“It doesn’t matter who she slept with. I would be far more concerned with your future than hers,” Fire warned.
“You don’t fuckin’ scare me, Fire,” I replied.
“Oh no? Well, let’s see if we can fix that, shall we?” he asked cryptically.
Blain untied Ty from the chair and yanked on her arm. “C’mon.”
“As a matter-of-fact, take Tracey in the other room, but don’t kill her just yet. I want to see if our friend here is as loyal as you say,” Fire replied.
“No, Daddy, no!” Ty pleaded as Blain untied her from the chair and pulled her to her feet.
I whispered to her as she passed by, “I’m coming for you.”
“I wouldn’t make promises that I couldn’t keep,” she replied, stumbling over her heels trying to keep up with Blain.
Ty
The doors closed behind me, leaving Fire, his two men, and Mace in the room alone. I looked back and watched the doors disappear as we rounded the corner. Blain clutched onto my arm tightly as he hauled me to my old bedroom. I hadn’t seen it in over a year, and dear ol’ Dad hadn’t changed a thing.
I still had all my beauty pageant trophies up on the mantle, and Mr. Snuggles still lay against the pillows on my bed.
Maybe he loved me? Or maybe he was just too busy to get around to changing it into a weight room, or another torture chamber for his long list of names.
“Get over there,” Blain yelled as he flung me onto the bed.
I squealed when my back hit the metal headboard with so much force it left an indentation in the cream colored wall behind it.
“What are you gonna do?” I asked.
I didn’t need to, though; I knew what was on his mind. The same thing on every man’s mind. After all, once he killed me, he wouldn’t be able to have me anymore. Of course, he was gonna take advantage.
Mace
“Blain has always said good things about you, especially how loyal you are. I would like to put that to the test,” he said as he unbuttoned his cufflinks, then rolled up his perfectly pressed sleeve.
“What do you want, Fire?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“I want you to shut the fuck up and let me talk!” he screamed as he landed a punch to my gut.
The blow forced air out of my lungs as I doubled over his outstretched arm.
He backed away. “Now that we have that straight, I’d like you to kill my sweet Tracey. It’s usually something I’d ask Blain to do, but I’d like to bring you into the fold.”
Inhaling a big gulp of air, I said, “Go fuck yourself, Fire.”
The two oafs standing at either end of the room chuckled at my comment and Fire joined in with them. “‘Go fuck myself,’ he says.”
They continued to chuckle as Fire whipped around and backhanded me in the face. “You wanna act like a bitch, I’ll slap you like one,” he said, rubbing his knuckles.
“Is that all you got? You hit like my grandmother,” I taunted.
“I guess I can’t share in Blain’s sentiment of loyalty that he has for you.”
“I guess you can’t,” I echoed.
Fire turned to his men. “You know which alley I like. Make sure he’s alive for all of it.”
“You’re not gonna take care of me yourself?” I asked critically.
“I don’t have time to do my own work anymore,” he replied as he rolled down his sleeves.
“Tell me this. I know you had Blain sell Ty, but why the change of heart to kill her?”
“You might not believe this, but I love my baby girl. I punished her how I saw fit, but after a while the punishment became excessive. I wasn’t going to bring her disrespectful, dirty whore ass back into this house. So I decided to put us both out of our misery.”
“By killing her? You selfish fuck!” I yelled as I lunged at him, forgetting I was still restrained.
Fire chuckled at my failed attempt. “So much fire in those bones of yours. I would’ve liked working with you, Mace—unfortunately for you, a conscience is a deal-breaker. Can’t have you going off and saving the world on my dime.”
Fire finished unrolling his sleeves and calmly buttoned his cufflinks as his men walked over to me and untied my wrists.
“Last thing—what did you have to do for Blain?”
Fire looked up at me as he continued to adjust his cufflinks. “Blain didn’t want you to know.”
“But Blain’s not here, is he?”
He chuckled. “Well, you know that funny little rule he has about his team and women? I have a funny little rule about my daughter sleeping with assholes. Funny how those two rules were broken in my daughter’s bedroom about a year ago.”
That’s all he had to say. My heart dropped into my stomach. I knew. I knew with only those few words.
“Derrik?” I asked in a low voice.
“Was that his name?” Fire shot out a sinister smile. “Who can remember names nowadays?”
It always struck me as odd, that in the note Derrik had left under my windshield wipers, he tagged me as M, because as long as I had known him, he had always called me Ash. I guess in retrospect, I could finally answer why he never came to my door to say goodbye. He was already gone. Probably burned to a crisp at the bottom of some dumpster.
I felt a deep sense of guilt for hating Derrik this past year for leaving, all the while having drinks with his killer almost every other night.
As Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum helped me to my feet, I swiftly kneed the one to my right in between the legs and, with the same foot, projected my heel backward into the nuts of his slow-reacting cohort. They both fell into a fetal position onto the floor, groaning and grabbing at themselves.
“You should get better help around here,” I said, focusing my sights on Fire, who whipped around after hearing the commotion behind him to see I had taken down both his gorillas without the use of my hands.
He lunged at me with all the anger that hell could muster. “Son-of-a―!”
Unfortunately for him, I interjected with a roundhouse kick to his head. His face seemed to move in slow motion, spit flung from his mouth as the velocity of my heavy combat boot made contact with his jaw.
CRACK!
His head banged on the edge of the desk; he didn’t move again. His body fell to the floor in a heap of designer material. I ran over to the desk to look for something to cut the ropes loose.
I twisted my body to grab at the sharp tool that lay just short of the edge of a stack of papers at the corner of the desk. I positioned it in between the ropes, careful not to accidentally slice my wrists as I worked the sharp edge against the bindings. My forearms strained as I tried to free myself, knowing if I were going to save Ty, time was of the essence.
My arms flew apart as I cut through the last of the strands of rope. I stuffed the letter opener in my back pocket and grabbed my phone, which they had left on the desk. I stopped and pulled Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum’s guns out of their shoulder holsters, and then shot each one in the head for good measure.
Running out of the room, I realized Ty and Blain could be anywhere in this massive house, so I headed for the staircase. That’s when I heard a woman’s squeal and a hard bang on the wall come from behind. I spun around and headed toward the noise. Blain’s voice grew louder as I rounded the corner and neared the closed door at the end of the hall.
“Stop it, Blain!” I heard Ty scream from inside. The anger in me swelled like a volcano ready to burst.
What is this I was feeling? Please, God, don’t tell me I’m starting to have feelings for this woman. She makes me fuckin’ crazy!
But I suppose love does that to people. I rammed my shoulder straight through the door, slamming the knob into the wall and lodging it there.
“Mace!” Ty screamed from the bed.
Blain was lying on top of her struggling body, attempting to force himself on her.
“Get the fuck off of her, you sick fuck!” I yelled as I sprinted toward the bed and grasped onto his ankles, yanking him t
o the floor.
He fell with a hard thud. I pulled out my gun and cocked it as I pointed it to his head. “Don’t move, asshole.” I stretched out my hand toward Ty. “C’mon, Ty.”
Blain lay with his stomach on the Berber carpeting and his head turned toward me. “What happened to Fire, Mace?”
“You should worry about yourself, Blain,” I warned, hiding Ty behind me.
Yelling came from outside the room, taking my attention away from Blain for only a second, but it was just enough time for Blain to grab at my ankle, causing me to fall to the floor.
He lunged at me. “Don’t let a whore come between us, Mace,” Blain yelled as we grappled for the gun.
Calling Ty a whore angered me to no end. The adrenaline bubbled in my veins. “No, muthafucker—you came between us,” I replied, spitting in his face. “You killed Derrik, you corrupt son of a bitch.”
“Derrik knew the rules. He got what he had coming and so will you,” he said in between breaths.
I brought my knee up to my chest, lodging my foot into his stomach, then kicked out, propelling him off of me. He fell backward onto the floor, then forced his foot to my face, kicking me on the side of my jaw. The pain was blinding, but I knew if I let him get the best of me, it would be the end of Ty and me. Crawling on top of him, I slapped the butt of the gun across his face. He passed out immediately, but I knew it was only temporary, so I had to get us off the premises as quickly as possible. I looked up, and she was gone.
Ty
I walked into my father’s office. I wanted to see it for myself. There was no other way Mace could have escaped. I walked past the bodies of the two guards to see my father’s motionless body lying on the floor.
I stood over him, disgusted by his presence. “Sick fuck.”
His hand moved, his fingers touching the toe of my shoe. “Tracey,” he whispered as he rolled over, his face bloodied from the edge of the desk.
Just the way he said my name made my blood boil. Without any hesitation, I grabbed the first thing I saw and rammed it in between his eyes. He just laid there, not a blink, or an exhale. He was frozen—just staring at me.
I began to sob, still clutching the scissors when Mace ran in and saw what I had done.
“You okay?” he asked as he pried my hands from the scissors, and helped me up.
I nodded.
Mace
The sound of Eli and Joe running up the stairs to trap us in the hallway grew louder.
“Stay behind me, Ty.”
She clutched onto my shirt and buried her sobbing face into my back as she let me lead her down the hall. I pulled out the extra gun and pointed it down the hall, waiting for Eli and Joe as we inched our way to the stairs. They appeared at the end of the hall, surprised I had a gun already cocked and pointed at them.
“Let’s talk about this, Mace, there’s no way out,” Eli said calmly with his hands in the air.
“There’s always a way out. Walk slowly down the stairs,” I said, motioning to them with the gun.
They turned around and slowly made their way down the staircase as we trailed behind.
Once we reached the bottom, I ordered them to their knees.
“Put your hands behind your head and close your eyes,” I ordered.
“Don’t do this, Mace,” Eli begged.
“Fuckin’ traitor,” I yelled, banging the butt of my gun into the back of his head to knock him out; he fell like a rock.
In the meantime, Joe tried to jump up and take me down, but Ty came out of nowhere and knocked him in the head with a golden statue from the mantle.
“That’s my girl!” I said with a smile.
She didn’t reply to my flirtation as we ran out the front door to the nearest SUV.
“Keys?” Ty screamed.
I flipped the visor down, and a set of keys fell on my lap. “We always leave a set for emergency escapes.”
I popped the car into reverse and slammed on the gas to back out of the long, arched driveway of the mansion. Once on the street, I popped the gear back into drive. Before I screeched off, I saw Blain running down the driveway, shooting at the side of the Suburban.
“Go, go, go!” Ty yelled, banging on the dashboard.
I slammed my foot on the gas pedal and took off down the street, still looking through the rear view mirror. Blain took a shooting stance on the pavement and aimed.
BANG!
The sound of gunfire shot through the air. A few moments later the sound of shattering glass filled the car, then silence. I looked at Ty, who was okay but frightened, then through the rear view mirror. I could only sort of see Blain since the bullet he fired created a hole in the middle of the mirror.
“He missed,” Ty said with a smile.
“He didn’t miss,” I said, shaking my head as we rounded the corner.
Blain was the best distance shooter out of all of us, and I knew he was sending me a message; he was coming for me. What he failed to understand—what he should have known—I knew all his tricks, and I’d be waiting.
I handed her the phone. “Here. Take the battery and SIM card out of my phone. I don’t want him tracking us until we know what we’re going to do.”
KNOW ME
Ty
I watched him drive us through the endless streets of the city, eyeing all the mirrors to make sure no one was following us.
“Who hurt you?” I asked.
He chuckled. “What in the fuck are you talking about?”
“You heard me. Tough guy bullshit aside—who hurt you?”
“What makes you think anyone hurt me?” he asked as he rested his elbow out of the window and nervously wiped his bottom lip with his fingers.
“I’m not making you nervous, am I?” I asked with a slight grin.
“Women don’t make me nervous,” he replied.
“I think I do,” I said coyly.
“I think you think too much of yourself,” he said as he veered the car onto the freeway.
“Listen, I’m fucked up because a man hurt—well, a couple of men, hurt me. You know all that. If you want me to trust you with my life, I think I should know something about you too.”
He looked at me, then turned back to the road, shaking his head. “I don’t see how this is important.”
“Just like every other man. You think you’re too good for feelings. But what you don’t realize is that feelings are what make you a better man. It’s the secret that women scream from the mountain tops, but men never seem to listen.”
“You’re not gonna stop, are you?” he asked, slightly irritated I wouldn’t let the subject go.
I knew I had hit a nerve, and that breaking down this wall could only help our relationship. And our relationship was the only thing keeping me alive. Without him, I’d be dead, and I wasn’t too proud to admit it.
Mace
I looked over at her, wondering why in the world she needed to know about my past to trust me in the present.
“I’ve kept you safe. That’s all you need to know to trust me,” I said.
She crossed her arms and looked out her window. I could feel her anger from where she was sitting, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I didn’t like that she was mad at me.
“You know, by bringing this old shit up, you’re just clouding my mind when I need my head to be clear.”
“I don’t see it that way, Mace.”
I could feel the anger welling up inside of me. “Fuck! She cheated on me and made me think the baby was mine,” I shouted as the old feelings I had locked away came flooding back. “Is that what you wanna hear?”
I was angry at her for making me feel those feelings all over again. I had gotten over the cheating ass bitch and the loss of my baby.
“I know she must have hurt you, but not all women are like her.”
I chuckled. “That’s like the pot calling the kettle black. You treat me like shit because of all the shit men put you through, but you wanna tell me that I should rise abov
e.”
“I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’m willing to try,” she said solemnly as she nipped at her thumb.
“Try what?” I asked as I looked over my shoulder to switch lanes.
“Don’t insult my intelligence by acting like you don’t want me. I know you do,” she said confidently.
I turned to her. “And even if I did want you, there are rules.”
She broke out into an uncontrollable laugh.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, shifting my gaze between her and the road.
“So, even after all that asshole has put you through, you’re still following his rules?”
I paused and thought about the question she posed. She was right. I had lived so long under the rules of the military, then Blain’s rule, that it felt like second nature to me. “I guess I’m gonna have to break my dependence on rules.”
The moment I said it, the air around me lightened, and the heaviness I felt on my heart seemed to disappear. I chuckled at the thought of finally living by my own rules.
“You without rules—I can’t wait,” she said coyly.
“You’re gonna wish you hadn’t said that,” I said, resting my hand on her inner thigh.
She leaned over the center console and exhaled in my ear.
The tickle awakened the beast that had been resting between my legs. I wanted her more than anything in my life right now. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was whether it was only her flesh I wanted, or if I wanted all of her. But the simple fact I was asking myself this question led me to believe the answer was the latter.
I pulled over and looked into her baby blue eyes, noting the intensity of her gaze. I knew she wanted me too. Grabbing the nape of her neck, I guided her off of her seat and onto my lap. She straddled me as cars whizzed by us. I pressed into her lips hard, removing all doubt of our lust for one another.
We kissed for what seemed like an eternity when the blaring horn from a truck driver passing to our left knocked us out of our moment. He gave us the thumbs up while smiling like a jackass.
Depravity (The Captive Series Book 2) Page 6
