Hard Truths (Kiss Her Goodbye Book 1)

by Rebecca Royce

  I ignored him. “Where is he now?”

  “Not far, actually, which is eating at me. Biloxi, Mississippi. I could be there in a couple of hours.” He picked up his tablet. “Not me. Can’t be me. I have to stay here and keep looking. Nope, I’m going to call in what I’m supposed to do.” He slammed his free hand down on the table. “Not my fucking role.”

  I put my hand on his shoulder, but he didn’t seem to notice. He tapped on the tablet rapidly. “Derrick will take some people and go in.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” I dodged around the other side of the chair. “Isn’t that sort of the point here? Get the bad guys?”

  He blinked rapidly. “Henry has been a thorn in my side my entire life. Even before I knew about The Alliance he was a problem. My father had children later. My mom was young. I think… I think he found her and had me so that he could continue The Alliance legacy. If I’d been a girl, maybe they’d have kept going.”

  I sat down so I could listen to him more. “Keep going.”

  “Hank used to come to my house all the time. I didn’t know why. The man is fifteen years older than me. I used to wonder when I was five why this twenty year old was hanging around my kitchen. When I was ten I used to think he was fucking my mother.” He shook his head. “Five years later I would of course know what the fuck was happening. Alliance.” He spun in his chair again. “I thought for a while they were just… friends. Like now that I was written into The Alliance, my father would turn to me like he’d done Hank.”

  He rolled his eyes. “But Hank was the son my father always wished I was. Somehow at five, he already knew I wasn’t going to be an Alliance leader.”

  “And Hank was?”

  “Yep.” He got to his feet. “Henry liked my dad a lot. I don’t think I’ve mentioned to you that my father was one of the five. He was a leader. A big one. But he died, very suddenly of a stroke, and by the time I came for training at eighteen he was gone. The five you see now were there. Young leadership. The next breath.”

  “That didn’t go well?”

  He waved toward the screen. “See him? I was a seventeen-year-old kid. Trying to live up to my father’s legacy. And Hank went after me like it was his job. Oh, they go after everyone. We have a one-to-one hatred, the five of us to the five of them. Hank went after me. Hard.”

  My stomach clenched. “My father doesn’t have marks on his back like the five of you.”

  He shook his head. “He wouldn’t. That was what the five of them did. They initiated that. Before that? No beatings that left permanent scars. Hank gave me mine. And he was so fucking joyful about it. Told me he was the son my dad always wanted.”

  “Was that what your dad said or what Hank said?”

  Kade rolled his eyes. “Hank. But trust me I have every reason to believe it.”

  “I’m sorry.” Sometimes that was all I could say. “And now you have him. Why would he be in Biloxi? Is there something special in Biloxi?”

  “Casinos. He loves casinos. Owns two in Vegas. He’s a secret partner. But he loves to win. I swear he gets hard from it.”

  I pointed at his screen. “What kinds of things can you do on there?”

  He blinked. I understood. From his perspective it had to feel like a huge jump in conversation. “A lot of things. Why?”

  “Well, if he likes to play, maybe you could fuck with him. Bring him up then rig the game so he loses the next one. You know, just enough that he feels nuts. Presumably he’s playing slots and whatnot. I don’t suppose there is anything we can do about blackjack from here.”

  Kade widened his eyes. He put his hands on his hips, and a second later he was tapping his feet. “Can’t mess with the outcome of blackjack, but I could mess with the lights. The alarm system. I could…” He grabbed me and pulled me to him. “That is fucking brilliant.” His mouth came down on mine, hard but then soft. When he pulled back, I was breathless. “You are a genius, and I decided I’m long out of college. Guard your heart, Everly, I’m going to make a play for you.”

  I sat back in my seat. I was brilliant and he’d kissed me? Both of those facts threw me. Yes, I was brilliant, but I had never done something to fuck with someone else before. Well, maybe Lexxie Donata. But she had deserved it She’d taken my shoes in gym class and thrown them on the roof. I’d managed to get her in trouble. But it hadn’t been this.

  Kade furiously typed on his computer. I backed away, letting him do it. I needed space from that kiss, too. I hadn’t expected to be dizzy from his kisses or to want more of them so quickly after. I wandered away, eventually finding a room where he had games hooked up to a screen. I sat down. It had been a long time since I’d played a video game, but I eventually found one I knew. I sat down to play, forcing my brain to turn off.

  That worked for about an hour. Then I couldn’t take it anymore. I shut it off and went back into Kade. Had he managed to do it?

  Kade must have heard me come in. He spoke, not looking at me. “The fact that he’s the one to make himself visible doesn’t surprise me. He thinks he’s invincible.”

  “Did you do it?”

  He pointed to the screen. Henry played poker. He drew a card.

  “Oh, too bad. That might have been a winning hand.” The lights went off in the room with The Alliance leader. “Looks like it’s void now.”

  I grinned. “First step or has he already had a long night?”

  “Long night. Just such a string of bad luck. Oh, the lights are coming up, now.”

  Only the room looked quite different. Derrick stood there, surrounded by five other men. They all wore black. I had no audio, but I knew what I saw. I cried out, covering my mouth just as it happened. Guns raised. And five seconds later Hank and everyone else at the table, including the dealer, were dead.

  “Bye, asshole.” Kade spoke as Derrick looked up, as though he could see us on the screen. Maybe he could. I shook too hard for rational thought. He nodded. Kade shut it off.

  Chapter 17

  “I came up with the idea and now he’s dead.”

  Kade rose fast. “He was always going to be dead. You just helped me fuck with him beforehand, which improved my bad mood. What did you think was going to happen? Are you going to freak out on me?”

  Red crossed my vision. “I just saw someone get shot by someone else I know. I… I don’t know how I’m supposed to react but it’s going to take a second. Okay?”

  “Fuck.” He looked away. “Sorry.”

  I put my hands on my knees. “This isn’t the first person I’ve seen D kill.”

  “And we’re back to using letters. Do you have a rhyme and a reason for when you shift to calling us letters or do you just suddenly feel like you can’t speak full names?”

  Why couldn’t he just give me a second to deal with this? Why did we have to talk right at this second? “You’re overthinking it. Sometimes I say one thing, sometimes I say another. I don’t know that I have a rhyme or reason.”

  “Huh.” He put his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s have a little food. Brunch. I mean, we ate breakfast but… heck, I have a better idea. We can…” The tablet dinged, cutting him off. “Hold that thought.” He hit the tablet. “Good work.”

  There was a pause and then Derrick answered. “Yeah. So you were watching. I thought it likely.”

  “I deleted the feed.”

  Had he? I hadn’t even noticed. I sank down in the chair again.

  “Good. We need to figure they saw it anyway. No way were they not watching Hanky boy. I got in without anyone making note of who I was.”

  I rubbed my eyes. It was good to hear Derrick’s voice even though he’d just shot someone right in front of my eyes. “That was because you covered the man bun. And don’t you usually kill people with a baseball bat?”

  “Is that my sweetheart?” Derrick’s voice picked up. “Were you watching, too?”

  “Kade and I are glued together right now. Where he goes, I go.”

  There was a pause. “G
otcha.”

  “So yeah, you need to go into hiding. For real this time. Your job is done. For now.”

  Derrick was silent so long I wasn’t sure he was still there. “I will. I have some things to grab in the meantime. Few more days. Then I’ll go under.”

  “Coming here?” Kade rubbed his eyes. “You know you can.”

  “Maybe.” Derrick made a noise in the background that sounded like he set something down. “Take care of Everly, Kade. For now, she’s still gentle. We haven’t had the time to really destroy her soul yet. Everly, Kade’s the kindest out of all of us. Even if he pretends that’s not true.”

  Derrick must have disconnected the communication. Kade just shook his head. “He’s seriously fucked in the head. Don’t believe half of what he says. Alyssa’s death took what limited sense he had left and twisted it.”

  “I think he understands things better than the rest of us do. Or he just sees the world through a different lens.”

  Kade shook his head. “Be that as it may, I’m holding with the idea that Derrick is just fucked. Come on. My original idea stands.”

  “Which was what?” He’d never gotten that out there in the first place.

  “They’re busy right now. They’ll have Derrick on alert. And they’ll be rushing toward Biloxi to clean up that mess. Then, they’ll have to have a quorum. We can’t be without the five. Now we’re down to four. So in the meantime what we need is for your father to get his shit together and get this done. We need to be there at that meeting.”

  I tried to breathe. “So this idea you had has to do with my father?”

  “No.” He tapped the table. Kade was always moving unless he typed, which I supposed meant that he was even moving then since typing require movement of his fingers and wrists. “We can deal with your father tomorrow. I think we’re going to go pay him a visit. Much as I hate to leave here. Tonight, we’re safe. Tomorrow, too. It’ll take them some time to regroup. So let’s go get a drink.”

  A drink? He wanted to go get a drink? “Do you not have alcohol here?”

  He shrugged. “A little red wine and some cheap whisky. We can drink that or you can let me take you out on Bourbon Street.”

  I did like that idea. What I didn’t like, however, was the idea of running for my life away from Alliance crazies down Bourbon Street. “Are you sure that we’d be safe?”

  “I can never be 100% sure of anything when it comes to The Alliance. But I can tell you that I am going to risk it tonight and go get a drink. Or five. On Bourbon Street. They are going to look for Derrick not me. And I bet they don’t know what the fuck to do with you.”

  Fuck it. “Yes, I need a drink. Or five.”

  “Can you handle five?” He grinned at me, maybe the broadest I’ve ever seen him do before.

  “I guess we’ll see.” And to think I’d always been a two drink woman. Never more. I was breaking all kinds of rules lately.

  It was a good thing there were so many different kinds of dress on Bourbon, because I was still dressed in Kade’s clothes. No one even batted an eye.

  “Could we get me something to wear while we’re out here?”

  “Sure,” Kade yelled back at me. There was some sort of parade going on that was making things louder than normal. I didn’t even know what it was. Not Mardi Gras, but there were all kinds of celebrations that went on in New Orleans all year. “If you want to wear tourist clothing. We could get you lots of I want to get drunk t-shirts.”

  I grinned at him. That wasn’t exactly what the shirts said but there were a few with that general idea on it. “I could take one that says New Orleans. That actually fits. And some pants.”

  “I will get you some clothes. Or maybe I just like to see you in mine. It’s kind of… hot. There might be some kind of evolutionary, anthropological reason for that.”

  I side-eyed him. “Are you going to club me over the head and take me home to your cave?”

  “Not tonight.”

  “Ah.” I pointed at him. “But you do have a cave.”

  “Much more of a lair, right?”

  We walked into a bar together. It seemed less busy than a lot of the others. The bouncer stopped us at the door. “I’m going to need to see IDs.”

  I sucked in a silent breath. I was twenty-two, almost twenty-three. I’d waited forever to be twenty-one, drinking in ridiculous frat houses and dorm rooms until I could go to a bar. But I wasn’t getting into this bar tonight. I didn’t have an ID. I had nothing. I was… completely without proof about who I was.

  “Here.” Kade handed the bouncer two cards. I blinked. The bouncer handed it back and then we walked inside.

  I grabbed Kade’s hand. “Where did you get that?”

  “I printed one up for you at home. It’s not your actual birthday on there or address. But it’s your photo and you’re over twenty-one so it’s not a hard sell.”

  We sat down next to each other at the bar. I eventually ordered an old fashioned and Kade got a Manhattan. We drank in silence. Eventually, he turned to me. “Do you go to bars a lot?”

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “Shouldn’t you know that? Didn’t you guys stalk me before you took me?”

  “Derrick did. I just have your basic background report.” He finished his drink. I still had half of mine left. He ordered another one.

  I took a long sip of mine. “What does my basic background report say?”

  “That you’re a hot girl studying social work and your father needs to be controlled. Your address. Oh and that you sleep naked.” He winked at me. “Just kidding about that last one.”

  I pointed at him. “You must be because I do not sleep naked. Ever. What if there is a fire in the middle of the night?”

  “Then you’d be naked standing on the street giving the fire department quite a show. They’d probably give you a blanket.”

  I took a long drink. I didn’t usually consume this much so fast. But since drunk was the goal, I was going to get there. “That would be nice since I’d be cold.”

  He grinned. “We’re just going to keep going with this scenario? Back and forth? With this hypothetical idea of you being stranded naked on the street because you slept that way?”

  “I sleep in pajamas. They’re not sexy, but they work.”

  He tilted his head slightly. “Anything you’re in would be sexy.”

  “I can’t figure out if you like me or if you just say things like that to egg me on. Like you’re going to get me to respond to that and then you’re going to be really mean and tell me you don’t want me. Besides, you really want to fuck me when you know I’ve been with Trace and Warden?”

  He set down his drink. “I think what I like best about you is how you don’t pull punches. You just say things that most people wouldn’t even think. It’s like boom, you open your mouth and the most unbelievable shit comes right out of it.”

  “I didn’t have to take advanced psych to know avoidance when I hear it, and you, Kade, with your nasty mouth and unrelenting attitude, avoided my question very nicely there.”

  He waved his hand. “I don’t give a fuck that you slept with them. I do want you, but not permanently. I want to get the itch that is you out of my head so I can stop thinking about scratching it.”

  “Because that is sexy.” Still, even as I jabbed at him, I had to admit I liked that he wanted me. Yes, it turned out I was needy. I wanted my pseudo-enemies to want me. And it would be nice to not be left… feeling squishy inside after he was done with me. Kade didn’t inspire those feelings. It was more like confusion mixed with wanting to kiss him so hard he bled.

  I blinked as realization hit me. That really was how I felt. I wanted to use him the way he wanted to use me. To get rid of the itch.

  “Finish your drink. We’re going back to your hidey-hole and then you can fuck me. A couple of times. Maybe. It might be a one off. Then we’ll deal with my father and get on with it. I don’t want to cuddle you.”

  Kade seemed to sip slower. “Is that
how you think it’s going to be with me? You tell me what to do and I do it?”

  “If you want to pretend you’re in control of this you can go ahead and do so. The only thing you’re delaying is coming hard. I must warn you that most of the time I’m pretty bored with sex.” His friends had broken that record lately, but I thought it best not to mention that right this second. I really didn’t know how Kade did with pressure. “I’ll probably end up in the shower humming away my boredom.”

  He jumped to his feet, and faster than I could believe had his hand in mine. He threw money down on the counter. “I can promise you that you won’t be bored.”

  “We’ll see.” I knew I poked a bear when it came to Kade, but I couldn’t seem to stop doing it.

  “Let’s go buy you some clothes.”

  Well, I hadn’t expected that. “I offered you sex and you said clothes?”

  “We’ll have sex when I’m good and ready, Everly, and not because you goad me into it on some sort of power play. You want clothes. You’ll get clothes.”

  Good lord he was frustrating. “Well then maybe I won’t be interested later.”

  He shrugged. “I’m sure I can do with my hand better than anything you could do.”

  I gasped, and he shrugged. “Not so nice is it? Guess you’ll have to prove yourself in bed, too.”

  This had taken a turn I hadn’t expected. Well, if he wanted to have a contest to see which one of us could be better in bed, then we’d go ahead and do that. After we bought me clothes, apparently.

  It turned out that I could buy just about anything I wanted in New Orleans late at night. There were vendors selling knock-off clothing all the time. I didn’t care about labels, most of the time I purchased things that were on sale that fit well. My father was cheap. I’d always thought it was because he was an accountant and cared about money. Now, I wondered who he was saving money to kill next.