Heartless: Merciless Book 2

by Winters, W.

  My eyes close at the realization. As I take a deep breath and fall into the calmness of my decision, I hear Jase’s voice cut through the fog.

  “We received some information from our leak at the Talvery headquarters,” Jase says and then adds, “Stephan couldn’t be trusted.” His voice is calm. Calmer than Romano’s as he replies with some sort of defense. I can’t focus on what he says; all I can do is replay each moment in my mind, trying to decipher how Romano viewed it. How my brothers saw me. How the men who work for me watched me lose control.

  They’ll all know what she means to me. What she can do to me. I want every one of those pricks to know.

  As my eyes slowly open, I see Romano and I grin at him, a slow methodical grin.

  “Relax, Romano,” I tell him as I reach out and grip his right shoulder. I give his shoulder a firm squeeze.

  I listen to his breathing hitch and watch as his pupils dilate. I’ve seen this look so many times before. The look of fear and hope mixing in the eyes of my enemies is undeniably familiar to me.

  “He had to be dealt with, and I know you had a soft spot for him,” I tell him evenly, giving his shoulder another slight squeeze as I force a faint, but kind smile to my lips. “I didn’t want anyone to think you had a hand in this.” I release him and add, “I know you two were close.”

  With my back to him, I survey the room, and a few of my men are cleaning up the evidence already. This isn’t the first time blood has been shed in this room and they’re more than capable of making it go away. The glass clinks as it’s swept up.

  “I don’t have any room for traitors in my alliances,” I speak to Romano, although I still have my back to him.

  “I could have been informed,” he responds, and I finally turn to him again.

  “I thought you would enjoy the show. I was told you have a fondness for theatrics.” A flash of fear sparks in his eyes and I have to school my expression to keep the sheer delight from showing. The only thing that makes this moment better is knowing that Aria is upstairs, and she’ll be waiting for me.

  “Next time, I’ll be sure to tell you in advance.” With my final words, I nod to Jase.

  “I’ll show you out,” Jase says to Romano with a smirk and heads to the door, not waiting for his response. I merely stare at the old man and his ill-fitting suit that’s rumpled and marred by a small splatter of red up his arm. His eyes narrow and his chest rises once with a heavy breath. I can only imagine the taste of blood in his mouth as he bites his tongue.

  “Next time,” are his parting words and they’re followed by the hollow sound of his footsteps as he leaves the room.

  “You want to keep any of him, boss?” Sammy asks. He’s a young kid, but smart and eager to learn. Crouched near Stephan’s body, he gestures to the head. “Or trash it all?” He looks up at me without any fear, but in its place is respect. I think that’s why I like the kid. A very large part of me envies him. He never went through the shit I did. He didn’t have to learn the way I did.

  “Burn all of him. No trace. I don’t want a single piece of that prick left in here.”

  Sammy nods once and immediately gets to work.

  “How long until he turns on us?” I hear Jase’s question from behind me and I turn to face my brother.

  “He’d already turned on us, remember?” I remind him and Jase only smirks at me.

  “He was still willing to deal with us while ripping us off. But I imagine that’s going to change now.” He leans against the wall and slips his hands in his pockets as he watches the men clean up the room.

  “Both Talvery and Romano will come for us. You know that, right?” Daniel asks as he moves to join us. Declan follows and the four of us form a circle in the corner of the room.

  “As long as they don’t join forces, it doesn’t matter,” I respond without thinking. My thoughts immediately go back to Aria. Consequences be damned; this was for her.

  “What’s to stop them from doing that?” Declan asks. He wasn’t concerned before tonight. Of all four of us, he’s the least interested and the least informed. Because of that, I imagine he was the most shocked as well.

  “A decade-long feud, greed, arrogance?” Jase answers.

  “All of this, and for what?” Daniel’s question comes out harder. “It was for her, wasn’t it?”

  Silence engulfs us for a moment as I watch my brother.

  “There was no reason to go about it like this. To make a scene and piss off Romano like that.”

  “It had to be done.” Jase is quick to answer and firm with his response.

  “But we didn’t have to make Romano an enemy. Not now, not when Talvery is coming for us.” Daniel’s anger is evident, but more so, he’s scared. Scared because Addison is here with us.

  “She’s safe,” I tell him, moving to the heart of his concern.

  My brothers are quiet as I take in Daniel’s stance. He’s tired and anxious. “I want this shit to end, but now we’ve added gasoline to the fucking fire.”

  Jase answers before I can. I’m struck by the fact that I never considered Addison. I didn’t care what the cost was for giving Aria the revenge she so desperately needed. “The guns are in, we just have to spread them and hit them hard.”

  “Who are we hitting? Talvery? Or Romano?” Daniel asks Jase, but then all three of my brothers look at me. All of them wanting to know.

  Daniel doesn’t hold back his concern as he says, “I know you’ve been lying to us. And now you brought war to our doorstep for her.”

  “I never lied,” I mutter, and my words are a harsh whisper. Anger seeps into my blood as I watch the chaos in Daniel’s eyes heat.

  “What does she mean to you?” he asks as if my answer will assuage all of his fears.

  Only if I answer truthfully.

  Jase’s gaze moves to the men behind us and then back to me with a subtle unasked question and I nod my head.

  “Leave us,” I call out and wait to speak until the sounds of men shuffling out of the room subside. My brothers are patient. Not speaking and holding back until we’re left alone.

  “She’s getting to you,” Daniel speaks softly. “You’re making calls for all of us, but she’s clouding your judgment.”

  His words feel like a knife in my back.

  “You’re questioning me?” I ask him, not holding back the bite of anger, but deep inside I know it’s for me. I’m angry because he’s right. My brow pinches and I force in a deep breath and then another, staring behind my brother at the soft gray wall where bright red blood is smeared.

  “She saved my life,” I tell them while turning to look away. Guilt washes through me. I know I was thinking of her, not of us. But this was meant to happen. I can feel it ringing inside of me like a singular truth never has. “And I hated her for it.” The confession comes out with a gentleness and careful touch.

  The silence from my brothers begs me to look at them. To know for certain their reaction to my confession. Although there’s a hint of shock in Daniel’s eyes, there’s something else there too. Something I can’t place.

  “Why didn’t you tell us?” Jase asks. “She saved you?” he adds for clarification.

  “It was years ago, the night Dad had to call his friend in.” I know they know what I mean by the reference. There was only one night Dad called in a favor for me. One night where I almost met death.

  “Shit,” Declan bites out and runs his hand down his face. He was only a child. It was so long ago.

  “As long as I’m living and breathing – she will be mine.” My response is brutal and unmoving. “Whether she likes it or not.”

  “You took her because you hated her for saving you?” Daniel asks although there’s no confrontation in his tone, nothing but genuine curiosity and concern.

  “I wanted her to know what it was like to wish you could just die and not have to live another day with the person you’ve become.” I almost tell him I didn’t know that I loved her. But I change the words as I add, “
I didn’t know that I cared for her. Not until she came here.”

  She gave me a new reason to live. Not only all those years ago when she saved me, but also this past month when I finally got her beneath me.

  The silence stretches between us and it feels suffocating. I’ve never felt shame for what I’ve become, because everything I am and everything I’ve done is for the three men who stand in front of me, judging what I’ve told them.

  “And Stephan?” Declan asks. He’s the only one of the three who didn’t know why I was letting Aria kill him. He didn’t care to know, like so many other things he’d rather not be aware of.

  “He raped and murdered her mother. She cries at night in her sleep because of him.”

  The dark pit of sadness that narrowly exists within me expands at the memory of the first night I realized the power he had over her. “I had to give her this,” I explain and my last word hisses from my lips.

  Jase is the first to nod in agreement, followed by Declan and then, finally, Daniel.

  “They’re all going to be coming for us now,” Daniel says, but this time his voice welcomes the challenge. The moment of wondering what my brothers think of me, what they think of her, ends as quickly as it came.

  I answer Daniel the only way I know how. With the only acceptable answer there is.

  “Let them come.”

  Chapter 3

  Aria

  I don’t know how long I’ve been shaking. My hand trembles as I reach for the faucet and turn the scalding water even hotter. My skin is bright red, but I can’t feel anything. Everything is numb and out of my control as I lean against the tiled wall. My knees quiver and my body begs me to heave. The heavy diamond on the necklace ever present around my neck hits the tile of the stall and I hold on to it as if it can save me or take me away.

  Is this what it feels like to kill someone? I’ve only seen two people die in front of me before.

  My mother was the first. And the second ruled my life until the fateful day Carter changed my life forever.

  I remember thinking about that second time when I watched someone’s life being taken in front of me, right as I stood at the side of the bar. Completely unaware that when I entered, my entire life would change forever. I just wanted my notebook back.

  I suck in a deep breath of the hot steam as I lean my head back against the tile and close my eyes. The memory takes me back to only weeks ago, but that memory is far better than the reality of my bloodstained skin.

  Shoving my hands in my pockets to keep them warm, I let my fingers trace over the keys to my car. It’s the only weapon I have.

  And keys are a weapon. I’ve seen someone slice a hole in a guy’s throat with a key. I stood there numbly as the man’s hands tried to reach his neck, but my father’s men gripped his wrists and pulled them behind his back. Blow after blow, each one puncturing his skin as he was restrained and unable to defend himself.

  A chill flows over my skin at the memory and it takes me a minute to realize I’m not breathing.

  I remember the sound of sneakers kicking small rocks across the pavement. The sound of the busy street at the other end of the alley.

  Three men my father employs were supposed to be escorting me back home from the studio I wanted to rent, but they decided to take a detour.

  And I stood there in shock; it all happened so quickly.

  Mika was with me then. His thin lips tipped up into the evilest smile I’d ever seen. That smile held pure joy. Joy at my shock? Or my horror? Maybe my pain, because I knew the man they’d killed.

  Mika’s dark black hair was slicked back. His beard was shaved off and it was only stubble that caressed his skin that night. Conventionally speaking, Mika’s a good-looking man with a deep, rough voice that can bring any woman to her knees.

  But I’ve seen who he really is. And knowing he’s the man I’ve come to see and make demands of, sends a spike of fear through me.

  But I won’t let anyone steal from me. I can’t let them push me around and let them think I’m weak. And like my father says, it’s time for me to demand respect. It’s what the Talverys do.

  My eyes slowly open to the sound of the water hitting the bare tile. Every movement, every noise, makes my body tense.

  I try to steady my breathing, ragged from the memories. The one of the night I was taken, and the other of that night two years ago when I saw a man murdered. I didn’t leave home for a long time after that, and I never moved out. My father wanted it that way anyway.

  I thought I knew what fear was before I walked into that bar. I was wrong.

  Staring at the lifeless corpse of a man whose existence has tormented you for years is true fear. It wasn’t until his head rolled away from his body on the carpet, that I could even consider the possibility that he would never hurt me again.

  My gaze drifts to the pool of water at my feet. The water contains dark red splotches until it swirls and morphs to pink as it flows to the drain.

  First, I watched my mother’s death.

  Then the death of a man who betrayed my father.

  And now I’ve killed the man who betrayed both of my parents.

  I wait for a sense of relief, or victory—righteousness, maybe. But nothing comes. There’s only a hollow emptiness in my chest and a flood of unwanted memories.

  The sound of the glass door to the shower sliding open nearly tears a scream from my throat.

  Mika, my father, Stephan… of all the men responsible for me leading a life riddled with fear, none of them compare to the man standing in front of me. The steam billows around him as it exits the shower stall, allowing the chill of the cooler air to leave goosebumps along my skin.

  Carter’s gaze narrows as he assesses me, glued to the wall and still shaking, still struggling to do anything. I’ve never felt so weak in my life as I do right now.

  Killing Stephan may have felt freeing during the moments the knife sliced into him, but I’ve never been so chained to memories as I am in this instant.

  “What are you doing?” His deep voice comes out a question, but I don’t think he expects me to answer.

  “I can’t stop shaking,” I tell him in a staccato cadence that reflects my inability to do anything clearly. Each word is forced out as I grip my wrist with my other hand and will it to stop, finally letting go of the gem.

  Carter doesn’t answer me. Instead, he steps into the stall, still clothed. He hisses through his teeth as the hot water batters his arm and splashes along his bloodstained shirt, now sticking to his skin. He turns the faucet, cooling the water until it’s only warm and no longer scalding hot.

  The cool air feels refreshing as it caresses my skin more and more the longer he stands in front of me with the door open. My head feels light and the panic that was all-consuming only a moment ago, wanes.

  In one breath, Carter strips from his shirt. In another, he closes the door behind him and pulls me into his arms. The warm water gently splashes along my back in time with Carter’s soothing strokes. It takes a moment for me to return the embrace, to wrap my arms around him and press my cheek to his bare chest.

  His heartbeat is steady as he holds me and it’s calming. So calming. The trembling subsides quicker than I could imagine.

  My eyes close and I welcome the darkness of exhaustion until Carter clears his throat, startling me from the comfortable silence.

  “I’m sorry for telling you that I wouldn’t be with you,” he says and his voice rumbles up his chest. I stay tense against him, caught off guard. I barely remember his words from earlier. Everything happened so quickly; of everything that happened tonight, the last thing on my mind is the threat he gave me before I knew his intentions and every piece of the puzzle fell into place.

  An apology is something I would never expect from him.

  Carter is never sorry. Carter is unapologetic in everything he does.

  Without an answer from me, he continues, “I shouldn’t have said that. And I’m sorry for it.” Another mom
ent passes, and the cloudy haze slowly dissipates until I can peel myself away from him. My nakedness and the reality of what I am to him are slowly coming back to me.

  Today has been a whirlwind of emotions. The most prevalent being pain.

  I swallow thickly before stepping away from him and out of the flowing streams of water to tell him it’s okay.

  I don’t know what else to say.

  Pushing the wet hair from my face, I look him in the eyes and the intensity in his gaze sets my body on fire.

  “It’s not okay. And it won’t happen again,” Carter replies as his eyes darken and he moves in the suddenly small shower, stalking toward me to place both of his palms against the tile wall on either side of my head.

  His broad shoulders eclipse everything else as he towers over me, and the sheer power that radiates from him forces a deep urge of need down to my core. The pulse is uncontrollable and threatens to overcome my senses.

  It would be so easy to fall into his arms. To get lost in the lusty haze that is Carter Cross.

  “I forgive you,” I tell him in a single breath and try to swallow down the desire. Suddenly, I’m hotter than I was before. All over, and all at once.

  My nipples pebble and my fingers itch to reach out to him, to spear my fingers through his hair and pull his lips down to mine.

  But Carter doesn’t kiss me. He never has. My gaze stays pinned to his lips as he lowers them, oh, so slowly, but they pass my own and travel to my shoulder. His rough stubble grazes my neck and makes my pussy throb. His tongue sweeps along my skin and a heat flows through me that I can’t deny.

  If I could hold on to this moment and hide from the pain of my reality forever, I would.

  Just as I dare to reach up, to let my fingers travel along his shoulders and then higher, a sudden knock at the door cuts sharply through the moment.

  The white noise of the shower dims as Jase’s voice carries through the door, calling out to take Carter away from me.

  Don’t go, my heart begs me to plead with him. I can’t be alone right now. I’m not okay.