“What’s going on, Katie?”
Her gaze dropped to the floor, then back up to me. “I know how much you want Stillman.”
I nodded. The roar of rage that had consumed me when he told me he’d had something to do with Sarah’s death had been unlike anything I’d ever felt before. The spark that had always been kindling away inside me since her disappearance ignited into an inferno that I was sure had incinerated me from the inside out. I knew that fire would never go out until I had made that cunt pay.
“But, unfortunately, I can’t allow that.”
I froze, my breath solidifying my lungs. “What?”
She braced herself, readying herself for my attack. She was well trained, that much was clear. She watched my body language closely, anticipating my every move.
For a mere second, the mask she wore crumbled and devastation covered her face. Her jaw trembled and she appeared to struggle with her breathing. She sucked in her lips and finally drew a heavy breath. “On our way out…” A catch in her voice made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. She had my attention. She had all of it. I stood up, regarding her closely when it was evident she was about to break.
But she cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders again.
“On our way out, we were fired on by a man that…” She shrugged, frowning and blinking rapidly. “…that had gone unnoticed.”
Taking a step towards her when her knees buckled she held out a hand at me and shook her head firmly. “No, stay there.”
“What happened?”
She moved her eyes away, looking anywhere but at me. She knew I could see her, the real her. The her that hurt, the her that wanted to be free, the her that fought against her feelings with every damn breath in her lungs.
As if another person possessed her, a void expression bled into her eyes and she became almost unnatural. A mannequin, a body that held nothing but rage and hatred. A machine. “Mark took the bullet that was meant for me.”
I knew, from her and Mark’s behaviour when he’d entered the room, that they had been close, closer than close, in fact. Yet, she stood before me as if she felt nothing. As though death was as familiar as breathing.
“Is he okay?” I don’t know why I asked when I already knew the answer.
“He’s dead,” she said so bluntly that I flinched. “So, you see, now I have to invoke that deal we had. Henry Stillman is mine now, Hope.”
Without another word, she spun around and left the room, the click of the lock sounding thunderous in the stunned silence of my head.
And I couldn’t do anything but watch, and feel every bit of the pain she swallowed whole. The pain that was slowly eating her alive.
Six
Katie
The sting of the water hit every one of my sore muscles when my body plummeted underneath the surface, the warm water encompassing me in its welcome embrace. Every drop touched me, adhered to me, its liquid armour sliding over my body and becoming a second skin as if it would protect me from the world. Comforting and soothing me with the hold I craved from another. But nothing would ever shield me from the cruel misery of life.
I moved violently through the deep depths, pushing through the barricades that tried to drive me back, until I reached the wall that gave me no choice but to turn back and go again. I wanted to turn back. Yet, I wanted to break through the wall and return to the day I lost everything. The day Katie Fox died and the hard-hearted, ruthless Katie Steed was born from her pain.
I jolted, my body jerking in the water when the echo of the single gunshot that took away the last person on this earth I loved flashed in my mind. Water forced its way into my mouth when the pain in my heart forced a gasp from me.
For a split second I envisaged allowing my lips to part and to accept the rush of water into my lungs, for its comforting embrace to caress my insides and finally give me the peace on the inside that it gave me on the outside.
But the memory of Mark’s soul bleeding out into my arms made me push up, vengeance making me surface and splutter on the water I had swallowed.
Palming the edge of the pool, I pulled myself out and grabbed the towel I had placed ready.
“You know, for a moment there, I didn’t think you were going to come back up.”
I spun around, my body locking down when I found Hope sat on one of the chairs watching me. “How the fuck did you get out?”
He tutted, pushing himself out of the chair and coming towards me. My bones hardened, my sore muscles no more moaning at the ache but groaning at the adrenaline that prepared them for a fight.
“You seriously think you can keep me locked up, Katie? Me?”
I stood my ground, sliding my bare feet apart to support my frame as I dropped the towel and fisted my hands.
“Settle down, tiger. I’m not here for a fight.”
His gaze slid down my figure. I wore a simple black full swimsuit that was hardly sexy but the flare in his glinting cold blue eyes rushed oxygen into my bloodstream and forced it between my legs. I didn’t like my reaction to him, in fact, I refused to allow it.
“Then I suggest you tell me what you do want before I lose my patience and fill your lungs with pool water.”
He laughed, our banter once again amusing him. “Oh how I love a woman with confidence.” He stepped forwards and I refused to move back when he leaned into me, bringing his face close to mine. I barely managed to hold back the shiver when his warm breath rushed over the cool skin of my damp neck. “It’s so fucking hot.”
My mouth dried with his closeness and I sank my teeth into the tip of my tongue, the biting pain hurling my mind back to where I wanted it. “So is a blowtorch on your nuts, arsehole.”
He stilled, his body stiffening with my words. Then he leaned back, and I couldn’t help but smile when he broke out into a hearty laugh. His whole face relaxed, and the sound of him letting go somehow fragmented a little of the pain that congealed in my veins. The misery that suffocated every cell inside me bled out through my pores, the small ease allowing me a real breath for the first time in a long while.
“Well, yes, I would imagine that would be quite hot too. Although, I’m not so sure it would be on your level of hotness.”
I rolled my eyes, shaking my head and sighing.
He coughed and then blew out a breath, taking a step back. “I have a proposition for you, Katie.”
I stared at him, allowing him to go on but not actually giving him my acceptance verbally.
“We both want Henry. I’m sorry about your friend, genuinely I am. But surely you can appreciate how important his death is to me.”
“I can.” And I could but that didn’t cancel out my own fury and need for revenge.
He hesitated for a moment and I watched his adam’s apple bob when he appeared to struggle with his words. He lifted his eyes to my face and I clenched my fists at the fury that glared back at me. “Sarah was fourteen, Katie. Fourteen years old. A child.”
Shock twisted my gut and I forced back the bile that crept up my throat. For some reason, I had presumed Sarah to be an adult.
“She had her whole life ahead of her. She was beautiful, and her soul was just as damn perfect. She was the only person on this God forsaken planet that loved me.”
His despair ate at the air, snatching the breath from my lungs.
“That… That cunt took her. And I have no idea what she went through when her last breath left her, but I know, without a doubt, that I was the last thing on her mind, the final beat in her heart.”
Tears filled his eyes but he blinked them back.
“I owe her his pain. I owe her his soul, because… because I know for certain that when she died I was mindlessly fucking some random girl, or off my face on alcohol, or forcing a bullet through someone’s head. I was her last thought when she died, and oblivion was on mine when she needed me the most!”
His agony took my ability to speak and I gazed at him, at his honesty and his grief. Silence
rippled around us and he stared me out.
“Yes, I took the person from you that meant as much as Sarah meant to me. But you got to hold him at the time. You got to be the last thing he saw, your skin the thing his closing breath whispered over. I never got that luxury with my little sister. He snatched her last breath, he was the last thing she ever saw. And I want my face to be the last thing he ever sees and my skin to feel the very last breath that I force from his body.”
I don’t know what made me say it, or even where it had come from, but it came from deep inside me nonetheless. “Together.”
He blinked at me, his brow creasing with confusion. “What?”
“We do it together. I promise you the final blow, but I need a piece of him, Hope, or I will never forgive myself for Mark taking what was meant for me.”
He licked his lips, considering my offer. However, slowly, he nodded. “Okay.”
I nodded in return and snatched my towel back up, pulling it around my body before I turned and walked away. “And then I kill you,” I told him over my shoulder.
“And then, maybe,” he answered quietly, “we kill each other.”
I couldn’t help but agree with him.
***
His embrace consumed me and I breathed him in, the unique scent of my ‘surrogate step-father’ bringing a peace to my soul only my parents had ever done.
“How you doing, honey?” Kade asked as he dropped a kiss to my forehead. Since my mum and dad had gone, the ever-present light that had twinkled in Kade’s eyes had disappeared, leaving behind a dullness that broke my heart every time he looked at me. Our unified grief brought us closer together, and I knew Kade had taken over my parents’ role, his love for me stronger than it ever had been. He and Grace had been in my life for as long as I could remember, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt they’d both die for me, and vice versa.
“I’m okay.”
We both settled into a booth at the back of The Fox, away from the ears and eyes of the other patrons.
“You know,” I said quietly, “It’s not your responsibility to keep coming over to check on me every time my life goes tits up.”
He snorted, quirking an eyebrow and disputing my statement. “Think again, Katie. You are my responsibility…” He shushed me when I opened my mouth to argue. “And I’m honoured to have that role. You are as much my daughter as you are Mason and Ava’s, and I love you as much as they did. You need me, or Grace, then we’re here, like it or not.”
I smiled, accepting his declaration because I knew it was the truth, and gave his hand a squeeze. “I know.” Blowing out a breath I blinked back the tears that wouldn’t fuck off, their relentless mission to break me making me angry with every breath I took. “I need a favour from Grace actually.”
“Oh?” He watched me over the rim of his glass when he took a drink of his beer. “Anything, you know that.”
“I need some intel on Henry Stillman.”
Grace was an agent for a discrete government unit that handled ‘things’ that held back the MI5 and MI6 in terms of what they were sanctioned to do. I knew she had access to the government databases.
“In what way?”
“He’s corrupt, Kade. Deep.”
He squinted at me, surprised by my revelation. “What? He’s been on your books for a long time, you know he’s corrupt.”
Shaking my head, I chewed on my lip. “No this runs deeper. I have a feeling he’s into child trafficking.”
“What the fuck? How do you know this?”
“I don’t ‘know’ it. But a friend’s sister disappeared a while back and I know Henry had something to do with it. Why take a fourteen-year-old girl, if not for that reason? I know I’m far from innocent, Kade, but no one should ever deal in kid shit. Ever. I won’t tolerate that.”
He nodded. “I’ll get Grace to see if there are any reports on him.”
“Thank you. If I find out the government are condoning it, or even covering up his shit, then I have to tread carefully how I deal with this. They’ll be out for blood, and the last thing I need is to bury myself.”
“And the other reason you’re after him?” Always astute was Kade.
Swallowing, I ran my tongue across my teeth. “He killed Mark.”
His face paled and his eyes glistened with grief for me. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so fucking sorry.”
I didn’t want his sympathy, it wouldn’t aid the vengeance inside me, and I shook my head. “Don’t be sorry. That’s for me. But I swear I’m going to make him pay for what he has done, both for Mark and Sarah.”
“Sarah? Your friend’s sister?”
“Mmm.”
“And this friend is…?” For the first time in a long while his eyes twinkled with hope for me, his assumption that I meant a lover making me smirk.
“Not that kind of friend. Quite the opposite actually.”
“He’s gay?”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “No.” Steeling myself, I clicked my tongue with a tiny amount of shame twisting my heart. “It’s Tristan Hope.”
Once again shock made him rear back and stare at me. “What? The same guy who took out Steed?”
“Yeah. We were both played by Henry Stillman, and, as yet, I’m not sure why. But I promised Hope vengeance for his sister before I take him out. I get his pain, you know. The dark pit in your soul that won’t ever be filled if revenge is taken from you. I’m cold, but I’m not heartless. He needs his peace before he takes his last breath.”
“But?” he asked, reading the turmoil behind my eyes.
“But… I can’t shake the guilt. I owe Steed Hope’s life. I should do my job and burn the motherfucker, except, I feel Steed inside me, both proud of me and in pain for me.”
Kade squeezed my hand and leaned closer. “Katie, you don’t owe anybody anything. Even your husband. Your life is exactly that, your life. Do what your gut tells you, don’t let others rule you.”
“You think he would understand?” I whispered, the words forming a lump in my chest.
The twinkle in his eye once again vanished when he understood the context of my question. Sighing, he gazed at me with the love of a father, one I had lost. “Your father was so very proud of you, Katie. He knew you had your heart, and your head, in the right place. He would back you up one hundred percent, whatever you decide to do.”
He was right, of course he was, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling I was letting both Dad and Steed down. I couldn’t understand my own decision to help Hope, never mind comprehend what my dad would have thought of it. But somehow I knew it was the right choice.
Only time would tell.
Seven
Tristan
She rode me like a fucking whore, her large tits bouncing up and down with every lift and fall of her pussy on my cock. Her skin was flawless, her long legs absolute perfection. Her large blue eyes watched me, the pleasure in them grateful for every one of my deep drives into her. Her plump red lips had devoured the whole length of me not minutes ago, the back of her throat accommodating the head of my cock.
Yet, she did nothing for me. I was surprised my hard-on had even lasted. I craved deep green eyes, small but pert tits, little yet shapely legs, and a stomach graced with feminine abs. My fingers fantasied about wrapping around long red curls, my teeth sinking into pale, smooth skin, and my palm stinging as I delivered handprints to a firm arse.
I wanted this whore’s moans to be another’s, my name choked from the mouth of a girl I couldn’t get out of my head.
I was fucking doomed!
She gasped when I shook my head and finally pushed her off my cock, her small pout making me sigh. “Go home, love.”
“Tristan?”
“Go - home!”
“Did I do something wrong?”
Jesus Christ, was she whinging on purpose? Winding me up until I flipped her over and gave her arse the hard fucking she was so evidently begging for? Except, something told me this bitch would never handle t
he side of me she was dangerously goading.
Katie, on the other hand.
My cock sprung back to life with that thought, and the slut’s eyes lit up with hope and excitement.
Climbing from the bed, anger gripped me when she didn’t take the hint and move, her eyes roving my body like it belonged to her. “Will you just fuck off home now, I’m bored.”
Tears filled her eyes but she defiantly blinked them back as she sank her teeth into her bottom lip. “You’re such a prick!”
I shrugged, agreeing with her as I slipped into my boxers and left her to dress.
Grabbing the juice from the fridge, I downed the contents in one, the alcohol I had consumed the night before leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. The front door banged closed and relief flooded me for the first time since I’d done something I’d never done before – brought one home. My head was fucked. I never brought them home, ever. It was too dangerous, not just for them, but for me.
I hadn’t heard from Katie in three days. She was digging for info on Stillman and had told me to be patient. Like patience was ever in my fucking bloodstream. I couldn’t help but feel she was fucking with me, except a part of me trusted her. It irritated the hell out of me that I did trust her, yet I couldn’t shake the feeling she was onside. We had a deal, and Katie was old-school, trained by the best, who valued the unwritten rules that bound people like us.
My mood was sinking lower and lower. The fire in my veins for vengeance was slowly eating away inside me, spreading through each capillary and trickling hatred within me until I felt its poison touch every fibre of me. My hands shook, my bones vibrated and my head hummed with the need for violence. Not once, since I’d started to deal in people’s lives had I ever lost this much control. I was always strict, with myself and my strategies, yet the anger that was bubbling away inside me was threatening to erupt, and I knew the consequences would be devastating.
The sound of my phone ringing pulled me from my thoughts and, expecting Katie, I was disappointed to see Danny’s name flash up. “Hey.”
Nemesis: Katie's story (Heart of Stone Book 15) Page 4
