32. Kaylor
After the masked men drove off with me in the back seat, I half expected to be tied up or threatened. They hadn’t said a word after demanding I hand over my phone, and I did so without an argument. When the car stopped in front of Viper’s Auto Pro, my father’s shop, my confusion tripled.
Why were we here?
The question was on the tip of my tongue when the driver got out, taking my phone with him, and dashed inside the building, only to emerge a minute later. Then we were back on the road.
Not having my phone made me feel naked and defenseless, but I didn’t have time to dwell on my vulnerabilities. Fear took a front seat as the sedan pulled into a gated warehouse, the entrance opening electronically as the car approached.
Where the hell are we?
“Let’s go, princess,” the man beside me ordered, opening the door and waiting for me to exit.
I considered staying huddled inside, making him drag me out, but it would only prolong the inevitable. There was no way I could overpower them, not a chance for me to escape. Even if I managed to get away, where would I run? By the time I reached the fence, they would capture me again. I wasn’t the greatest at scaling walls.
Resigned to my fate, I clung to the hope that if they planned to hurt or kill me, they would have done so already, but being secluded in a scary-ass building alone with them didn’t look good either.
The two men with their masks still intact ushered me inside, one of them keeping a firm grip on my arm. He more or less had to drag me the closer we got, fear making my feet reluctant.
The warehouse smelled like motor oil and stale cigarettes, the air thick with something else—something that made my stomach churn. I was taken through a maze of cars, each shinier and more expensive than the last, but all I could focus on were the words the detective had told me weeks ago.
My father boosted cars.
Now, standing here, staring at rows of luxury vehicles lined up like trophies, I had to wonder. Had he been mixed up in something? A deal that had gone horribly wrong? But what would they want with me?
My kidnappers pushed open the office door and gestured for me to step inside. I hesitated, but I walked in, my body tense, my mind screaming at me to find a way out. “Rusty?” I was so confused. What was my father’s business partner doing here?
He sat behind a desk, looking years older than I remembered from the last time I’d seen him. He was still scruffy as hell. “Hey, kiddo. Sit,” Rusty said, his voice firm but not unkind. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
I hesitated again, my eyes darting around the office—an old wooden desk, metal filing cabinets, and a stack of papers that looked like invoices or orders. My heart pounded as I slowly lowered myself into the chair across from the desk. Rusty leaned back, crossing his arms, and the snake tattoo coiling around his thick biceps stared at me. My father had an identical one. This wasn’t news to me, but I hadn’t given the tattoos much thought until now. The same viper was also used in branding his shops.
So many more questions, and instead of me finding Rusty, he found me.
Correction. Kidnapped me.
“You know why you're here, don't you?” he asked, watching me carefully, setting his phone down on the desk.
“I’m guessing it has something to do with my dad,” I said flatly. “That’s all I know.” Why the fuck would he scare me like he had? What was he doing with all these men? A horrible feeling rooted in my gut, and I was deathly afraid of where it might lead.
Rusty sighed. “You don’t get it yet, but you will.”
I clenched my fists in my lap, doing my best to keep calm and not freak out, not like I was internally. “Then explain it to me.”
The chair groaned under his weight as he adjusted his position. “We’ve been trying to get you out of that house. Unsuccessfully. They’ve stopped us at every attempt.”
That confession had too much to unpack, but my mind adhered to one revelation. “That was you? The men in the masks coming after me?”
What. The. Actual. Fuck
He nodded, his long beard dangling past his neck.
My mind whirled, spinning in a dozen directions. “Why go to such lengths? Not to mention scare the shit out of me—” Dots started to connect, and I feared where this would lead. The masked men? Just like the masks my parents’ killers wore. Perhaps Rusty wasn’t the friend I thought he was. I needed to be fucking careful. Shit, I wish I had my phone. “D-did you kill my parents?”
He snorted as if the idea was so absurd, but was it? Not from where I was sitting. “No, of course not.” He seemed offended that I thought he was capable of such a thing, but how could he blame me when the measly amount of pieces I had fit? “I know this all seems…confusing. Yes, my men took you, but they aren’t the same men who killed your parents.”
“What are you talking about…Rusty?” My voice barely scraped past my lips, raw with disbelief. I didn’t want to believe it. Not this. Not him.
Not someone I thought I could trust.
“Frauds. All of them.” His voice was steady, but there was something in his eyes—a quiet insistence, a cold certainty.
A sharp pang hit my chest. No.
“Everything you’ve been told has been a lie.”
I shook my head. “No.” I forced the word out again. “No. Donovan—he’s my godfather. A college friend of my dad’s. He?—”
Rusty’s laugh was dry, humorless. “Is that what he told you?”
A suffocating silence stretched between us as my thoughts raced, twisted, and tangled.
No. It didn’t make sense.
It couldn’t.
Rusty’s expansive chest lifted before he exhaled, his gaze locked onto mine. “Donovan isn’t your godfather, Kaylor. He was never your father’s friend. The Corvos, they’re not who they say they are.”
My vision blurred at the edges, the world pressing in too close. I couldn’t seem to pull a full breath. My thoughts scattered, tangling and tripping over the last. I blinked, tried to find something steady, something solid. But everything was too loud. Too bright. Too wrong. “But the will—” My breath caught, shaking, fracturing.
“It was a setup, kiddo.” His voice softened, almost sympathetic, but that only made it worse. “The lawyer, the will, the guardianship. All of it. Donovan wanted you under his control.”
“W-Why would he do that??” The words came out barely above a whisper, my throat tight with fear.
Rusty’s expression hardened. “Retaliation.” His next words landed like a gunshot. “He’s responsible for your parents’ deaths.”
I froze.
Blood roared in my ears.
My pulse pounded, a deafening rhythm against my ribs.
“You lie,” I said hoarsely, barely audible. “Why would they have any reason to murder my parents?”
Rusty leaned in, elbows on his knees, gaze locked on mine with unsettling calm. “It’s the truth,” he said, the words falling slowly and deliberate. “And you need to accept it.”
I shook my head, but my body betrayed me, every instinct screaming that I was losing control.
“You’ve been living with the enemy, Kaylor.” Rusty’s words coiled around me, suffocating, inescapable. “Sleeping under his roof. You think you’ve been safe?” A sharp scoff. “You’ve been a pawn.”
The breath I’d been holding shattered from my lips.
Rusty watched me closely, judging to see how much I could handle, or if continuing would be too much for me, but he must have seen something in my eyes that propelled him forward. “It’s a story that goes back years.”
A cold sensation trickled through my veins. Something wasn’t right, and I had the sinking feeling that whether I wanted to believe Rusty or not, I was already in too deep.
“The Ravens and Vipers have history that oozes bad blood,” Rusty began to explain, his eyes flickering to his phone, and I swore I heard someone say my name. My father’s partner picked up the device and tapped on the screen before putting it back face down on the table. “We didn’t want Donovan and the Ravens to know who had you. They would assume, of course, but wouldn’t have proof.” He studied me for a long moment. “Your father—he was head of the Vipers Nest.”
The words slammed into me, knocking the air from my lungs.
I shook my head. “No, that’s not—” The head? It was one thing to be a part of a crew but quite another to be its leader. I couldn’t fathom my father being anything other than a mechanic who busted his ass to make his business successful. When the hell had he had time to lead an organized crime group?
Rusty let out a short, bitter laugh. “Yeah. He kept that part of himself hidden from you. He didn’t want you involved.” He gestured toward the warehouse behind us. “But this? This was his real work. He stole cars, fixed them up, and funneled them to dealers.”
My breath hitched, caught on the truth like a snare. “He lied to me. My whole life.”
“It wasn’t like that. He was protecting you. And your mother. He didn’t want you mixed up with his past.”
“And look what happened,” I said, unable to disguise the bitterness from my words.
“It was a business," Rusty continued. “A dangerous one, but your father was good at it. Too good.”
I couldn’t breathe. “Why should I believe you?” I had spent years idolizing a man who I thought had been honest and hardworking. And now—now I didn’t know what to think.
Rusty stilled, eyes darkening as if he could see it all playing out again. “Because the past he tried hard to shelter you from was why Donovan killed your parents.”
My fingers dug into my thighs. “What happened?” There had to be a reason Donovan felt justified in taking my parents from me, in forcing me to live with him. His actions had to have meaning, or was he just a psychopath?
Rusty exhaled heavily, his features clouding with what I thought could be regret. “Like I said, the feud between Donovan and your father goes back years, before you were even born. There was an accident a few years back, and Donovan held your father responsible. The truth was, your father did have a hand in what happened, but he never meant for anyone to die.”
“Die?” I squeaked.
He nodded. “Donovan’s wife.”
The air deflated out of my lungs like a punctured balloon. “Oh, God.” A million thoughts raced through my head, a flipbook of memories, the hostility I felt from Kreed, Mason, and Maddox when I arrived. The cold welcoming.
They hated me.
“She wasn’t supposed to be there,” Rusty said, shaking his head. “Your father had a job, a planned hit on Donovan’s crew, payback for something they did to us. But she—she was caught in the crossfire.”
I felt like the floor had been ripped out from under me.
No.
No, that couldn’t be true.
“My dad wouldn’t?—”
“He didn’t mean to,” Rusty cut in. “It was never supposed to happen. But it did. And Donovan… He doesn’t forgive. Instead of coming after your father right away, he played the long game. He manipulated the system, made himself look like the hero while painting your father as a criminal. He set everything in motion so that one day, when he finally took his revenge, no one would question it.”
I could barely think.
“You were the last move in his game,” Rusty said quietly. “Keeping you close, making you trust him?—”
I shot up from my seat, my head spinning. “Stop.”
Rusty frowned.
I shook my head, my breathing uneven. “You’re telling me I’ve been living with the man who murdered my parents? That he—what? Took me in out of guilt? As some sick game of revenge?”
Rusty nodded grimly.
The room felt too small. The air too thick. I stumbled back, gripping the edge of the chair for support.
Oh. God.
Did that mean…
Had Kreed slept with me as payback? Was he punishing me? Making me have feelings for him only to crush me?
He used me. Lied to me. Manipulated me.
My heart balked at the idea, but my head… I replayed all of my interactions with Kreed, Maddox, Mason, and Raine. Nothing seemed real anymore.
“Why are you telling me this?” My voice wavered.
“Because you deserve the truth,” Rusty said simply. “And because, whether you like it or not, you’re part of this world now. It’s not safe for you?—”
Something was happening.
Rusty stiffened, his eyes moving above my head to the door. I heard it then. Commotion. Raised voices. He swore under his breath, scooting the chair away from the desk. “Stay here,” Rusty said, a fierce scowling marring his lips.
I didn’t need Rusty to tell me what was going on.
Everything in my body sensed him.
Kreed had come.
My hands curled into fists at my sides as the chaos outside the office erupted. Shouting, the sound of bodies colliding, the sharp crack of a punch landing. I could hear Rusty barking orders, his voice cutting through the mayhem.
And then I heard his voice.
“Kaylor!”
I froze.
“Kaylor!” Kreed’s roar was desperate, frantic even.
I swallowed against the lump forming in my throat. Why was he here? After everything I’d just learned, after the truth had ripped the foundation from under me, why the hell would he come for me now? Was he here to finish what his father started? To drag me back to Donovan like the obedient son he was? Or was this just another manipulation, another move in whatever sick game their family had been playing with me?
My feet moved before I could think. I pushed open the office door, stepping out onto the platform above the warehouse below. My eyes scanned the mayhem, and then I found him.
Kreed was in the middle of it all, his chest rising and falling hard, his fists clenched, his dark eyes locked on mine the second I appeared. He was being held back by Rusty’s men, but he wasn’t fighting them—not really. He looked desperate.
His gaze swept over me, his relief almost palpable, but I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand him.
“Why are you here?” I demanded, my voice slicing through the noise.
Kreed tensed, every line of him tightening, like he was holding back a tide of words he couldn’t quite shape, but I didn’t give him the chance. My mind was already spiraling, unraveling beneath the weight of betrayal. His father had orchestrated my parents’ deaths. His family had lied to me, manipulated me, and controlled my every move.
And now, now , he wanted to act like he cared?
He wasn’t alone. He’d brought his crew, not his father’s, which only raised more questions. Why wasn’t Donovan here? Had Kreed gone rogue? Was this part of some last-ditch effort to keep me under his thumb?
“To save your ass,” he bit out, his voice a gruff rasp.
A hollow laugh escaped me, raw and vinegary. “You mean the way your family saved my parents?” I shouldn’t move closer. Shouldn’t go down there. Shouldn’t put myself within arm’s reach of the one person who had broken me the most. But I needed to look Kreed in the eye when I shattered the illusion he was still desperately clinging to. I needed to see his face when I told him exactly what I thought of him. “I’ve been rescued. It’s you I need to be saved from,” I said as I took the stairs slowly, my fingers gliding over the railing, my eyes locked on him like a predator sizing up prey.
His gaze tracked my every move, dark and tormented, but I didn’t let it sway me. “Kaylor, listen to me?—”
“No,” I snapped, the force of my voice shaking me. My fists clenched at my sides, and I ignored everyone in the room but him. Kreed was the one who fucked with me the most. His betrayal cut the deepest. “I don’t want to hear it.”
His jaw flexed, but the raw emotion in his eyes—God, it hurt to see it. I hated that it affected me at all. “Do you even know where you are?” he asked, his voice rough and low. “What you’ve walked into?”
I knew exactly where I was. I was standing on the edge of a war, and I was done letting Kreed pretend he was fighting on my side. “You shouldn’t be here,” I said coldly.
“I had to come,” he ground out. “For you.”
I scoffed, shaking my head. “Don’t insult me.”
“Kaylor, please. Just—let me explain.”
“Explain?” I echoed, the word slicing my throat on the way out. “What’s left to explain? That everything between us was a lie? That I was just a pawn in your father’s sick revenge? I know what you are. I know who you are. You made me believe you were protecting me.”
Pain flickered across his face like a crack in armor, but I didn’t let it pierce me.
He had his family. I had no one.
And I wasn’t about to let him break me again.
“That was before,” he defended, but I was past reason.
I snorted. “Don’t even give me that bullshit.”
Rusty moved beside me, silent but solid, a pillar of certainty in the crumbling wreckage of my life. His presence grounded me, reminding me I wasn’t alone. That I had someone.
Kreed’s eyes flicked to him, narrowing, his entire body taut with barely restrained fury. “You don’t know the whole truth. You only know his side.”
“How could you do this to me?” My voice cracked, betraying me. “Tell me it’s not true. Tell me it’s a lie.”
Kreed’s throat worked, but he hesitated. “Would you believe me?”
That pause? That hesitation? It was my answer.
I let out a breath that tasted like betrayal. “You can’t.”
“Kaylor, don’t let your anger make you blind.” His voice softened, pleading. “You’re not safe here. I don’t care what he told you. I know how this world works. You think they’ll protect you better than I can?”
Rusty snorted.
Kreed ignored him, his eyes locked on mine. “How do you think I found you?”
I frowned.
“It was Brock,” he said, lifting his phone. “He gave me your location.”
I stilled. “He wouldn’t,” I whispered, but my voice lacked conviction.
Kreed turned his phone screen to me. The message was right there. My cousin had betrayed me, too.
Or…had he been trying to save me?
Kreed took a step forward, his voice dipping low. “He trusted me enough to bring you home. He doesn’t want you caught in this war any more than I do.”
I swallowed against the rising pressure in my chest. “You sound like you care.” I forced a laugh. “Something I know firsthand you’re not capable of.”
His expression twisted. “Not until you.”
My breath caught. I swallowed the golf-ball-sized lump in my throat. For the first time since this nightmare started, I hesitated.
“Come with me,” he said, his voice thick with something I couldn’t name. “Give me a chance.” He extended his hand, his eyes begging me to take it.
I looked at his palm and then at the chaos surrounding us. Kreed’s crew, the Raven Crew, standing at the ready. Rusty and his men, poised to fight, offering me safety, security, and a home.
One step in either direction would seal my fate.
I had my father’s crew, my father’s best friend—the man who had truly been a godfather to me. And I had Kreed—the boy I had trusted, the boy who had ruined me.
The decision should’ve been easy.
But it wasn’t.
Because my heart and my head wanted two very different things, and I didn’t understand it myself. I didn’t know which one to trust.
I should hate Kreed.
I wanted to hate him.
But I had let him in. Trusted him.
I slept with the enemy.
Came damn close to falling in love with him.
And now?
Now my heart was bleeding.
And I wasn’t sure it would ever stop.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Thank you for reading!