Disruption

by Victoria Johns

  Bella knew enough that what her brother did wasn’t strictly legal, but I doubted he let her in on everything. They were the only family each other had left, and for that reason her loyalty to him was unquestionable, no matter what he did.

  “Well damn, how did I miss that?”

  She smirked at me. “I nursed him back to health.”

  “Clearly.”

  “We ended up spending a lot of time together. It started out as me checking on his recovery, changing dressings, that kind of thing, but when it’s just the two of you, you really get to know a person.”

  Whatever had happened between them saddened her.

  “I kept going back even after he was healed, it just felt right. We connected; you know.”

  “I do.” And I did. Like me, she should have listened to her gut and ignored that connection and carried on with things as they were.

  “I think he loved me too. I know I loved him. I told him it was time to tell Bish about us and that’s when he turned cold. If he loved me enough, he wouldn’t have been scared of my brother.”

  “He’s a scary guy,” I mumbled, knowing that she really had no idea just how fucking scary he could be. Scary didn’t cut it. Even terrifying didn’t come close.

  “Anyway,” she poured a hasty glass of Scotch and I knew we were getting to the tough part. “I went to tell Bishop, I hated that I’d been lying to him. You know what he said?” I looked at her, waiting for the ball to drop. “He said that he’d skin himself alive before he let me get that close to ‘the life,’” she was back with the air quotes, “and then said, ‘anyone who doesn’t bring me out into the sunshine and keeps someone as special as me under wraps as a dirty little secret doesn’t deserve me.’ He was right. I deserved so much more.”

  It was like role reversal, just that Bailey didn’t drag that pain out for me. The minute I mentioned going public she ran. Seems like we’d both been left high and dry by a Roach twin.

  “Next thing I know, he’s engaged to Kerry.” She shrugged and looked at me, sadness overshadowing her face.

  “Fair to say tonight wasn’t fun for you. Sorry I left you with them.” I really did feel bad about that now.

  “It’s okay. I got quite a kick from it. Kerry hates me, she knew about me and him and he hates me because he made the wrong choice and has to live with it. That part was fun. When I heard Bailey’s frat boy goading you, I knew history was repeating itself. A Roach twin had lost the one they were supposed to be with and was just… settling.”

  “You saying we should feel bad for them? Not sure I have that much compassion.”

  “I’m saying, we’ve had a lucky escape. They chose wrong, they didn’t choose us out of some bullshit notion of protection, they didn’t choose us because they weren’t strong enough to deal with all that we are.”

  “Damn, girl! I knew you were smart. Between you and me, I’m not a fan of Kerry, but then again, I don’t have to like her. I could never put my finger on why until now.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t rate her because he doesn’t either and deep down, I think I’ve always known that.”

  “His loss,” she whispered.

  “Babe, look at me.” Her head turned and I could see unshed tears in her eyes. “Jameson is a fucking asshole and he’s missing out.”

  “Thank you, and, Zane…” She fought back tears through a smile. “Bailey is a fucking asshole and totally missing out.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” I poured us another glass of Scotch and we raised a macabre toast to bonding over being dumped by the Roach twins.

  Bella drifted off to sleep and I thought about my life. I hadn’t got the closure I’d wanted, although if truth be told, I only really wanted to hurt her. Still she’d made her bed and the closure would come from me sitting back and watching her fuck her life up with a man I knew she didn’t love. My cell vibrated in my pocket, I saw Bishop’s name on the screen and swiped to connect it. “Yeah.”

  “You never called for a ride home.”

  He was checking up on us, or his sister, or more to the point me and his sister. “She’s fine.”

  “How do you know?”

  I couldn’t resist yanking his chain. “She’s asleep next to me. Did you know she does this cute little breathy hitch when she’s dreaming?”

  I waited for his tirade and threats to barrel down the line and burst my eardrums.

  “Nice fucking try. I can see you both on the balcony, although if you helped her change into those fucking PJ’s I bought her for Christmas, I’ll bury you in them.”

  He was watching.

  “How do you know?”

  “Something to know about me. Last thing I do before I go to sleep is check on my sister.”

  “What? Camera’s? Bino’s? Do you… watch her?” The thought creeped me out a bit, even if I did know him and knew he had the best of intentions.

  “No, sniper scope motherfucker.”

  The click of the safety I heard from his end confirmed he wasn’t lying. I would have laughed, but the truth was he could put my brains or that of anyone he didn’t like the look of on the terracotta tiled wall behind me in milliseconds.

  “You call for a reason, or just to remind me of how much of a psychopath you are?”

  “If you need reminding, I’m failing. And yeah, there was a reason. We need to get moving. That intel checks out. There’s gonna be a party with your… investment properties.”

  That was good.

  No. That was fucking great. I’d done my very best to contain all my disappointment and anger at the night’s developments, but there was a God giving me a golden opportunity, a fated home for my aggression. I needed somewhere to get rid of it. I couldn’t hurt Bailey, even if she had betrayed me, us. I didn’t think I’d ever have it in me to really hurt her, but Graham Elks, I could rip him apart, and lucky for him he was going to get a double dose.

  “Jet ready?” I asked, feeling the buzz start to build.

  “Being fueled as we speak. Wheels up in a couple of hours. Meet you on the tarmac.”

  I smiled, I had something to look forward to. I was going to remind someone that messing with the Teague family, and this particular Teague, was a life altering decision they really should have thought through better. “I like how you think. Let’s go disturb a party and disrupt someone’s life. For good.”

  Bishop didn’t answer and the line went dead, but I knew he was still watching me through his scope and would until I left there, and just to prove I was a good guy, I covered his sister with the blanket from my chair too and left her apartment quietly.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The jet landed on the same stretch of tarmac it had the last time I’d visited Hawaii, taxiing to the same hanger for us to disembark. Instead of me renting a car, one was already waiting for us. Between the hanger and the car, I’d placed a call to the Yakuza to let them know I was in town. There didn’t need to be anymore said, they knew why I was there and as long as I cleaned up after myself and didn’t land the law at their door, they’d be happy. After all, a wannabee pimp on their turf was a headache they didn’t need, and someone else dealing with it before they had to was just a win win.

  Bishop drove down the highway, the bright sunshine beating off the ocean and I thought back to last time, when I drove myself. I’d been disappointed that Bailey hadn’t come, only to be surprised as fuck to have her turn up later. There would be none of that this time. Right then I knew I didn’t want to stay at the house. Sixty-seven steps to heaven would have too many memories, it was all still too raw at that moment.

  “Not the house,” I barked. “Hotel.”

  Bishop looked at me with a frown before quickly catching on and swerved the car off at the next intersection.

  At the first decent looking motel, Bishop checked us in, and we wandered to an Olive Garden down the road for a beer, a bit of dinner and some bromance. We’d landed in time to have a couple of hours to ourselves before we went and m
ade the mother of all disruptions.

  Three hours later we were riding down to the cockroach motel where the party was scheduled. We parked as far away as possible and watched. The parking lot was fairly empty to start with, but I saw a BMW light up the space in front of us, turn and park up. Graham got out, gave a cursory glance of the area that was worth fuck all, and proceeded to a room.

  “Wait here.” Bishop tagged the interior light in the car, pulling the bulb out and opened the door.

  “Don’t let him see you.” He looked at me like I was an idiot with two heads. If Bishop didn’t want you to see him, you fucking wouldn’t. “I mean, don’t touch him, harm a hair on his head or let him know we’re in town yet.”

  He grumbled, “Spoil sport,” and took off leaving me to watch an expert in action. I glanced down to look at my phone for barely ten seconds and when I looked up, I’d lost him. He’d vanished somewhere in plain sight.

  “Fuck, he’s good.”

  Twenty minutes later he appeared from the rear of the rental car and I nearly shit myself when he sidled back into the car through the door which he hadn’t fully shut. “Just heard him on the phone.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Everything was ready, and he was going out to collect the girls soon, his guests are due not long after. What’s the plan?” Mentally, Bishop was already strategizing, sharpening his knives and cracking his knuckles for the fight.

  Whereas I was on the cusp of jacking a semi rig and driving it through the wall of the fucking motel. This selfish prick was forcing me to a place I never dreamed I’d have to go to with Roxanne. Pushing all of that down, I became Zane Teague: Businessman and king of the Teague family. “We go and pick up his wife.”

  His face dropped, but it wasn’t with disappointment that I was interrupting his fun. “She’s gotta be due really soon.”

  “I know,” I confirmed, watching the door where that motherfucker who thought he could screw me over had disappeared.

  “You sure about this?”

  “Only way to see if she’s up shit creek with him is if she brings a paddle.”

  He eyed me to see if I was serious, and when he turned the key in the ignition, I knew he was on board. If she was in on this, then tonight we’d be ending all three of the Elks family, unborn child included.

  “Gray, did you forget your key?” I heard from the other side of the door. I didn’t answer, but saw a small keyhole door open and close, one eye looked out at me and it widened when Roxanne saw it was me.

  “Zane, what are you doing here?”

  “Unexpected business.”

  Multiple locks clicked up and down the door before her massive pregnant form appeared in the aperture. She was dressed in something similar to a kaftan, all floaty, her hair piled haphazardly on the crown of her head and her skin was makeup free. “Thought it was Graham coming back for something, he’s gone to a business dinner. Come in.”

  “Not right now, I need you to take a ride with me. We’ve got issues at the stable.” Roxanne looked puzzled, her brain whirring trying to come up with what problems there could possibly be that she didn’t know about that would bring me here to her front door.

  “I need to get dressed, put on a bit of makeup. Can’t have the staff seeing me in a damn moo-moo.” She left the door open, inviting me in which was a solid start. Had she shut the door, blocking me on the outside, I wouldn’t be blamed for thinking she was getting a weapon or worse, making a call to warn her fuckwit of a husband.

  I stood in the entry to their home, watched as she waddled up the staircase in front of me and felt a slight twinge of guilt at the possibility of how this was going to end. The happy couple smiling at me from an enlarged wall portrait, dressed in wedding attire might just disappear tonight and be shark bait for one of the tourist cruisers by tomorrow. Then I looked closer at him, Graham, her fucking husband, and silently told his picture that he’d brought this upon them.

  Ten minutes later, my patience started to run out, because I could hear her upstairs talking to herself about irritating nonsense, and baby shit, and hardly having any suitable work clothes etc., when she finally appeared at the top of the stairs and looked like the Roxanne I knew. Sharply dressed, like she’d had maternity clothes specially made to maintain professionalism, and let’s face it, with the money I paid her she could afford it. Stockings, high heeled pumps and her hair smoothed back in a French twist of some kind that looked like it was defying fucking gravity, and her face smooth and flawless with makeup. “Alright, let’s do this. Wanna take my car?”

  “No, mine’s already warmed up and ready to roll.”

  As we walked under her palm-tree-lined driveway, I realized she hadn’t spotted Bishop in the car, this was largely due to him not having put the interior bulb back in yet. I opened the back door for her and watched as she put a foot on the board and lifted herself into the back. Thank fuck we’d gotten a big enough car, there wouldn’t have been enough room in the back of a sedan.

  “Oh! Mr. Bishop.” Her voice relayed the nervousness that most people felt when they caught eyes of him. But this was magnified because the last time she’d seen me had been on a supposed pleasant friendly social occasion. Bishop was an unknown quantity and things could easily go either way. Silence from him told a multitude of things, unfortunately though, you could never work out what.

  Roxanne’s shock was only compounded when I climbed in the back with her and she sensed the formality of it all, her hands shook just a touch as she went to pat her hair into place when it wasn’t necessary, but what I didn’t know was whether that nervousness was because she knew why we were there. Only time would tell with that.

  Bishop drove the car away from her house and got on the highway, at the point where he should have turned left for the stable, he kept going.

  “Where are we going? Starting to feel a little ambushed here, Zane.”

  I ignored her. Bishop’s silent treatment, plus mine, made for a pant-shitting atmosphere. When we pulled up in the parking lot of the motel where the party was due to kick off, she turned to me. “Not a fan of being pulled from my home in the dark of night, wanna tell me what’s going on?”

  “All will be revealed soon,” I murmured, looking at my watch to build tension, when in reality, I had no idea how long it would take for the show to begin.

  “These hormones,” she fanned her face, a glisten of perspiration making her flawless face not so flawless. “Think I’ll just get out and grab some air.”

  “Stay the fuck there,” I said calmly before her hand could connect with the car’s door handle.

  “Zane, what the fuck?”

  “You’ll move when I fucking say you can.” She shuffled in the seat, the creaking of leather the only thing to be heard. “Stay put or so help me God, Roxanne.”

  Sensing what was good for her she did exactly that, the atmosphere thick and heavy surrounding us all, like there was a fourth person sat in the car.

  “Okay, just tell me what’s going on.”

  “We won’t have to wait much longer,” Bishop told her, speaking for the first time since she’d got in the car.

  On cue, a black Chevy van with blacked out windows rolled into the parking lot and pulled up by the door we’d seen Graham enter earlier.

  “Talk of the devil,” Bishop muttered.

  Graham folded out of the passenger side of the van, and I saw as Roxanne did a double take.

  “Wait… I don’t understand, Graham should be in the city.” I chanced a glance sideways and the way she’d forgotten about me and was fully invested in what her husband was doing told me she genuinely had no clue. Anyone in on this would have started working their excuses the minute we stopped in that parking lot. “What’s going on here?” She spun her head back to me and then slammed a hand into the headrest of the seat in front of her. “Answer me, fuck dammit!”

  “Looks like we’re about to see.” I urged her to concentrate on the show in front of her.

>   The driver got out and headed for the back of the van and scanned the scene around him, another useless attempt at caution. We all watched as he leaned into the back and pulled something. The first girl with her hands shackled resisted for a bare moment and then hit the floor. She was dressed in what looked like a white satin dress, but still had bare feet. I suppose they didn’t leave everything to chance, it made it harder to run with no footwear.

  “What’s he doing?” she murmured, puzzled. The man crooked a finger inside the van and a second and third girl jumped out to join them, one was wearing a red dress, and the last a blue dress. Then the penny dropped. “That’s my stock! I don’t understand.” Finally, I could hear some panic in her voice. I was wondering when some reality would kick in and she’d understand this shit was serious.

  “Correction, Roxanne, that’s my stock.”

  “At least he’s patriotic,” chuckled Bishop, commenting on the red, white and blue.

  Roxanne reached for the door handle, and this time I put my hand on her arm to stop her. “Get the fuck off me.” She brawled with me at my attempt to restrain her but gave up in the end. “Don’t fucking touch me.”

  “Calm down, this won’t help your blood pressure.”

  “Shame you didn’t think of that before setting this up. If you wanted to give him my job, then you should have just said. Fucking men, can’t push a kid out but act like they deserve the world on a fucking plate.”

  Her take on the situation was interesting, even Bishop raised a brow and looked at me in the rearview.

  “It’s interesting that you think that’s what this is, but no, we’re both being fucked over here, and you know how I feel about that.” I waited until that sunk in. “Do I have your attention now?”

  “Of course,” she huffed, “and don’t touch me again without my permission.”

  It boded well for her that she showed some spirit right now because this situation was going to get a whole lot worse.

  I picked at some fluff on the sleeve of my jacket. “Remember what I told you when you first agreed to work for me?”