Dynasty

by Jen Davis et al.

He led the way toward the second single-wide on the left. “Carolinda Ortega is a single mom with one kid who has problems finding someone to watch her baby while she’s at work.”

  “So?” Tre sulked.

  “So, it’s our job to know everything we can about the people who want to borrow money. This girl’s not an addict. She’s not a whore. She cleans toilets to pay for diapers. Her terms are a little different. Right now, we’re a last resort, but if this goes well, she might not wait so long to turn to us for help.”

  He rapped twice on the trailer, and the door swung open to reveal the girl in question. Carolinda was eighteen or nineteen years old, with tired eyes and a toddler on her hip. She acknowledged him with a nod but stepped back in alarm when she spotted Tre.

  “I don’t want any trouble,” she murmured as she edged further into her home.

  Brick spoke softly. “We’re not here for any trouble.”

  The girl kept staring at Tre, like a scared rabbit. This was exactly what he’d been trying to explain on the way here. Tre’s reputation affected potential clients. If Pam told even one person what Tre had done to her, every woman in the neighborhood would soon be running the other way.

  “Hey. Eyes on me. Your business is with me.”

  She swallowed and did as he commanded. “I need to borrow two thousand dollars. Only for a few days. My boss doesn’t pay me until Tuesday, but if I don’t give my landlord the rent by tomorrow, he says he’s going to throw me out. I can’t have Esperanza on the street and I don’t feel safe at the shelter.”

  “We can loan you the money, but you need to understand the terms. Are you listening?”

  She nodded.

  “You have two weeks to pay it back, but it’s not cheap. Interest is fifty percent. So, if you borrow two thousand, you pay back three.”

  She gasped, and the baby squirmed in her arms.

  “If you don’t have the money when it’s due, I’m going to come searching for you. I will find you. I find everyone.” He narrowed his eyes. “I’ll have to remind you about the commitment you made. It will be…uncomfortable. If you don’t have it two days after that, I’ll have to break something. And if I have to come back a third time…I hope you’ve made arrangements for your little girl.”

  Tears poured down her face as she put her child in the playpen next to the worn loveseat. “Are there any other, um, ways to pay?” Her voice shook, and Tre laughed softly from behind him.

  “Sometimes Sucre allows some alternate arrangements.” He thought back to the girl at the bar. Someone had probably paid his debt using his daughter. “I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you want me to take the offer to him, I will.”

  “I’m not sure I have any other choice.” She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “I won’t have three thousand dollars in two weeks.”

  The poor girl had no idea what she was in for, but it was her choice to make. He texted Sucre, and the response came instantly. “He said yes. He gets you for twenty-four hours and it will cancel out the interest. You’ll need to find a place for Esperanza, and there’s no changing your mind. Do you understand?”

  She lifted her chin. “I understand.”

  He counted out a hundred twenty-dollar bills and placed them in her hand. “Your service begins the day the money is due. Five p.m. at El Cabron. Please don’t be late.”

  Tre waited until she closed the door behind him before he spoke. “Why did you try to talk her out of it?”

  He climbed into the driver’s seat. “I didn’t. I wanted to make sure she understood what she was agreeing to. For the record, though, it’s better business for them to take the high interest. Sucre can fuck anybody he wants.”

  Tre flinched.

  “The high interest option gives him money in the bank. Cash is more valuable than pussy any day of the week.”

  True, but not the real reason he warned women against paying with their bodies. Some things you simply couldn’t come back from the same way you went in. A night as Sucre’s plaything neared the top of the list.

  Tre ran his tongue over the back of his teeth and made a sucking sound. “I don’t know. I ran into a prime piece of ass tonight, man. Might be worth losing some cash to rip into her pretty pussy.”

  His fingers dug hard into the steering wheel. Tre was talking about Olivia. He should just kill the worthless fuck right now and get it over with.

  Unaware he was taking his life in his hands, Tre kept talking. “She was one of those pristine little blonde numbers. Thinks she’s gonna save the world. I’m gonna tear into her until she can’t walk. Afterward, I might tie her up and keep her under my bed for a while—pull her out whenever I want to stick it in another hole.”

  A red haze coated his vision. Tre had no idea how lucky he was they were already at Lorenzo’s place.

  Ignoring his preening protégé, he stomped toward the apartment door and kicked it open. Lorenzo would get something broken tonight.

  The strung-out twenty-something white dude jumped to his feet and backed toward the wall. “Brick! I only need a little more time.”

  “You’re out of time,” he growled. “Give me the money, Lorenzo.”

  “I don’t have it.”

  He advanced toward him. “Wrong answer.”

  Lorenzo reached into his waistband and pulled out a revolver his ratty t-shirt had hidden. His mouth opened, likely for some kind of pithy response, but Brick moved fast, knocking the gun out of his hand, onto the floor. He slammed his fist into Lorenzo’s stomach, and the guy doubled over before dropping to the floor.

  They always pretended to pass out.

  Dumb fuck. A gut punch wouldn’t knock anyone out.

  “Get up.”

  Lorenzo didn’t move.

  “Get. Up.” He spoke through clenched teeth. He would be well within his rights to kill the guy after he pulled a gun, but he didn’t want to send Tre the wrong message.

  When Lorenzo refused to budge, he lifted him off the floor by his neck. Lorenzo’s eyes flew open, and they immediately bulged in their sockets.

  “Oh. So, you’re awake now?” Keeping his grip on Lorenzo’s neck, he used his other hand to snap the man’s wrist. “This is what happens when you don’t pay.”

  A smarter man would’ve been grateful to escape with his life. Lorenzo wasn’t smart. Digging a switchblade from his pocket, he swung the weapon at Brick’s torso.

  He let go of Lorenzo’s neck and used both hands to hyperextend his elbow. The man made an inhuman noise when the loud pop signaled it had left its socket. “This is what happens when you try to fight back.” Lorenzo slid to the floor, cradling his arm against his chest. “You have two more days to pay what you owe. You know what happens on the third.”

  Much as he tried, he couldn’t ignore the tent in Tre’s pants when he turned toward the door. God, he hated this life.

  “That was the fucking shit, Brick.” Tre adjusted himself as he took his place in the passenger seat. “That is what I want to do. I want to be like you, man.”

  “Then stop being such a creepy fuck. This job’s not about keeping some girl under your bed to rape when you feel like it.” He struggled to rein himself in. He couldn’t let Tre see it was personal. “It’s about collecting Sucre’s money. You want a future as something other than his fuck-toy, you will get your head on straight.” He fired up the engine and flicked his gaze toward Tre. The kid had murder in his eyes. “You got something to say to me, son? You dumb shit, I’m trying to help you survive this.”

  Whatever he was going to say, Tre thought better of it and deliberately turned his head to gaze out the window, which suited him fine. At least he’d kept the twisted fucker away from Olivia tonight. He’d figure out the rest later.

  Chapter 20

  Liv

  Liv stared out the window of Izzy’s apartment, painfully aware she’d made a colossal mistake the night before. Eduardo said her car had been intact, so she planned to go back to her own place tonight.

 
Izzy handed her a cup of coffee and joined her on the sofa. “How long until he gets here?”

  “He said he’d be here for lunch around twelve-thirty.” She sipped at the dark roast, the flavor washing over her tongue. “I know he loves me, but the last thing I want to do is explain myself to Will right now.”

  “I support you, Liv, but I won’t lie for you. If this Brick guy—”

  “Jonathan.” More and more often, in the moments when she allowed herself to think of him, he stopped being Brick. He was more than the scary hunk of muscle other people could see. Calling him Jonathan—knowing she was the only one—made it feel as though a secret part of him was hers.

  “If this Jonathan is who you have your heart set on, you can’t hide this from our brother. We’re family. We’ve got to have each other’s backs.”

  Iz was right, as usual.

  “You’ve got to tell him about what happened last night, Nugget. While you’re at it, you need to fill in some blanks for me, too. You barely told me anything, only something about your car getting stuck in a bad part of town and you needing to crash here. I didn’t push then, but I’m pushing now.”

  She sighed. “I fucked up, but it had nothing to do with Jonathan. He actually saved me from my own stupidity.” She sipped her coffee, then set the mug on the table. “Remember I told you about my student, Devon, last year?”

  Iz nodded.

  “I went to his apartment last night.”

  “Didn’t you tell me he lives in the Bluff—That’s why your car was there?”

  “Yeah. Turns out his brother is a total psycho, and now I’m on his radar. How fucking naïve, right? If Jonathan hadn’t seen me walking out—if he didn’t know the kind of guy I was dealing with—I probably wouldn’t have made it home.”

  “Motherfucker,” Iz muttered.

  “The guy still knows where I work, and I’m not sure what I can do about it. I will tell Will…all of it.” She set her coffee on the table. “Let’s just start cooking.” Going through the motions would soothe her.

  They washed their hands in silence. Iz had already told her she planned to stuff bell peppers for lunch, so she unwrapped the ground beef and gave it to her sister to brown it in the pan. She’d been cooking with her sister for years. The rhythm of it took her mind off her troubles.

  “What was your guy even doing there?” Iz stopped stirring the meat. “You sure he’s not stalking you?”

  She wanted to throw the onion she was peeling at her sister. Instead, she set it on the chopping board. “He’s not stalking me. I haven’t seen him in months. He works in Devon’s neighborhood sometimes.”

  Her sister’s expression dripped with skepticism. Iz grabbed a knife from the big wooden block on the counter and started chopping. “Have you heard from him since last night?”

  She shook her head.

  Iz stopped chopping the onion and paused with the knife in the air. “Do you even know what he did when he left here? Exactly what kind of work is he doing?”

  “No. He doesn’t like to talk about the stuff he does for his boss.” She didn’t look at her sister as she dipped stale bread into a bowl of beaten egg and milk.

  Stern-faced, Izzy scraped her onions into the pan. “Let me guess. You don’t want to know.” Iz elbowed her in the arm. “You can’t keep the blinders on with this guy. I know you’re into him, but it sounds like he’s involved with some serious shit. If he’s what you want, I’ve got your back, but don’t lie to yourself. Accepting him in your life means accepting all the fucked-up shit he does when he’s not with you.”

  Her mouth ran dry as she considered Izzy’s words. A million doubts crowded her mind while she questioned her perceptions of the man. Hell, she questioned her perceptions of every man. Everyone. She hadn’t even known her best friend had been lying to her for months. Some judge of character she was.

  She stepped away from the stove to grab a bottled water from the fridge and watched her sister tear the bread pieces apart and add them in with the meat.

  In her head, she knew Jonathan hurt people—killed people. He’d said so himself. It was one thing to know it. It was another to let herself feel it.

  He had taken people’s lives.

  Her throat closed on the water as she tried to swallow, but she forced it down. “He’s so gentle with me. It doesn’t make sense.” She tried to picture him hurting her, and she couldn’t do it. “It’s not who he is. There’s kindness in him. I’ve seen it. I know it’s what he does, but it’s not who he is. He’s protecting his grandmother, Iz.”

  Izzy shot her a glance before spooning the meat into the hollowed green peppers. “For how long? Are you going to live like this forever? Until she dies?”

  “I don’t know, but what happened last night wasn’t even about him. It was all me.” Suddenly, the stress-filled night caught up with her. Exhaustion hit her like a freight train, and she struggled to hold her head up against the protesting muscles of her neck. “I’m going to go lie down for a bit, m’kay?”

  “Okay,” Iz said gently. “Rest. I have a feeling you’re going to need all the strength you can muster to face our big brother.”

  It only felt as though she’d closed her eyes for a moment, but the clock said it was twelve-fifteen when Izzy shook her awake. She’d slept forty-five minutes.

  “Look sharp. He’s on his way.”

  She stumbled to the bathroom and splashed water on her face. Her eyes were still a little bleary from sleep, but other than a few wrinkles in the clothes she’d borrowed from her sister this morning, she didn’t think Will would notice anything out of the ordinary. Right as she finished running a comb through her hair, his voice drifted in from the living room.

  No time like the present.

  Will’s gaze zeroed in on her the moment she walked into the living room. He gave her the same assessing look he’d given her in high school when she’d hit the neighbor’s mailbox with her car. Like he had a sixth sense for bad news.

  He folded his arms. “What’s going on?”

  She climbed on the sofa and hugged her knees. “I did something stupid. You’re going to be mad. I need your help, though. Can you please listen?”

  He nodded, but the suspicion didn’t leave his eyes.

  She braced for impact. “How can I protect myself if a really scary guy knows where I work?”

  A vein pulsed in Will’s temple. “Are you talking about Barlow? Why does it keep coming back to that thug?” His hand curled into a fist. “Is he threatening you?”

  “Jonathan would never hurt me,” she murmured, then forced her voice to steady. “I paid a house call to check on one of my students. His brother is a total psycho. I’m lucky I got out of there in one piece.”

  Will shook his head, like he was trying to make his brain catch up to her words. “How do you know this guy’s crazy? Did he put his hands on you?”

  She shivered. “No. Thank God, Jonathan was there. He helped me escape. He told me the guy—Tre—works for Sucre de la Cruz, and he’s really bad news, Will.”

  “Jona—are you talking about Brick?”

  She nodded. “Eduardo says no one broke into my car, so Tre probably doesn’t know where I live, but he knows I’m Devon’s teacher, which means he can find me at work. It doesn’t seem real it would happen, but…”

  “Who the fuck is Eduardo?” Will raked his hand across his scalp. “Liv, I’m about to lose my shit here.”

  She gripped her legs tighter. “He’s my self-defense instructor. Jonathan snuck me out of the neighborhood in his truck and brought me to Izzy’s gym. We sent Eduardo to get my car so Tre wouldn’t see me again. I’m hoping maybe I’ll be out of sight, out of mind, but Jonathan says he’s still a threat.”

  The confusion lifted from his eyes, leaving steely resolve in its place. “He’s right. This Tre guy can still get to you. All he has to do is stake out the parking lot at the high school.” He paused. “They think someone snatched a teacher there a couple years ago, right? I rea
d about it in the paper. What was her name?”

  “Mrs. Muniz.” Her eyes widened in horror, the memory flooding back. She sat up straight. “Oh my God, Tre said something about her while I was there. I didn’t make the connection.”

  Izzy gasped. “They found her a month after she disappeared. The news said she’d been kept alive. Raped. Tortured. She was missing one of her fingers.”

  “I’m scared, Will,” she whimpered. “Part of me thought things weren’t so bad if he didn’t know where I lived. I mean, Jonathan told me Tre was a monster, but I remember when they found Mrs. Muniz. The police chief cried on the news.”

  Will spoke through clenched teeth. “The name Tre doesn’t ring any bells, but if he was the guy responsible for what happened to that teacher, I know enough.” His jaw ticked. “Are you and Brick together, Liv?”

  “Yes. I wasn’t lying to you before. We just—”

  He waved away her nervous chatter. “It doesn’t matter. He cares about you? Are you sure?”

  “I’m sure.”

  Will nodded resolutely. “He is not the kind of guy I want for you, but if anyone can help keep you safe, it’s a big motherfucker like him. What did he say you should do about all this?”

  “He said I needed to have the security guard walk me to my car every day, and he said I needed to tell you everything.”

  “You have a security guard? Let me guess, they hired him after the teacher went missing.”

  She nodded miserably. “Jonathan can’t come to the school to watch out for me. He’s got the build for the construction company, but the bigger issue is things will get even worse if Tre realizes we’re together. I’ll end up leverage for Sucre. He’ll use me to make Jonathan do whatever he wants. If Tre doesn’t try to keep me for himself.” She covered her hand with her mouth as her stomach churned.

  “It’s not going to happen. You’re going to come straight to me after work every day.” He knelt in front of her. “I’ll make sure you get home safely. I’ll build a fucking fortress around you if I have to.”

  “You can’t protect me forever.”