Chapter 34
Kian
“Jesus, fuck,” I swear when I walk into my office to find Cassian Black sitting at my desk. “What the hell are you doing here? Get out of my seat.”
Cassian chuckles, stands, and walks around to one of the guest chairs, lowering himself into one. “I felt like playing some poker last night, so I stopped by one of Xander’s clubs. Then I got bored and thought, why not go see Kian since he’s always so friendly to me?”
Rolling my eyes, I sit in one of the other visitor chairs and wait for whatever bomb Cassian came to drop on me because I have no doubt that, since he’s here, it’s not a friendly visit.
“I don’t think Lacey Ricci’s car accident was an accident. I think it was a hit.”
Every nerve in my body tingles as my stomach tightens and the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
“Excuse me?” I ask because there’s no fucking way I just heard that correctly. No fucking way.
“Get your computer up and put this in it,” he says, holding a thumb drive.
My skin crawls when I insert the drive into my laptop.
Hundreds of files pop up. What the hell? I open the first one and then the second; both are articles about the accident. The next file I open is a death certificate for the driver who hit Ace.
“What is this?” I ask as I open a toxicology report and then an autopsy report.
“When I was reading articles about Lacey’s accident, I was looking into some of the police reports and photos the detectives took, as well as the autopsy and medical report.
Nothing in the police statements indicates they suspected the driver was under the influence or that they smelled alcohol on him.
I looked at the toxicology report, and his blood alcohol level was less than .
001. There was another toxin in him that wasn’t listed anywhere.
It’s not even available here in the States.
It’s a mushroom that causes cardiac arrest within minutes of ingesting it.
That shit is what killed him on its own.
I think he was dead before the accident even happened. ”
“What the fuck?” I scowl at the toxicology report, trying to make sense of it.
Cassian pulls up a photo of an enormous, bald man, covered in tattoos everywhere except his face. “The mushrooms have only ever been found in Albania. Dreq Hoxha. Dreq means demon in Albanian.”
Shaking my head, I stare at him, still not understanding. “Can you connect the dots a little faster, man? What are you telling me?”
“Dreq Hoxha is known in the dark world as the Albanian assassin. He’s a contract killer. He kills anyone, as long as there’s enough money offered. His primary way of killing and getting away with it is staging an accident.”
“How do you stage an accident?” I ask. “Ace nearly died. There wasn’t anything fake about it.”
Cassian shakes his head. “No, it was real. But that guy was dead before it happened. I believe Dreq was driving the car remotely. I can’t confirm anything for sure, but I’ve been diving down this rabbit hole for the past two days, and I can’t come up with anything else.”
Shaking my head, I literally can’t fathom what Cassian is telling me. A hit?
“Where can you find this guy? Dreq?” I ask.
Because I’m going to slaughter him myself. He tried to kill my Ace?
“I don’t know. I can put a call out, but from what I’ve heard, the guy only appears when he wants to be found. He’s one of the deadliest assassins in the world.”
Eyeing Cassian, I raise a brow. “I thought you were one of the deadliest assassins.”
Cassian smirks, “First of all, we’re not assassins, asshole.
” He shrugs. “I mean, not really. Depends on the day, I guess. Dreq is a full-on hit man. And he’s dangerous.
Served six years in the Albanian military as a sniper, and then served ten years in one of the most dangerous prisons in Albania for killing the person who killed his wife and kids in a hit-and-run.
He escaped about eight years ago and has been in the dark since.
He’s dangerous, Kian. Even more than me. ”
“He didn’t kill Ace, though,” I say, my mind reeling as it dawns on me that an assassin didn’t fulfill his contract, and my girl is out in Las Vegas without a bodyguard.
That’s not true. Luciano said he has security on her at all times from a distance. She’s safe. And she’s at work right now. I know because I dropped her off at Emerald Palace before I came here. She’s in a secure area of the casino.
Knowing that makes me breathe easier as I look at one document after another until my eyes can’t focus and I sit back in silent shock.
“There’s no way to prove this, though?” I ask.
Cassian levels me with a look that makes me question whether he’s sane or not, and then he smirks. “There is one way to find out for sure.”
Fuck.
I don’t think I’m going to like whatever it is he’s about to tell me.
“Dreq does a ritual with anyone who dies under his hand. The night after the deceased is buried, he uncovers the casket and puts a marker inside it that says who called the hit. In the underworld, as a contract hitman, he is never the one held responsible for the killing. It always falls on the contract holder.”
So, if this truly was a hit, the guy who hit Ace’s car would be marked somehow.
“You’re telling me you have to unbury a body to figure out if it was him?” I ask.
Cassian shoots me a cocky smile. “Nah, man. I’m telling you that we have to unbury a body if we want to confirm whether my suspicions are true.”
The coffee and breakfast burrito I had with Ace this morning are suddenly a concrete weight in the pit of my stomach. I’ve put a lot of bodies in the ground, but I’ve never dug them up again. A year later. Fuck. What would a corpse look like after this long?
Jesus Christ.
Am I really contemplating this?
If Cassian’s suspicion is correct, Ace could still be in danger, and no one knows it. I find it hard to believe, considering a year has passed, and she’s had nothing else happen. Wouldn’t a hitman keep going until the contract is fulfilled?
“Where’s he buried?” I ask.
“He’s in a graveyard in Kirkland. Northeast of Seattle. I have my jet on standby. We can do this tonight.”
“Aren’t there cameras all over graveyards?” I mean, how the fuck does one unbury a body without being discovered? Not that it matters. I already know I’m doing this. If someone is after Ace, I need to know.
She’s mine. I don’t care if I just met her a week ago.
It feels like our souls have known each other for a lifetime.
I can get to know her over time. What I do know right now is that I’ve fallen for the glittery woman, and I’m going to do everything in my power to keep her safe and happy for as long as she’ll allow.
“I’ll tap into the system and cut it while we’re there, then duplicate a previous night’s footage. Already got that shit covered, man,” Cassian says as he stares down at his phone at some sort of game he is playing.
The guy is so nonchalant about this, like unburying bodies is nothing to him.
I pull up the group chat with my brothers and type out a message.
Kian: Need to look into some business near Seattle tonight. Could use some help.
Cash: Tell me where to be.
Xander: Let’s fkn go.
Beckett: I’m ready whenever.
The muscles in my neck relax, and even though I have my issues with my brothers, they’re there when shit is real.
Kian: I’m going to tell Ace we’re going out of town to look into a business deal. I’d appreciate if you told your girls the same thing for now.
Beckett: Dude, I don’t think starting the relationship off by lying is a good idea.
Cash: Shut the fuck up, Beckett. Mind your own business.
Xander: Why are you even speaking when you’re the only one who’s single, Becky-boy?
I chuckle at the “Beck” part because Beckett hates it when Xander calls him that. I can picture my little brother’s scowl as he reads it.
Beckett: Fuck you, fuckers.
Kian: I just need it to be kept quiet for now. It will be an overnight trip. Don’t wear your fanciest shoes. Meet me at Royal Aces.
Beckett: Okay, so it’s that kind of meeting. Got it.
Rolling my eyes, I glance at Cassian, but he’s engrossed in his game, ignoring me completely. I find Ace in my phone contacts and hit call, then rise. Once I’m out of my office and in a connecting boardroom, I close the door.
“Hey,” Ace answers sweetly as if she’s happy to hear from me, and my cock surges to life at the thought.
“Hey, angel. How’s your day?”
“It’s been great,” she answers, then lowers her voice. “How’s yours, Daddy?”
My heart hammers as I run a hand through my curly hair. “It’s good, baby. I had something come up for work, so my brothers and I need to fly out of town for the night. I’m sending a driver to take you to the studio, and then he’ll drive you home after.”
“Oh, okay. Is everything okay?” she asks hesitantly.
I get the feeling that Ace was taught not to ask questions because of the type of family she comes from.
I don’t like that she doesn’t ask the things she wants to, but it’s working in my favor in this case.
It’s something I’m going to address with her as soon as I’m home and can tell her the truth about what I’m going to do tonight.
Hopefully, she’ll understand that I have to do this to put my mind at ease.
I won’t be able to rest if I don’t know.
The shit Cassian told me sounds like some unhinged, psychopathic shit, but I know, as dangerous as my brothers and I are, there are much scarier people out there. Cassian being one of them.
“Yeah, angel. Everything’s fine. I’ll be home in the morning. I’m sure Jordyn and Quinn would jump on having a girls’ night with you if you asked them,” I tell her.
Ace is quiet for a minute. “When I saw Jordyn yesterday, she invited me to a girls’ night tonight but said you guys were going to be there playing poker, so I declined. Maybe I’ll take her up on it.”
Frowning, I try to remember whether she mentioned anything about it last night, but I’m positive she didn’t. What I don’t understand is…
“Why did you decline?”
She doesn’t say anything for several seconds, and it sounds like she’s walking away from whoever she’s around. “I figured you wouldn’t want me around for your poker night. Guys hate it when girls start impeding on their guy time or whatever.”
I yank the phone away from my ear and jab at the button to turn it into a video call. A second later, Ace accepts the invite, and her angelic face appears on my screen. Her green eyes sparkle with uncertainty as she peers back at me.
“Listen to me, angel,” I say, then wait until she nods.
“I don’t know what the hell most guys like, but I’m not like most. I’m a fucking Savage, and I like my girl right where she fucking belongs.
Perched on my lap like an angel. So whatever bullshit you’ve heard, forget it all.
I had already planned on taking you with me to my brother’s tonight.
You’re mine. Do you understand me, Ace? Or have I not been making it clear enough? ”