I was hoping it wouldn’t be too messy.
The man was shirtless and barefoot, but we left him his jeans. Being naked might make the person feel more vulnerable, but I honestly didn’t like to strip them down. It made me feel like Dexter.
“Let’s get started,” I said.
Jordan took a bucket of water and splashed the man. He came awake with a deep inhale and then coughing.
“Breaker,” I said.
He looked up at me through his wet lashes. “What the fuck?” He started struggling against the ropes but gave up quickly.
“Shit,” he said, looking resigned and depressed. This was not the man I remembered. He was always ugly, but now he was chubby and balding. I was sure hiding like a coward came with a lot of stress.
“You knew this day was coming, Breaker.” Every Ace knew that there is no escape from justice when you turn on the club. “Here is the deal. You answer all my questions and I’ll make it quick. You don’t answer them, you’ll go to the grave missing some parts.”
Pure hatred poured out of Breaker’s eyes. “Let me guess, you want to know about your daddy the rat.”
He was trying to provoke me. He didn’t know that I’d accepted the truth about my father a long time ago. “Is he alive?” I asked.
“Last I heard, but that was over a decade ago.” Breaker looked around, no doubt looking for his means of escape.
“Did he go into witness protection, too?”
He gave me a surprised look. Then he smiled. “You really have no idea who Steven Jenkins was, do you?”
I wasn’t sure if this was another tactic to rile me or not so I played along. “Why don’t you tell me who he was?”
“He was a Fed.”
That gave me pause. That was not possible. I glanced at Jordan, who had the same confused look on his face.
“You idiots. He was working the club from the very beginning. He used your mother to get into the club.”
“What are you talking about? He grew up here with Greyson and the others. They knew him. There was no way he was a Fed.”
“So Greyson never told you about the seven years no one heard from him. Then he shows up one day and has the hugest hard-on for your mother. Convenient.” He sniffed, still trying to get the water out of his nose.
I didn’t know what to say. Could it be true? My grandfather had been the VP when my parents first got together. So he used her and got her pregnant just to cement his place within the Aces? Feds don’t go that far. They had rules that forbade sex and drug use while undercover.
“If that is true, how did you get involved?”
“I found out he was a Fed right after you were born. By then, he had enough evidence to have me arrested and sent away for long time. So he gave me two options.”
My anger rose up, and I growled. “So you betrayed the Aces to save your own skin.”
Breaker didn’t say anything, but he had enough sense to look ashamed.
If he was telling the truth, I’d underestimated my father’s treachery. “You are going to tell us everything you know. Or I’m going to get the pliers.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Isabel
For some reason, I woke up while it was still dark out. I turned over reaching for Rem, but I found the sheets cold beside me.
I shifted to look at the bathroom, but the door stood open with darkness beyond. I sat up and glanced at the clock. It was a little past midnight. Not exactly late for the Aces but why would Rem leave me when he just got back?
I pulled on a tank and a hoodie. Then put on my yoga pants with flip-flops.
Strangely, when I made it downstairs the clubroom was deserted. I made my way through the building toward the entrance. Maybe Rem went outside to smoke. He said that he quit, but I had a hard time believing he went cold turkey.
I opened the door to find Amy standing there, smoking.
“Oh, hey.” I smiled at her. She was still dressed in her slutty clothes and makeup. “I thought you went to bed already.”
“No, feeling a little restless,” she said.
I just nodded my head. I knew she had yet to resolve her mid-twenties crisis.
“Have you seen Rem?”
“Yeah. I think him and the boys are looking at a bike in the warehouse.”
That was strange. Rem wanted to look at a bike instead of cuddle with me. I was probably just being a girl, but I headed toward the warehouse to see what the fuss was about.
I’d never actually been in the warehouse before so it took me a minute to find a door that wasn’t locked. When I got inside, it took my eyes a minute to adjust to the darkness. I couldn’t see anything but large shelves with boxes. They were probably all parts for the shop. Then I heard talking. It was low enough that I couldn’t hear the words, but there were definitely voices. I ventured around the shelves slowly, unsure where I was going. Toward the back, I could see a light. As I got closer, the light was actually coming from behind a sheet of plastic.
“You are going to tell us everything you know.” It was Rem talking. “Or I’m going to get the pliers.”
What? I rushed forward past the plastic. The scene was straight out of Dexter. Sheets of plastics covered the walls, floors, chairs, and table. Torture tools were spread neatly on the table. The only difference was the victim was tied to a chair instead of a table and he still had his jeans on. The older man was also wet.
“What is going on here?” I demanded.
“Isabel.” Rem came toward me. I dodged him and went for the man. Jordan grabbed me before I could get close enough to untie him.
“You need to leave, Isabel,” Jordan growled at me.
I was about to scream at him when I felt someone yank me back by my shirt. Suddenly, there was a knife at my throat and the tortured man was the one holding it there.
“Stay back,” the man yelled at Jordan. The knife must have been his because Jordan’s hand was on his back pocket. I looked over to Rem, who already had his gun aimed at his torture victim.
“Breaker, there is no way out. Let her go,” he said calmly.
“Thanks for your help, darling,” Breaker snarled in my ear before licking it. I tugged on his arm with the knife. “You’ll keep me real good company on our way home. Lower your gun, lover boy.”
Rem kept his gun raised. “Did you not hear me, f—” The firing of the gun reverberated through my ears and chest. I cried out. Then Breaker was falling back. I sidestepped so the blade didn’t cut me as he went to the floor.
Oh my God.
The adrenaline pumped my blood so fast that it roared in my ears. I was deaf to everything. Then I felt Rem cup my cheeks. “Babe.”
“Don’t touch me,” I screamed and ran.
****
I had spent an hour in the shower, washing the blood off my skin and crying. Most of it was crying. I finally dragged myself out and wrapped a towel around my shoulders before lying on the bed. My throat was sore from the sobbing and I couldn’t breathe through all the snot in my nose, but it just kept coming.
Should I go to the police? Of course, I should go to the police. I witnessed a crime. Any sane person would go to the police.
Then I would have to say Rem did it. Can I do that?
I hated him in this moment. How could he do that?
Idiot. You were the one to go snooping.
I didn’t know how long I lay there before Rem came into the room.
I kept my face turned away from him. Looking at him would only make it worse. The bed dipped and his arm came around me. “Isabel, I’m sorry I scared you. I know you think I took a risk shooting him when I did, but there was no chance I could have hit you.”
I shook my head. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” He whispered it against my ear and held me tighter, wrapping me in his scent and warmth. I couldn’t understand it. How could a murderer be so sweet and loving?
“You murdered him. And before that, you were torturing him.” I paused to
hold back a sob. “The man you were in that place. I don’t like him. In fact, he scares me,” I said.
Rem cupped my cheek and forced me to look at him.
“What should I have done? Let him take you? He would have murdered you.”
“You don’t know that.”
His handsome face contorted with anger. “Yes, I do. He deserved to die, Isabel.”
“It is not for you to decide,” I insisted.
He spun himself around so he sat on the bed facing away from me. He ran his hands through his hair. After a few moments, he said, “I know my world is different from yours and you can never imagine wanting to hurt anyone. But things are different here. I do what I have to protect the things I love.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be something you have to protect.” The words were out before I could stop them.
He faced me again. “What are you saying?”
I couldn’t look at him. It hurt too much, so I turned away as I said, “I don’t know if I can be with a man who kills the way you do. Maybe we shouldn’t be together.”
He was on top of me suddenly with a hand in my hair and the other gripping my throat. “What? You think you can break up with me like some college boy?” I pulled at the hand at my throat even though he wasn’t hurting me. “No, I told you that you belong to me now. I am not letting you go no matter how scared you are. Do you understand?”
I didn’t say anything, just pushed him away.
He went willingly and got up off the bed. “You’ll get over it,” he said. After that, he left with a slam of the door.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Rem
After I slammed the door, I just stood in the hallway and listened to her cry. My last words had been scary and extreme, but I couldn’t stop them. Her threat was like a wooden stake through the heart, rough and jagged, leaving splinters on its way into my chest.
Red seeped into my vision, and I lashed out to hurt her back. It crossed my mind to simply kick her out of my bed and my club, see how she fared on her own.
But no, she wasn’t leaving me, I wouldn’t allow it. She is mine, damn it.
I have lived too long in the darkness to go back now.
I would give her time to come to terms with what happened and she would see that I did the right thing.
I left the hallway and headed to the clubroom. When I came downstairs, Greyson and Hawk were waiting for me. I was sure Jordan had already filled them in on the situation. Before I spoke to them, I called Skinny over.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Go and watch my door. Make sure Isabel doesn’t go anywhere.”
He nodded and headed to the stairs.
“It’s like that, huh?” Greyson said, his face blank, but his eyes were weary.
I shook my head. I was mad as hell at Isabel right now, but I didn’t want the others to think she was a threat. “She just needs some time. I think she is in shock.”
Greyson gave me a hard stare. “All right. I’m going home so be careful.”
Once he was out of the room, Hawk said, “How about some Mary Jane?”
I let out a breath. “Definitely.”
We went out the back and Hawk lit up. We stood quietly for several minutes, passing the grass back and forth and looking up at the stars. The silence was good, and the herbal stimulation was even better.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Hawk said.
I was surprised by the offer. Hawk was the most stoic amongst us. Sometimes I wondered if he had emotions at all or if his discipline simply didn’t allow them.
Yet here he was, asking about me. Maybe the reefer made him sympathetic and maybe the reefer made me answer honestly. “How could she threaten to leave me?”
“She said that?”
I shook my head in confusion. “Not exactly. But she said she wasn’t sure she could be with a guy like me.”
“Like you?”
“A killer.” The word felt strange in my mouth even though I knew it was true. The United States government could verify it with forty-two confirmed kills in my career.
Hawk nodded and took a drag.
“I just thought she understood … what we do here, ya know?”
He shrugged. “Knowing and seeing are different.”
I glared at him and stole the hemp back. He was supposed to be making me feel better, not justifying her actions.
I took a drag and looked up at the stars again. The lighted dots seemed so close together, but they were years apart. Was that Isabel and me? Did we seem close but were actually far apart? Too far to touch?
I shook my head. I knew the grass was getting to me when I started thinking in the abstract. I handed the cigarette back to Hawk. “So what do you think I should do?” I needed an honest opinion, and Hawk was the type to give it.
“Like you said, she needs time.”
I nodded and leaned against the building again. I’d give her time and space, even though it would kill me.
She would come around, and if she didn’t…
Looks like I’ll be using those handcuffs for more practical purposes.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Isabel
The next few days were a slow torture. Indecision clouded my brain so I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. Things seemed so simple before. There was right and there was wrong. But now, I was in a world with nothing but shades of gray. Fear was the name of my tormentor, taunting me with consequences I couldn’t handle.
One side of fear told me to go to the police. I was scared that this was just the beginning of several inhuman acts I would witness. What would I become if I turned a blind eye? Torture, murder, drug dealing, extortion. Could I be an accomplice to these horrible things? Not only was I risking my freedom but my conscience.
But if I thought about leaving the Aces, another fear stabbed at me. I’d be turning my back on people I cared about, people who cared about me. What if I never found that again? Life had been so lonely until now. And what about Rem? Will any man ever make me feel the same?
I did not want to give him up.
Rem and I had managed to avoid each other over the last few days. He was nice enough to find somewhere else to sleep so I could have my space. At least, that was my hope, and that he was not vengeful by sleeping with another woman. I knew he had a reason to be upset with me, too. I’d barged into that warehouse like a crazy person, thinking I was the hero, when in reality, I was just a stupid girl who was in over her head.
I tried to keep myself busy with chores. While I was unsure if I wanted to stay or leave, the reality was that I couldn’t leave while my uncle and father were still lost. Work was the only way to keep my brain from collapsing from my conundrum.
When the usual chores were done, I created new ones. I swore the Aces’ clubroom had never been so clean. You couldn’t find a cobweb if you tried. Not surprising, I found more condoms than cobwebs though.
It was Saturday morning when I took on the bar. I had methodically removed all the bottles to be dusted and set them on the bar in the exact same order so I wouldn’t confuse the prospects later. I was wiping down the caked on dust when Amy came into the room. She had a little smile on her face and a pep to her step as she sipped her Starbucks iced coffee.
“Hey,” I said.
“Oh, I didn’t see you behind all the bottles,” she responded with a giggle.
“You seem in a good mood.”
“Oh yeah.” She looked to the right for a second and then looked at me again. “Greyson told me yesterday that he would help out with college. He said Rem mentioned it to him.”
“That’s great.” I gave her genuine smile. I was happy for her, but I was happier that Rem remembered. That boy was not making my decision any simpler.
“I’m going to check out the school’s website.”
I nodded as she went to the stairs. I was glad she was out of her funk. If only I could find a way out of mine.
I had placed the last bottle back in place
when I heard the door to the offices open. I turned to see Jordan and Rem come in and head toward the kitchen. They were talking about something when Rem finally spotted me. He stopped in his tracks and then headed back to the door. “I’ll eat later.”
After he left, Jordan glared at me. “This is ridiculous.”
“I didn’t tell him to leave,” I said, suddenly defensive.
“No, you won’t tell him anything. You just keep dragging him along.”
He was right. I didn’t know what to do. My fears had me so tied up that I didn’t know which way was up or down. And I was scared to tell Rem what a coward I was. “It’s not like that—” I tried to say.
“I don’t care. I knew this would be a disaster,” he sneered.
I waited until he was in the kitchen and then I ran to the laundry room. The tears started to fall before I even closed the door. Jordan was right. It was stupid of me to think I could be with a man like Rem. Maybe it was best to end it now. I didn’t have to go to the police, but I didn’t have to stay here either.
Sophie found me there a few minutes later, sitting on the floor, crying over my broken heart.
“Oh, honey. Tell me,” she said softly as she bent down next to me.
I told her everything. What I saw, what I said, what I felt. It all came pouring out from the pit of my stomach, where it had been sitting for days.
I ended my rant and said, “Jordan said I should let him go, that we were a disaster. He is right, and that’s why I’m crying.”
“Seriously?” Sophie looked at me like she didn’t recognize me. “You’re going to let Jordan tell you how things are between you and Rem? You are smarter than that.”
“He’s Rem’s best friend.”
“Yeah. He has also never been in a relationship that lasted more than three months. Don’t listen to him.”
I wiped my face. “So you think we actually could make it?”
“I think that is up to you.” She helped me stand up. “I know the life of an old lady has its challenges. You find yourself questioning things you never thought to question. Trust me, I’ve had my doubts, too.”
Reign Over Me (The Covenant Book 1) Page 18
