Chapter 4
Brody
We drive straight back to Los Angeles.
Traffic’s mild, allowing us to get back to the city quickly. We hit the metro area at barely past noon.
The entire time, Trinity remains stiff and silent.
With the hood off, she observes and analyzes everything, the intensity of her gaze prickling the back of my neck. She’s not the fiery woman who first tried to escape when I grabbed her. She’s quiet now, almost demure.
I don’t trust it for a second.
In the rearview mirror, her green eyes catch mine, and I glance away at the flowing traffic before I get distracted.
I know better than to let my guard down around a target. Even a pretty one.
Still, her freak-out was genuine. I recognized the signs as soon as I heard her shallow, hysterical breaths.
I walked her through that panic attack because I knew how. I was prone to them myself as a child, after my mother died and I learned that Declan’s not my biological father.
I’ll never forget the way Declan’s hard eyes iced over when he looked at me, the boy he’d helped raise all those years. The boy who wasn’t his.
I’ve been trying to melt that ice ever since.
Shutting out the memories, I return to the matter at hand. I calmed Trinity not because I care, but because an untreated anxiety-induced fit creates too much of a liability.
I need her compliant, not exploding in the back seat. Declan will kill me if I fuck up this job, and letting Trinity die from a fear-fueled heart attack would definitely count as “fucking up.”
Speaking of my father…
I slip my phone from my pocket and dial him. As we fly down the highway, the skyscrapers of downtown Los Angeles get more prominent.
On the second ring, the call connects. My shoulders straighten instinctively. “I got the girl.”
“Finally.” Declan never wastes time with praise or thanks. “Meet at the rendezvous point. We’ll take things from there.”
Before I can utter so much as a yessir, he hangs up. A second later, the phone buzzes against my palm.
I toggle to my message feed for the coordinates.
“Where we headed?” Marko’s voice stretches around the cigarette pinched between his lips.
“Koreatown.” I work the map with my fingers. “Somewhere near the intersection of Wilshire and Normandie.”
“Perfect. I’m starving.” Jed rolls down the passenger window and spits. “Let’s drop off the goods and grab some barbeque.”
Marko dips into the exit lane for downtown, and we ease through the congested Angeleno streets. At the rendezvous point, an empty, half-built office building rises above us, all gray cement and black metal.
Jed ducks his head so he can catch a better glimpse of the bare scaffolding looming in the midday light. “This it?”
I climb into the back. “Let’s go.”
Trinity scoots against the side of the van, as far away from me as possible, while Marko kills the engine. He follows me into the cargo hold as Jed hops out and shuffles around the side to yank the door open.
“Do we get to string her up? I bet she’d look real pretty in rope.”
The glee in Jed’s voice grates my ears, and my jaw clenches. Fucking creep. Not that I fully disagree with the statement. The image of her bound, naked, and on my bed definitely holds appeal, but Jed’s likely the type of douchebag who doesn’t care about consent.
I jump to the ground and shove Jed toward the door. “Keep your perversions to yourself. We’re here to drop her off, not leave a message.”
Marko kicks the discarded hood out of the way. “Come on, Jed.” He pulls Trinity up by her armpits before settling her on unsteady feet.
Jed scoffs and reaches for Trinity’s waist. “Don’t be such a spoilsport. I swear, the two of you—”
In a flash of motion, Trinity headbutts him like a Krav Maga master.
Jed jerks away, clutching his bleeding nose. “Shit!”
Trinity ignores his outburst as she struggles to free herself from the cable ties on her wrists.
I smack the side of the van while stifling a smile. “You can’t even handle a single girl? Hurry up, boys.”
Jed drops his hand and curls his lips over his teeth. “You’ll pay for that, you little bitch.” He reels back and slaps Trinity right across the face.
She stumbles into the van from the force of the blow. Dazed, she slides down the metal as a bright red handprint blooms on her left cheek.
Her out-of-it expression triggers an angry eruption in my chest. In the next blink, my gun appears in my hand, cocked.
At the hammer click, Jed spins. When he spots the barrel pointed straight at his face, his dark eyes bulge.
My voice remains cold and calm. “Put your hands on what’s mine again, and I’ll blow them off your wrists.”
In the short silence that follows, my gut clenches.
What’s mine? What the hell am I thinking?
I mean Declan’s. The Port Kings’. Trinity Gallagher has nothing to do with me.
Jed’s just an idiot, and the sight of him touching her unleashed a swift, violent urge to remove his limbs from his body.
A fucker like that doesn’t deserve to lay a single finger on a prize like Trinity, let alone damage her.
This isn’t about me at all. If she gets hurt, though, Declan would eviscerate us both. End of story.
Jed raises his palms in the air. “Sure. Whatever. I won’t touch her again.” He slinks past me.
Coward. He’ll hit a woman with blatant disregard, but when someone his size challenges him, he backs down every time. I may be a real asshole, but I have no use for men like him.
I slide my gun into the holster. From the corner of my eye, I notice Trinity shrink back against the wall, making herself smaller.
I ignore the unexpected pinch in my chest. Good. Maybe this little scene had a purpose after all. If she’s afraid, she’s more likely to behave, which means we can off-load her quickly.
“Marko, take Jed. You two stash the van and do a sweep of the perimeter. We’ll be in the foreman’s office.”
I reach into the vehicle and half-haul Trinity across the bumpy metal floorboards. She staggers out, less sure of her footing than she was before Jed hit her.
My fingers twitch. That asshole. If she has a concussion, I’ll worsen his headache by shoving my knife in his eye.
Jed and Marko drive off down the block as I lead Trinity into the dusty, echoey shadows of the construction site. We find a creaking metal staircase that leads up to the foreman’s trailer. Once inside, I drag a chair to the center of the room and sit her down.
Now we wait.
The murmur of Trinity’s voice pulls my attention from the piles of schematics on the desk. She’s talking around that filthy gag in her mouth, her eyes blazing as she glares into my soul.
Against my better judgment, I cross the room and remove the cloth.
She’s mid-rant already. “—know what the hell you’re doing, but you’re a fucking psycho!” She jerks, scraping the chair across the floor. “You crazy kidnapping bastard! Who do you think you are?”
At the word bastard, my teeth grind together. She has no idea she just struck a nerve. Or that despite the years I’ve spent trying to earn Declan’s love and respect, I know I’ll never be the favored son. I’ll never share his blood.
I fix her with my coldest stare. “Calm the hell down.”
“Or what?” She fumes, those bright green eyes flashing with simmering Chihuahua-like rage. “You’re going to kill me?”
She’s got a mouth on her.
Definitely a Gallagher. Despite not sharing blood, even I somehow inherited that particular family trait.
Although, as I stare at those pretty lips, I have to admit that I find her mouth a lot more appealing than my own.
“Listen to me.” I bend down so we’re eye level. “One of those men downstairs wants to have their way with you. I don’t like to see pretty things broken, but if you keep this up, I might just make an exception. If you get a little dirtied before I hand you over, well, that’s just a risk of the job.”
Her mouth snaps shut. Then she sucks in a few horrified breaths and narrows her eyes. “Whoever you are, you’re going to regret this.”
“Am I?” While I’m maintaining the facade, Trinity’s defiance lights up some dark, unknown place inside me.
Who knew I was so into challenges? Definitely not me. Not until now, anyway.
“If you know who I am and you still did this, even God can’t help you.”
I can’t stop the smirk that rises to my face as I straighten up and cross my arms. “You think big brother is coming to save you, princess? You think I’m scared of him?” I almost chuckle.
“You should be.” She scowls. “His reputation isn’t exaggerated.”
I’ve heard the rumors. “An enforcer who can tear a man in two with his bare hands. I’m shaking in my boots.”
“Keep laughing.” An ugly little smile settles on her angelic face. “You don’t even have reliable men to help, and you think you can defeat my brother?”
“Sowing doubt and mistrust? Good one, psych student. Too bad I’m not falling for that.” Why am I getting a kick out of her stubbornness? So far, kidnapping her has proven far more entertaining than surveillance.
She scoffs while rubbing her wrists to relieve some tension on her skin. “Don’t tell me you actually trust those idiots. Their idea of tailing someone is standing right in front of their target’s face. I clocked the other one when I was leaving graduation.”
I frown. “What other one? There are only the three of us, and I’m the only person who followed you out.”
Jed hovered on the perimeter of the college campus while waiting for my order, and Marko stayed in the car.
Her forehead furrows. “There was another guy. The one I noticed—”
Gunfire erupts, cutting off the rest of her sentence.