Chapter One
I watched the mundane people with normal lives walk back and forth through the hospital waiting room as I sat on the far side, my back against the wall of windows, wondering how in the fuck they got so lucky.
What did they do in a past life to deserve such…normalcy?
My jaw hardened as I saw a flash of electric blue in the parking lot outside, just beyond the shallow crowd. Dontell and Mina were here. Jer and Casey had been here but left a few hours ago to get some rest. Casey was nearly halfway through her pregnancy now; she deserved some rest, and Jer wasn’t leaving her side. Leon had been here, spending half the night waiting with me in silence and the other half checking on Bryce, the officer who took a bullet for Amara last week. When Lee wasn’t with me or in Bryce’s room, he was on the phone with Collin Stevens, the head of the Mafia—and my brother’s boss. These people shouldn’t be dealing with this stress, not with everything else going on.
Last night, the biggest pain in my fucking ass made the dumbest decision of her life. She went against my demands, took one of Leon’s cars, and raced. I told her to stay off the streets. I didn’t have the fucking time to worry about her. I shouldn’t have to fucking worry about her; she wasn’t my burden to fucking bear.
Not anymore.
After I”d spent the last four hours sitting that damn hospital room, glaring at her while she slept, she finally woke up. The sight of her green eyes shook me in a way it shouldn’t have, but fuck, less than twelve hours ago, I thought I’d never see them again. The second she wrapped me in her mossy gaze, anger possessed me. I wanted her gone.
I wanted her out of the street racing scene all together—strike that.
I never wanted her behind another wheel ever again.
However, I knew that was impossible; she was a stubborn, spoiled brat still holding onto that silver spoon she was born with.
I had to settle with something else, and that was getting her out of Oasis entirely.
The boys knew how I felt about bringing her here in the first place.
Shortly after Collin and Jer brought me in a few months ago, we made a run out to Hallow Ranch in Colorado, hiding some of the Mafia’s most precious products from Kavi. During that time, we went into Denver to do some networking.
The last person I’d expected to see was Dominique Wells. I hadn’t seen her in over a decade, and she was racing—pretty fucking well…
Four Months Ago. Denver, CO.
The sound of over used engines drowned out the rock music coming from three speakers set out in each corner of the parking lot. The sun had just set, the racing crowd of Denver alive and filled with anticipation as they waited for the first race of the night to end.
I moved through the crowd, searching for any signs of Bratva while Leon and Jer did networking.
Would I liked to be included in those conversations?
Sure, but Leon didn’t trust me yet, and rightfully so.
I betrayed the man inside the walls of hell when I vowed to have his fucking back. It would take some time, but I was willing to do whatever it took to get his trust back. I’d been inside for years and had already accepted my fate before he entered my cell with drive to escape. His passion to save his sister from their father was inspiring, and some of that rubbed off on me. When we made our pact, I never intended on betraying him.
“Yo, Cain!”
I turned to look over my shoulder at the familiar voice, a genuine smile breaking across my face as Mickey, a racer I met in LA, came towards me.
He held out his hand, and we slapped palms, embracing each other quickly before letting go. “What’s up, man? I didn’t think I’d find you in Denver,” Mickey said with a laugh.
Mickey Ackerman wasn’t the best driver in the world, but he could design a cage like you’ve never seen. He was on the shorter side, balding at the back of his head, with brown eyes.
I looked over to where I left Jer and Leon, jerking my chin in that general direction. “Just in town networking. You know how it is,” I replied, putting my hands into my jean pockets.
Mickey’s eyes followed my chin, his eyes going wide. “Holy fuck, that’s Leon Torrance.”
I nodded. “Yup, and that’s Jeremy Jones beside him.”
Only the people in this world knew who those men were. Mickey had been in this for nearly two decades. “So you’re Oasis now?”
Was I?
I wasn’t sure.
I knew that I represented Oasis, and my engine designs would bring in a lot of money for them, but I wouldn’t say that I was a part of Oasis. Not yet at least. Mickey didn’t need to know those complications, though, so I just gave him a nod. “Been with them for a couple of weeks now.”
A cocky smile spread across his face. “They heard about your big brain, didn’t they?”
Playing the part, I returned his smile. “Yeah, Mickey, they did.”
“Well, good for you. It”s about time you settled somewhere. St. Louis is a good place to do that.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Leon and Jer heading over to us.
“Cain,” Jer called, eying Mickey.
“Jeremy, this is Mickey,” I introduced, gesturing to my old friend.
Recognition flashed in Jer’s dark eyes. “Ah, you’re Brandon’s guy, aren’t you?”
Mickey beamed. “That I am.” His eyes moved to Leon, who was silent and tense beside me. He didn’t want to be here.
“And this is Leon Torrance,” I said, giving Mickey a tight smile.
Mickey held his hand out, but Leon didn’t move.
Clearing his throat, Mickey’s hand dropped. “I’ve heard so much about you, Mr. Torrance. I would give anything to design a car for you.”
“Is that what you do?” Leon asked, his voice sounding boring.
Cosmetically, yes.
Mickey dove right into it, about what he does, how long he’s been doing it. He went on for about three minutes before the echoes of cars in the distance cut the one-sided conversation short. All four of our heads snapped in the direction of the roaring engines, and in the distance, the first two cars came drifting around the corner of the building. The crowd cheered, pumping their fists in the air and screaming out names.
“I designed both of those cars you see there,” Mickey noted proudly.
“Damn, that driver is good,” Jer muttered, his eyes on the Mazda in first place as Leon hummed lowly in agreement.
“You did the Mazda?” I asked Mickey, not tearing my eyes off of it. It was sleek and clean—fucking glorious.
“Sure did.”
A second later, the Mazda came into the middle of the crowd, drifting before coming to a complete stop right after the finish line. The crowd moved in, cheering. The driver was announced the winner as the four of us watched from a distance, waiting for the door to open.
When it did, I expected a pair of jeans or sweats.
Instead, on a chilly fall night in Denver, I saw a bare, long, and shapely leg stretch out with a purple Van covering the foot. When the woman stood up, a water fall of reddish brunette hair greeted me.
“I want her,” Jer said.
“Agreed,” Leon replied. “She belongs at Oasis.”
“Who is she?” I asked, something vaguely familiar about her curves hidden under the black skater skirt and white, long sleeved thermal.
The woman turned around to face us, smiling and chatting with the crowd.
My stomach tightened as the organ in my chest seemed to stop altogether, right around the time Mickey said, “Her name is Dominique, and she’s the best female racer in Denver.”
To me, she wasn’t.
To me, she was the good girl next door. The one with the shy smile and kind eyes.
The woman before me was a stranger, and she confirmed it a few minutes later when Mickey introduced us.
She didn’t look me in the eye once.
She acted like I didn’t exist.
I suppose it was a feeling I needed to get used to. Between her and Leon, I didn’t know if I was going to survive being the invisible man.
“You good?”
I looked up from the floor to find Leon standing above me, a Red Bull extended out to me. His eyes were conflicted, the gold ring within them dimmed as he stared down at me.
Clearing my throat, I shook off the memory of seeing Dominique for the first time in ten years and focused on the present. “Has the doctor discharged her yet?” I asked, ignoring the tension between us.
“No, not yet,” he sighed as I took the can from him.
I watched as he looked away, his jaw jumping. My eyes drifted back to the strangers passing by, from the pregnant mothers walking in with a smile, to the grieving old men walking in with sad smiles and flowers. Leon moved after a few moments, taking a seat beside me, propping his forearms on his knees, joining me in the people watching.
“I wanted to apologize for last night,” he began, his voice filled with regret. He looked at me over his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have held you back—or hesitated. I should’ve gone to her sooner. I just—”
A strange feeling bloomed in my chest. “We don’t have to talk about that. I understand.”
He looked away from me, and I stared at his profile, noticing the muscle in his jaw working relentlessly. “It was a stupid mistake, and I’m sorry—”
“I pulled my gun on you, Lee,” I cut him off again, leaning forward, mirroring him. “If anything, I should be the one apologizing.”
He shook his head and looked down to his feet. “Cain, if it was me and Amara was in that burning car…you’d have a bullet in your chest.”
I couldn’t say I was surprised. Lee and I were just starting to build our trust back, and while that was going to take time, I understood him. I’d seen the way he looked at the detective, even on the first day I met her. I knew then that she meant something to him. I was shocked that Dontell or Jeremy didn’t see it.
“If Dontell or Jer tried to stop me, I think—I think they would have bullets in their chests too.”
My stomach twisted. “You can’t mean that.”
Finally, he looked at me, pain lingering in his eyes. “Oh, but I do. That’s what happens when a man like me falls in love. No one stands a fucking chance if Amara is in danger.” Knives built in my throat, and his next sentence rocked me. “So, yeah, I understand why you pointed your piece at me.”
I jerked. Then, my face twisted as I snarled, “I’m not in love with Dominique.”
He drew in a deep breath, releasing it as he leaned back in the chair. “And I wasn’t in love with Detective Harrison, brother.”
Brother.
I looked away from him then, cracking open my unhealthy energy drink with a single hand. I leaned back then, downing half of the cool liquid. I needed to get the subject off her, but that was kind of hard considering she was the one in the hospital bed. “I want her out of Oasis.”
“Cain,” Lee sighed.
My head turned to him as I growled, “She raced in your fucking car.”
“You think I don”t know that?” he snapped. He shook his head again and shot up from his chair, pointing down at me. “You wanted her off the fucking streets and kept her car in the bays, Cain.”
I glared up at him, remaining silent, because he was right. The second I heard that she was having car trouble, I took my sweet as time fixing her engine. She didn’t belong on the streets. This wasn’t her fucking world. It was mine. She belonged in a big city, working a big corporate job, living in her perfect sky-rise. That was where she belonged, somewhere good and clean.
“You didn’t have to give her the fucking car,” I growled.
“Oh, I regret it now, believe me,” he spat. “It’s eating me alive knowing Kavi had that fucker strap the C-4 to one of mine, but in the moment, Cain, I didn’t. That girl is fucking good—great, even. She has so much potential.”
“She doesn’t belong—”
“Only in your eyes, but from where I’m standing, along with everyone else, behind the wheel is exactly where she needs to be,” he cut me off, his words firm.
“Cain!”
Leon moved, giving me full view of his kind-hearted sister, Mina, running towards me. I stood up just in time to catch her in an embrace, her body crashing against mine. I smothered my grunt, my arms instantly tightening around her.
Mina, like me, was a stranger to Oasis and the Crew. When she first came here, St. Louis was the last place on Earth she wanted her daughter to be. Even though her life was crumbling, she was nice to me. Fuck, she considered me a friend, and after spending years of wandering across the country, it felt good.
“Hey, Mina,” I whispered in her ear.
Her hold tightened on me. “Don’t you ever—and I mean ever—scare me like that again,” she hissed, sobbing. “I know she’s okay—are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I told her softly, lying. I was far from okay.
I pulled her away, noticing Dontell standing beside Leon now, his eyes on Mina’s back. I looked into her cinnamon-colored eyes and gave her the harsh truth, despite everything I’d just told Lee.
Despite all the hate I had for Dominique now.
“I had no choice,” I told her. “I had to save her.”
“We understand that,” Dontell added, coming around to Mina’s side, a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
They had the wrong idea.
“I was in her debt,” I explained, looking at the three of them. Leon’s brows furrowed as Dontell’s lips thinned.
Mina’s eyes widened. “What are you talking about?”
My eyes found hers again. “I owe her my life.”
“It’s a long story,” I added, looking to Dontell and Leon before they could get a word in.
Judging by the looks on their faces, we were going to need to have another graveyard meeting. The last meeting nearly ripped whatever was left of my soul apart.
November. St. Louis, MO.
I followed Leon, Jer, and Dontell out of the city in my Silvia. With each mile, my unease grew. It’d been a few days since I told them I used to work for Kavi.
Once, I’d been a part of the fucking Bratva.
Once.
Never fucking again.
Ever.
“Everything comes full fucking circle, Cain,” I muttered, shifting again and pulling up in the middle lane, between Dontell’s Porsche and Jer’s Challenger. Leon was in front of us, leading by a few hundred feet. I shook my head; the bastard always had to be in the lead.
A few minutes later, we pulled off the interstate into a little town in Missouri. About a mile and a half later, Leon turned into a cemetery and, one by one, each car followed him. We parked in a circle on the far end, away from the graves, and the sun was rising over the hollow ground, warming up the fallen souls. I got out, bracing for our next conversation.
Leon was staring at me, waiting for an explanation, the reason why I betrayed him and destroying the brotherhood we’d built in such a short time. He promised me a place in his community down in Houston—a place to fucking settle and get away from everything The Pit in Detroit dragged me into.
My eyes scanned over the other two men. Jer looked pissed off, his arms crossed over his chest, his face set in stone. Dontell was studying me, ready to hear me out, but I knew I couldn’t let my guard down. Dontell Vance Michaelson was the most ruthless of them all. I’d argue he was even crazier than the damn Mafia King.
“Alright,” Jer said, breaking the silence. “Let’s get one thing out of the way: if it wasn’t for me and your brother, you’d be dead right now.”
I knew that.
Xander nearly killed me when I told him the truth. He looked at me as if I was stranger to him, and hell, maybe I fucking was. We hadn’t really been brothers since childhood.
Jer continued, “Collin wanted you dead the other night, Cain. You get that, right? The second you mentioned your history with the Bratva, he wanted to put a bullet between your eyes.”
“Jesus,” Dontell muttered.
I remained silent, only nodding once.
“But you’re Oasis. You’ve proven yourself to me,” Jer said, dropping his arms and putting his hands into his coat pockets. “I don’t take that shit lightly.”
His words rocked me, but I didn’t let it show.
You’re Oasis.
“Agreed,” Dontell said.
I nodded once more. “I know that.”
Leon shifted, gesturing to the space in between us. “Start,” he ordered.
I didn’t hesitate. I was tired of the secrets. I was Oasis, and fuck, that meant so much to me. I looked him in the eyes as I began, “One of the many regrets of my life was leaving you in that prison, Leon.”
The men said nothing, waiting for me to continue.
“The night before everything was supposed to go down, I got a note from another inmate. He had just been admitted, and he had a barbed wire rose tattooed on both hands,” I continued.
Dontell bit off a curse.
Jer’s brows came together.
Leon didn’t move an inch.
“You know that I was inside for running drugs for a gang in Detroit. They were once affiliated with The Pit, but new leaders have run them out since. The run ended in Texas, where we were busted and tried there. I was in the prison for two years before you showed up, Lee.” His eyes flashed, but otherwise, I didn’t get much else.
I leaned back against the hood of my car. “Two years, I heard nothing. Then the night before I’m supposed to start a new life…with a brother,” I said, regret pooling deep in my gut as Leon looked away, “I was cornered by the Bratva. He was a low-level man, an errand boy, sent to Texas to deliver a message to me…about my actual brother.”
The men remained silent, waiting for me say the truth out loud. “The message was about two things,” I began, my jaw tight. “Number one: Xander was on Kavi’s hit list.”
“Why?” Leon asked.
“Does Collin know this?”
I shook my head. “Xander doesn’t even know.”
Dontell’s brow furrowed. “Why was he on Kavi’s radar?”
I looked over to him. “Gambling debt—a fuck ton.”
Jer bit off a curse and looked to the ground.
“Number two: I owed Kavi over half a million.”
“What?” Dontell blurted.
“How?” Jer questioned, his head snapping up.
“It was the drugs,” I explained. “I was young and stupid, looking for some quick cash. When some people from The Pit approached me with the offer, it was simple. I needed to get out of that city anyways.” I held my tongue. They didn’t need know why I needed to leave. I continued, not giving them a chance to ask questions, “The offer was fifteen Gs in cash in exchange for transfer down to Texas. I agreed, but those guys failed to tell me those drugs had been stolen from the fucking Bratva.”
“Fuck,” Leon muttered, his hand going to back of his neck.
Jeremy shook his head as he closed his eyes. A second later, he opened them. “So Kavi came to collect his debt.”
“I had no choice,” I replied before I looked back to Leon, repeating it, my voice strained. “I had no fucking choice.”
“Why not?” Dontell pressed.
“Because he knew where Xander was, and if I didn’t work for him…” I trailed off, letting them fill in the blanks.
Xander was two years older than me, and the second he turned eighteen, he left Detroit.
Leaving me in the dust.
Funny thing, finding out your brother in is prison at the same time as you—just three thousand miles away.
“Kavi used my brother as leverage, and he wanted me, not the money,” I told them.
“Why?” Leon asked, stepping forward. “Why did he want you instead of the money?”
I scoffed. “I come from shit, but God graced me with a high IQ and the desire to build shit. Xander doesn’t have the same talent as me. Kavi saw me as an asset. Xander was just a chess piece, and when he got caught up in the gambling shit, Kavi did some digging. That’s how he found me.”
Over the next forty-five minutes, I told them everything the Bratva made me do during those three years. I told them who Kavi made deals with and how he avoided the Italian Mafia.
Silence stretched over us for a while, and then Jer broke the silence. “And what about Dominique?”
I stiffened. “What about her?”
“You want her out of all this shit,” Jer deadpanned. “We need to know why.”
The truth, in most situations, wasn’t complicated. It was the feelings that came along with it when you pulled it up from the depths. I wasn’t doing that today. I had no intention of feeling those emotions ever again. So, I gave them the half-truth, the version they could understand, because they were at tight knit as people came. “I grew up with her. In Detroit.”
It worked. The men nodded in understanding and agreed.
Dominique would stay out of it.