Chapter 4
T he parking lot is packed with cars for tonight’s event. The Den’s walls rattle with noise from guests and the loud beat of music. The bass matches the tempo of my racing heart, heavy and painful, reverberating in my ears.
I open my mouth to say more, to elaborate on that statement, but before I can, Madd’s phone buzzes in his pocket.
He doesn’t move to stop it; he just stares at me, his face drawn in confusion. The same look mirrored on my brother’s faces.
Not my real brothers , my mind hisses.
No. They aren’t my real brothers. Not by blood, anyway. They are by everything else that counts. But the man in the car behind me, the one probably wrapped around my girl, Mi Cielo, he is.
Brother.
Brother.
Half-brother if the DNA tests are to be believed, and they are. I trust the source. It’s outside of our world, has nothing to do with us, and nothing to gain from lying.
But even without the tests, I’d know the truth.
Hunter and I look eerily similar. At first glance, one might think it’s our hair. Hair that falls to our shoulders in waves. Both in varied shades of blonde, his darker than mine, probably from his mom.
Our father, though, was blonde.
My mother was, too. She was also medium height, curvy, and had more plastic in her body than a grocery store, until she didn't.
And according to the report I received early this morning, Hunter’s mother was a brunette with a tall, willowy frame. Originally from Stockton, she moved to Oakland as a teen to escape a life lived in the foster system. Her rap sheet reads like a dictionary, every misdemeanor and petty crime telling a tale of heartbreak.
What the paperwork can’t tell me, unfortunately, is how foster care led to homelessness or homelessness led to her finding her way into my father’s demented claws, into his bed.
How it led to him having a child with another woman when he’d already been married to my mother for years.
“Uh,” Madd starts, clearing his throat and pulling me from my thoughts. He rubs the back of his neck, looking like he wishes the ground would swallow him whole. “As much as I want to talk about that, and I do , I really fucking do—”
“We all do,” Gage interjects, his throat working like he’s swallowing rocks.
Nyx says nothing, his eyes locked on me with a rage I’ve never seen pointed in my direction, but I know him well enough to know it has nothing to do with me. He’s furious for me.
I bite my lip.
He hasn’t even heard the worst of it yet.
“Yeah,” Madd agrees, his head bobbing. “But it’s go time, and I have to…” he trails off, pointing to the SUV I’m using to hold me up.
Clearing my throat, I wave them away and toss them a smile that feels every bit as fake as it is. “It’s fine. No big deal.” I straighten my tux, shoving away from the car. “Let’s go.”
Maddox hesitates but wraps his hand around the door handle. With a deep breath, he swings it open, plastering a massive grin on his face.
“We gotta go, kids. It’s showtime.” He stiffens and, seconds later, releases a loud, menacing growl.
I shoot the other guys a look, a silent conversation passing between us. Something definitely happened in the back of that fucking SUV.
I shake my hands out, watching as Hunter guides Ella into Maddox’s waiting arms. She looks up at him and smiles softly as Madd grips her hips, steadying her.
I watch her straighten out her gorgeous black gown with trembling fingers, and my head cocks as I take her in. Her cheeks are flushed, her mascara and liner slightly smudged. But her smile is genuine, and there’s a lightness in her eyes that wasn’t there before.
At least her lipstick’s still intact.
Hunter climbs out behind her, meeting my gaze, and I quickly look away. Inside The Den, the MC announces us over the loudspeakers. The crowd roars when he calls out, amping them up for Gage’s return to the ring.
Ella smiles and wraps her hand around Hunter’s. “Let’s do this.”
For a second, just one second, I wish I could freeze time. She’s so happy, so carefree. With her hand in his, Madd wrapped around her other side, his eyes full of love—she looks like she truly feels every bit as cherished as she is.
“Everyone good?” I murmur, my voice thick with emotion. I shake it off and quickly check over my weapons.
Nyx and Gage do the same before grunting that they’re good. In an unspoken gesture, the four of us circle Ella, keeping her between us as we move through the parking lot. I’m surprised when Hunter rolls his shoulders back and presses a hand to her spine, his eyes methodically taking in our surroundings as though he was trained to be one of us all along.
My mind is racing with questions and theories about the past and how it’ll affect our future when I feel it. The air around us changes, growing thick with tension. My body goes taut, my spine tingling with a sense of knowing.
Something’s wrong.
Then, I hear it.
“Come out, come out, little doll. I knew I’d find you here,” a raspy, creepy voice purrs from the darkness. I whirl on the voice, my hand already on my gun.
Little doll.
It takes less than a second for the sick nickname to penetrate through my thoughts. Clarity washes over me, drowning everything else out.
I step forward, feeling my brothers do the same, putting Ella and Hunter behind us. A snarl rips from my lips as the man weaves his way through the cars, and I’m suddenly thankful for being the emotionless person my parents raised me to be. My gun feels like a familiar weight between my fingers, and like always, I’m steady.
I could kill him here and now and feel nothing.
I wouldn’t even think twice about it because if this smiling prick is who I think he is, he deserves nothing less than a bullet to his demented brains.
“It was you,” I snarl, the words like acid on my tongue.
Even though I loathe to say his name, I can see the confusion on my brothers’ faces in my peripheral vision, and I need them to understand the severity of the situation. I swallow the bile pooling on my tongue as I look the love of my life’s rapist in his cold, dead eyes.
“You’re Eric Keaton.”
That does it. Nyx, Gage, and Maddox all catch up, understanding washing over them. The sound of safeties clicking off fills the quiet lot, and I’m honestly surprised when he’s not instantly peppered with bullet holes, but I’m thankful for it. He can’t die. Not yet.
Eric gives us a maniacal grin as he steps into the dim parking lot lights. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
My jaw ticks, but I don’t lower my gun as I track his every move. I feel the guys shift at my sides, but I never take my eyes off Eric. I can’t. Every breath he takes, every muscle he moves, I grow closer and closer to the edge.
The only thing keeping me from killing him here and now are the questions racing through me.
Why is he here?
What does he want with Ella? With Hunter?
Where has he been all this time? Where is Cynthia, his wife, and Hunter’s aunt?
But the biggest question of all, the one I’m not sure I’ll be able to get out, is why? Why her? Why them?
“And why is that?” Nyx snaps, drawing my attention back to the present. I blink. “I could kill you in less time than it would take you to blink, you old fuck.
“Because I have the information you want,” Eric laughs as his eyes take Ella in. They heat with interest, and his tongue darts out, licking his lips.
I consider killing him then.
Saying fuck everything, fuck the questions, and getting answers. I step forward, lifting my gun and lining up my shot with the eyes currently staring at our woman as though he has any right to.
Fuck him.
“What does that mean, Eric?” Ella asks slowly, her voice calm and cool, as though she hasn’t got a care in the world. I smile to myself, beyond proud of Mi Cielo.
The overweight, ruddy man falls into a fit of cackles, and Nyx makes a sound of surprise next to me. I don’t know why he’d be surprised. The man before us is insane. It’s clearly written all over every inch of his manic face.
“You’re all fools. You don’t even know what’s been happening right before your eyes.”
I stiffen, my ears perking up as my heart begins to race.
“Do enlighten us then, you vile prick,” Gage murmurs, and finally, my attention slides from Eric. He smirks at me and widens his legs, crossing his arms over his chest.
My brows furrow, but I reluctantly drop my gun, following his lead. I trust the men around me. Trust them to keep Ella safe. Every one of us would rather die than to see her hurt. Never again.
The old fuck huffs a humorless laugh. “You have no idea who she is, do you? You have no idea who you protect or what you’re even protecting her from.”
I swallow down rocks at that.
We don’t know who she is, but I have an idea, and with every word, that thing in the back of my mind grows, telling me I’m right.
My fists clench, one around my gun, the other digs deep grooves into my palm, and I let the pain ground me.
“Get to the fucking point,” Nyx snarls. I feel him shift at my back, moving closer to Ella.
“For ten years, I’ve been banished from this city. My home. My career,” Eric barks. “I lost everything because of you.”
I bristle. Who the fuck does he think he is?
“What are you talking about, Eric? You abused me. You raped me. You are a sick man and always have been. You abused and raped Hunter.”
My head snaps to the side, watching as our brave girl rolls her shoulders back and takes a step forward. Love and unyielding adoration fills me alongside pride like I’ve never felt before.
I want to reach out, want to hold her, worship her.
“You’re the reason Cora killed herself. It was all your fault. Every single thing that happened to us was on you.”
I see her hand slowly move toward her gun as she subtly steps in front of Hunter, as though she needs to protect him.
My eyes flit to him, my brother , and what I see there has a surprising amount of rage filling me alongside the pride I feel for Isabella. He’s terrified. Utterly terrified . His face is the face of a person confronting their abuser for the first time, the force of it ripping the old scars wide open for everyone to see.
It’s a pain I know well.
I felt it every time I had to wake up and look my parents in the eyes.
“No,” Eric grits out, forcing my attention from Hunter. I slide my gaze slowly from him, my heart lodged in my throat. “It wasn’t.”
Eric’s hand moves to his back, something every one of us clocks but doesn’t react to. We’re all ready and confident that we can take this prick out faster than he can breathe.
“Spit it out,” Ella sighs, making my lip twitch. “Whatever you came here to do or say, get on with it. We have a party to get to.”
We certainly do, though I doubt we’ll be going to it now. The second we get the information we need, one of us will be killing the sick fucker, then calling in whatever favors we need to take care of him.
After that…after that, we’ll want to be home, with her, with them. Not at a party with hundreds of strangers.
Eric scoffs. “You really don’t know anything, do you? You’re not going anywhere tonight except a body bag. I was hired to take you in, little doll. I was hired to hurt you. To ruin you. I was hired to make sure your memories never came back.” He shakes his head, and the hand not behind his back runs through his greasy grey hair. “And then you had to go and open your mouth. You had to go and get yourself taken from me.”
Nausea swirls in my gut. Of all my theories, that never once came up as a possibility. Why would someone hire him to mess with a child’s mind? Who would do that, and to what end? It makes no sense.
“Who hired you?” Gage asks, echoing my own thoughts. “Who hired you to hurt her? The same men who have been after her and Hunter?”
“That was me!” Eric shouts, his wrinkled face turning a frightening shade of red. “I hired the men to get her and kill the extra.”
A growl slips free from my throat as he jerks his chin to Hunter.
Extra?
Fuck. No.
“I knew he was coming for you today. I had to get you first. The ultimate revenge. Taking out the object of his obsession before he claims you. All he’s ever wanted was you,” he throws an accusing finger at Ella. “You opened your mouth and got the cops involved. You got sent away, and he wouldn’t protect me anymore. We made a deal. I got to have you, play with you, and anyone else I wanted as long as I kept you in my house. As long as I made sure you didn’t leave. Twisted you up enough that you never remembered where you came from. I did my part. Then you left, and that little bitch killed herself—”
Synapses fire in my brain, desperately trying to connect the dots.
Who would want Ella enough to set this entire thing up?
The Remingtons? Her real family, whoever they are?
Are they in The Circle? Higher than them?
Fuck. I run a hand through my hair, confusion and anxiety making me dizzy.
Who’s higher than The Circle locally? No one.
Higher…
Diaz?
“Cora!” Ella screams. “Say her fucking name , you coward. She killed herself because you destroyed her!”
He tosses a hand in the air, uncaring. “I don’t give a fuck who she was. She didn’t matter. But without protection, I couldn’t cover up her death. We had to leave the city. Spent the last ten years on the run. Lost everything. Had to hire those worthless idiots to come get you. Even paid the governor’s psycho kid to bring you to me.”
Ella gasps, and I jolt. Nyx rumbles a deep grown, and Gage sucks in a breath, but it’s Maddox I’m worried about. He’s eerily still, and I’m not sure he’s even breathing.
Am I?
“Didn’t know that, did you? Andrew Remington was paid a lot of money by someone to keep tabs on you, little doll. He wasn’t supposed to fuck with you so much, but what can you do? Kid was crazy.”
“I’m going to kill him,” Gage murmurs, and I nod, my fingers flexing around my gun.
“I don’t understand,” Ella whispers, breaking my heart. “You paid Drew to keep tabs on me? Why?”
Why fucking exactly.
“I didn’t put him in your life, but you’d be surprised at the lengths people have gone to for information about the infamous Princess of the Bay.” His smirk drops, and this time, I really do stop breathing. “But when these guys started looking for him, he tucked his tail and ran. Spent all his daddy’s money and needed more to keep up his drug habit.”
Just like that, the dots finally connect.
The Princess of the motherfucking Bay.
“So, you showed up and paid him to bring Ella to you,” I surmise.
“You need her for whatever sick plan you’ve concocted. Revenge or whatever it may be. You hired Drew, and when he failed, you put a hit out on Hunter and a kidnapping order on Isabella. Did I miss anything?”
Come on, fucker. Spit it out. Say it. I need to hear it.
Eric barks an ugly laugh, sending shivers across my arms. His eyes flit between me and Hunter, making my blood turn to ice.
His smile is feline. “Always knew you were a smart kid. Just like your daddy.”
My gaze slides to Hunters, and our eyes connect, a silent question passing between us.
Who the fuck is this guy?