Dee, Kelli C, Crazy Daizy, , Suzanne, Lisa, Dawn & Tara IFLY both, Danielle, Heather, Beatrice, Suzanne, Christina, Donna, Jessica, Jen, Michelle, Sophie, Louise, Pam, Marie, CC, Elizabeth, Vrsha, Louise, Raylene, Jenny & Gite...you ladies make my kinky world go round.

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