King of Clubs (Aces & Eights Book 2)

by Sandra Owens

  Court sighed. “It was too much to wish for.” He went to the door, looking through the peephole. “It’s Nate.”

  Should she hide in the bedroom? She doubted Nate knew she was here. Deciding that was probably a good idea, she tried to disappear down the hallway, but as she ran past Court, he grabbed her hand.

  “Going somewhere?”

  “I think I should stay out of sight.”

  Without answering Lauren, he opened the door. “Go away,” he said to Nate, and then he tried to slam the door shut, but Nate stuck his foot in the opening.

  “We need to talk.” Nate pushed past them, and as he walked by, he said, “Hello, Lauren.”

  He hadn’t seemed at all surprised to find her in Court’s condo. She had the feeling there wasn’t much Nate didn’t know. The man intimidated her, and she wished she’d been able to escape to her room. Court let go of her hand, following his brother into the living room. She reluctantly trailed behind them.

  Court came to a halt. “Talk about what?”

  “Several things. Stephan Kozlov for one. And why Lauren’s staying with you.” Nate walked to the glass doors, staring out.

  The breath left her lungs as her legs gave out, her butt landing on the couch. What did he know?

  “Baby brother can’t keep his mouth shut,” Court grumbled, sitting on the opposite side of the sofa.

  “He’s worried about you. As am I.” Nate turned from staring out the balcony door, his gaze zeroing in on her. “Your ex is a nasty piece of work based on the photos I saw of you taken in the hospital. Unfortunately, he’s been a model prisoner, not doing anything to risk getting time added to his sentence. He also has his own bodyguards, other prisoners who protect him from various gangs.”

  “What photos?” Court’s eyes locked on hers. “Why were you in the hospital?”

  “You promised you wouldn’t invade my privacy.” This isn’t happening. He was never supposed to know. She pressed her hands against her stomach as it took a sickening roll. How does Nate have insider information on a prisoner? And why does Court have a cop at his beck and call who could run off Peter? Who are these people?

  “Court made that promise to you, not me,” Nate said.

  “Please, you have to forget what you think you know.” Didn’t he care about putting his brother in danger?

  “What photos, Lauren?”

  “These,” Nate said, tossing the folder he held in his hand to Court.

  Before she could snatch the photos away, Court stood, then walked to the dining room table. Oh, God, Nate had no idea what he’d just done. She’d suffered greatly to keep Court’s name from Stephan. Nate had just made that all for naught.

  She looked at Nate, her eyes burning with tears. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

  “He needs to know,” Nate said softly.

  Was that pity or sympathy in his eyes? It didn’t matter which. “You should have stayed out of it.” He didn’t answer. She glanced over at Court. He had the photos spread out on the table. What was he thinking? There was no expression on his face to give her a hint.

  Finally, he looked up at her. “When was this, Lauren? Before or after we met?”

  “After,” she whispered.

  “How soon after?”

  “The day I got back home.” There was no use not answering. Nate no doubt already knew the answer and would tell him if she didn’t. So fast she hardly saw him move, Court reared up and put his fist through the wall. She startled, letting out a gasp. Nate didn’t so much as twitch, almost as if he’d expected that reaction. Tears leaked out of her eyes. She’d never wanted Court to see those photos.

  “How did you get those?” she asked Nate as her gaze followed Court. He walked to the glass door, his back to her as he stared out, his hands fisted at his sides.

  “I have my ways.” He looked over at Court. “Give him a few minutes to digest the sight of you beaten to a pulp.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Why was he being so cruel to Court, showing him those photos? She’d refused to look at the pictures the police had taken of her, but she’d asked a nurse to bring her a mirror.

  The swollen and blackened eyes and the clear handprint on her neck from where Stephan had tried to squeeze the life out of her had haunted her dreams for years, sometimes still did. Her black-and-blue body had taken weeks to heal, her broken ribs much longer. For six weeks, she’d had to eat her meals through a straw because of her broken jaw.

  “If you loved him, you wouldn’t have showed him what Stephan did to me.”

  His black eyes, so much like Court’s, softened. “It’s because I love him that I did. I always knew someone had hurt him. I just didn’t know she had a good reason until now. So I’ll say it again. He needed to know why you did what you did.”

  “You’re wrong. He was better off not knowing.”

  “Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” Court said, turning to her. “How do you think it makes me feel that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me?”

  She didn’t have an answer, had hoped she’d never be asked that question. It had never been about not trusting him. Avoiding Court’s piercing stare, she kept her eyes on Nate. “You said Stephan’s been a model prisoner. What do you know about him? A better question, how do you know?”

  “We’ll get to your last question shortly. As for what I know, even the guards speak highly of Stephan Kozlov. I suspect a few of them are on his payroll.”

  Court returned to the couch, surprising her by sitting so closely that their legs were touching. He still showed nothing on his face, not what he was thinking and not how much he must hate her for lying to him. It unnerved her.

  “I’ll ask again. How do you know all this?” All she could do was keep asking her questions so that she didn’t fall apart in front of both of them.

  Nate and Court shared a look, a message passing between them. She was missing something, and that didn’t sit well. This was her life they were talking about, and she had the right to know.

  “I promise we’ll tell you,” Nate said, moving to a chair. “First, I want to know the history behind you two, and don’t try to deny there is one.”

  Not sure what Court would want him to know, she stayed silent. Would he tell his brother that he’d fallen in love with a girl he’d known barely a week? But had he really fallen in love, or had it been lust that he’d interpreted as love? For her it had been the real thing. She knew that because she had willingly sacrificed her happiness and almost her life for him.

  Someone knocked on the door. “That’s Alex,” Nate said. “He needs to hear everything, too.”

  “Should’ve sent out invitations,” Court muttered as he headed for the door.

  “Got coffee?” Alex said, heading straight for the kitchen without waiting for an answer.

  She snuck a look at Court as he sat down beside her again. He was staring at her as if he didn’t know her at all. What worried her, though, was that his expression hadn’t changed. He’d completely closed himself off to her.

  Alex walked into the living room, a cup of coffee in his hand. To try to stop worrying about what Court was thinking, she studied the brothers. Seeing them all together, she was struck by how much they looked alike. There was no question Nate was the oldest and Alex the youngest, yet if not for the way each wore his hair—Nate’s in a ponytail, Court’s as a short buzz cut, and Alex’s curling around his collar—someone who didn’t know them would have trouble telling them apart.

  As hot as all three were, it was Court who made her ache with longing. It would have been easier if he hadn’t come back into her life. She’d gotten used to missing him, and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to manage it again.

  “So where were we?” Alex asked, taking a seat in the last empty chair. His gaze shifted to the hole in the wall, but he didn’t comment.

  “Court was about to tell us how he and Lauren met.” Nate eyed her with interest. “Unless you’d rather tell the story.”

>   She vigorously shook her head. There was no way she could tell it without crying.

  After a slight pause, Court said, “I met Lauren during spring break my senior year. I thought we had something, but when I called her a few days after I got back to school, she . . .”

  He glanced at her, and the sadness in those dark eyes sent an all too familiar regret straight to her heart. She’d put that hurt there, and now she questioned every decision she’d made back then.

  “Said she didn’t want to see me anymore.” He paused, his gaze still locked on hers. “Which I now know was a lie.”

  Lauren sucked in a breath. She dared to steal a glance at Nate to see his reaction. He stared at her as if he’d mentally climbed into her mind and was dissecting her brain. It was unnerving.

  “Freaks me out, too, when he does that,” Alex said, breaking the hypnotic hold Nate had on her.

  Lauren gave her head a slight shake, trying to clear it. There was something off about these three, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She and Court hadn’t talked about their personal lives much back then. Although she knew she’d have to tell him about Stephan at some point, she hadn’t wanted to taint those magical first days with her family history. Because she didn’t want to share personal stories, she hadn’t encouraged Court to talk about his life before her either.

  “You thought you were protecting him,” Nate said. “Admirable but foolish.”

  She glared at him. Let him walk in her shoes before he judged her. “And I’d do it all over again if it meant keeping him safe.” A hint of warmth flashed in his eyes, as if she’d pleased him somehow.

  “I’m right here, people,” Court said. “I had a right to know, Lauren. You gave it to me when you said you loved me.” His eyes shifted to the dining room table, where the pictures were still spread out. “You should have told me what he did to you.”

  “I didn’t want you in Stephan’s sights. I still don’t.”

  “That’s my decision to make. Respect me enough to believe that I can keep both of us safe.”

  Maybe he could now, but then? He’d still been a boy, a college student. Although she regretted her lie, because it had taken him from her, it also meant she didn’t have to live with the regret—that he’d been hurt or, God forbid, worse. The mere thought of what Stephan might do to him still terrified her.

  She noticed that Alex was watching them with fascination, and her cheeks heated. This conversation was one she would have preferred to have with Court in private. “Well, my plan is to disappear. I’m thinking New Orleans. It should be easy to get lost there.” She glanced at Alex. “I have a letter I want you to give Madison, turning over my share of the bookstore to her.” Had Court actually just growled?

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Not after I’ve seen what he’s capable of.”

  “What did I miss?” Alex asked.

  Nate waved a hand toward the table. “Take a look at the photos over there.”

  “We have some talking to do,” Court said quietly while Alex flipped through the pictures.

  The only thing she wanted to hear from him was how soon she could disappear. Her fear that Stephan would go after Court now extended to his brothers.

  “Jesus,” Alex said, staring at the picture he held in his hand. “The wall’s lucky you only put one hole in it, bro.” His eyes shifted to her. “We need to teach the bastard who did this to you a lesson.”

  “I plan to, believe me.” Court stood, went to the table, collected all the photos, and put them back into the folder. He returned to the sofa. “Tell us everything you know about the Kozlov brothers.”

  Although she wanted to refuse, three men, each with a commanding presence, outnumbered her. She had the feeling they would sit here all day giving her their hard stares until she broke, confessing all. She gave up trying to keep her secrets.

  “I met Stephan the day my mother died.” She told them how she’d met him at the hospital, how he’d stayed by her side, helping her and her dad and sister get through the days that followed. “We got married six months later. He hit me for the first time on our wedding night because . . .” She couldn’t do this. It was too personal and too embarrassing to share with these men, two of whom she barely knew.

  “Because?” Court said, putting his hand over hers. “You need to tell us, G.G.”

  Maybe it was his hand, strong and warm on hers, or maybe it was how soft his pet name for her sounded that had her complying. She took a deep breath. “Because I didn’t bleed, he accused me of lying to him about being a virgin.” She lifted her eyes to Court. “But I was, I swear it.”

  He squeezed her hand. “I believe you.”

  “And even if you had lied to him, that was no excuse to hit you,” Nate said.

  “I should have left him that night, but as soon as it happened, he apologized, saying he was sorry, and it would never happen again. He said it was just because he loved me so much that the thought of another man touching me made him crazy.”

  “How long before he hit you again?” Alex asked.

  “Six months, but even before then it didn’t seem like I could do anything right. And he had this way of making me feel so stupid. Things would get really bad if he had an off night on the ice, like it was my fault. He also demanded I quit school, but that was the one thing I stood up to him about. Finally, I was so miserable that I told him I wanted a separation, except I didn’t really mean it. I’d hoped that if he thought I would actually leave him that he would change back to the man I thought I’d married. That was when he hit me for the second time. He told me if I tried to leave him, he would kill me, that if he couldn’t have me, no one could. That was when I truly became afraid of him.”

  “Did you ever call the cops?” Nate asked.

  “No, he had friends who were cops. He’d get them tickets to the games, have them over for parties. I didn’t know who I could trust. But my fear of him wasn’t the only reason I stayed. I was raised in a very religious family. I don’t expect you to understand, but I was taught that divorce was a sin. Once married in the eyes of God, it was forever. I thought if I could just learn how to be the perfect wife, everything would be okay.”

  Court frowned. “Your father approved of you staying with a man who abused you?”

  “He didn’t know. I was too ashamed to tell him what was going on in my marriage.”

  “We get that more than you know,” Alex said, sharing a look with his brothers, making her wonder what that was all about. “When did you finally decide to leave and file for divorce?”

  “When he said it was time to have a baby, a boy to be exact. A future star hockey player like his father.”

  Tears streamed down her cheeks as she looked at Court. “I couldn’t bear the thought of my child having him for a father. Would he hit him, tell him how stupid he was if it turned out his son didn’t want to play hockey? And what if we had a girl? Nothing but a son would be acceptable to him. That was when I knew I had to leave. I waited until he had an away game and walked out with only a few clothes and a diamond necklace he’d given me. I left the other jewelry, but I decided I’d earned that necklace. I sold it so I’d have some money. Then I hid at a woman’s shelter. They referred me to an attorney and he filed for the divorce.”

  “You should have taken all the fucking jewelry,” Court said. “Did you get any alimony or a settlement?”

  “I just asked for a hundred thousand dollars.” She glanced at Alex. “While I was waiting for my divorce to finalize, Madison and I started talking about opening the bookstore after we graduated. Since I didn’t own anything, didn’t even have a bank account, I needed the money to make it happen. Honestly, I didn’t want to take that.”

  Court shook his head. “Don’t apologize. You should have demanded more than that. He was worth millions.”

  “That’s what my attorney said. Stephan fought the divorce, fought giving me a penny of his money, even hired a private investigator to try to find me, but
finally I got my divorce. Three days later, I left for spring break.” Where she’d met a beautiful young man, and for six days, she’d known how love should really be.

  Court squeezed her hand again. “If I’d known about all this, I never would have let you go back.”

  If. There were so many ifs, but she might as well cry in her beer for all the good it would do her. There was nothing she could do to change the decisions she’d made.

  “What can you tell us about Peter?” Nate asked.

  “Stephan’s house was huge, practically a mansion, so even though Peter also lived there, he mostly stayed out of sight in his own wing, except to join us for dinner sometimes. If Stephan wanted to talk to him or Peter needed to see Stephan, they always met in Peter’s side of the house. Sometimes men would come over for a meeting, and I’d be sent to the bedroom.”

  “Was Stephan ever jealous of any attention Peter or other men gave you?” Alex asked.

  She didn’t miss Court tensing at the question. “Stephan insisted I dress sexy when we were out together. He liked seeing other men covet what he had. I think it fed his ego. At the same time, if one dared to outright flirt with me, he’d go ballistic.”

  She lowered her gaze to her and Court’s joined hands, embarrassed about her next words. “Except for Peter. Stephan said several times that he’d share me with his brother if I were so inclined.” She lifted her eyes, meeting Court’s. “I wasn’t,” she said fiercely.

  Court’s eyes shimmered with rage as he held her gaze. Rage for her. “He’s going to pay,” Court said, and although his brothers were listening, she knew the words were meant for her.

  “No, that’s why I’m leaving. No one’s getting hurt on my account.”

  Ignoring her, Court shifted his focus to Nate. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Put you in the crosshairs?” Nate said.

  “Exactly.” Court couldn’t get the photos of a severely beaten Lauren out of his head. The man needed to pay. It would be his greatest pleasure to teach the Kozlovs what happened to men who hurt or threatened women.