Forbidden Love (Stone Pack Book 1)

by Harper Phoenix

  ‘Can I speak to you in private?’ he asks his dad.

  ‘Jared, I hardly see why that’s necessary,’ his father answers.

  ‘Well I do, so shall we go to the library?’ Jared doesn’t really give his father room to think about an answer he simply walks to the door and raises his hand in an ‘after you’ gesture. His father’s face is like stone when he walks toward the door. Jared’s isn’t too dissimilar as his eyes meet mine before he too leaves the room, leaving all eyes on me.

  ‘What?’ I snap. Logan shakes his head, and everyone turns back to what they were doing. I slink out of the kitchen door, walk around the house, and sit on the swinging chair on the deck. And that’s where Jared finds me about thirty minutes later. His face is pale, and he is shaking—anger, nerves, I’m not overly sure which. He just sits down next to me and puts his arm over my shoulder. I instantly feel at ease, and I place my head on his shoulder and wait for him to tell me whatever it is he needs to tell me. And I don’t have to wait too long.

  ‘My father thinks it’s best that you carry out Kristen’s sentence. I don’t agree, obviously.’

  ‘Why?’ I ask

  ‘Because he’s an idiot.’ He’s misunderstood my question.

  ‘No, I mean why don’t you agree?’ He looks at me like I’ve slapped his face.

  ‘Devon, taking a life isn’t something that everyone can deal with. I’ve done it when I’ve had to—when I’m left with no other choice, but it’s not fucking pretty, and it’s not fun. I don’t want that for you.’

  ‘Has she given up any information?’

  He shakes his head.

  ‘Just keeps telling us that I betrayed her before she betrayed us.’

  I sigh in frustration.

  ‘I guess I can see where she’s coming from—a woman scorned and all that.’

  ‘It’s not like I fucking cheated on her. We weren’t together, never have been, and she knew long before you came along that there would be no relationship between us! It was the power that she wanted that came with the status. She didn’t give a fuck about me!’

  ‘I know, but then I guess when I came along she had that status stripped even if it wasn’t you that she cared about.’

  ‘What the bitch does keep saying though, is that we will never find your mother. That she’s too fucking smart for us—and she keeps laughing, telling us it is far from over.’

  ‘What does that mean? Do you think they’ll try and get to me again?’

  ‘From what Kristen and the other cunt isn’t saying and their little taunts I think that’s a definite. And she’s saying that she has something to tell you, but she won’t tell anyone else, only you.’

  ‘So let’s go and find out what she has to say then?’

  I move to get up, but he pulls me by the hand. I stop and look him in the eye.

  ‘Baby whatever it is, she will be taunting you, trying to rile you up, so you snap. She knows she’s got nothing to lose, and that she’s going to die today. So bear that in mind, okay?’

  ‘Okay.’

  We walk around the house and head down the stairs. As we walk through the door, I can smell the blood, and as we pass the first cell, the stench is rancid even though the cell is now empty. The next one I pass, houses asshole number two, who Howard is working over. I feel that thrill run though my entire body again, at the prospect of working over Kristen. And then I come to a stop outside of her cell. She’s a mess. Someone has had a really good go at her this morning already. Although her face is swollen and distorted, her face splits into a grin as she sees me. Her teeth have a coat of red on them, and there are gaps where teeth have been extracted from her mouth. Something that Harrison was going to show me yesterday, before Jared had intervened and put an end to it.

  Despite the fact she is hanging from the ceiling and can barely move, she looks at me like she holds all the power. It unnerves me for a second, but I don’t let that take root. Instead, moving into the cell, I poke a finger into what looks like an infected wound on her shoulder. She squeals in pain. I smile as I poke it further, and she grits her teeth while she blows snot and spit out on a breath. She exhales, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. There is a container of salt on the floor in the corner. I eye it, knowing it will sting like a bitch if I apply it liberally to her wounds. Jared looks to where my line of sight has gone, and he moves to get it. I think he’s going to give it to me, but instead, he keeps it at his side.

  ‘Spit out whatever the fuck you have to say to Devon.’

  She hasn’t taken her eyes off me, and she grins until she notices what Jared has in his hand, then the smile falters a little. I look her in the eye, and I demand her to submit. Her eyes lower and I know I have the upper hand, mentally as well as physically. Suddenly her eyes snap up again, and she glares at me, and that crazy-as-shit smile is spread even wider now. I don’t waver in my dominance though. And I lift my chin, telling her to get on with it. She barks out a humourless laugh.

  ‘I could be pregnant you know?’ she says. ‘With your niece or nephew.’

  ‘Not possible,’ I tell her

  ‘You of all people should know it is possible. I mean you’re a mongrel, just like this one will be.’ I ignore her snipe at me.

  ‘It’s entirely possible that you are pregnant, but it’s no relative of mine, and besides, you won’t be alive long enough to know if you are or aren’t.’ I watch the look of panic in her eye, and I smell the fear oozing from her pores.

  ‘Listen to me. I have information that I know you will want. If you kill me, you’ll never know,’ she pleads.

  ‘By the sounds of it, I’ll never know anyway because you haven’t told us shit so far, so why should I wait. Why not just kill you now? I’ve been itching for it since the last time.’ I walk around her, and she pulls at her restraints, causing her to howl in pain. I laugh at her attempt to get free, and then I step in front of her. I ask Jared to lower her with a flick of my eyes to the wheel on the wall. He does, and I step up close and slide my fingers around her throat. I meet her eyes with mine, and we are nose to nose. ‘Why don’t I just kill you here and now—get it over with. Damn, I’m sick to death of seeing you already.’ I squeeze until her eyes start to bulge and she makes a noise between a gasp and a choke. All that registers in my head at that moment is how pathetic she sounds, but I like that the whites of her eyes start to turn red. Jared clears his throat behind me, and I loosen my grip. She is head down and gasping for air.

  ‘What information do you have that’s so important we should let you live?’ Jared asks from behind me.

  ‘You have a brother,’ she blurts out in a raspy voice.

  I sigh in boredom. ‘I gathered that when you told me you might be carrying my niece or nephew. And I don’t care if he’s knocked you up. He’s on the other team, just like you, so quit the bullshit, Kristen. You die today. Tell me something worth knowing or die slowly.’

  ‘Wow, you really do think you’re the alpha female. Look at you, acting the big I am. It won’t last—you’re weak.’

  I slap her face as Jared pours salt over her back and she screams in pain.

  ‘I’m weak?’ I laugh. ‘Says the girl strung up from the ceiling at my mercy.’ I smile.

  ‘Let me down, and we’ll fight. That’s tradition, you mongrel piece of shit,’ she spits at me. ‘But you wouldn’t know that because you’re not even part of the pack.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Jared tells her through gritted teeth.

  ‘They’ll never stop coming for her, and you’ll regret what you’ve done to me, Jared.’

  He scoffs. ‘I’ve done shit to you. You brought all this on yourself.’ He pours more salt in her wounds, and she wails. I love the sound, and it makes me smile. I watch as she writhes in pain.

  ‘They will get you, and they’ll fuck you, and fuck you, and fuck you until you’re no longer of use. Just a bucket to fuck and give birth.’ I don’t bite, but her words have an effect, and I feel sick. Jare
d responds with an uppercut to her chin, knocking her out for a few seconds. He looks at me, and his face is full of concern.

  ‘You know that shit won’t happen. I’m gonna get every one of those cunts before they even get near you.’

  I step into his embrace, and I believe he will do just that. The trouble is, in the meantime, I’m stuck on twenty-four-hour lockdown with security around the clock. I nod, and he kisses me.

  ‘Come on she’s got nothing worth sticking around for.’ I say. We start to walk out of the cell when she says something indistinct. Jared ignores her, but for some reason, I need to hear what it is she’s said. I move from under Jared’s arm and walk toward her,

  ‘What did you say?’ I ask. Her chin is swollen, and her lips are split open. She speaks with a mouth full of blood,

  ‘vay hab yow fabber.’ It doesn’t sink in what she’s saying. I’m trying to decipher the words.

  ‘They have your father…’ Jared repeats. ‘You better start fucking talking right fucking now, Kristen!’ he demands.

  Jared

  Devon is standing there with huge eyes, and fear all over her face. Kristen spits blood at me.

  ‘Got your attention now, huh?’ she croaks out. The fuckin bitch.

  Devon has her phone in her hand, and she dials her father. I can see her shaking hand as she brings the phone to her ear.

  ‘Hello, sweetheart. I wondered when you would eventually call.’ I hear over the line. It’s clearly not her father because it’s a female voice. Devon gasps as the blood runs from her face. Shit. I catch her as her knees buckle, and she almost hits the floor. I take the phone from her hand.

  ‘Who the fuck is this?’ I shout into the phone.

  ‘Now now, none of that, kindly put my daughter back on the phone.’ Devon seems to come to herself again, and she grabs the receiver from me.

  ‘If you hurt him, I will kill you,’ she screams,

  ‘There is no need for any of this, sweetheart. Come back to me, and I will let everyone else live,’ the crazy bitch says.

  ‘WHERE.IS.MY.DAD?’ Devon speaks through her anger and if she clenches her jaw any tighter I’m thinking she’ll break a fucking tooth. I pull her to me and turn her away from Kristen’s smug fucking face. She has bought herself some alive time, but it still won’t end in any way other than death, and a painful one if I get my way. I take the phone from Devon and speak calmly.

  ‘You want a war? You hurt what’s mine, and I will come for you, and I won’t stop till I have your fucking head.’ I cut the call and Devon is looking at me like I just signed her dad’s death warrant. Kristen is laughing, thinking she’s got one over on us.

  ‘You wanna quieten her down before I do, baby?’ I lift my chin toward Kristen. Devon doesn’t even hesitate—she’s in motion and striking out before I’ve even finished my sentence. Kristen’s head flops forward, and blood runs from her mouth, effectively ending her shit show.

  I have Brad checking all areas he can from the security room. He isn’t happy that I’ve pulled him from Maiya. A complete fucking turn around, considering he threw a bitch fit when I gave him the job. I conceded and told him he could do both jobs as long as he remains effective.

  ‘I can’t find a fucking thing on the bitch, so I have no fucking idea when she left the country. She isn’t using her married name or her maiden name. I’ve got jack shit,’ he tells me.

  ‘Well, keep fucking looking.’ Devon’s dad’s mobile phone pinged up on the radar in Salem, Oregon. But he says that doesn’t mean shit—he could be anywhere, and until he finds the bitch on the flight she took, he won’t know for sure. Devon is freaking the fuck out, and I don’t know how to fucking help her. I have Harrison down in the cell working on Kristen. Either she doesn’t know shit, or she is one tough nut to crack. I’m tempted to just end it, but I’m worried she does know something. On that thought Harrison comes into the security room where we’re scanning a shit tonne of flight registers, trying to find something.

  ‘She talk?’

  He nods. But doesn’t look too happy about it.

  ‘She says the dad is a lost cause—dead already. That she’s only trying to use it to lure Devon back and that he was dead the moment they picked him up. They have him on ice somewhere.’ Fuck. I scrub my hands across my face. I don’t know how I’m going to break this shit to Devon. She’s currently upstairs, in pieces, pulling her fucking hair out. Harrison grips my shoulder in his hand. ‘Send Devon down to me. It’ll help.’

  I shake my head. That’s not what she needs. I can’t let her do that and then regret it.

  ‘How sure are you that the bitch is telling the truth?’ I ask holding a tiny bit of hope. He shakes his head.

  ‘Jared, he’s dead. I’m a hundred percent.’

  Devon chooses that very fucking moment to walk in the room. She stands in the doorway, with no emotion on her face. I can’t read the look at all. All I can do is stare at her, with sympathy all over my face. I feel fucking useless as I move around Harrison and take her into my arms, but she’s stiff and doesn’t go with the hug.

  ‘Baby, I’m so sorry.’ Her eyes are trained blankly on the wall behind me, and she doesn’t speak. Harrison moves from the room and then Brad is hot on his heels. I swivel his chair and sit her in it. ‘Baby talk to me,’ I plead. I need something, anything from her. I can’t do anything with nothing. She takes a deep breath in through her nose, and I look up into her eyes. She doesn’t meet mine when she speaks.

  ‘I am going to end them, Jared. All of them. I’m not going to stop until they are all gone.’

  Fuck me—had our roles reversed?

  ‘Baby, I’ll get them, all of them. I promise you, not one will survive. I’ll get every single fucking one.’

  She shakes her head, no.

  ‘No, Jared, I will. I have to.’

  Jesus. Do I argue? Do I give her what she needs while she’s grieving? Fuck me, I want to lock her away until this shit is sorted, not set her on a course to go to war with the kitsunes.

  ‘Okay, baby, whatever you need,’ I find myself saying although I nearly choke on my fucking words. She stands then, and I straighten up with her. ‘What do you need right now? What can I get you?’ I need to fucking do something for fuck’s sake.

  ‘Take me to the basement.’ And I know what she wants to do. I sigh and remember Harrison’s words. ‘It’ll help.’ God, I fucking hope so.

  Devon

  I walk down the stairs, and the stench hits me. I breathe it in like a healing tonic. I want it to heal me from this pain I feel. I need to act—need to make it go away. I want to kill them, take their lives like they took my dad’s. Like they ruined Maiya’s, and are ruining mine. I need to let this feeling free—let it out and never let it back in. I see my dad’s face smiling at me as I walk into Kristen’s cell.

  Harrison stops working and turns to me.

  ‘Your call?’ he says

  ‘Let her down. Help her heal and feed her,’ I tell him. Jared looks at me and to Harrison in a split second, and then I’m out of the room and walking into the next. The asshole in this cell is stinking the place up so bad he could already be dead, but I can hear his heartbeat. Faint but still there. I study him, tilting my head slowly from side to side. Assessing the best way forward. I feel Jared enter behind me, and Harrison a second later.

  ‘Please lower him,’ I ask. And Harrison cranks the wheel. This guy is a full-blooded kitsune, and in my opinion, they all need to be purged and wiped off the planet if this is what they are, what they do. I want to rip his heart right out of his chest. But I don’t. I watch his chest rise and fall as the grunt leaves his mouth when he hits the floor. He isn’t healing very fast—maybe that isn’t a trait of the kitsunes. He has missing fingers, toes, teeth, and only has one eye. Looking at him, I notice an ear missing too.

  ‘Cauterize his wounds so he doesn’t bleed out—clean him up and let me know when he’s healed up enough to leave.’

  ‘What the fuck, Devo
n?’ Harrison says, clearly pissed and feeling robbed. I know because I understand that feeling too. He’d planned their deaths, and I want them healed.

  I move into the kitsune and speak into his only ear.

  ‘I am feeling generous, and I’m offering you a chance. I’ll get you fit enough to leave, and here’s the thing—you will get a fifteen-minute head start, and then you are fair game. Maybe you’ll get a message to my mother, maybe you won’t?’

  ‘What’s the message,’ he whispers,

  ‘Oops, I almost forgot, the message is, ‘Run bitch run,’ because she just started a war, and I’m coming for her.’ I walk past a slack-jawed Jared, and Harrison, who has a knowing smile on his face. I leave the cells and have no intention of talking to anyone. So I go straight to Jared’s room. I throw myself onto the bed and let my heart break.

  The pain is overwhelming. The one constant in my whole life is gone. Just gone. He lived his whole life for me, knowing what I was. He protected me, over and over again—leading a lonely life, never having friends or women. Never living. Just taking care of me. Always. And for what? ‘So you could live.’ I hear his voice in my head, chastising me. It’s so unfair, and I can’t get my head around the injustice of it all.

  At some point, Jared comes in, and Zoe stops by to check in on me. But I don’t get out of bed for anything other than for a bathroom break. My mind is racing, and I’m covering all the different possibilities of my father’s death. It’s like my own personal torture. I never knew hate could be just as powerful as love. The hate inside me right now is so strong that I’m scared it will overtake me. Swallow me whole. Suck me in so deep I won’t be able to get out. I’m really hot, and I fling the comforter off me, pulling at my t-shirt. It’s constricting my breathing. I need it off, and I can’t get it off quickly enough. I yank at the neck instead, and I heave in a long shaky breath. It isn’t enough. Jesus why is it so hot? My hand starts to tingle, my fingers and then my arm. Oh my god, I can’t breathe. I hear a tearing sound, and I feel cool air across my face and back. I heave in another breath, then another—each one becoming easier than the last. My t-shirt is torn down my back, and the window is wide open. I look up to find Jared fanning me with a notebook. He looks worried, almost like a lost child. What’s wrong with him?