“Yeah, why?” he said defensively.
“Relax. Did you get some information about my elevator problem? Can you handle it?”
He paused for a moment. “Yeah. You want him, or you want to give him up?”
I glanced at the phone, knowing Reid was listening to my side of the conversation.
“You know the answer,” I replied to Mason.
“Done, give me twenty,” he said before he hung up.
“We’ll be talking soon, Reid.”
“I’m sure we will,” he said before he too hung up.
I wasn’t sure why Reid Thomas was willing to help me find the fucker, or what he wanted for passing along the information. Perhaps it had to do with Alex’s friendship with him, but from his tone, Alex didn’t indicate that they were particularly close.
My eyes flicked to the man sitting across from me. He seemed to be contemplating the same thing as he frowned at the phone he’d left on my desk.
“Money?” I asked.
He shook his head. “He has plenty of it.”
“You might want to find out.”
“Why?” Alex asked as he stood up.
“The man who stabbed your sister is going to have a little talk with me in the basement in about twenty minutes. And I’m betting Mr. Thomas knew that before he gave Mason the information.”
He nodded. “I have a few questions for him myself. I’m going to step out and call the office to cancel some appointments.”
“Hmm,” I responded noncommittally. “You should go back to the office, Alex. You can’t defend me if you witness a crime.”
He paused for a moment before he reached for his phone and put it back in his suit pocket. His eyes hardened as he stared at me.
“As far as I’m concerned, I stopped by to talk about Alisa and got distracted by the leggy woman downstairs. What happens in your basement stays there.”
“Alex, this is going to get ugly,” I said, as I leveled a serious look at him. “This isn’t a business meeting. It won’t be a nice chat.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “Mick, you aren’t the only one with blood on his hands. I told you there was a line for each of us and I’ve crossed it so many times, I’m not even sure where it is anymore. So, don’t give me a speech about it. Don’t even bother. I’m staying to see this through one way or another.”
I gave him a small nod, before he walked out of the office and I wondered if he’d honestly feel like that, once things were over with.
Reaching for my laptop I tapped a video program and brought up the feed from our office, which included sound. I searched for a specific spot then played back the part where Alex was talking about his girlfriend.
His stomach for interrogation, the type that I had in mind, was about to be put to the test. And if he couldn’t handle it, I’d be forced to use the information about his loan and girlfriend against him. Something I didn’t want to do, but wouldn’t feel an ounce of guilt about.
Picking up the phone, I called Alisa.
“Hello?” she said sleepily.
“Hey, baby.”
“Mmm. Where are you?”
“At the club for a bit. Paul’s there this morning.”
She yawned loudly. “Yeah, I hear him in the kitchen. He’s not exactly quiet.”
“Get some rest, just wanted to check on you.”
“I’m fine, Mick, really. I’m a little sore, but I’ll be okay. You have to stop worrying so much. Come home so we can watch a movie and make out.”
Chuckling, I remembered the previous night when she’d almost convinced me to have sex with her before she’d passed out on her pain medication. She was going to drive me nuts if she tried it again.
“You just got out of the hospital yesterday, I think you need some rest.”
“Fine,” she said, and I could almost imagine her pouting.
“If you promise to be a good girl, rest, eat, shower then I might give you something when I get home. I’ll be tied up here for a little while, so it might be a few hours.”
“Hmm,” she responded in a husky voice. “Do you mean sex?”
My dick twitched at her tone and started hardening at the thought.
“Do you want my cock, Alisa? Sliding into you, making you wet?” I asked with a smirk.
“Yes, please,” she whispered. “I’m touching myself thinking about it.”
My jaw clenched thinking of her long delicate fingers playing in my territory.
“Don’t do anything, Alisa. You’re not allowed.”
She groaned. “That’s not fair.”
“Who has control?”
“You. Not—”
“You’re mine, baby. That means I own every little moan, every little inch of you. If you disobey, you won’t get anything from me today.”
She let out a muffled growl and I chuckled.
“I’ll make it up to you, just behave,” I replied as the door to my office opened.
Holly stalked across the room. “Mick, Mason said to come up and get you. Apparently, that blockhead and the suit think I’m your personal fucking secretary. Which I’m not.”
“Thanks, Holly, I’ll be down in a minute,” I said as I covered the phone. “Go ahead and take off.”
Her eyebrows arched. “Seriously? I still have a shit ton to do.”
“Yeah, take off. Tomorrow we’re going over the books together.”
She mumbled something under her breath and rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
As she stalked angrily out of the room, I heard Alisa speaking. “—and I don’t like that I have to stay home when you get to sit up there. I could just sit up there too.”
“Baby, I have to go. I love you. I’ll be home later.”
“Fine. Love you.” she said with a sigh and hung up.
I looked at the phone and shook my head. Pissing off two women in the same day in less than a minute was a record for me. One of them was going to be fun to make it up to, the other was likely going to be a pain in the ass.
I slipped my phone in my back pocket as I made my way down the stairs to the bar. I arrived just as the front door slammed shut.
Alex was staring past me when I approached him, then glanced at me.
“You sure know how to piss someone off.”
“She’ll get over it, I’ll give her a bonus or something. The way you’re looking at the door, though, I’m thinking you might want to give her something too. Feel free, make my life easier.”
He shook his head. “I…no. I was just wondering if she locked the door.”
“Right, whatever,” I mumbled as his eyes darted away. “We’d have to worry about Mason locking the door. Holly, I’m not worried about. But if you want to go chase her down to ask, then I won’t hold it against you if I don’t see you the rest of the day. Didn’t know blue hair did it for you.”
“Fuck off.”
I smirked and made my way through the club to a staff entrance, that led to a long hallway with two breakrooms, a door to the unused basement and the staff entrance door.
We descended the stairs to the basement together, finding Mason and Jack scowling at a man that sat tied to a chair. His hands were bound by a pair of handcuffs behind the chair and his legs tied with rope.
Mason glanced up at me as I walked around the man I understood was our attacker, according to Reid. He glared up at me as I came to a stop in front of him.
It was him, without a doubt. The one that nearly fucking killed Alisa. That nearly ended every hope I had of happiness.
“Hey, fucker. Remember me?” I asked as I swung at his face and landed a blow to his jaw. His head flew to the side and he groaned. “Hope you didn’t have anything planned. I’m about to break every bone in your miserable body.”
I swung at him until I saw blood spew from his nose as a result of breaking it, then I went for his ribs. His groans turned to outbursts of pain. When I looked up eventually, I met three sets of eyes, and none of them had an ounce of judgement in them. They kn
ew when they stepped in here what they’d see and help me do. What secrets they’d have to keep.
Alex shrugged off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves as Mason stepped forward. Jack flexed his hands.
I thought of Alisa at home. Stitches in her side, several bruises along her body from being knocked around. Her sweet, beautiful face that always looked at me like I was a goddamn hero when I knew I wasn’t. My chest constricted thinking of what could have happened. She was the one person in the world who saw a sliver of the man I used to be. She owned every part of me whether she knew it or not. The good, the bad and the ugly.
The night we were together swam through my head. Not pulling out fast enough. Even knowing that the possibilities were slim that she’d gotten pregnant, the thought that she might be, the thought that I wanted her to be, fueled my rage as I glared at the scumbag in front of me.
When the man’s angry eyes met mine, Alex pushed me to the side, took a swing like a professional boxer to the man’s ribs and started asking questions.
Chapter Sixteen
Alisa
It was late in the day when my phone rang. My father had been trying to reach me a few times, and calls to Alex and Mick were going to voicemail. I needed them to deal with him.
I felt like a coward, unable to deal with him myself. In truth, I really was afraid of the man. He’d hurt me too many times for there to be even a chance at reconciliation. I wanted to take a stand, wanted to tell him he was now cut off from my life but the possibility of a verbal, if not a physical confrontation made me hesitate.
Mick and Alex were my life. The only two people that really meant something to me now. I knew they’d bring justice to my father eventually while trying to fight the corruption in the city. I wasn’t aware of how deep that ran, but I knew it was enough to warrant their mutual agreement on the subject and I was all for it. If I could help, I would, if only to prove I was just as much of a fighter as they both were.
My phone rang again while I was sitting in the living room reading. Paul glanced up at me from the couch and turned the volume down on the basketball game he was watching.
“It’s my dad,” I said shaking my head. “I don’t want to answer it.”
“I can answer it for you, but I’m not sure he’d like what I have to say,” he said in his deep voice. “I know what he did. Fucker.”
I blushed, embarrassed that he knew anything at all, but not surprised that he’d been filled in on the background.
He glanced at the phone as it stopped ringing then back up at me. “Your call.”
“I’ll deal with it,” I said as the phone rang again. “Shit.”
Paul nodded, averting his eyes back to the T.V.
“Hello?” I answered.
“It’s about time you answered. If I call, you need to pick up. That’s not a suggestion, Alisa.”
“Hey, Dad. I’ll answer when I want to. What do you need?”
“Don’t be impertinent, you don’t know how to pull it off with any conviction. Stick to what your mother knows and we’ll all get along.”
My anger grew as he continued.
“I stopped by the hospital for a chat, but was informed you left with Mick Galloway. Apparently, you were also with him at a gallery event over the weekend. He’s not our type of people, Alisa. I don’t care what you’re trying to prove to everyone. You can fuck who you want, but don’t make it public. You need to get back in line with what the family values.”
“Like what?” I asked. “Beating their children and making drunken whores out of their wives?”
“That’s enough,” he hissed in anger. “You can spread those legs for him all you want but you will toe the line in this family unless you’d like to be cut off, or have that loser hurt. I will hurt him. I’ll make it my mission in life. When you get married to someone more appropriate…”
“I’m never, ever going to marry someone that you want me to. And I’m never going to do what you want. You can cut me off, you can beat me, you can call me a whore, but you’re never going to get what you want from me.”
There was a loud noise in the background before he responded. “When your mother told me she was pregnant, I thought about beating you out of her. The only thing that saved you was being the child of one of my brothers. A King regardless of who fucked her.”
My mouth dropped open and all the air left my lungs. Speechless over his announcement.
“Which one?” I shakily whispered.
“One of three, take your pick, sweetheart. She learned her lesson after an affair with our realtor. Keeping it in the family and doing what she was told wasn’t a question after they all had a go at her. And then you came along. I claimed you, fed you, gave you a house to sleep in. Now you owe me and I’m getting impatient. I’ll ruin that son of a bitch unless you come home, Alisa.”
Paul studied my face with alarm as he moved closer to me. He shook his head and reached for the phone.
“Fuck off, Denny. You’re no family of mine.”
Paul grabbed the phone, hung up, then turned it off.
Taking a few deep breaths, I stood up, hands shaking and hugged my stomach.
Paul’s hand on my back registered as he spoke. “Don’t you believe a word of what he said, Alisa.”
“You heard?” I whispered.
He nodded. “He’s disgusting, don’t let it get in your head. Mick can take care of himself. He’s just bluffing to try and control you.”
Tears form in my eyes and slide down my cheeks. “He could really hurt him, though.”
He tilted his head and smiled. “Not Mick. See, Jack and I have been friends for a while now and when Jack says he’d rather be back on the vice team, dealing with narcotics and gangs, than face Mick in a dark alley, that says a lot to me. And seeing him now? Yeah, I’d hate to be on the wrong end of anything with him.”
I blanched as I wiped at my tears. “That’s insane. Mick’s nice, he’s just going through some things.”
He chuckled. “Girly, you must have it bad for him. That guy has some demons lashing him on a straight trip to hell and back. That’s just how it is. You and Mason are the only people he cares about, and Mason would come in second if he had to choose. Don’t you ever worry about Mick.”
“Okay, but you’re wrong. He’s just dark sometimes.”
“Alisa, I like you, so I’m going to say this once. Mick and Mason are building something here. You may not want to see it, but I’ll tell you what everyone else sees. They’re organizing, getting their shit together. This isn’t some hobby for them anymore. After you got attacked, I got hired and saw it, even after Jack told me about it.”
“You saw what?” I whispered as confusion settled over me.
“Mason said they started with a purpose in mind. To catch some of the Kings in shady dealings. But since then they’ve been making some friends. It’s not hard to see if you want to. The Galloway brothers are starting to get a reputation. You’re going to have to accept that.”
I sucked in a shaky breath and gave him a curt nod. I wasn’t quite sure what he was talking about. That wasn’t what I saw at all. Mick spent time cleaning up the club’s records and Mason worked for Alex. There wasn’t anything else regardless of what Paul assumed.
Mick could be a force of nature sometimes in both the way he loved and expressed his anger. Both emotions were either on or off and I was thankful that the love he had for me was permanently on. There were times, though, that I saw the anger pacing behind his eyes when he helped me with my bandage. It was there and if I could see it, then Jack or Paul might recognize it as well.
Dismissing Paul’s paranoia, I said, “I think I need to relax.”
“I’ll be around,” he said as he made his way back to the couch. “And can we not mention that I rubbed your back? I don’t want my fingers broken.”
Shaking my head, I made my way to the bathroom, intending to take a long bath, then remembered my stitches. I needed Mick, needed to tell him to be careful,
and warn him about my father’s threats. With his phone going to voicemail it was impossible to do that. A sick feeling settled in my stomach that perhaps my father had already gotten to him and he was hurt somewhere. I wasn’t sure if he’d meant financially or physically when he’d made his threats.
Entering the living room again I grabbed my purse and car keys.
“Alisa, where are you going?” Paul asked as he stalked across the room.
“I need Mick, he’s not answering his phone.”
Paul took my keys and headed to the door. “You know the drill, you can’t go anywhere without me. Let’s go.”
We arrived at the club thirty minutes later, with dark clouds gathering in the sky. Paul opened my door and I climbed out. The front doors were locked, prompting Paul to direct me around the building to another entrance that read “Staff Only”.
We entered with Paul holding the door for me and walked down a long hallway to the main room. Seeing the club again in the daylight was surreal. It looked far less mysterious and intriguing with all the lights on. Looking around, I didn’t see anyone and there was an eerie silence to the place which was normally so loud.
I wandered over to a table near the entrance and saw a backpack on the table. Someone was here, I just didn’t know where.
“Where’s the office, Paul?”
“Through that door,” he said as he pointed across the room. “Up the stairs. Jack’s here somewhere, that’s his bag. I’ll check in the back.”
Paul entered another staff only door, then I heard him talking with someone. Presuming it wasn’t Mick when he didn’t emerge immediately, I headed upstairs.
The landing at the top led to three doors, none of them marked. Checking the first, it led to a small office with a cluttered desk. A poster of a Rottweiler dog hung on the wall, while a shelf had toy hula girls that bobbed as the air from the vent hit them.
Shutting the door, I went to the second one. Another office, but much larger, with only a small desk and several filing cabinets along the wall. The last office was far more polished and smelled of fresh paint. A leather sofa was against one wall with a coffee table. Two chairs with black leather seats sat in front of the largest desk I’d seen in a while.
Mick: Kingston Corruption, Book One Page 17
