Queen of Hearts

by Jami Denise

  He bit down on my shoulder and licked the pinch away with his tongue before standing up and smirking. “I’ll call you when I’m on my way.”

  “Okay,” I said. I was suddenly breathless, and my knees were ready to give out.

  “Kelsey,” he said. He gave her a nod, and I had to hand it to him. He managed not to drool.

  But he looked.

  “Be careful,” I called out. He waved over his shoulder and stormed across the now empty patio.

  “Wow,” Kelsey laughed. “I thought he was going to hit you.”

  I turned sharply and frowned. “Real men don’t hit, Kelsey.”

  She looked injured by my tone but nodded. “He really loves you.”

  I nodded, frowning. “Let’s get in the pool and talk.”

  The tone was uneasy again, but I couldn’t help the anger that brewed inside of me knowing that someone had raised their hand to her. I’d known more than my share of those types, but it didn’t mean I thought it was normal or okay. She seemed so detached from what was wrong or right. It pissed me off.

  “Who hit you?” I said bluntly.

  We were up to our shoulders, bobbing in the cool water. She pushed her long hair behind her shoulders and ducked her head. “It was only once, but he was my boss.”

  I gulped, suddenly sick. “Were you whoring?”

  She shook her head, eyes wide. “No! It was when I was working in a club. I’d only been there for about a week, and I wouldn’t do a lap dance for this guy. He scared me, you know? So I refused, and he backhanded me.”

  “How long were you there,” I asked.

  She waded around, pushing the water around between her fingers and avoiding my eyes. She was ashamed. I knew that feeling.

  “I only worked there about six months. I came out to stay with my sister, but I couldn’t find her. This guy I met told me about dancing, and I really didn’t have any choice.” She paused, shrugging “I hated it, but what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t go home. My parents disowned Kristine when they found out what she was doing, and they told me if I left, I was never welcome to come back.”

  “You don’t have to do that anymore. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “Like what? Vince has been so nice to let me stay with him, and now you, but what happens now?”

  I swam closer to her and smiled. “Whatever the hell you want. How old are you, Kelsey?”

  “Nineteen.”

  I nodded. I was pretty close to being correct about that. “You have your whole life ahead of you. Whatever you want to do, wherever you want to go, we’ll make that happen.”

  There was hope in her eyes. She wanted something out of life, and if there was anything in the world I could do, it was to make sure the world didn’t fuck that little girl over. I was so angry with her sister for pulling her into the cesspool of garbage we lived in, but that was beside the point. She had it coming no matter what—if it hadn’t already caught up with her. Kelsey was a good girl with a good heart. She was going to be my responsibility. More than anything, I wanted to make sure she had choices—choices I never had.

  Her chin started quivering, so I decided to steer the conversation into lighter subjects. I wanted her to chill out and enjoy herself. There was no reason for her to live in constant fear. If I could feel safe, then so should she.

  “Have you ever been here? The Maguire?”

  She smiled. “When I first got here, I tried to go to all the big casinos just to look around. I came in once, but I got kicked out because I didn’t have I.D.”

  I laughed. “Well, at least you tried. I never got caught, but come to think of it, everyone in this town has been under the impression that I was born twenty-five. No one has ever hassled me.”

  Grabbing onto the edge of the pool, she kicked her legs out and cocked her head, looking at me. “Do you work for Vince?”

  I mimicked her position and turned my head to face her. “Definitely not. I don’t work, period. I’m retired.” I smiled as I said it; the triumphant thrill ran deep throughout my soul. “I never worked for him, just to be clear. He worked for my father, but I’ve always worked for myself. He did always keep an eye on me, however.”

  She wouldn’t look at me, and I knew she wanted to ask the big question. I figured it would be easier to pull the bandage right off and avoid anymore awkwardness.

  “I was a prostitute. That’s what you wanted to ask, wasn’t it?”

  She gave me a doleful expression. “I didn’t want to insult you, but I wondered.”

  I tapped my fingers against the tile behind me and leaned my head back. “You wouldn’t insult me. Just about everyone around here knows what I was. It’s the only reason most of them know me, Kelsey.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

  I laughed through my nose. “Honey, what are you sorry for? I chose to be a hooker. It was easy money, and I really liked money.”

  ‘’Did you know my sister?”

  My belly twisted with nerves. This was it. Kristine was the motivation behind Doyle’s actions, and any information I could get would only help. I just didn’t want to hurt Kelsey. I had to play it very careful.

  “I didn’t know her well, no. She dated my father.”

  Kelsey’s eyes bugged out of her head, and she turned so that she was completely facing me. “Shut up!”

  I lifted my head, shaking it slowly. “It was brief, but yes, they were together. My dad was quite a ladies’ man.”

  “So he doesn’t know where she is?” Concern and disappointment etched her features, and I felt so bad for her.

  “He’s gone, Kelsey. He passed away last year.”

  She covered her mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

  I pinched my lips together, a tug of pain battling in my heart. I had to push through it, though. “Why did you come out here to be with her? What brought you out here?”

  She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “She called me about three weeks before I left. She’d broken up with her boyfriend, and she was really upset. I was worried about her. That was the first time she’d ever told me what she was doing. I was scared, so when I didn’t hear from her, I came out here to find her.”

  “So where is she now? Why did she leave you alone?”

  “She was already gone,” she said, sniffling. “I went to the address I had for her, and the lady said she hadn’t lived there in months. I didn’t know what else to do. When she first moved out here, she had a roommate, so I tried to find her, but I couldn’t.”

  “Jesus, Kelsey. I’m so sorry that happened.”

  She nodded. “I’m afraid for my sister. It’s dangerous doing what you do, isn’t it? I mean, what if some guy kidnapped her?”

  I cleared my throat. That pretty much hit the nail on the head. Honestly, I had a feeling Kristine was already dead. She didn’t have the connections in Vegas to keep her alive, and I was pretty sure she wasn’t savvy enough to hide from mobsters. She got in over her head, and she paid the price for being literally—a greedy whore.

  “They’ll look for her, Kelsey. If anyone can, it will be Vince and Flynn.”

  “I know something bad has happened to her. She hasn’t called my phone one time since that day she called so upset. I know that’s why Vince found me. Someone hurt her, and they want to hurt me, too.”

  I gave her the best reassuring smile I could muster. “Vince will never let anything happen to you. Once he decides he’s going to protect something, he does it with everything he’s got. With his life.”

  She nodded, chewing on her lip. She was still worried, and I couldn’t blame her.

  “I’m getting all wrinkly,” she winced. “I think I’m going to get out for a while.”

  “Go on. I’m going to take a couple laps before I get out.”

  She climbed, scaled the side of the pool, and padded toward the chairs. Once we were in the clear and Doyle was either dead or behind bars, she would have to fa
ce the truth about Kristine. Hopefully, for Kelsey’s sake, she was hiding somewhere. That was the best case scenario. I wanted to try to convince her to go home and make it right with her family because at least she had a family. She needed them, even if she didn’t know it.

  I swam hard against the resistance of the water and let the adrenaline clear my head. Getting Flynn out of my head was almost impossible. We’d gotten through the hard talk, at least most of it. I wanted to put that all behind us for the rest of the day and enjoy our girls’ day at the pool.

  I was getting pretty good at being just a girl.

  TWENTY-THREE

  I was a nervous wreck. I had my hands tangled together in my lap to stop the fidgeting, and I swear I was breaking out in hives. I itched all over. Mrs. Maguire did that to me, even when she wasn’t trying. Flynn’s mother was a ferocious woman, and she intimidated the shit out of me.

  She sat staring at us, a small smirk pulling up the side of her lips. She wanted to blurt out ‘I told you so,’ and I was going to let her have her moment. She knew the second she met me that I’d end up with Flynn. She’d pushed my heart in the right direction, and it was inevitable.

  He’d been an asshole since the day he’d had to deal with the detectives regarding his father’s whereabouts, and I was close to strangling him in his sleep. I’d gone all out on my outfit, trying to excite and entice him into pulling the stick out of his ass, and he hadn’t even commented.

  I even bought a pair of freaking red stilettos. If that wasn’t love, I wasn’t sure what was.

  But he was completely distracted. Moody, touchy, angry... it was a true test of my patience. I understood that he was under a lot of pressure, but everything was so new, I wasn’t sure how it was going to affect us going forward. It was a pivotal time for me personally. I was letting go of so much, so much of my past, and so much of myself. Trying to become something new and something better, and most of all, I was trying to become a couple. It was as difficult as I knew it would be. The theory of happily ever after was becoming just that—a theory.

  “You look lovely, Jayne.”

  I smiled at Cherese. “Thank you. You look really beautiful tonight too. I love your wrap.”

  She had on a nice black pantsuit and a gorgeous silk pashmina around her shoulders. She looked so put together and classy, a woman with more confidence than I’d ever had. I thought I had the market on being the center of attention, but Cherese knew how to make the world revolve around her like no one I’d ever met.

  “Thank you. It was a gift from my rat bastard husband. Speaking of—what did you find out the other day, Flynn?”

  He cleared his throat, obviously irritated that he had to talk about it. I sat up straighter, suddenly very interested. He hadn’t told me much, only that Doyle was zigzagging across the southwest after leaving Mexico. He wouldn’t elaborate, but gave me the general speech about how he had it under control and I shouldn’t worry.

  As if that was an option.

  “I told them he’s attempted to hack into the offshore accounts, but he wasn’t successful. I have them well secured.” She raised an eyebrow. “And?”

  “And...” he snapped. “Mother, I told you when I have something to share, I will. He’s getting desperate now. If he’s already run out of money, we know what that means. Can we not talk about this now?”

  He ran his hand over his head and sighed. “I thought you wanted to spend some time with Jayne.”

  She laughed. “If that’s all I wanted, I would have asked her to join me for dinner. I wanted to see what new information you had and share some of my own.”

  I looked over at him as his head snapped up to face her. “What are you talking about?”

  She gave me a wink and then moved her eyes back to Flynn. “What are you going to do with the girl?”

  He squinted at her, frowning. “Jayne?”

  Rolling her eyes, she sat back, annoyed. “No, not Jayne. I know what you’re going to do with her, darling. We’ll get into that later. I’m talking about the young girl—Kristine’s sister.”

  He shook his head slowly. “Nothing. She has nothing to do with this. She’s in need of protection, so Vince is taking care of her.”

  “Bullshit. Why else would she come out here?”

  I had to speak up. Kelsey did not need Cherese on her ass. “She truly doesn’t know anything, Mrs. Maguire. I’ve spent a lot of time with her the past few days, and she’s in the dark. She’s worried sick about her sister.”

  She picked up her drink and stared at me over the rim of the glass. Suddenly, I was covered in a light sheen of sweat, and I kind of wanted to throw up.

  “If you believe her, I will give her the benefit of the doubt.”

  I didn’t know what to say, but that sounded pretty damn close to a compliment coming from Cherese. When I looked up at Flynn, his expression told me he agreed.

  “Doyle sent Sullivan to the house about a week ago. He’s been tasked to keep an eye on Kelsey. Your father thinks she has access to the money Kristine took, so she needs to be watched.”

  My heart plummeted. Just thinking about harm coming to Kelsey gave me the cold chills. She was still certain that nothing would happen to her, no matter what we told her. She couldn’t fathom someone wanting to hurt her. What she didn’t understand was that she was an easy target.

  “Doyle will use her as a pawn, Flynn.” Her eyes moved over to gaze at me before giving him a serious look. “He’s done it before.”

  I knew what she meant. Me. He’d used me to get my father. Doyle had wanted to hurt him, and he had by humiliating me.

  “He won’t touch Jayne. Over my dead fucking body,” he hissed.

  “I know your father, Flynn. He is stewing in anger knowing that I’ve allowed you to take over his business. Through Sullivan, he knows that you’ve disassembled and destroyed the most lucrative associations. That flamboyant piece of shit casino is nothing to him—you know that.”

  “What are you trying to say?” I finally asked. I pretty much knew where she was going, but I wanted a definitive answer.

  “You’re leverage. Again.”

  “She’s not,” Flynn howled. “Damn it, Mother. I’ve done my best to reassure her that she would be in no danger. I won’t let him hurt her again.”

  She smiled. “I know you will try to keep her safe, and that scares me, too. You’re all I have, Flynn.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. I felt horrible. I was afraid for Flynn’s safety, the same as he was of mine. I couldn’t imagine what his poor mother was going through. How she lived with a man like Doyle so long baffled me.

  “Don’t be sorry. My son loves you. I told you the day we met that he would never stop. He gets that from his father. It’s a good trait in Flynn’s instance. I believe wholeheartedly he will let no harm come to either of you if he can help it. We just need to find Doyle before he can strike.”

  “That’s what I’m trying to do.” He was defensive and suddenly very tense. “What else do you know, Mom?”

  The waiter delivered our entrees, and we were silent as he set the table. We were in a very quiet, very small French restaurant on the outskirts of town. I’d never been there before, but apparently it was Cherese’s favorite place to eat. The food smelled delicious, but my stomach wasn’t much interested in consuming any of it at that point.

  “Do you remember the ranch up north? We used to visit when you were a young boy.”

  He busied himself with refilling our wine glasses and nodded. “I used to drive up there all the time. I haven’t been in years, but I love that place.”

  She smiled. “He has the ranch fitted as an escape plan. The entire bottom level is secure and holds a full arsenal. He’s always been paranoid, for obvious reasons. I think he may sneak up there and hide.”

  Flynn set the bottle down and leaned forward with his elbows on the table. “Have you told the detectives?”

  She shrugged. “They should know of its existence. They’ve
gone through every property here in Clark County, and they knew about the houses in Arizona, Mexico, and Texas. I figured they already knew.”

  He chuckled darkly. “What do you have planned?”

  She smiled, almost childlike and definitely scary. “If they catch him, they will ask questions first and shoot later. I want that bastard dead. Behind bars, he will be as dangerous as he is outside. You know how deep his connections go. He will still pull all the puppet strings even while he’s in prison. There is only one way for all of us to be free of him.”

  I gasped, covering my mouth in shock. I was fucking flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe she’d just insinuated that she wanted Flynn to kill his own father. I hated the man, more than anything in the world, but there was no way Flynn could live with himself if he did that. He was many things, but a killer? Cold-blooded murder? Hell no.

  “He can’t do that,” I cried. “How could you even ask that of him?”

  She reached forward, her eyes softening as she took my hand. “He will kill anyone that gets in his way. He will not stop, especially if he feels trapped. Life for all of us will not go on as long as he’s breathing.”

  I shook my head. I couldn’t agree with any of it. There was no way I was going to let him get hurt. There had to be another way.

  I shoved my chair back and stood, ready to leave. “I need to go. I can’t listen to this anymore.”

  Flynn grabbed my arm as I moved to leave. “Wait. I’ll go with you.”

  Cherese got up and came around the table, her face etched with worry and regret. “I would never willingly put him in danger, Jayne. He’s my only son. I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.”

  She reached to hug me, and I allowed her. My legs shook, and my chin quivered. I didn’t want to think about it.

  “My son is a very lucky man. He knows this, which is why he will do anything and everything to protect you. That’s why I worry.”

  She kissed the side of my cheek and pulled back, patting my shoulder. “Flynn, darling, can we speak privately for just a moment?”