Twisted Secrets: Book 3 of the Twisted Minds Series- THE FINALE

by Keta Kendric

  There was no comeback to Ansel’s statement because I hadn’t slept. I think I’d passed out instead. Aaron had put a fucking on me that I’d never forget. My pussy was so sore that I couldn’t stand at certain angles and making sudden movements was out of the question. My damn body ached so good that all I could do was smile when a twinge of pain surfaced.

  As soon as I placed Regina and Ansel’s plates in front of them, the doorbell rang.

  Ansel mouthed the word “shit,” before his head dropped to his chest. Seeing him shake his head in dismay as he took a piece of bacon from his plate and walked out of the kitchen wasn’t a good sign. Having someone at his door wasn’t a good sign either. I’d been in the house for nearly six months, and this was only the second time the doorbell had ever rung.

  Regina glanced at me, her curious gaze asking the question on my mind. I fixed myself a plate and sat, but a familiar roaring tone stopped me from taking my first bite. It was a voice I never thought I’d hear again.

  Ansel re-entered the kitchen with Shark behind him yelling and cursing. “I’m fucking here now, so you need to tell me why the fuck…” His devilish words and hard, quick steps stopped when his gaze landed on me.

  His stare became riddled with anger and rage before his mouth dropped open. His hot gaze shot to Ansel’s like a heat-seeking missile.

  “You mean to tell me this bitch has been here with you the entire time? I told you to kill her. She’s the fucking reason my son is dead.”

  Shark stalked around the table, coming for me as my fist clenched tighter around the fork in my hand. The storm clouds that gathered in Shark told me that if he got his hands on me, nothing was going to stop him from killing me.

  ***

  Ansel

  Could a reunion be any more twisted than a Knox reunion? As I hung on to my angry uncle, he spat every curse word he knew at Megan. If he really wanted to kill her like his angry words insinuated, he would have broken out of my grip no matter how tightly I held on to him.

  My amused gaze fell on the doctor who sat, staring at the scene in obvious shock. She looked about ready to get up and start running.

  “Doc,” I called to her over my uncle’s angry words as I kept a tight grip around his shoulders, pinning his arms down. He barked his words out like one of those old dogs who sought to bite people for the hell of it.

  The doctor hesitantly took her gaze away from Shark to glance at me. When she did, I introduced her.

  “Doc, this is my Uncle Shark, Aaron’s father. He slept with Megan too, but it was before she’d met Aaron. Aaron forgave her for it, but Shark hates her for getting Aaron to claim her and for getting himself killed.”

  The doctor was in obvious distress over what I was telling her, taking in words that she probably thought I’d made up.

  “Unc here…” I tilted my head towards the back of my uncle’s head as I allowed him to vent his frustrations at Megan. “…had ordered Aaron to kill Megan. Of course, Aaron didn’t do it. After Aaron was killed, Unc ordered me to kill Megan too, and I didn’t do it either. So, now he’s mad at the world and wants to kill us all.”

  “You’re fucking right I’m mad at the motherfucking world,” Shark shouted, bucking against my tight hold. “Aaron was all I had left, and she’s the reason why he’s gone,” Shark spat his words, yapping at my face like a snapping turtle.

  “I’m not gone, dad,” said a strong voice from the doorway.

  Shark went stalk still in my arms, frozen so stiff that the only sound in the kitchen was his heavy breathing.

  After I released him from my tight grip, he gradually turned as if seeing too much, too fast might trigger his undoing. Like me, he stood staring at his son, eyes locked.

  “Aaron?” he questioned, his face scrunched in a mixture of pain and confusion.

  “I’m alive, Dad. It’s best that only a select few know it, which is why I asked Ansel to get you out here.”

  “Aaron?” he repeated, as his head shook seemingly, involuntarily while he attempted to wrap his mind around what he saw.

  I’d never seen my uncle tear up before, so it was a true testament to how much he truly loved his son. He ran to Aaron and gripped him in a tight bear hug, lifting him off his feet.

  If there was one thing that could pull my uncle back from the edges of the darkened path he’d taken, it was Aaron. Not because it was necessarily the wrong path, but because Aaron was usually the one who carried out most of the MC’s dark deeds.

  I clamped my hands above my head as I watched the father-son reunion. Even Megan smiled after almost being mauled by the vicious old dog that had threatened to attack her. The sexy doctor didn’t appear to know whether she should be smiling or running from the dysfunction that was my family.

  Shark cupped Aaron’s chin before slapping his hand against it a couple of times. He shook his head in disbelief. His smile spread so widely that I could see it from his side view as he stared into his son’s face.

  “Pop, will you ease up on trying to kill Megan? It’s not her fault that any of this happened. You know me. If I get it in my head to carry out a mission, no matter how deadly, I’m not going to back down from it.”

  Smiling wide, Shark inclined his head once and pulled Aaron into another tight bear hug.

  My gaze landed on Megan. “To be on the safe side, keep your distance from the old man. Who knows what kind of worm has gotten loose in his brains.”

  “I can hear you, asshole!” Shark said without turning to glance back at me. “I suggest you keep your fucking distance too, you goddamn hard-headed son of a bitch.”

  I clamped my lips shut and struggled to stifle a grin.

  “Are you hungry?” Aaron asked his father. “Why don’t you have a seat, so I can tell you how I escaped death?”

  Aaron waved a hand towards Dr. Regina. “Dad, this is Dr. Regina Davis.”

  Megan’s gaze met mine, likely wondering the same thing I was. How was Shark going to take the news when he found out that Regina was a Dominquez?

  Shark reach out his hand, taking Regina’s as he allowed his gaze to roam her body. “Nice to meet you, Doctor? They sure are making pretty doctors these days.”

  “Unc, last time I checked you were a racist. In case you haven’t noticed, she’s not white,” I pointed out, not liking the way his gaze lingered on Regina.

  Every eye in the room landed on me. Regina dropped her gaze and snatched her hand from my uncle’s, not doing a good job of hiding her alarm. My comment didn’t appear to have fazed my uncle. He reached and tapped the back of Regina’s hand a few times and threw his thumb over his shoulder, pointing at me. “Do you have any idea what that asshole does to women? If he comes your way, you’re better off locking yourself in a cage with a fucking wild lion. You’ll need a doctor by the time he’s done with you.”

  “Doc, don’t believe any of that mess,” I reassured her when her face contorted in horror.

  Megan placed a plate of food in front of Aaron and took the long way around the table to avoid passing by Shark. When she fixed his plate, I reached for it.

  “Let me take that, sweetie. I don’t want those old teeth breaking your skin because you might catch something that can’t be cured.”

  Just because Aaron was back, it didn’t mean I wasn’t still protective of Megan. Besides, my uncle was an old, uncompromising bastard. However, everyone at the table, including him, laughed at my remark about Megan catching something. It seemed to ease a little of the tension that had been swarming around the room.

  Shark couldn’t stop glancing at his son. Megan couldn’t stop staring at Aaron either. The good doctor and I, on the other hand, were eye-fucking each other every chance we got. Based on the way I was fucking her in my head, it was a wonder she wasn’t pregnant already.

  Aaron started the story of how he’d ended up in the doctor’s morgue, barely clinging to life. I sat and listened to the incredible story intently for the second time. Except for the occasional question from my
uncle and the clink of silverware, no one said a word as Aaron retold the incredible story and referred to Dr. Regina for her point of view.

  ***

  Aaron

  Dialing D’s number was familiar even after all this time. Ansel had used my phone to contact him from time to time, so he was likely expecting to hear Ansel’s voice. I placed the phone on speaker as my father, Ansel, Regina, and Megan listened. I didn’t miss the mean eye rolls my father was sending Megan’s way, but with me back in the picture, hopefully, it would quell his desire to kill her.

  “Hey, man, what’s up? Y’all good in Cali?” D’s voice came across loud and clear over the phone.

  “Derrick Wesley Michaels,” I said into the phone with a smooth tone. I was one of the only people who knew D’s middle name.

  “Who the fuck is this? Knox? Look, I don’t have time for no motherfucking jokes. Who is this?”

  “It’s me D, Aaron.”

  The line went silent. Had he hung up?

  “Prove it, motherfucker,” he said. “Yemen, operation, how many, and why?”

  “Black Death, five, nerve gas. We were stuck in that fucking place for four months.”

  “Knox! What the fuck, man? How the fuck are you talking to me right now?”

  “It’s a long-ass story, D. Death had me by the fucking balls, but that dark evil bastard wasn’t ready for me yet.”

  “No fucking shit!” I could hear the shock and excitement in his voice.

  “D, Ansel’s been filling me in on the plan y’all have been working on to take out the leaders of DG6. I’m not at full strength, but I’ll be damned if I sit around while you all deal with these poisonous serpents.”

  “Man, I can’t believe this shit. Wait until I tell Dax that your nine-lives-having ass is still alive. Motherfucker got more lives than a Mortal Kombat character.”

  D’s comment made everyone chuckle in the background.

  “Aaron, after we thought you’d died, we fully intended to go ape-shit and kill as many DG6 members as we could, but Ansel stopped us. He got us to calm the fuck down and go at this how you would have. So, we slowed our roll and now, we’re in line to put DG6 out of commission. With the top gone, the rest of those fucking leeches are going to feed off and devour each other until there’s nothing but pieces and parts left.”

  Hearing D talking about the plan to bring down a common enemy sent a different type of excitement through me. DG6 was going down, and I was going to bear witness to its downfall.

  Chapter Eight

  Ansel

  Operation Take Six or OTS was what I had named the plan I’d created to take down DG6. Although I hadn’t fully revealed the plan to Aaron yet, he hadn’t hesitated to put a call in for more big guns—the fucking suicide squad, if I’d ever seen one.

  Galvin and Luke had arrived and were from his old military squad since I’d had to send D and Dax to Texas for Operation WTF, Watch the Friends. WTF was a side operation that consisted of them watching Megan’s friends who’d apparently also become a target of DG6. D and Dax had also picked up targets to take out under OTS since they were capable and in the area. Galvin and Luke would come in handy if DG6 decided to make a chess move on our operation.

  Galvin was one of the men in the woods in Texas fighting along with us when we’d lost Aaron, so he knew the back story. I had never met Luke, but as soon as Aaron introduced us, I learned that Luke and Galvin ran a security firm in Georgia, so he was as up on criminal knowledge as the rest of us.

  Galvin reminded me of me. He liked to joke around, but when it came to business, he turned about as cold as an iceberg. Luke was the big and silent type. The damn man had to be seven-feet tall and at least three hundred pounds, not the type you’d want to go hand to hand with. Shit, I wasn’t sure bullets could penetrate his snow-white skin. With his crystal blue eyes, he reminded me of a big-ass Game of Thrones, White Walker.

  Max, Finn, and Lucky were members of Aaron’s gun-running team. Max was butch and sexy, a fucking walking contradiction. She was a six-foot lesbian with a pretty face and nice body that she hid under loose-fitting clothes. With her short blonde hair and baggy clothes, it was easy to forget she was a woman until her delicate voice sounded. The shit was confusing even to me. But, Max had worked with Aaron for years. Her skills in electronics and explosives were impressive, and I’d used her expertise on a few side operations.

  Each of the team members Aaron and I had brought into the plan possessed a special skill set that would come in handy when dealing with a group as dangerous as DG6.

  My own suicide squad consisted of Dude, Rob, JG, and Hwang. Like Marcus and Scott, they’d been a part of my ranger team when I was in the military. JG and Hwang had come after I’d sent Scott and Marcus to track their OTS targets in Mexico.

  The group stood inside my study, surrounding a large 3-D model of my house and its grounds. I’d built the house over three years ago and had started installing weaponized updates immediately. I was like one of those battle-scorned crazies, preparing for an apocalypse or a war that may never come.

  The house was built on spacious acres of land in the foothills of California, my just-in-case-shit-went-bad escape hatch of sorts. I’d purposely chosen land that was semi-surrounded by large hills. Who knew it would play a pivotal role in my plan to take down DG6?

  The nearest neighbors were a few hills away, about a half mile, but I’d deliberately been an asshole to them when they’d stopped by to be neighborly and introduced themselves. That had been over two years ago. I’d given them such a bad first impression that they probably wouldn’t pour piss on me if I were a walking flame. They had no idea my asshole ways were for their own protection.

  “So, what is this master plan of yours, Ansel?” Shark asked with a hint of agitation in his voice.

  “Since you asked, Unc, let me tell you. We went at DG6 twice, and each time we failed. First, we allowed them to get away with Aaron. Then, we went onto their turf in Texas with a quick rescue plan that ended up getting Aaron killed. That tough bastard beat death, but the reality is we lost in a life-changing way.”

  Admirable gazes and smiles landed on Aaron. I was certain that everyone at the table would have died for him a hundred times over because they knew he’d do the same for them. I placed my index finger at my chest.

  “I take full responsibility for each of those failures and I hate fucking failing. My quick temper and hyped-up ego has to take a back seat this time. I had to figure how to go at this thing in a way that would put DG6 at a disadvantage.”

  Intrigued gazes were locked on me as everyone hung on to my every word. Aside from a few heavy breaths, silence reigned over the space.

  “Since going after DG6 hasn’t worked, I figured I’d make them come to us.”

  “How the hell are you going to make them come to us? What do you have that would make them want to come to us?” Shark asked, his menacing blue eyes locked on me and spewing heat.

  Aaron’s squinting gaze landed on me, but he didn’t comment.

  The conniving smile that danced across my lips was filled with venom. Aaron knew, without knowing the full plan, that I’d come up with a plan that was going to produce multiple deaths.

  “I took their fucking guns,” I stated and paused, letting the statement hang in the air.

  “I started taking DG6’s guns a few weeks after we left that farm in Texas without Aaron. Then, I started taking the guns of everyone who could re-supply them with guns.”

  Aaron immediately caught on, shaking his head in my direction with a wide grin. Eventually, other gazes started to spark with realization.

  “I didn’t just hit them here in Cali. I took it to those bastards nationwide. Aaron, I had your girl, Max, blow up one of their warehouses in Arizona. Scott, Marcus, and I took them for just about every damn thing that spat bullets in Texas. DG6 needs guns so badly right now that they’re willing to deal with the devil. So, you can call me Lucifer Knox.”

  The pride on the
faces of the men made me puff up my chest that was already poked out, but Aaron’s praise meant the world to me.

  “The guns I didn’t burn or destroy, I traded them to the MC’s supplier for the guns that DG6 is planning to buy from me. About three weeks ago, I set up a small transaction with Fernando and Alonso, two of DG6’s top three here in Cali. I wanted to confirm my legitimacy and establish some type of rapport with them.”

  A prideful smile crossed Shark’s lips as he side eyed me.

  “That’s right, Unc. I haven’t been sitting around with my thumb up my ass. While you were killing off the minnows and keeping them distracted, I was trying to figure out how to take out the fucking shark. No pun, Unc.”

  Aaron’s fist bumped mine. “Man, this is brilliant. I can’t believe you all did all this shit because you thought I was dead.”

  “Fucking right!” I said. “They must fucking die,” my uncle declared sternly.

  “We’re not chasing them anymore. We are going to lure them to our neck of the woods this time,” I said, glad to see that they liked the plan so far.

  I pointed at the model I’d built. Aaron was the perfect person to plan this sort of thing and had already started to point out where he thought everyone should be located based on their strengths. My gaze locked on Aaron, ensuring he didn’t miss the best update I’d received since I’d started planning.

  “I received a call yesterday, informing me that Sorio Dominquez would like to meet me. He’s going to be here, which means you’re going to have to stay out of sight, cousin.”

  Aaron inclined his head. He didn’t care one bit about having to stay out of sight of Sorio as long as he was dealt with. After hearing the news that the evil bastard would be here, the smile on Aaron’s face made my evil grin look like a silly smirk. I could see hell’s flames dancing around Sorio inside my cousin’s mind.

  ***

  Aaron