Chapter Fifty-One
Atlas
I knew I’d been right about her having an abusive ex.
There were just too many signs for it to be anything else. Her timidity. Her fear about displeasing me over even the smallest of things. The way she felt like she wasn’t allowed to have an opinion.
I hadn’t anticipated the stalker angle, though.
But I guess that made sense.
Guys who were that controlling didn’t want to let their victims go.
I imagine it went double-so for AJ’s situation, since she’d been groomed by a much older man.
He’d likely seen a young, insecure, impressionable, girl and thought he could pluck her, unripe, off the vine, then mold her into the shape he wanted.
The problem was, men like that were never actually satisfied. Nothing she ever did would be good enough.
And then he decided to beat her over his own sky-high, impossible expectations.
It was no wonder she jumped on the opportunity to take this house. It didn’t sound like Kingston had filed any sort of official paperwork. And all the bills were included. I even kept the cable and streaming services running because I could use the logins abroad too.
There was no paperwork that would point back to where she was here.
The phone thing, though, that was niggling at me.
How had he found the number?
And, no, I didn’t think it was possible for him to trace a burner. That was the whole point of them. But there was something somewhere with that number on it, and I was worried that it might point in the direction of Navesink Bank.
In which case, changing the phone wouldn’t make a difference.
“Can I make a suggestion and have you give it some actual thought?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said, brows furrowing.
“I’d like to have King come in and set up a security system on the house. Just as a precaution.”
“That’s not necessary,” she insisted. “I mean, that’s a big expen—“
“I’m not worried about the money,” I cut her off. “Is that the only objection?”
“I just… I don’t know if I want them all to—“
“Sweetheart, that’s not my story to tell anyone,” I said. “King doesn’t need to know that to set up the house. I can just say that I want the place more secure in case I’m not in town.”
That seemed to be the wrong thing to say, though.
Her hand pulled from mine, resting in her lap instead.
“I’m obviously not going anywhere,” I added, trying to play it off. “Not for months. Even then, who knows. But once I have a boot on, I will be more mobile. And the house might be sitting empty.”
“But why would he think that you’d want a system now when you’ve been thinking the house was empty for months and months without one?”
“Fair point. But now that I’ve been here for a while, I give more of a shit about the place than I used to. He’d get that.”
“It’s your house,” she said, getting up and gathering the dishes to take to the sink.
This was one of the times I cursed my body for not healing faster.
Because I wanted to get up. I wanted to reach for her.
I had to settle for staying put and watching her tense back as I spoke. “It’s not just my house,” I reminded her. “Which is why I’m asking you to think it through, not telling you I’m doing it.”
“What would it be? Door alarms?” she asked, turning to look at me.
“And window,” I said. “Flood lights with cameras facing the driveway and backyard. Then a doorbell with a video feed as well.”
“That’s a lot.”
“It sounds like it. But, trust me, King does way more complicated shit all the time.”
It used to amaze me how far personal security had come. Shit you put inside your vents in your house. Balcony sensors. Reinforced walls and bullet-resistant windows.
“There was one client. Guy had pockets deep as Midas,” I told AJ, just to make it clear how crazy personal security could get.
“He was building a doomsday bunker. But he wanted a moat. Not just any moat, mind you. One that could be ignited and have flames that burned high enough to create a literal fire wall.”
“Oh my God,” she said, mouth falling open a little. “That’s crazy.”
“He was a complete dick. I imagined if I worked for his ass, even an actual fire wall wouldn’t stop me from heading to his house on Purge day.”
“Is that the kind of work Kingston usually does?” she asked.
“It’s a big mix. There’s the clients like that here and there, sure. But it’s a lot of personal home security for average Joes. And a lot of businesses, for obvious reasons.”
“What made him want to go into security?”
“Oh, sweetheart, you’re gonna want to sit down for this,” I said, waving toward her chair.
She watched me with scrunched brows as she crossed the room, and sat down.
“I’m assuming you haven’t heard anything about what my siblings and I used to do before we all started on our various careers?”
“No. I mean, I never really talked about personal things with Kingston when he came around.”
“King went into security because it was a specialty for all of us for years before we came to Navesink Bank.”
“Okay…” she said, nodding, waiting for me to find the right words.
But… were there right words for this? To tell a woman you had feelings for that you used to be an armed robber? That you had reasons? That you didn’t regret it? Even if, looking back with more mature eyes, you could see how much your combined grief had fueled your actions?
I guess I just had to lay it all out on the table.
“Alright. Let’s take it back,” I said. “Our mom was raising us on her own,” I explained.
“Working a minimum-wage job that kept her just under full-time, so she didn’t get to have medical insurance.
Then she got sick. And the bills piled up.
Until, eventually, she couldn’t afford to fight it anymore. ”
“Atlas,” she said, this time reaching for my hand. I let her, lacing my fingers through hers, and holding on.
The grief was still there. It was even still tinged with the anger that had fueled our actions after her death. But it was more distant now, dulled by the years between.
“King was stuck with all of us after,” I said. “And we were all so… angry.”
“Understandably.”
“And we kind of decided one night that we wanted to… make them pay.”
“Make who pay? The company?”
“Yeah. It’s a giant company. Thousands of stores. They could afford to pay for health insurance. Even for their part-timers. But I guess the billionaire CEOs and millionaire stockholders didn’t like that idea.
“Anyway… we came up with a crazy plan to… rob them,” I admitted.
“What?” she asked, eyes going round.
“Yeah. Then we… did it,” I admitted.
“All of you?”
“Yeah. And we didn’t just do it once or at one store. We never hurt anyone, of course. We just wanted the stores to hurt. But that was our… job, for lack of a better word, for a long time.
“Because of that, we got good at things like security systems. About what does and doesn’t work.”
“What made you guys stop?” she asked, still watching me with confused eyes, but not looking shocked or horrified like I’d been worrying she might.
“Funny story. That is because of our sister. We were on a job at one of the stores. She was working but Mark Mallick grabbed her during it, thinking she was, you know, an innocent bystander, and that he was saving her.”
“That’s the craziest meet-cute I think I’ve ever heard,” she said, lips spreading into a sweet smile.
“Yeah, it is. And she caught feelings for the guy. And eventually said she wanted out of this. I think, at that point, we were all done. But no one had the balls to say we wanted to move on from our little revenge mission.”
“Wow. And… and Mark was okay with that?”
“Well, being a loan shark enforcer kind of made it hard for him to judge,” I said, shrugging.
“True. But what about… what about your brothers’ wives. They all know?”
“Of course. But King’s wife, Savvy, was already friends with Peyton, who was associated with some of the other crews in Navesink Bank, so she was unfazed by it.
“Nixon’s girl, Reagan, was stalking and threatening some guy that King’s company was being paid to protect.”
“And Rush?” she asked.
“Rush was working as a phone sex operator, and—“
“Wait, wait,” she said, eyes bright. “You can’t just brush over that. He was a phone sex operator? I didn’t know men did that!”
“I don’t think any of us did at the time.
But Fiona, Hunter Mallick’s wife, ran a phone sex business.
And said there was a demand for men. He was looking for a job he wouldn’t hate and…
so he started it. Katie, his wife, was working as a receptionist at the company.
And had been… calling him anonymously for a long time.
Fee ended up hooking them up. She’d already been head-over by the time she learned.
So, I guess, it didn’t matter to her at that point. ”
“Your family is interesting,” she said, shaking her head.
“Wait till I tell you all about the Mallicks,” I said. “Anyway, yeah, that’s how King got into this business. He has a knack for putting himself in the mind of someone who is trying to get into some place, for whatever reason, and figuring out ways to deter that.”
“He would probably be better at protecting this house if he knew about Joss…”
“I don’t think so. King is a husband and father now. I think he would look at you here, living alone, or being home alone when I’m not here,” I quickly amended, “and think of how he would want to keep his woman or his kids safe. Then do that.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “I think that’s probably a good idea. Even just in general. A month or so back, people were breaking into cars in their driveways just a few streets over. Even in safe areas, crime can happen. If the lights or cameras would prevent that, it’s probably worth it.”
I didn’t give a fuck about car or property crime.
I cared about her.
And what might happen to her if Joss caught up to her here.
No, a security system wouldn’t necessarily keep someone determined out, but it would give AJ a heads-up that he was there. It would automatically send up alarm bells to King’s office. And the police.