Make You Mine

by Jackie Ashenden

  The breath went out of him and with it all the anger.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “You’re right to be suspicious of me. To doubt me. I haven’t exactly been honest with any of you. But I’ve learned a bit about honesty in the past few days and I think it’s time I told you some things about myself.”

  The room was absolutely silent. And then Eva, perhaps guessing at what was to come, said, “You don’t need to—”

  “Yeah,” he interrupted gently. “I do need to. I don’t expect it from anyone else, get that straight right now, but this … It affects us.” He glanced at Gabriel, standing beside him. “I should have told you this a long time ago, brother. But I didn’t.”

  Gabriel just stared at him, and there was an expression in his eyes that Alex hadn’t seen before. Understanding.

  Honor. That’s Honor’s doing.

  “Nineteen years,” Gabriel said. “Am I right?”

  It didn’t surprise him that his friend knew exactly what he was talking about, since he was the one who’d taken Alex home. Who’d patched up the bruises on his face that Conrad had put there. And who hadn’t asked any questions. Not a single one.

  Alex nodded.

  The other two were silent, watching him. This was going to be harder than he thought, fuck it.

  He turned around, so his back was to them, staring down into the fire. One day maybe he’d be able to look someone in the eye when he told this story, but not now. Not today.

  God, he needed a drink …

  No, you don’t. You need Katya.

  He closed his eyes, the dry heat of the fire against his skin. But Katya wasn’t here and so he’d have to do this by himself.

  “I had a personal reason to go to Monaco,” he said, trying to keep his voice level. “To play in Conrad’s game. And I know more about the Apocalypse, about Conrad, and about Dad’s Seven Devils than I’ve told you.”

  There was only silence behind him.

  “You know Conrad was one of them,” he went on. “He used to play at the Lucky Seven. Dad used to bring me there to watch for card counters, make sure everyone was playing properly. He used to tell me … that it was our secret. Something we were in on together, so I wasn’t to tell anyone. I knew that it wasn’t right, that the gambling wasn’t legal, but I didn’t know all the other shit, the drugs and the prostitution, was part of it. Anyway, I kept his secret because my dad was my hero. And I loved him.”

  The room utterly quiet except for the crackle of the flames in the grate, no one said anything. Waiting for him to continue.

  “I wanted to do him proud, so I kept his secret. But what I didn’t realize was that the casino was losing money and Dad was getting into a lot of debt. I knew one of his friends had been … watching me.” He opened his eyes, stared into the yellow-orange flames. “I’m sure I don’t need to explain what I mean by that.”

  “Conrad,” Gabriel said, his voice a low growl.

  “Yeah, Conrad. One night, when the Devils were visiting the casino, he bought me a beer at the bar. I wasn’t allowed to drink, but shit, an adult buys you a drink, you don’t say no. And I liked beer, so I drank it. And while we were drinking, Conrad told me that Dad had gotten into debt and that he’d paid Dad’s debts himself. But he needed to be paid back and Dad had nothing to pay him back with. Then he told me how I could help.”

  “Oh fuck.” Eva’s voice was soft. “Please don’t—” She stopped suddenly.

  Alex kept his gaze on the fire. “I’d like to tell you that you were wrong, Eva. I really would. But you’re not. He said he’d wipe Dad’s debts if I gave him myself.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Zac murmured, the steel in his voice becoming harder, pure titanium. “You were a boy.”

  “I think that only added to the appeal.” Alex put his hands on the mantelpiece, leaning against it. “Conrad gave me a day to think about it, but I really didn’t need a day. I was worried for my father and I didn’t want anyone to hurt him. So I told Conrad he could have what he wanted. Just as long as Dad didn’t know about it. He agreed.”

  “That fucking prick,” Gabriel said roughly. “I’ll kill—” He stopped suddenly. “What the hell? What are you doing in here?”

  Alex turned.

  Katya was standing in the middle of the room, her hands behind her back, her color high. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “Yeah, well, you did.” Gabriel scowled at her. “You know the rules, Ms. Ivanova. No one is allowed in here when a Nine Circles meeting is in session. Especially when you come in unannounced.”

  “I’m sorry,” Katya repeated. “I knocked, but no one answered.”

  “There was a reason for that,” Zac said, his tone absolute. “If you would be so good as to wait outside, we would—”

  “She stays,” Alex interrupted him, unable to take his eyes from her face. “I want her to hear this too.”

  Another silence fell, and he knew they were all looking at him. And looking at Katya. And making assumptions.

  Let them. He didn’t give a fuck what they thought.

  Katya stared back at him as if the others didn’t exist. “If you need me,” she said softly, “then I’ll stay.”

  “You heard what I said just now?”

  “Yes.”

  He didn’t turn back to the fire. Instead he looked at her. “I didn’t want to go, but I went. I went into that bathroom at the Lucky Seven. And I let Conrad do what he wanted with me. But he didn’t honor his promise. He told me in Monte Carlo that my father had known all along. He told me that Dad was the one to offer me in the first place. And that that was why Dad killed himself.” There was so much strength in Katya’s eyes. So much understanding. He would not break. He wouldn’t. “I pretended what happened to me didn’t mean anything. I pretended it didn’t matter. I left my family and I didn’t speak to my mother or my sister for nineteen years because I was too angry. Too ashamed. And then Conrad turned up again.” He took a breath. “And I realized it did matter after all. I went to Monaco to put Conrad fucking South in the ground. To obliterate him. But then we were warned off.”

  Zac’s attention’s sharpened. “Warned off? What do you mean? By whom?”

  It was Kaya who answered, her voice calm, cool. “One of the Apocalypse players was a mercenary. Name of Elijah. The second night involved a personal game between Mr. South and Mr. St. James, which was interrupted by this Elijah. He seemed to be the one calling the shots and he accused Mr. South of … hubris, I believe.”

  “Why?” Gabriel was scowling at Katya; then he switched his attention to Alex. “And what the fuck is this about a personal game?”

  Alex met his friend’s gaze. “Like I said, I wanted to obliterate Conrad. I wanted to take everything of his and leave him with nothing. And he … wanted me.”

  “What?” Eva’s voice was stricken. “Alex, you didn’t…”

  He looked at her, and for the first time since he could remember he saw pain in her guarded gray eyes. She knows what this means. This is personal for her. “I did,” he said steadily. “I wanted him to stake everything. Then I wanted to take it. Then I wanted to hold a gun to his head and make him beg for his fucking life.”

  The pain changed to a spark of pure silver. Oh yeah, she knew all right.

  “But clearly that didn’t happen,” Zac murmured. “You said this Elijah interrupted the game?”

  “I didn’t,” Alex answered. “Katya did. But yes, he burst in with a couple of guys, started waving guns around. He told us ‘they’ didn’t appreciate your Sherlock Holmes impression.”

  Zac frowned. “What?”

  “He mentioned you and Eva, and then he mentioned the woman I sent back on my jet. Someone knows we’re digging around, Zac. That we have more information. And someone doesn’t like it. I don’t know how Elijah is connected with all of this, but he is in some way. And so is Conrad.”

  “Shit,” Gabriel muttered. “And we’re still no closer to finding out who shot T
remain. Which means Honor is still in danger.”

  Zac pushed himself up from the couch, began pacing. “No one should have been able to spot us online, and I was careful organizing documents and protection for that girl.” He came to a halt in front of Eva’s chair, looking down at her. “You were careful too, weren’t you, angel? You covered your tracks.”

  An offended look crossed over her face. “I can hack anything and get away with it. No one has ever caught me, so don’t make this my fault.”

  But his frown didn’t lift. “I did once, if you remember.”

  Oddly enough, a faint blush rose to Eva’s pale skin. “I’m better than that now. Jesus, if I can get into the CIA’s database and out without getting caught—” She stopped. “Unless we are talking about the CIA here.”

  “It could be.” Katya’s voice was unexpected. “Just before he talked to us, Elijah went around the room looking at various things. I believe he was doing a sweep. I think there were cameras in the room.”

  Alex frowned, remembering Elijah’s odd movements. “And he interrupted just before Conrad put his cards down.” He looked around at everyone else. “Conrad was going to win, and given how fucked off he was at the interruption, I’m betting he didn’t know Elijah was going to come in, guns blazing.”

  Zac’s head turned, his golden eyes focusing on Alex. “So you know all this and you waited to tell us until now? You didn’t think I needed to know when you spoke to me about Vasin’s rescue?”

  “Mr. St. James would have,” Katya said before Alex could respond, taking a couple of steps forward, as if she wanted to put herself between him and Zac. “Except he was distracted by me.”

  Zac’s head snapped round. “Distracted how?”

  Color stained Katya’s cheeks. Her mouth opened, but Alex wasn’t going to let her be interrogated by Zac in a-hole mode. “Like I said. Katya is no one’s business but mine.”

  Zac turned back to look at him. And for a moment Alex felt the sheer force of the man’s will like a battering ram. But he’d never let Zac walk all over him before and he wasn’t about to start now. He had his own will and it was just as strong. He met the other man’s gaze like Katya did. Calmly. “Are we clear?” He raised an eyebrow.

  Zac didn’t look away, but he gave a slight nod in acknowledgment. “This personal game, then. How did that occur? And why?”

  “I wanted revenge,” Alex said simply. “Like I said, I wanted to take everything from him. But in order to do that I had to stake something he wanted.”

  “What was that?” Gabriel demanded.

  “Myself. And the clubs.”

  “Holy shit,” Eva murmured. “Please tell me you seriously didn’t do that.”

  “And what about him?” Zac asked. “What was his stake?”

  The video began replaying in Alex’s head, his father shoved aside by the guard, then a gun put at his head. An aching kind of sadness filled him and he wanted to turn away, but instead he found himself looking back at Katya. “His stake was a security tape,” he said in a low voice. “Footage from the night Conrad raped me.” Because it was rape; he’d always known that. He’d just never said it aloud with people who knew the truth before. “Conrad had put a security guard on the bathroom door so we wouldn’t be interrupted. But the tape shows Dad … arguing with the guard. He was trying to stop it.”

  “Christ,” Gabriel said. “That motherfucker.”

  “That’s not all.” Alex made himself go on. “The tape also contains footage from the bathroom.”

  Katya’s face was full of something he didn’t quite recognize. She’d come forward to stand near the couch, her hands resting on the back of it. And he wanted everyone out of the room suddenly. Wanted to go to her and hold her.

  But he couldn’t. He had a feeling that if he touched her again he wouldn’t let her go. And Mikhail Vasin could go get fucked.

  “Oh, Alex,” Eva said quietly. “Was he blackmailing you?”

  Alex kept his gaze on Katya. “He threatened to put the tape online. I told him I didn’t give a shit, that I had plenty of sex tapes out there.” He stopped suddenly. It didn’t seem right to explain that Conrad had then threatened to send it to Honor and his mother. And that he hadn’t cared. That his revenge was more important to him than his mother and sister.

  “Mr. South then threatened Mr. St. James by saying his mother and sister wouldn’t like to see it,” Katya said instead, taking up the thread of the story, her calm, cool voice stripping Conrad’s blackmail of its emotional power. Taking away his own guilt. Making it just a series of facts strung together. “Mr. St. James didn’t want that to happen.”

  “He threatened to send it to Honor?” Gabriel’s voice was a low growl. “Jesus, he’s fucking dead.”

  “As Mr. St. James said,” Katya went on smoothly,” Mr. South was on the point of winning when Elijah interrupted the game. He put a bullet through the laptop which contained the video.”

  Zac went still. Then he glanced at Alex. “He didn’t want anyone to see?”

  Alex took a long, silent breath. He’d almost forgotten about that in the middle of everything that had happened. “No, he didn’t.” He paused as realization broke over him. “There was no way he could have known about that footage. Unless he’d been watching us.” He stared at Katya. “You were right about the cameras. That’s the only way he could have known.”

  Katya nodded. “In which case, the real question is why was he watching?”

  “And who was he watching for?” Eva echoed.

  Gabriel shifted beside the fire, his leather jacket creaking. “You told me you suspected the invites to the game came from your father’s friends? The Seven Devils?”

  “Yeah. I’m pretty certain of it.”

  “So who invited Elijah?”

  And that was probably the most important question of all. Alex glanced at his friend. “We need more investigation. We can’t let this go.”

  “Damn fucking straight.”

  “We need to proceed carefully.” Zac’s voice was full of absolute authority. “If they’ve spotted the investigations Eva and I have been carrying out, if they know about the girl, then they know that we’ve uncovered the possibility of a trafficking ring. They won’t let that go. And it will put Eva at risk.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Eva got up in a sudden quick movement. “And if anyone puts Zac in harm’s way then they’ll have to answer to me.”

  Since she only just came up to Zac’s shoulder, her statement seemed slightly ridiculous. She glowered at everyone. “Yeah, I know, right? It is ridiculous. I am not someone to be protected. I am the CEO of one of America’s most successful software companies and I can look after my own fucking self.” She flicked a glance in Zac’s direction. “So back off, asshole. When I want your help, I’ll ask for it.”

  Zac said nothing, but there was something in his amber eyes as he looked at Eva that went beyond mere irritation. Alex couldn’t decipher it, but wherever the hell Zac’s over-protective tendencies were coming from, they were going to interfere.

  “Eva’s right,” Alex said. “She can take care of herself. And besides, we need her, Zac.”

  A muscle twitched in Zac’s jaw. It was clear he was not happy with this development. “Very well,” he said with obvious reluctance. “But as I said, we’re going to have to proceed carefully if we don’t want to draw their attention again.”

  Gabriel prowled over to the table and lifted the stopper on the decanter, splashing some scotch into a glass. “How many copies of that video are there?”

  “Conrad said only one digital copy on the laptop and a hard copy,” Alex answered. There was vodka on the table too, but he didn’t feel the need of any. No, he wanted something else entirely. Pity he wasn’t going to let himself have it. “But don’t worry. I didn’t take his word for it.”

  Gabriel knocked back the scotch, then put the tumbler back on the table with a click. “Seems this Elijah guy was pretty intent on destroying it. Which m
eans we need to get our hands on it somehow.”

  “I would think that Elijah would have made Mr. South destroy any copies he had,” Katya said, her unfamiliar voice once again making everyone look at her, clearly having forgotten she was there.

  But Alex hadn’t forgotten. “Good point.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “But I’m betting he wouldn’t have destroyed all of them. He’s bound to have kept some for … insurance purposes.”

  “We need to see what’s on that tape that Elijah, or whoever the hell is employing him, wants kept secret.” Zac didn’t touch any of the liquor on the table. Or the food. He began to pace again. “Especially since we’ve reached a dead end on virtually everything else.”

  Frustration slid through Alex. “Nothing on Dad’s Seven Devils? Nothing at all?”

  “No. My contacts didn’t find anything on the rest of them. And Eva didn’t find anything digitally either. Or at least they’ve hidden it well, if there is.”

  “What about the other players?” Surely Zac would have discovered something on them?

  “There are some dodgy links. None of those people you were at the table with were clean. But there’s nothing we can trace back to Conrad or any of the other Devils. Or the Lucky Seven. If there are tracks there, they’ve covered them completely.”

  “Fuck it,” Gabriel said, and poured himself another scotch. “Then we definitely need that video.”

  “I can hack into South’s computer,” Eva offered. “In fact, he’s got quite a network from what I saw. I didn’t find anything the first time I looked, but then I wasn’t looking for anything particular.” The look on her delicate face sharpened. “If a copy of that video is there, I’ll find it.”

  “Be careful, angel,” Zac cautioned as if he couldn’t help himself.

  Eva rolled her eyes. “I’m always careful.”

  Alex stared at the two of them. They didn’t have to do this. Neither Eva nor Zac was personally invested in his family’s secrets and if this proved as dangerous as he suspected it was going to be—“You can walk away,” he said suddenly. “Zac. Eva. This is my family’s business. You guys don’t have to involve yourselves.” He didn’t need to include Gabriel. He was already involved. And besides, Alex knew what Gabriel would have told him to do with his caution.