19. Sparks
Chapter Nineteen
Sparks
I glared down at my phone before stuffing it into my front pocket. My brother could go fuck himself. Since I’d left the family, he randomly texted me. Usually to shoot the shit, ask how I was doing, make sure I was alive.
Ky and Jamie had helped me make a fresh start with a new name. But it was my brother who had been the most instrumental in making this new life a possibility. He’d been supportive of my passion for playing the guitar, wanting me to do something other than selling drugs or taking over the fights. That didn’t mean he didn’t get in a random pissy mood and try to mess with my head, though. Usually when he’d gotten too into the coke or was drunk off his ass.
Any other time, I would let his texts roll off me. I had a future that didn’t include blood and blow. Between my two best friends, the band, and now Hayat, I couldn’t have asked for more.
But Miguel had just played the one card that would make me forget about everything but the blood I’d once craved draining from my enemies.
Jaw clenched, I breathed in deeply through my nose, trying to block out the words I’d read that were branded to my brain with a hot iron.
Miguel: Havoc looks tasty. If you haven’t already sampled what’s between those endless legs, then hook your brother up, hermano . You owe me.
Why he was playing with my head over her, I didn’t know. Her online persona being revealed and the news that she was now Autumn’s Slumber’s new drummer was all over the internet. Ky handled all the social media for the band, but he hadn’t been able to keep up with it lately.
Miguel wasn’t one to be scrolling social media, though. Which was why his mentioning her in a random text was putting me even more on edge.
I would never introduce Hayat to anyone in my biological family. Not Miguel, and sure as fuck not our father. I’d kill them both before I let their dirty hands touch my goddess.
My phone buzzed with a new message, but I didn’t pull it out. I wasn’t going to play this game with him. He was right. I did owe him. But I’d slit his throat before I let him get within touching distance of Hayat, let alone taste her.
Popping my neck, I glared out the window as Ky drove us toward First Bass. We were running later than expected because Jamie had been busy turning Ky’s old room—the biggest one in the apartment—into Hayat’s sanctuary. We’d been working on it all week, switching Ky’s things into the spare room, which was much smaller. The last of the things Jamie had ordered arrived that afternoon, and he wanted them in place so he could tempt her to come home with us.
And never leave us again.
I couldn’t wait to see her. Get my hands on her. It wasn’t just my body that ached without her, but my heart. Hayat, my goddess, our Hellion. She’d quickly buried herself beneath my skin, going deeper, into a part of me that I’d never allowed anyone to get close to before.
It wasn’t just me either. Jamie and Ky were gone for her too. She wasn’t just a piece of ass to share. She was everything that I never knew I wanted, but now that I had her, I couldn’t survive without her.
We didn’t even want to try.
From the back seat, I heard Jamie’s breath hiss out of him. “The fuck is she doing?” he growled.
Curious, I turned around in the passenger seat to look at him. But his eyes were glued to the video he was watching on his phone. As whatever played out on the screen, my friend began to morph into someone I didn’t recognize. By the end of it, his chest was heaving with each breath he struggled to take in.
“What’s up?” Ky asked as he maneuvered through the busy LA streets.
“Hayat.” Jamie bit out her name, his fingers swiping over the screen. Turning his phone around, he replayed the video for me.
I instantly recognized the inside of the warehouse. It was Friday, which meant fight night. Nausea churned in my gut as I watched a younger guy tear apart a fighter that was vaguely familiar to me. I couldn’t remember the guy’s name, but if he was still in the fights years after I’d gotten out of the business, he must have been good enough for my brother to keep around. But the younger guy, some kid I didn’t recognize, was covered in blood that I would bet good money wasn’t his own.
The video zoomed in, going past the fighters, to a scene that had the air in my lungs turning to ice. My next breath came out as a wheeze, fear for the woman who was my heart gripping me so hard, I knew I would give up everything to get her out of there, to keep her safe.
What the fuck was she doing there?
Hayat was helping two guys hold back a little slip of a redhead. The taller boy was her brother, Evan. He looked just like his dad. He even had those same damn dimples as Hayat. Evan was a giant, predicted to go into the NBA one day, but even he was having trouble holding on to the little redheaded girl.
I grabbed the phone from Jamie just as the screen went black. A notice popped up, saying the video couldn’t be found. It would take a computer genius to get something that was about to go viral taken down. But when I tried to search for anything on Hayat, nothing from the warehouse came up. Wiped clean. As if it had never happened.
Fuck, I wished that were true.
Tossing the device back to Jamie, I felt my fingers shake, making it difficult to fish my phone out of my pocket.
“What the fuck is going on?” Ky demanded, shooting me a look before turning his attention back on the road, slamming on the brakes so he didn’t rear-end the car in front of us.
“Miguel sent me a text a little while ago. He mentioned Havoc.” Jamie’s fist hit the seat beside him as he cursed. Ky made a choking noise but kept driving. Just the mention of my brother’s name was enough to tell them what kind of trouble our girl might be in. Heart pounding against my ribs, I unlocked my screen and read the new message from my brother.
Miguel: Havoc has some interesting friends. Are you helping Vitucci expand his pipeline out west, hermano ? PCC runs the snow on this side of the country. There will be consequences if you betray us.
Vitucci?
How did she even know someone within the Italian mafia? She was a pampered little rocker princess. She shouldn’t even be aware that people like the Vituccis existed.
“Sparks, you better tell me what the fuck is going on,” Ky barked. “What happened to Hayat?”
Frustration and concern for our Hellion made my voice shake. “I don’t know. She was at the warehouse tonight. Miguel said something about—” I broke off, not wanting to speak the name aloud.
The Vituccis owned this damn country. My father and brother liked to think they held power, and on some level, they did. People shit their pants when they had to face my father’s ire. But nothing compared to Ryan Vitucci and his family. They had a direct line into the States from Colombia, something they’d been building for decades that had continued uninterrupted by the Feds. If Vitucci wanted to expand from the East Coast to the West, it would start a war. One that would turn the streets red with blood, most likely that of the Pacific Coast Cartel.
“What?” Jamie demanded, leaning forward from the back seat. “What, Sparks?”
Before I could choke out the words, my phone rang. But it wasn’t my brother’s name that popped up. It was an unknown caller. Not even a number accompanied it. Gritting my teeth, I lifted the device to my ear. “Yeah?”
“Ignado Guerrero? Or should I call you Sparks Carver?” a voice I didn’t know greeted. It held a hint of an accent. Not Spanish or even Italian. It was slight, but I thought I caught something harsher, maybe Russian.
“Who is this?” I demanded, staring straight ahead.
“Let’s say that I am a new friend. I need a meeting with Sancho Guerrero.”
“Why the fuck would I do that?” Contacting my father would do nothing but put his attention on Hayat. My mind was already scrambling, trying to figure out how to keep her off Miguel’s radar. I popped my neck again, wondering how on guard my brother would be if he was worried about Vitucci. He wouldn’t expect me to sneak through the shadows and slit his throat.
How long would it take for him to bleed out? Licking my lips, I fought against the voice in my head telling me to do it. He’d never see me coming.
That was my old life, the silent killer my father had made me. I’d left it behind for Ky and Jamie. For Autumn’s Slumber. But for Hayat, I’d return to being the PCC’s assassin in a heartbeat. However, this time, I’d take out every single member of the cartel instead of their enemies.
I’d give up every goddamn thing I had to keep her safe.
“You’re invested in the safety of Havoc,” my new friend said casually, putting me on higher alert. “But so am I. If something were to happen to the hellion, that would make someone very precious to me cry. The world becomes a very unsafe place for anyone who makes tears spill from my sweet girl’s eyes.”
“Give me twenty-four hours,” I told him. I had no idea who this guy was, but something in his voice told me to trust him. It held a rasp, a hint of madness, that a part of me recognized. I felt it. For Hayat.
Not that I had much choice. It was either trust a stranger or risk Miguel and my father going after the girl who already owned a piece of my soul.
“You have twelve hours,” he countered.
“Twelve hours will get you a sit-down with Miguel Guerrero. Sancho will be a more difficult arrangement. Which you will know if you’re who I think you are.”
“And who do you think I am?”
“Ryan Vitucci,” I gritted out.
There was silence and then a grunt. “If that’s who you need me to be to make this easier for me to speak to Sancho, then I will be Ryan.”