by Shanna Bell
“I bet you two are bloody American too,” Luca disputed.
“Only our mom,” Angel said. “And even she had a hint of Mohican in her.”
Right. “Mohican, huh? Doubtful. I distinctly remember a movie called The Last of the Mohicans.”
“Don’t believe everything Hollywood tries to sell you,” Angel warned. “Our mom was a Mohican medicine woman. Spoke to spirits and stuff.”
He needed more drinks. A lot more. “Get me a bottle of your good stuff.”
He was just about to get shitfaced when some leather-clad hand snatched the glass from his.
His heart started to pound. For a millisecond, he’d believed it was Tess. Then he looked into Onyx’s face. Though her eyes were the copy of Tess’, the two women didn’t look much alike. She didn’t come across like an evil mastermind either. What she looked like was a grunge co-ed.
“Well, isn’t it nice of you to visit me. Look, boys, this is the snake that put my ass in jail. A fucking woman. Why are you here?”
She didn’t acknowledge the twins’ presence, though. Her sole focus was on him.
“I need your help.”
Was she for real? “You’ve got some fucking balls to ask me for anything.”
“If I had balls, you would have probably killed me by now.”
It sounded as if she was stating a fact, not gloating at him being unable to kill a woman.
“I would have regardless of you having balls,” Damon said softly.
Her head snapped up to him.
“We both would have,” Angel added. “We believe in equality between the sexes.”
He had to give it to her, she didn’t step back or even look afraid. There was a determination in her eyes that screamed she would go through all and everything to get what she wanted.
Then she turned back to him. “Someone kidnapped Tess. You have to help me.”
“Yeah, why should I care?”
Like he was going to believe this cooked-up story. Or that the two rival hackers had suddenly become friends.
Onyx cocked her head, eyes blazing. “I’m sorry, did I hear you right? Did you just say that you shouldn’t give a shit that Tess is taken?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“This is not the time to wallow in self-pity and drown your woes in alcohol. If you care about Tess, you’ll swallow your damn pride and help me.”
The fear in her eyes made his stomach churn. “Shit. You’re serious. This isn’t just a way to get my attention.”
Onyx’s curse was followed by slaps on his arm. “No, you idiot. Do I seem like the kind of woman who needs any man’s attention? Your gender is dead to me. If I didn’t need you, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t know who this guy is, but he took me down, and when I woke up, Tess was gone. I tracked her watch—that grandfather of hers is just brilliant, putting a tracker in it—and followed her to a warehouse. They have a small army inside.”
She took out her phone. “Shit. They’re on the move.” Her eyes looked at him pleadingly. “Tess isn’t like you and me. That guard who died? That’s on me, yet, she takes it on her. Just like she took the responsibility for your incarceration. She can’t live with the fact that she hurt someone, let alone you. Me, on the other hand, I will do anything to protect or avenge the ones I love.”
Looking into her stormy and somewhat crazy eyes, he believed her. Fuck. Did he have the same deranged look when he spoke about Cruz? For the first time, he considered that maybe Tess had a point about the path he’d chosen.
He grabbed his jacket and took the safety off his piece when she waved her phone in his face. What was it with women waving stuff in his face? Shit, he missed Tess doing just that. How the hell could you miss an annoying habit like that? It didn’t make any sense. Yet here he was, wishing Tess would roll her eyes at him, and wave a leather-clad finger before his eyes.
“We need to leave, right now. I counted at least thirty men in that warehouse. You need to round up as many people you can get, stat. You free Tess and I will give you Cruz.” She gave the twins a once-over. “Maybe your Bratva posse can help you out.”
“You would owe us,” Damon said.
Onyx pursed her lips. “Fine. I will pay you whatever—”
“Not the currency we’re looking for, love,” Damon said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“One night with the both of us,” Angel clarified. “That’s what it takes.”
Luca waited for her to blow up, but she went eerily quiet. Then she nodded.
“I’ve called in reinforcements, they’re waiting outside,” she said, and left, a mountain of dreads like that of a lion following in her wake.
“Damn, that woman is vicious.” And totally off her rocker.
“She’s an alpha,” Damon said, his eyes fixated on Onyx’s ass.
“I think I’m in love,” Angel added.
Hell.
CHAPTER 21
TESS
Tess stared right into the barrel of a gun. The man holding it wore a blue tracksuit. There was something familiar about him, something she was seeing a lot of tonight. She pondered taking her chances, but then two more men entered the building. Both of them held big ass guns that should only be allowed in video games.
One of them looked down on Onyx, who was passed out on the floor. Then his gaze went to her. “That the egghead?”
She bit her lip, afraid she’d piss someone off and they would shoot her just to shut her up.
Progress, T-girl. That’s called progress.
Yay, me.
“Finally found you without Detta on your ass,” Tracksuit said, in a heavy Irish accent. “Been trailing you for days now. Guess today was my lucky day.”
She forced a watery smile into place. “Must be nice. To have lucky days.” Sometimes she felt like if it weren’t for bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all.
“Know who I am, girl?”
“Can’t say I do, but I suspect you work for Irish Brian.” Though, that didn’t explain why she was being held at gunpoint. Last time she checked, she’d helped the guy out. Then again, Luca had warned her.
Luca.
Thinking of him caused a feeling of hollowness in her core.
“I’m Jamie. I used to work for Brian. But then the pretentious fuck killed my half-brother, Mick.”
Crap. Bad karma had caught up with her, yet again. “I get that you want to avenge your brother,” she hastily said. “I truly do, but—”
His face reddened. “Avenge Mick? He was a dick!”
“He was? I mean, of course he was.”
“I don’t give a shit about that asshole. He promised me we would make it, and then got himself killed. You’re my last bloody option. My ticket away from that crazy Crusader asshole.” He gave her a hard look. “I heard what you did in Brian’s office. Now, we’re going to get inside, and you’re going to weave your magic, transferring every dollar Brian owns to an account number I’m going to give you.”
There was no way she could do that in a moment’s notice. Except, she had an inkling he wouldn’t listen to reason.
He pushed her outside and into a black van. From the corner of her eye, she saw three more vans lined up. Shit. It was a small army.
Jamie turned to her from his seat. “You try anything funny and I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
That’s not very constructive if you want to use my computer skills.
More words she held inside. She was tired, had a knot in her stomach the size of Alaska, and felt deflated. All she could think about was Luca. Would she ever see him again?
When they pulled over at the docks and stepped out, Tess looked upon at least three dozen men, all heavily armed. Across the street was Irish Brian’s place of business. It was dark, and eerily quiet. To Tess, it seemed like the calm before the storm.
“I really don’t think you should go in there.”
Jamie grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her fee
t. Her hands flew to his arms that were slowly choking the life out of her.
“Didn’t ask what you were thinkin’, did I?”
No, but if he thought he could just walk in and out of Brian’s place, he was deluded.
She desperately shook her head and he finally let her go. She dropped to her knees, coughing and trying to catch her breath.
“Brian doesn’t work on Sunday nights,” he entrusted her.
“Then why all the guns?” she croaked, rubbing her throat.
“Precaution.”
I call bullshit. Jamie was scared shitless. As he should be.
Oddly, the big hall where underground fights were arranged was truly abandoned. A few spotlights were still on, making the place seem even creepier to her. The only sound was that of a few dozen marching boots on the concrete floor.
The men spread out in the building, covering the windows and the door. Tess was placed behind the computer in Brian’s office.
Jamie waved a gun in her face. “You better start working.”
She tried to keep her trembling fingers steady. “I need to concentrate. A gun in my face isn’t really helping.”
“Get to work. You’ve got about three hours.”
Her anxiety spiked and reached a whole new level. There was no way she could pull this off. He had no idea what he was asking of her, which meant there was probably only one outcome of this night—her getting killed.
She started working, bringing up screens which showed rows of numbers. Every few minutes, Jamie took a look at what she was doing, then left, leaving her alone with a guard.
Luckily this guard didn’t seem to be interested in what she was doing. He probably couldn’t follow her fingers that were racing on the keyboard anyway. So, in what possibly might be her final hours, Tess decided to send a message to Luca, explaining to him what had happened and to apologize. To her Pops, she sent a string of love emoticons. He hated his smartphone, so it would take a while before he saw her message. There was no way she was getting him into this mess. And lastly, she sent a message to Onyx, telling her she wished they’d met under different circumstances.
The silence of the night suddenly got pierced by speakers turning on. Her heart thudded when she heard Juice Newton’s “Queen of Hearts” blasting through the speakers.
Onyx.
Her guard plastered his back to the wall, peeking outside.
Then, all hell broke loose. Windows shattered, and a rain of bullets lodged into the door. Tess tossed herself on the floor and looked around for an escape.
Jamie rushed back inside, his face a stark white. “Fuck. Brian’s here.” He pulled her up from the floor. Using her as a human shield, he walked out of the office.
Someone took a shot at them. Tess closed her eyes, expecting to be turned into Swiss cheese any second. Her heart was in her throat and it took all her strength to keep afoot.
Another rain of bullets followed and she opened her eyes. Their assailant lay dead on the floor, and she tried not to heave.
“Move.” Jamie pushed her forward through the hallway toward a back door.
To her, it seemed like it would take ages to get to their escape route. And she was right, ‘cause the second they turned the corner, they came face to face with Brian. They were surrounded, and she couldn’t see this ending well for them.
“I try not to kill on a Sunday,” Brian said. “But I’ll make an exception for you.”
The back door slammed open and another group of armed men in black fatigues, much larger than either Brian’s or Jamie’s, strode in.
Her heart did a happy dance when she saw who was leading them.
“Put away your gun, Brian,” Luca warned.
She barely recognized him in army fatigues and black boots. There was something absolutely panty-melting about a man in a semi-uniform.
Her belly warmed as she locked eyes with him. There was no hate or revulsion in them. All she saw was worry. The same expression she spotted on her pops. What was he doing here? Speaking of unlikely saviors, what was up with the twins flanking Luca?
“Detta,” Brian said, his weapon still aimed at Jamie. “You come as a friend or foe?”
“Neither. I’ve come to collect my woman. What you do afterward, I don’t care.”
She could feel Jamie’s heavy breath on her neck. The man was panicking, probably feeling desperate since he ended up in a Mexican standoff as the weakest party.
“You should let me go,” she whispered to him. “If you don’t, you will have two bloodhounds chasing you, instead of one.”
He must be thinking the same thing, because he removed the iron grip he had on her.
The atmosphere in the room was boiling with tension, ready like a barrel of gunpowder set to blow any second. Then Brian made a move and his men lowered their guns.
Tess ran toward Luca. Just as she was about to fall into his arms, she heard Jamie curse behind her back.
“Fuck this shit.”
The next moment, she got tackled. Luca’s big body covered her while bullets flew everywhere.
He dragged her with him into a corner, where they took refuge underneath a table. The shooting stopped exactly five seconds later, she’d counted them. Her head peeked above the table and what she saw made her stomach churn. As she’d expected, Jamie and his men had been slaughtered. Damon was chatting it up with Brian, who had Angel of Wrath written all over him.
She took a deep breath and tried not to gag.
Luca gave her an odd look. “Really? You get sick at the sight of blood?”
“It’s called vasovagal syncope and is an acknowledged medical condition, thank you very much.”
He pulled her close and gave her a hard kiss. “I missed your sass, unicorn. Even your big mouth.”
She slumped against his chest. “You don’t hate me anymore?”
He sighed. “Never did. I was pissed that you kept the truth from me. I’m still pissed, but I do understand.”
“I never meant for you to go to jail. When I found out what happened, I tried everything to get you out.”
“I know you did. What happened wasn’t your fault.” He tensed. “We both know who framed me.”
Maybe this wasn’t the right time to tell him about Onyx’s true identity.
“So, what about Cruz? You’re still going to go after him?” She had to know. “If you do, I will support you all the way. But I can’t be there if you want to kill him. When I learned about that guard dying, I hardly slept for weeks. Being responsible for someone’s death, whether directly or not, is a terrible thing. I feel like there’s a permanent dark smudge on my soul. One that, no matter how often I’ve tried to wash it off by doing good, will never really get clean.”
He picked her up and carried her outside. “I know what you’re trying to tell me. What you tried to tell me all along. I’ve thought about this long and hard. How I need to start over fresh. A wise man once said that he who lives in the past can’t have a future.” He set her on the hood of a car and gave her a kiss. “Do you want to be my future, Tess Gibson? Share my good days and the bad ones? Wake up next to me every morning? Battle me over a bacon and pancakes breakfast, argue I eat too much dark chocolate, and try to get me used to your disgusting green tea?”
She deepened their kiss. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to put you on a vegetarian diet, stop you from getting an early heart attack, and get you on a steady supply of green tea.”
“Ah, baby.” He smirked. “Never gonna happen, but it’s good to have dreams.”
Ha! They would just see about that.
EPILOGUE
Three months later.
Tess closed her mail and got comfortable on the kitchen counter. It was her favorite place to sit and wait for Luca to get home. How her life had changed since she’d met him.
She had a sister now, though she wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Then again, knowing that Onyx had come through when she’d needed her the most, was enough for now. Sh
e’d learned about her sister’s deal with the twins. It was no wonder she’d fled before she paid them her debt. If anyone could avoid those two, it would be Onyx. Tess had hope that one day they might grab a cup of coffee and hold a game night.
All in all, lately, life had been pretty great. Of course, Luca still had his Boarding School moments. The other day, she’d come home and was greeted by a Tiffany box. To be fair, any other woman on the planet probably would have been delirious with the content. Her, not so much.
When she saw her guy come in, her heart started beating faster, making her feel alive and kicking. Like it did every time they were in the same room.
He kissed her cheek. “I got you a gift.”
Oh God. What horror awaited her this time? Another blood diamond? An impractical couture dress, or—she swallowed—the keys to a sports car that sucked up fresh air, killing the environment?
“There’s no need for that. Really, no need.”
“Remember Damon’s two weeks’ notice?” he reminded her.
“How could I ever forget? We practically ended up engaged because of it.” She frowned. “Don’t tell me he’s still holding you to that ridiculous deal. Three months late, I might add. Besides, Cruz is caught. Onyx sent that footage of him killing Grace.” The guy was looking at a lifelong sentence.
Luca gave her a long, lingering kiss. “He isn’t holding me to it, no. But even still…” He pulled out a little box. “Will you marry me, and turn our fake engagement into a real marriage?”
A happy flutter rippled her stomach. It was a plain silver ring. “I love it. Though, I have to admit, it doesn’t really scream ‘Mrs. Boarding School Detta,’” she joked.
Was that a slight flush on his cheeks?
“Well, in the spirit of your radical honesty, I have to admit that initially, I got you a diamond ring. Then I decided to check it with Jazzy. She dropped some sarcastic comment on how you could spot that rock from Mars. Then she went off on how you disliked blood diamonds and how those rocks came from little villages in Africa, over to stores in the U.S. I think there was even a part about little orphans in her story. Suffice to say, I returned the evil rock and got you a silver ring by an indie designer who ‘doesn’t work as a slave on minimum wage for some big corporate asshole.’ I don’t know how my brother deals with my sister-in-law.” He frowned. “She can have a real foul mouth on her.”
