by Evie Harper
Contents
Title
Copyright
Author Note
Books by Evie Harper
Synopsis
Dedication
Warning
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
Tail - Book #3
Connect With Me Online
Darkest Sneak Peek
Darkest Sneak Peek
Books by Evie Harper
About The Author
Acknowledgements
THE PORTLAND STREET KINGS
Book Two
FATAL
Copyright © 2016 by Evie Harper
Published by Evie Harper. First Edition March 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing. Except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For permission requests, email the author at [email protected]
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places are incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy of each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was no purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.
Cover Design: Perfect Pear Creative Covers
Editing: Swish Design & Editing
Proofreading: KMS Freelance Editing
Cover Images: Adobe Stock & Shutterstock
AUTHOR NOTE
Fatal is book two in the Portland Street Kings series. Therefore Collision, book one, should be read before Fatal. These books are not standalone’s. The overall plot continues throughout each novel, however each story does have a new couple, plus the previous characters.
OTHER BOOKS BY EVIE HARPER
YOU LOVED ME
You Loved Me At My Darkest (Lily and Jake)
You Loved Me At My Weakest (Emily and Kayne)
You Loved Me At My Ugliest (Alexa and Joseph)
PORTLAND STREET KINGS
Collision (Slater and Piper)
Fatal (Mack and Lana)
Tail – Coming June 2016
Pursue – Coming 2016
Untitled – Coming 2016
Fatal Synopsis
Mackson King’s past is a dark, horror-filled chasm that could swallow the toughest, most dangerous men. A member of the notorious Portland Street Kings, he’s impossible to intimidate—but he can be hurt. He learned that the hard way, thanks to her. Lana. The one woman capable of easing his nightmares, of soothing his demons, was the very woman who shredded his heart. She took away his torments, only to become one of them.
Born into a family who lost their way long before she arrived, Lana Scavello has carefully enforced a steely interior that shields her heart from harm. But that doesn’t mean she can’t cry, and she’s spared Mackson King more tears than he ever deserved. Finding Lana at her most vulnerable, saving her when she felt the most invisible, he burrowed beneath her defenses to carve his own personal door to her soul. Only to decimate it, along with everything she’d ever known.
Now, years later, fate has thrown the couple together once more. Pain, heartbreak and betrayal will explode to the surface, leaving both of them raw, aching, exposed. And that’s when their true love story begins…
DEDICATION
To all the readers who have fallen in love with the Portland Street Kings. I appreciate each and every message you send me. Thank you for loving the Kings as much as I do.
WARNING
For Mature Audience 18+
Contains Adult Situations & Language
Prologue
Della
My palms sweat and as I run my hands along my new scratches, I can feel the dirt there, too. I’ve spent the last twenty minutes beating my car’s trunk lid, hoping someone on the road or walking by would hear my screams for help.
My body jolts from side to side as I sense Rex take the corners dangerously.
Abruptly my body rolls and hits the side of the trunk. I’m pushed into the steel with great force as the car comes to a quick stop.
My body feels a thump vibrate through the flooring, and then the trunk opens, and I’m forced to squint my eyes from the blaring sunlight shining straight down on me.
A figure moves in front of the light and I’m able to open my eyes. Clearly, I see Rex standing there. What once was a good-looking man is now a shell of his former self. He’s lost all of his muscular appearance and looks as if he’s homeless and starving. However, the strength he used to grab and force me into my car defies his weak appearance.
Rex grasps the top of my right arm painfully and pulls me from the trunk. I bend my knees, fearing I’ll fall backwards as my shaking body refuses to help with my balance, but I manage to stay upright, relieved to be out of the small space.
My long blonde hair whips around my face as my eyes instantly search the area, and right away I know where I am. It’s where my brothers and I used to come sometimes with Rex and his friends when we were younger. When we discussed where to meet we would say, “Meet you at the tracks.” There’s nothing here but green grass and train tracks, which bend around a sharp corner, and over further is where the woods start. The guys would build a fire pit between the tracks and the trees and sit around drinking and laughing. We’d come here quite a lot. Sometimes it was safer than the abandoned building we were living in at the time.
While Rex is shutting the trunk, I take the opportunity and twist my body around in a circle, forcing him to relinquish his hold on me as Rex’s wrist bends backward.
He grunts loudly and then his grip releases me.
I’m free. I don’t freeze; I start running, not caring what direction I’m going in. I hit the long incline down towards the tracks and my legs wobble from the speed I’m trying to keep up while going down a hill. My heart pounds against my chest and almost explodes when I suddenly hear Rex yell out my name; he’s right behind me. My breathing becomes erratic and swallowing becomes near impossible with the dryness of my mouth.
I come to the tracks, and before my mind can decide the best way to tackle getting over them with the speed I’m going, my feet are separating. I’m trying to take even bigger strides to get over the large metal rods. Stumbling, I lose my balance and fall, but stop my body from hitting the ground with my outstretched hands landing on a large, dirt-covered wooden plank.
I keep moving. Dragging my fingers along each sleeper as I find my balance again and I’m over the tracks and running as fast as I can. Glancing over my shoulder, I watch as Rex takes the tracks perfectly with only a few long strides. His cheeks puffing hea
vily as he races to me as quickly as he can. Chills race down my spine as I realize I’m not going to be fast enough to get away.
A massive weight hits my back and steel arms fold around my body as I’m thrown to the ground with a heavy thump, which immediately winds me. My jeans and shirt protect as much skin as they can, but my arms are cut and begin to sting.
I’m fighting furiously for my lungs to expand as terror grips my body until I’m able to take my next inhale. All I can hear and feel is Rex’s heavy and hot breaths against my cheek. Showing me how exhausted he is as well. His arms are like a tight rope around my center, trapping my arms in too.
“Get off me, Rex! What the hell is wrong with you?”
I’m turned over roughly, Rex’s body on top of mine. I have nowhere else to stare except into his lost green eyes, which appear to be filled with deep grief, but for what I’m not sure.
He gently runs his fingers down the right side of my face.
“Did you tease him with this beautiful face?” Rex asks softly.
My body locks up from his words and the meaning behind them.
I harden my features. “Fuck you,” I grate out.
At the angry tone of my voice, Rex takes notice and it appears to wake him from whatever world he’s been lost in.
He examines my face a little more and his eyes grow glassy. “How could he? He knew I loved you,” Rex says, his voice distant and calm.
My body relaxes, though not from feeling safe, but from confusion and also sorrow. I knew Rex loved me, once upon a time. Before his father took what I had kept intact only for Rex—what his father took that wasn’t his to have.
My lips tremble and suddenly years of emotions come to the surface, and a sob bursts from my lips.
Rex jolts up in shock, but not enough to let me up. His face turns worried, his brow furrows and lines appear on either side of his eyes, showing just how much he’s aged in the last five years. Not from growing, but from stress, sadness and anger. It’s ravaged his body and soul.
“Were there signs?” Rex asks. “Why didn’t you tell me? I could have done something, stopped him before he hurt you. Then he’d still be alive, all of this could have been avoided if you just told someone,” Rex ends on an enraged shout.
My heart stills and my mouth widens from the shock of his tone going from gentle to furious within seconds.
Nevertheless, I don’t stay frozen for long. Injustice and anguish surge through me, to the point where I nearly give up—almost. Instead, I get mad. Frenzied rage vibrates through me.
How dare he blame me.
How dare he put the last five horrible years on me.
My fists bunch and I strike Rex. My hands colliding with whatever surface of his body I can get to. Thumping them against his shoulders, neck and head.
In Rex’s attempt to catch my wrists, he leans backward and I take the opportunity to slip out from under him. As soon as I’m up, Rex is too. Arms out wide, his feet dancing from side to side ready to cage me again. Defeat slams into me and I raise my hands in the air, halting him. I look around and there’s nowhere to run, no-one to help me. There’s only my car and even if I could outrun Rex and get to it, it’d be a miracle that the keys were in the ignition. We’re just going to keep running around in circles. My best bet is to stop and find out what Rex wants with me.
“Wait,” I shout. “I’m not going to run, Rex. But what the hell are we doing here? You want to talk about your father? You want to blame me for your life? Then fine, let’s talk. Let me tell you some truths. Your daddy raped me… there’s no gray area on how I behaved or what I was wearing. It’s black and white. He took and I screamed and begged him not to.” I take a shaky breath in, desperate to get through this moment with my head held high and my point made. “Signs? What fucking signs should a woman look for in a man who’s going to rape her? Or maybe it’s you who should get the blame? You were always there. I was hardly ever alone with your father, so why didn’t you see the signs? Why didn’t you save me?” My chin wobbles and I dash away my tears.
Rex’s eyes bulge and he takes a step back as if I physically struck him.
I sigh and shake my head, frustrated with the situation. I would never blame Rex for what his father did to me. “I don’t blame you, Rex. I’ve had enough bad in my life to know that no-one can control other people’s actions, any more than I can control the rotation of the Earth.”
Rex looks up to the sky, the veins in his neck bulge as he grinds his teeth together and then he lets out a guttural yell.
My brow furrows, and I take a careful step back from him.
This isn’t Rex, not at all.
His eyes lower to me as fast as lighting and his lip curls up in a snarl.
What the hell? His moods are all over the place.
It’s then I think to look down at his arms. And what I find shatters my heart. Needle marks, not just one, but many.
I knew this. Although seeing with my own eyes feels like a slap to the face, and waking up to a reality I didn’t want to believe in. I can’t even begin to describe the hopelessness that sets in. Knowing how far-gone Rex is. Understanding that anything I say right now is just a waste of my own breath.
A sick feeling hits my stomach as I realize only one of us may be leaving this place alive, and the chance of that being me is almost impossible. I clench and unclench my fingers as fear begins to spike inside me.
I stare into Rex’s dark eyes and with a shaky, but mostly steady voice I ask, “Why did you bring me here?”
As if being snapped out of a dream he peers around at our surroundings and then back to me. Rex’s face relaxes, tight lips soften and for the first time today I spot the Rex from my teenage years. The boy who helped me with my school work. The friend who taught me how to draw. My first love.
“You and I, Dell, we’re meant to be. But now, everything’s fucked up. I was gonna make you happy. I got more family, important people in the world. I’ve taken over what my father did for them and I was gonna give you everything you never had.” Rex bends at the knees and fists his hands, his veins popping on and around the track marks on his arms. “I had plans for us,” he grinds out. “Plans that went to fucking shit the moment I found out that it was you who killed my father and not fucking Slater. You.”
Rex curls his arms up in the air, they tense as if he wants to grab and shake me mercilessly.
As I hold my hands out ready to defend myself, I scan the area frantically.
Rex. Woods. Train tracks. Road.
My breaths come hard and fast and my heart cracks wide open, because what Rex and I could have had didn’t end the day he found out I killed his father. We died the day his father raped me. There would never be a single moment in my life in which I could bear the intimate touch from my rapist’s son.
It’s not Rex’s fault his father turned into a predator, but I could never lie next to Rex and not see his father holding me down. Bruising me. Prying my legs apart. Slapping me until I was almost unconscious. No part of me can ever separate the two. That’s a place I can’t keep going back to for the rest of my life.
Lowering my arms and straightening my back, I pull strength from inside myself and with quivering chin, I whisper, “I loved you.” Rex frowns and he stares back at me with anguish in his eyes. “You were my whole world, the only boy I’d ever thought would have my heart. You led the way and I followed. I whole-heartily trusted everything about you.” Tears begin to flow freely now and Rex’s form blurs. “I’ve had to survive all my life. I only got through my childhood because it’s what I thought was normal. I didn’t know regular beatings weren’t what all other children were going through. I thought all parents and families were the same. Then I lost my sister and had to sit back and watch my brothers suffer every day so they could watch out for me… look after me, eat less than me, sleep less than me, steal for me, deal drugs for me.” I take in a shaky breath and continue, “Your father took the last shred of spirit I had left in me, Rex,
and also the last of my humanity when I suddenly looked down at my hands and saw blood on them. I had seen the light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel when I was with you, and then your father took that away from me. He destroyed my light just as easily as putting his hand up in front of the sun. You and I died that day, Rex, before we ever truly began.”
Quickly I wipe the tears aside and stare at Rex with sincerity and honesty. “I’m sorry I took your father away from you and Lana. I am apologetic that I didn’t have the strength to tell you it was me. For the rest of my life, I will have the blood of another on my hands. Please don’t think I take that lightly because I don’t. I regret what I did and I can’t take it back, and I can’t explain to you what came over me the moment it happened. All I can do is tell you how deeply broken I am, that this is my life now and that I hurt you and Lana, two people who I care about a lot.”
Silence settles between us. Rex says nothing, just looks at me, but I can see his mind racing behind his hazel eyes. Abruptly, he pinches the bridge of his nose, clenching his eyes closed as if he’s in pain. His mental state is deteriorating.
I decide to take the opportunity to glance behind me into the woods and wonder if I should now make a run for it. How far do the woods stretch out for, until I could hit the Ohio River and possibly dive in and swim to safety? Would I make it or would Rex drown us both trying to catch me again?
I swing my gaze to the car. Could I jump into the car and lock the doors? It could give me precious time to stay alive, and if the keys are in the ignition I would have my saving grace.
I scan Rex’s jean’s pockets not seeing any bulge or hear any rattling when he moves. Rex stands tall and pins me with a glare, one that sends a chill down my spine. His gaze alert and his jaw set. His expression exhibits determination. A decision he’s made which is now cemented to his core.
