by Ali Parker
"A pathetic one." I got in the cop car outside of my apartment, grateful I had one sitting there. My Honda was at the bottom of the river on the other side of town.
My mind worked in overdrive as I made my way down to the station. I had to make it look like I was wooing Johnny back to me only to turn him into King. There were lives at stake, and I wouldn't doubt for a moment that all of the vile promises Tanner spewed from his lips were truth to him.
He had no problem getting more girls off the street or stealing them from their beds. He was perfectly fine killing my father, Johnny, and Jason. Nothing mattered to a man like him except power.
*
"How can we take his power away?" I asked the captain as I sat in front of his desk.
His eyes were wide with surprise. "He kidnapped you?"
"Yes." I leaned toward him. "Jack. I have to figure out how to take him down. We have to figure this out."
"Fuck." He bolted up and paced the floor behind his desk. "We have to catch him. That's part of the fucking problem. Every time we get close to him, he up and disappears. That or we can't link the act to him specifically."
"I have a tracker inside of me. I would assume it's iodine based." I stood and crossed my arms over my chest as my phone buzzed in my pocket. "And I'm telling you now that I'm going to do what King is forcing me to do. His promise to kill everyone I love if I don't is more than enough to force me to."
Captain nodded and turned my way. "What's he asking of you, Dani?"
"I have to get Johnny Moretti to him in a few days or so." I reached up and ran my hands over the top of my head. "He's Jason Moretti's guardian."
"Your parolee who's been acting up?"
"Yeah." I turned and walked to the door. "We'll figure this out, right?"
"Of course we will. You're not handing over another human being to Tanner King. We'll get a group on it now. Hang tight and make it look like you're doing what you need to be doing."
"For him or you?" I forced a smile and walked out without an answer.
My phone buzzed again. Jason. His tracker was removed and inactive.
"Shit." I jogged toward my desk and dropped down, pulling up the program on my computer that would help me locate him. The tracker was still on the move, which was weird. Was the kid keeping it as a souvenir? Or was he playing bait for me to follow?
No. Tanner had his time with me. There was no way he was luring me out of the city to follow after Jason. That would make no sense.
"Dani." Johnny's voice surprised me, and I bolted up to my feet. How the fuck had he gotten past Margie at the front desk?
"Fuck. You scared me." I pressed my hands to the desk and stared up into his handsome face. "Jason is on the move. I have to go after him."
"You're not going without me." His deep blue eyes narrowed. He wasn't asking.
"Fine, but this is police business. You're going to ruin your reputation being seen with me all the time." I grabbed my keys and walked toward the door with him in tow.
"I'll take my chances." His voice was nothing more than a whisper. Maybe I wasn't the only one that Tanner had by the throat.
I glanced back as he held the front door for me. "We're taking my car."
"Not a chance. We're taking mine." He reached up and snagged my keys from my hand. "There's no way we're driving a cop car into purgatory. You realize how ridiculous that would be, right?"
I paused and glanced around as he jogged down the stairs to the parking lot. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Someone was watching me. Watching us.
"Danielle. Let's go." He turned to face me.
"Right." I moved down the stairs and walked beside him until he stopped at a sleek, black Mustang. "This yours? Where's the bike?"
"I have a lot of toys." He got in the car and started it as I glanced around one more time.
I bet he had a lot of toys. Candace King was one of them. Was I?
"We need to head toward Jersey from what I can tell." I got into the car and yelped as he reached out and half-dragged me into his seat. His finger sunk into my hair and his lips pressed tightly against mine.
I fought against the kiss for a moment before relaxing against him and opening up. I hated myself for letting him have me the minute he wanted to. Nothing good was going to become of us, and the minute we finally had Tanner King in the ground, Johnny would most likely be back to his old life of loving and leaving.
And where would that leave me? Right. Left.
Ignoring the sadness building in my chest, I pressed into the kiss and reached up to slide my fingers down the side of his face. The moment felt so right, so damn good. Like we were meant to be together somehow even though the odds were completely stacked against us. There was no way we would survive intact and willing to build something together. Not after I had to use him as bait to get to King.
"Where have you been the last few days?" He kissed me again and brushed his nose by mine.
I flinched as his fingers tightened around one of the many bruises on the back of my head. "My car flipped off the bridge by your house. I've been at the hospital."
"What?" He jerked back and studied my face as he cupped it. "Fuck, Dani. Why didn't you call me?"
"Because I didn’t want to bother you.” I pulled back and got into my seat. I missed his warmth immediately. "Look, I don't know what's going on between us, but maybe-"
"Don't." His tone was mean. Angry. "Let's find Jason, and we'll figure it out, but don't minimize how good it feels when we're together. Period."
I nodded and sunk down into my seat. I didn't know how to be a liar, how to trick someone or pull them into a web. I was one of the good guys. All I knew was how to infiltrate the madness and bring light to the darkness. It's all I ever wanted to do.
"When is the last time you were with Candace?" I turned my face toward him as my heart ached. I couldn't let him know that Tanner got to me or all would be lost. I had to figure things out on my own, and I would.
He glanced my way as he pulled out of the parking lot. "A few days before you and I met. She's the one woman I couldn't refuse."
"Couldn't or can't?"
"There's no way in hell I'd touch her again now that I've met you." He reached up and pulled down the visor. A pair of dark sunglasses fell into his hand. "She's my past, Dani. The only woman I've ever loved."
"And do you still love her?" I tugged at the seatbelt, feeling quite uncomfortable with the conversation.
"I love the memory of her." A smile played at the edge of his mouth, which pissed me off. "She was innocent when we met, and I was too. Tanner was my best friend in school. I've known that fucker all my life."
"What happened to him? Has he always been a horrible person?" I let out a quiet breath I didn't realize I was holding and tried to relax. We had a little bit of a drive from what I could tell.
"No." He shook his head and took a deep breath. "He took a turn for the worst our senior year. His mother was caught up in a sex scandal. She was fucking ten guys on a regular basis and taking money from it."
"Prostitution?" I pressed my hand to my stomach as it turned over.
"Yeah." He glanced over at me, his stare a little prolonged.
"Look at the road, please. I don't want to die today."
"It's hard when you're next to me." He reached out and took my hand, pulling it into his lap. "The worst part was that his father was in an accident a few years before and paralyzed from the waist down, so he wasn't able to get it up. The bitch was running around on him while he sat there alone at night and waited for her."
I squeeze his hand as sadness raced through me. Not for Tanner, but for his dad. How could people be so fucking vile?
"Shit," I mumbled and shook my head. "Did Tanner find her with the guys or something?"
"No. His father found everything and wrote Tan a long note. I was there the night he read it. I've never seen someone so destroyed before. He was enraged beyond words."
"Where's his dad now?"
> "Dead." Johnny glanced over again. "He killed himself that night and left the note on the table."
"Oh, God." I turned to look out the window. Not that Tanner King deserved an ounce of pity, but monsters were often created out of the need to survive past their own soul-shredding moments. It was no different with King. "And his mom?" I whispered softly as the air around me felt too hard to breathe.
"She's a sex slave in his organization last I heard." Johnny released my hand. "I knew he was a monster the day I found that out. Death wasn't enough for her, so he's making sure that she gets what she deserves every day for as long as she lives."
"That's horrible." I turned toward Johnny. "Please tell me you didn't get involved in that.
He jerked the car over to the side of the road and narrowed his eyes. "Are you really asking me that right now? I know you don't know me and shit, but really? Do I seem like the kind of man that would subjugate a women to anything?"
I turned and looked him in the face, studying the hurt in his eyes. He was a beautiful mystery, and one I wanted to belong to almost more than I wanted anything else in that moment.
"I don't know you at all." I reached out and touched his face. "Tell me your story. Help me understand. Let me in."
Chapter 19
Ryder
"Let me in."
I wanted to. Something about Danielle made me want to pull back layers and layers of a fucked up life and let her see all of it. Candace had seen it all. She'd been beside me through most of it and held my hand, loving me as best she could while the world burned around me.
Some part of me knew that Danielle would be the same type of woman, only with morals.
"Can you see where he is now?" I nodded toward her phone. The disappointment on her face was barely hidden as she nodded and turned away from me.
Whatever moment we almost had was gone. Maybe it was for the better.
"He's at a hotel in Jersey. With this traffic, we'll probably get there by afternoon. Let me call someone from that local precinct to go after him."
"No. We do this ourselves. No cops."
"I am a cop, Johnny."
"No, you're just playing a part right now." I glanced over at her and forced myself not to reach for her hand. She wanted me to share my past, and I would, but until then, it was unfair for me to expect her to share her body freely with me. "You're on the force to save women from predators like Tanner, but you don't belong in that fucked up bureaucracy."
"No? Then where do I belong?"
I'd obviously hit a pain-point by the tightness in her voice.
"I have no clue, but my mother used to always tell me that when you found your place, it would fit just right." I smiled as the image of my mother cooking in the kitchen moved through my mind. "And she was right. I belong as President of the Lost Breed. I belong at the shop with Axel, fixing cars and helping people change tires. I don't need a big office or a gang of badasses to feel like me." I reached for her hand, ignoring the warning bells going off in my head. "And whether it makes sense or not, I belong with you. It feels fucking good. I don't want to act like it doesn't."
She wound her fingers around mine and leaned her head back against the seat as her eyes closed. I could tell she was fighting back the tears. "I just need to know, you know?"
"Need to know what, baby?" I pulled her hand toward my mouth and kissed each of her knuckles softly as my cock twitched in my pants. We had a million things against us, but sitting in the car next to her made it fade for a little while. That's how I knew it was where I belonged. Nothing mattered for a few minutes because she was beside me. Everyone in my life would have laughed their asses off if I told them about her only after a week or so of knowing her, but not my mother.
She believed in fate and love and crazy shit like that. I wanted to as well.
"If you had anything to do with my little sister getting kidnapped." She turned her face a little and opened her eyes. Tears dripped down her pretty face.
"Who's your sister, Dani? You wouldn't tell me her name, remember?" I put her hand on my thigh and reached over to brush the tears off her cheeks. "Tell her name."
"Tani." She gripped my hand and pressed it to her lips. "I can't be with you or even around you if you were involved."
"I had nothing to do with any of Tanner's fucked up madness. He and I split ways a few months after his dad died. I might be a bastard, and I might have done some pretty messed up shit in my life, but I've never hurt a woman or helped Tanner King hurt one. Not ever."
She pulled away from me and bent down, pulling something out of a pocket in her uniform pants. "This is her. Just look at her and make sure, okay? I don't want to close this down until we know for sure."
I took the picture and took a quick glance. Tani. Fuck.
"I knew her." I handed the picture back to Dani. "She was a dancer at the bar we went to right out of high school. The old guy there would let us buy beer, but we weren't legal by any means. She was beautiful and so damn sad all the time."
Dani let out a soft sob. "We had a hard life after mom left."
I swallowed hard and handed the picture back. "Tanner took a liking to her and all I knew was that they went out a couple of times. I didn't get involved, and shortly after that, I walked away from him for good."
"And did you get involved with her?"
"No." I turned my attention back to the road. "I had my own problems to deal with."
"Like?" She turned in the seat. She wasn't going to let it go.
Crazy enough, I knew we'd end up spending the night in a hotel somewhere along this fucked up trip we were on. I wanted her body pressed to me, her soft lips against my neck, her sweet pussy pulling at my dick. There was no way I'd get time with her if I didn't hand over a little bit of information.
"My dad was a bastard when we were growing up. He beat all of us every chance he got and yet he was a drunk, so we made excuses." I chuckled sardonically. "Well, he beat us boys. My sisters don't know much about that shit. They were too little, or we kept them hidden from him."
"Did your mom know?"
"No, not really. I mean, if she did, she didn't do anything about it." I shrugged, trying not to let the memories take over. "He was a good guy, but the liquor made him a monster."
"I don't think anyone comes out of the womb a monster. I think that happens over time, Johnny." She reached over and ran her fingers down my thigh, squeezing softly just above my knee.
"Maybe, but we loved the old bastard anyway you looked at it." I shrugged. "He got into some stupid shit when we first got here, drugs, mafia, you name it."
"First got here?"
"My parents were from Sicily. They were poor as fuck, and we all immigrated over here. They only had me and my brother Roberto at the time, but quickly filled the house with more kids than they could feed. I got my first job at twelve delivering papers and then running dope. It was a faster buck for sure."
"Twelve?" Her voice held a note of sympathy in it.
I started to bite her fucking head off but forced myself to pause. There was no way I wanted to lash out at her. It wouldn't help anything. Least of all our relationship.
"Yeah." I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. "Tanner was a clean-cut boy from the upper side of New York. His father was a lawyer, his mother a stay at home mom that didn't care about anyone else but herself. I saved his life one day on the streets when we were kids, and he stuck beside me from then on."
"At twelve?"
I turned my attention to her for a moment, giving her a look. "Twelve in my world is eighteen in yours, Dani. It's time to grow the fuck up and do what you gotta do. It's the only way to survive. For me, that was twelve. Stop repeating me."
Fuck. I'd done the thing I didn't want to do. So fucking typical of me.
"No, I understand. Sorry. I just keep thinking about how young that is, but I get it. I'm sorry." She shifted enough to lean over and press a kiss to the side of my shoulder. "Keep going. Please?"
; "Tanner was getting his ass beat in a back alley because the thugs wanted his shoes, his clothes, and his backpack. They got most of it, but I fucked them up as best I could. Having a gun helped." I shrugged, trying hard not to lay too much emphasis on me being tough. I wasn't. Scared shitless was more like it.
"Why did you help him?"
"I wanted to feel good about something." I pursed my lips and nodded toward the road. "We getting on another freeway soon?"
"Yeah. Damn. It's this one. I'm glad you said something." She moved back into her seat and pulled up her phone. "The tracker has stopped at Lucky's One Night Club."
I rolled my eyes. "This fucking kid. He’d better be with Tanner. If not, I'm going to tear his stupid ass up."
"Are you violent with him because your dad was so rough with you guys?"
"Ballsy, Dani." I chuckled sardonically and gave her a warning look. "Watch yourself, okay?"
She nodded. "I thought I could be ballsy with you. No?"
"How much farther to the hotel?" I reached up and turned the air on as my skin prickled with heat. Anger danced in the pit of my stomach, and I had to watch myself. My emotions weren't related to her or the truth of what happened or would happen, but rather about the man I could become if I weren't careful.
"Thirty minutes." She turned and looked back out the window. "My mom left when we were kids. My father got called into the ministry, and my mother couldn't handle it."
"Handle what exactly? Seems like a good notable profession."
She looked over her shoulder at me, her pretty face stealing my heart. "Being poor."
"That was common place in my neck of the woods." I winked at her. "So she just up and left you guys?"
"Yep. One morning I got up to find my father crying on the couch. Tani and I worked to rebuild a life for the three of us, but one day she disappeared too." Dani shrugged and gave me a sad smile as she shifted again in her seat. "Life doesn't seem too fair."
"Cause it's not, baby." I ran my hand down her arm and gripped the top of her hand. "Let's find Jason and get back home. I want you in my bed tonight."
