Keith raised his eyebrows. “What are you suspicious about?”
“What your meetings are about for one,” Kristina said honestly. “And what other lucrative businesses you boys run when the auto shop is closed.”
“Someone’s being paying attention,” Keith said. “But if I were you, I’d stick to answering the calls.”
“Calls from Anton Kovic you mean?” Kristina matched his condescending tone. “Are those the kinds of calls you usually get around a body shop?”
Keith’s expression ironed out into one of seriousness. “I wouldn’t ask too many questions, Kristina… it’s better that way.”
“You are doing something you’re not supposed to, aren’t you?” Kristina said. “Is it drugs?”
“We run a body shop,” Keith said tonelessly. “That’s all we do.”
“Is that what you’re sticking to?”
“That’s what I’m sticking to,” Keith said.
“I’m not an idiot you know,” Kristina said hotly.
“Oh you are many, many things,” Keith said, looking her up and down without shame, “and an idiot is not one of them. That much I know.”
“Do you do this often?” Kristina asked.
“What?” Keith asked, raising his eyebrows questioningly.
“Fuck girls and then annoy the crap out of them afterwards?” Kristina demanded.
Keith’s face split into a wide smile. His pale blue eyes glittered under the warm rays of sunshine that were streaming in through the cracks hanging over them. “Actually… I don’t usually care to see the girls I fuck after I’ve fucked them.”
“Guess I must be special then,” Kristina said sarcastically.
Keith’s eyes blazed suddenly with an emotion Kristina couldn’t quite catch, and before she could decipher what it meant, that fleeting emotion was gone. He stared at her in an altogether different way, and it made Kristina feel completely vulnerable, as though she were naked.
“I should get going,” Keith said, repeating the words that Kristina had said only moments before.
Kristina looked at him, slightly taken back by the abruptness of his change and curious as to the reason for it. “Ok,” she was forced to say.
He turned his back on her and walked back in the direction he had come from, leaving Kristina standing there, wondering what on earth had just happened.
Chapter Six
Keith
“Do you do this often?” she asked him, her dark blue eyes burning.
“What?” Keith asked, in barely contained amusement.
“Fuck girls and then annoy the crap out of them afterwards?” Kristina snapped.
She was standing in front of him, five foot four and half his size, but she looked at him as though she was the taller one. It amused him, but it impressed him at the same time. She looked so sexy in those skin-tight leggings and that bright sports bra. Keith imagined what it would be like to push her into the muck and dirt of the forest floor and fuck her so hard that her screams would wake up every nocturnal animal around them.
“Actually… I don’t usually care to see the girls I fuck after I’ve fucked them.”
“Guess I must be special then,” Kristina said sarcastically.
Keith felt a wave of sadness overwhelm him as Kristina spoke the words, and immediately, he was catapulted into the past when that word had held meaning for him. He imagined a different woman standing before him for a second before his eyes focused on Kristina once more.
She was looking at him searchingly, as though she was worried, and Keith felt the need to grab a hold of her and pull her close to his body. What terrified him most about that thought was that it wasn’t connected to sex at all. He wasn’t thinking about fucking her in that moment. He just wanted to hold her and feel the warmth of her body against his.
“I should get going,” Keith said quickly.
She hesitated in confusion, but she nodded. “Ok.”
Without another word, Keith turned tail and walked back the same way he had come. He knew she was watching him, but he resisted the urge to turn around and steal one last glance of her. His mind was reeling with sudden panic, as he realized that he had managed to let her in. Somehow, slowly, without him even truly being aware of it, he had let her become more important to him than she should have been.
It baffled him that he had been so careless, given everything he had learned in the past. Keith couldn’t believe that after everything that had happened, he had been so foolish as to allow animal lust to turn into more. Within half an hour, he was back on solid ground and flat surfaces, but instead of heading towards Lee and Seton, Keith found his bike, kicked his leg over it, and started riding.
As he rode, he tried to turn his brain off so that he could concentrate on the wind in his face, but memories of her face kept haunting him. Keith tried to shake them free, but they were only replaced with new ones.
“God dammit,” Keith hissed under his breath, as he changed direction and made his way back to Lee and Seton. He was in a bad mood when he walked into the auto shop, thankful for the fact that it was Kristina’s day off. The fact that he knew her schedule so well pissed him off further. The boys were sitting out back smoking cigarettes when Keith joined them. From the expressions on their faces, Keith could tell they were discussing something important.
“What’s happening?” Keith asked as he walked into their circle.
Tucker was the kind of guy who always wore a goofy grin, but today he fixed worried eyes on Keith. “We just received a call.”
“Kovic,” Keith hissed immediately.
“Kovic,” Tucker repeated.
“What did he say?”
“What he’s been saying for the last few weeks,” Tucker continued. “Except this time… he wants to meet with Miles.”
It was only then that Keith realized that Miles was not in the circle. “Where is Miles?” Keith asked, looking around at the boys that had become his family.
“Not here,” Tucker replied. “We haven’t told him yet.”
“He’s the president,” Keith said at once. “He should have been the first one to be informed.”
“I know,” Tucker said with a trace of annoyance. “But he rushed off this morning… apparently there were some… complications with the baby.”
Keith’s eyes widened. “Erica…?”
“She’s alright for the moment, but Miles doesn’t want to leave her now,” Tucker explained. “And I wasn’t sure if—”
“No, you were right not to have told him,” Keith said quickly. “We can handle this ourselves.”
Gordon was one of the older gang members, and at forty-eight he usually offered up the most sensible advice. He twirled his fingers around his exceptional handle bar moustache and fixed his eyes on Keith. “We can’t put off this meeting any longer. Kovic is getting impatient and the more impatient he gets… the more dangerous he will become.”
“I know,” Keith agreed. “Which is why I intend to meet him in Miles place.”
A few of the boys exchanged glances, and Keith knew they had their doubts about his course of action. “You have reservations?” he asked, addressing them all.
“He wanted it to be a one-on-one meeting,” Brendan spoke quietly. “Just Miles and him. Given your history with Kovic, I don’t that’s the best idea.”
Keith brushed off the concern impatiently. “This is business… it has to be handled.”
“It does,” Gordon nodded. “But not by you.”
“I am the vice president,” Keith pointed out. “I pick up the slack when Miles is absent. If the president can’t make it, it’s the vice president’s job to step up. Kovic will consider it an insult if anyone but me shows up.”
He saw the truth of his words in their eyes. Kovic would definitely take offense, he would consider it to be an insult, and that would hinder the meeting. True as that might be, Keith didn’t give a shit about causing Kovic offense. What he really wanted was to stand in front of the basta
rd and deny him everything he wanted. It wouldn’t be nearly enough for everything he had done, but it was a start.
“When does he want to have this one-on-one meeting?” Keith asked.
“Tomorrow,” Gordon replied. “Twelve, midnight.”
Keith rolled his eyes. “He has a flair for the dramatics, doesn’t he?"
“A couple of us will run back up,” Tucker said standing up.
“No,” Keith said harshly. “I’ll go alone.”
“He won’t know we’re there,” Tucker said quickly. “It’s just a precautionary measure… considering—”
“I said no,” Keith snapped. “I won’t have him thinking I’m afraid of him. I will go alone.”
He stood his ground and stared each of them down until he was sure none of them would oppose him. When he was satisfied that they would follow his orders he nodded. “Let’s keep this from Miles until we know that Erica and the baby are out of harm’s way.”
“Ok,” Tucker said with a nod, and the rest of the gang murmured in agreement.
Keith went home that night with his head heavy with thoughts. A part of him recognized the insensibility of his plan, and another part, the larger part of him wanted desperately to face Kovic again. He didn’t know why he was putting himself through this self-inflicted torture, because he knew that despite the meeting, there was no way he could actually do to Kovic what he had wanted to do for the past two years.
That night, as he lay in bed, Keith imagined how satisfying it would be to feel his hands around Kovic’s neck while he watched the life drain from his eyes. He imagined those small, dark eyes grow wide with fear before they were finally extinguished for good. That image was so perfect that Keith felt his brain whir awake and he knew that sleep would be hard to come by that night.
Slowly, he tried to turn his thoughts away from Kovic, and almost inevitably, they landed on Kristina. Her hair had been tied back and her whole face and been on full display. She had the kind of features that didn’t really fit in anywhere. They were vaguely exotic and they gave her blue eyes and dark hair spirit that removed the commonality from it.
Her body was tight, and Keith felt the blood rise in his penis just thinking of it. Unable to fight it any longer, Keith closed his eyes and imagined the night they had fucked in the back rooms of Lee and Seton. It was almost as though he had captured the whole thing on film. It was an almost perfect recall from the time he grabbed her hand among gyrating bodies to the final climax when he had spent himself inside her and she was still shuddering beneath him from the second orgasm.
He remembered how wonderful that moment had been, when he had grabbed her ass and she had gripped him harder at his back. Her flesh was soft and pliant and she had made him feel as though she didn’t care what he did to her, as long as he did it well. He wondered what it was about this particular girl that had got him so riled up. He wondered why she alone occupied his thoughts out of all the women he had slept with.
Guess I must be special then. Keith heard her voice speak the words as though she were whispering them in his ear. “She must be,” Keith whispered to himself, as he stared up at the ceiling, wondering if he had the power to fight against his crumbling will. He fell asleep with the realization that resisting her was going to be an uphill battle, one that he feared he had already lost.
Chapter Seven
Keith
Keith could feel his anger rise with every step he took that brought him closer to seeing Anton Kovic. He wondered if he was doing the smart thing, but this was one area where his sense took a back seat to emotion. This kind of emotion was impossible to deny.
The streets were deserted and the only light came from the bright glow of the sun and streetlights that were situated quite a distance away. Kovic had obviously wanted some coverage during the meeting, and Keith secretly agreed. He was not sure how the night would go, but he wanted to be prepared either way. If it was going to come down to a fight, he wanted to make sure that no one would ever see his face.
He arrived at the designated meeting place with a few minutes to spare and waited anxiously, breaking his knuckles three times just for something to do. He was encased in shadow and wondering when Kovic was going to show up when a sound to his left alerted his attention to a human presence.
“Hello, Keith,” Kovic said amicably, as though the two were old friends. “It’s been a long time. I was expecting Miles.”
“Miles was unavoidably detained,” Keith replied, impressed with how well he was managing to contain his rage.
“Well, I can’t say I’m sorry,” Kovic replied. “It’ll be much more fun dealing with you.”
“Why is that fucker?”
Kovic laughed. “That’s why.”
“You wanted this meeting… so stop wasting my time and tell me what you came here to say,” Keith hissed.
“I think you already know,” Kovic said, as his eyes narrowed visibly. “You have cartels along the border that you trade with. If we were to partner—”
“That’s not going to happen,” Keith interrupted fiercely.
“Come on,” Kovic said in a tone that was almost wheedling. “This is a business after all.”
“And colluding with you is most certainly not a smart business decision.”
“I disagree—”
“You would.”
Kovic continued as though there had been no disruption. “We could combine our forces. You could profit from our contacts.”
“We don’t deal in drugs or whores,” Keith said bitingly. “So what would we need with your contacts?"
Keith could tell that Kovic’s patience was running out. He had badly wanted to make this deal with as little resistance as possible, but he was starting to realize that that wasn’t going to happen. “You’re being a fool,” he spat.
“That’s a matter of opinion,” Keith said bluntly. “But I want to make sure one thing is very clear between us. The weapons trade is our fucking turf. Stay off of it and I will resist the urge to beat your face into the ground. The Iron Dragons will never do business with the Rusted Chains.”
Kovic’s eyes narrowed further and the resemblance of civility that lingered on his face, disappeared into thin air. He looked like an angry bull that had been pushed into the corner, and Keith realized that he was relieved to have an excuse to start a physical confrontation with him. He held his ground a moment longer, knowing that despite everything, he did not want to make the first move towards Kovic.
“How have you been, Keith?” Kovic asked with surprising concern in his voice.
The tone and the manner in which Kovic’s face had settled made him uneasy, and he knew there was something brewing. “I know you don’t give a fuck about me,” Keith said harshly. “So talk straight and stop wasting my time.”
“I was just curious,” Kovic said with an innocent shrug. “I mean life must be difficult… without the lovely Natalie to keep you warm at night.”
He hissed her name as though it had never belonged to a person, and Keith felt his fists respond to the statement. “You fucking bastard,” he all but screamed. “Don’t you dare... how DARE speak her name?!”
Kovic’s face lit up into an open smile that suggested that was exactly the reaction he had been hoping for. “I don’t blame you for still being upset,” Kovic went on, as though Keith hadn’t spoken. “She had a banging body. I’d miss that, too. My one regret is that I didn’t fuck her before I killed her.”
Keith felt adrenaline burst through his body as he shot forward with his eyes trained on Kovic. He wasn’t sure if his charge was silent or accompanied by a scream of rage, all he was aware of was that Kovic’s smug and satisfied face turned pale as he backed up and made a signal that Keith did not recognize.
Keith managed to land a well-aimed punch, and Kovic went flying onto the side of the road, his face stained with fresh blood. His eyes were wide with surprise, but there was purpose there as he repeated the signal and suddenly Keith found himself pushed awa
y from Kovic by some invisible source that had escaped his notice.
Panting heavily and not even close to being satisfied, Keith moved towards Kovic, but rough hands on either side of him stopped him in his tracks. It was only then that Keith realized that Kovic had brought reinforcements.
“You fucking coward,” Keith hissed. “This was supposed to be a private, one-on-one meeting.”
Kovic wiped the blood off his face and stood up slowly. “I’ve never been real good at keeping my word.”
“There is such a thing as a code of honor.”
Kovic laughed out loud, and Keith was able to see that there was blood in his mouth, too. It had stained his teeth, giving him the appearance of a mad man.
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 52
