Chapter 9
NINE
Nestling a plate of freshly cut fruit and fluffy waffles with syrup in my lap, I fork another piece of pineapple into my mouth as the man beside me on the couch remains eerily quiet, and my ex-husband, in the chair across us, watches me eat like some food porn weirdo.
I arch a quizzical brow at Dark and swallow. “Who’s gonna start?” I gesture to him with the tine of my fork, then swing it to Sunshine. Neither of them are eating. I don’t know if it’s because they mowed down before I left the bedroom or if they’re not hungry. Either way, I’m not letting this spread Dark threw together go to waste. Not when I can count on one hand how many times he cooked for me when we were married, and I don’t mean separated, but actually together. You know when he was off every few months dipping his dick in random pussy.
Dark thrums his fingers on the arm of the chair, and his leg bounces as if he’s nervous.
The man beside me clears his throat. I wait for him to begin, but apparently, he just needs to clear his throat when another uncomfortable silence descends, and I dig back into my meal. I’m not letting them off the hook. They started this. I’m not going to pry it from their mouths. Not that I could if I wanted to.
“Fuck.” Dark slams the side of his fist onto the top of his thigh.
Again, I wave my fork like a magical wand and urge him to do more than cuss. He’s never had a problem talking before, so I don’t know what’s stopping him now. The same goes for Sunshine. They’re not quiet, broody men. Well, broody, maybe. But never quiet. At least not in my presence.
“Guys.” I sigh. “Talk or get out. I don’t have time for this.” I pluck a piece of strawberry from my plate, put it in my mouth, and stare intensely at my ex as I chew. They need to pull up their big girl panties and get on with it.
“Christ, Kali.” Dark throws his head back and speaks to the ceiling like it’s too difficult to look at me. “What do you want from me? Do you want me to admit I cheated on you?” The tattooed flesh of his throat moves when he swallows.
I hum thoughtfully and push an orange slice around my plate. “Is that what you want to admit? Something that I already know?”
Dark throws his hands in the air in exasperation. “I gave you what you wanted. A divorce.”
“Which I’ve been asking for, for literally ever.” Years. Years upon years. He doesn’t become a hero all of a sudden because he stopped being a pain in my ass for half a second .
He continues to speak to my dull ceiling. “I can’t change what I did.”
“Do you still do it? Besides what we did on the yacht, do you still cheat on Abby?” I ask, needing to know if he’s trying to be a better person. We can’t change what happened on the ocean, but he can choose to stop hurting people anytime he’s ready.
Tilting his head back down, Dark’s eyes narrow into slits as he glares at me. “Yes. You already know this.” His jaw ticks as if he’s annoyed I’m seeking clarification in the first place.
“Have you done it since we got back? Ya know, cheated since I found out?” I ask again, in a different way, hoping for a different answer.
“Yes.”
Beside me, Sunshine curses under his breath.
“You’re an actual piece of shit,” I announce to the room and shake my head at the audacity of this man, who gives zero fucks about his actions and how they affect other people—real humans with feelings and aspirations. As much as I love Dark, in that platonic, you’re-my-hot-ex-husband thank-you-for-giving-me-children way, I don’t like him very much most of the time. Today, I’d go as far as to say I despise him. You don’t get to take a wrecking ball to everyone’s life and shrug it off.
My ex cringes but doesn’t back down, which I don’t expect him to. “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the honest answer to.”
“Does Abby know?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell her? ”
“No. I’m not. I have an entire life outside of our little world here.” He waves his hand with flourish. “I’m a different man dealing with dangerous people.”
That’s not an excuse to be a dickbag. I’m sorry, it’s not. You can play a role and deal with shady people while you still avoid hurting the ones you claim to care about.
“Then which is the real you, hmm? Maxim or Dark?”
My dickhead ex rolls his eyes as if that’s the dumbest question he’s ever heard. “Maxim isn’t real, Kali. He’s a front. You know this.”
Cocking my head to the side, I point my fork at him. “But do I?”
“Christ. You married me. You know me. You know who I am. You’re the mother of my kids.”
“I’m the mother to two of your kids. Abby is the mother of your daughter, in case you forgot. You know, the woman you’ve been ignoring down the street.”
“Yeah. I get it. I’m an asshole. I should have kept in touch, but I don’t love her. I’ve never loved her, and I’m never gonna love her. Not in the way it counts.”
“Then leave her. Do your Maxim Drake cheating bullshit for the club and leave Abby. That’s the right thing to do, Dark. You can still see Lily. You can still help them. But give the poor woman a chance to be with a man who will actually love her. Not keep her around because he can’t… Never mind.” Having already said too much, I shut my trap.
“What?” he goads, sitting forward in the chair. “Finish your sentence. Can’t have what? You? ” Staring straight into my soul, an evil quirk on his lip, he arches his brows and his forehead crinkles. “Is that what you were gonna say?” the jerk presses, and when I don’t respond, he continues, “Abby is only around because of Lily. I tried to do what was right, given the shitty situation.” Dark shrugs and resettles back in his chair, resting the side of his booted foot on his knee, reeking of bravado.
“Then do what’s right and leave her. Because one of these days, you’re gonna knock another bitch up, or you’re gonna give her an STI.”
“What I do or don’t do with Abby is none of your business, Kali.” He gestures between us. “We aren’t married. You made it clear you want nothing to do with me.”
This dumbass, need-to-be-castrated dickweasle.
“Are you playing the victim now?” I scoff, then soften my tone to something grossly sweet. “Oh. Poor, Dark, his wife left him when he knocked up another woman.” Dramatically clutching my chest, this time, I roll my eyes so far back into my skull it’s a miracle they don’t get stuck.
Fed up with my sarcasm, Dark slams his fist on the arm of the chair. “Goddammit, woman, I love?—”
Refusing to let him finish that stupid sentence that does nothing but anger me, I cut him off. “Why were you both at the restaurant last night? Why were you on my date?”
Clearly not knowing what to say, my ex looks to his dad. Something unspoken passes between them before Dark expels a heavy breath and flicks an invisible piece of lint from his t-shirt. “We. No. You gotta run a job on Todd.”
Ah, yes, a typical half-assed answer. I know this game well .
Confident they’ll give up the goods one way or another, I play along anyhow. “You want me to spy on my boyfriend?”
Beside me, a low growl rumbles in Sunshine’s throat. I peek at him out of the corner of my eye as he grips the arm of the couch. The muscles in his neck thicken, and his nostrils flare. Okay. I guess Todd is a sore subject in present company.
“Yeah,” Dark confirms. “We need you to spy on your boyfriend.”
“Why?”
Dark looks at his father. Again, something passes between them when Sunshine dips his head. My ex squeezes his eyes shut and mutters a curse before turning his attention back to me. “How long have the stalkers been happening?”
What does that have to do with Todd?
I frown. “Years. Why?”
“We have reason to believe that… Fuck…” Dark massages the base of his neck and his thick biceps flex. “There’s somebody scouting you.”
“Scouting me, how? For what?”
“Someone who knows about your talents.”
“My plants?” That’s not exactly a talent. They’re plants. They grow. You harvest them and turn them into usable poison. Literally, anyone with time and half a brain could do it. My mother taught me how in the back of the old hippy van we lived in. We had a small grow area where we harvested the necessities and stored them in blue Ball jars. We tried out different blends on people. No. Not people. Men. We targeted men. Well, she did. I didn’t have much say in who we experimented on. I had a small notebook where I recorded all our notes and outcomes—it disappeared ages ago. Mom learned everything about the dangerous plants Mother Earth provides during her worldly travels and passed on the knowledge to me. Again, that’s not talent. That’s education. There isn’t a time I don’t remember knowing. It’s just there.
Inserting himself into the conversation, Sunshine reaches into my lap, claims my half-eaten plate of food, and rests it on the sofa table beside him. Then he grabs my calf and turns me so my back tucks into the arm of my couch, and my legs are in his lap. His eyes meet mine for the first time since the bedroom incident. They’re warm but etched with concern.
“We believe Todd works for the same people scouting you,” Sunshine explains.
“No. No, he’s not.” That’s insane. Actually insane.
“Sweets. Yes. He. Is. We went to the restaurant to ID him and shake shit up. He needs to know that whatever he’s got planned, it ain’t gonna fly. You’re too important to us and to the club. Whoever is bankrolling this motherfucker ain’t gonna like we’re in the picture.”
Oh.
When I don’t say anything, Sunshine continues, and as he does, he massages my bare feet. “Have you ever noticed the stalkers only happen when we aren’t around?”
I shrug. “No. I guess not.”
“Just tell her, Pops,” Dark says, as if they’re hiding something vital.
Squeezing his eyes shut for half a beat, Sunshine shakes his head and exhales a sigh. When he reopens those gorgeous grays, he pins them on me. “You know I’m a cleaner.”
“Duh,” I reply.
“When you take care of the stalkers, and I come to clean up, I don’t just, ya know, ‘clean up.’ ” He air quotes and resumes working my heel. “I took pictures, then fingerprinted the men and sent the info to Gunz, who ran background checks and shit on all of ‘em. The names they gave you. None of them matched the bodies. I mailed their phones to another brother to see what he could dig up.”
Damn.
“And you believe they’re all connected somehow,” I guess.
Sunshine nods just as Dark picks up right where his father left off. “Do you remember the job you did ten, maybe eleven years back? You got a job at that hotel bar a week before a group of businessmen were set to stay. They spent a bunch of time at the bar. You got friendly with ‘em, which is what we needed. On the last night, you slipped something in two of their drinks. One died at the hotel that night, the other on his flight home the next day.”
“Yes. I remember,” I reply. “It’s one of the few jobs I’ve had that Sunshine didn’t come to clean up after.” Because there was nothing to dispose of. When the man didn’t check out of the hotel, a maid found him dead in his bed. The coroner picked the body up and did a toxicology screening. It showed, as I expected, alcohol and recreational drugs. They didn’t suspect foul play. The man on the flight died of an aneurysm. Or so the death certificate says. Sunshine looked into it when things went down. That’s how I know.
“I’m pretty sure one of those men at the bar was Elden,” Dark explains.
I frown. “The asshole from the yacht who tried to buy me?” The sicko who did unspeakable things to a corpse? That man?
“Yep. I don’t know for sure if he recognized you or not, but it doesn’t matter. He’s dead. What’s concerning are his uncles. They’re Remy buyers.”
“So, they’re collectors.” Where some rich assholes collect art, others collect cars or stamps or baseball cards and other weird stuff. Then you have these men—those who collect people.
“Exactly. I think an uncle has been on to you since. Maybe he informed Elden of his little obsession. Maybe he didn’t. We don’t know. But the stalking started shortly after that. Right?”
Scratching my forehead, I think a bit, trying to iron the timeline out. “Maybe. I think so. The first one happened when you were on a short run, and it was maybe a year or two until the next one came. Time’s a little blurry. But after you left and I moved here, the stalking picked up. Two, maybe three a year since. Some lasted a week or two. A few lasted a month, maybe a bit longer.” None of them were particularly scary or problematic.
“And they all started by coming to the bar?” Dark asks.
“Yes. Every one of them.” Their visits started slow and picked up as time went on.
“Including Todd? ”
I nod. “Including Todd…So…” I clasp my hands together. “What you’re telling me is my boyfriend was hired to stalk me like the others, but he got a foot in the door, and now I’ve let the enemy into my house?”
“Not exactly,” comes from Sunshine, clearly wanting to make me feel better. “Dark and Cell broke into his dentist’s office last night and pulled what they could from his computer.”
“Dark and Cell did what?” I screech.
“We broke in?—”
“Yeah.” I wave my ex off. “I heard that part. What I don’t understand is why Cell, my sister, who sits at a computer every day, broke into a dentist’s office like some criminal. She doesn’t do outside jobs.” There’s a reason Cell works underground. She’s not one for the outside world. The woman rarely spends time in the bar, let alone walking the streets at night or breaking and entering.
My ex shrugs as if it’s no biggy. “She did last night.”
“Dark.”
“What? It was Till’s idea.”
My eyes widen, and my mouth nearly hits the floor. “It was whose idea?”
“Pops reached out to Till,” Dark explains. “He asked her if she knew anyone who could do what we needed. She recommended Cell, and Cell reached out to me once Till spoke to her.”
I’m gonna murder them all. Till included. What a sneaky bitch.
“You don’t get to use my sisters, Dark,” I scold.
“I sure as fuck do when it comes to your safety.”
“Fine.” I huff and cross my arms over my chest, knowing damn well I can’t win this one. All my sisters would jump off a cliff if it meant helping me. Cell included. “She’s safe, right? After you broke in and did whatever you did?” I motion to Dark.
A short laugh rips from his throat as a cocky smile lights his entire face making him look ten years younger. “Hell yeah. I took her home afterward. We had a blast, but the woman definitely needs to get out more.”
With my lips pressed together, I grumble and look at Sunshine, none too happy. “You just let this happen?” It isn’t like him to act so recklessly.
He pats the side of my ankle in reassurance. “She volunteered, Sweets. If we didn’t have Cell, we’d have to wait for a qualified brother to ride here, break in, and do the same shit she was able to do. Dark kept her safe. She even transmitted the encrypted files to Gunz and his kid for them to dig through.”
I cannot believe they did this. Well, I can. But I’m… ugh.
“Sooo let me get this straight. You both wanted to have this talk today, not about what happened between us, but because of Todd?” I glance between them for an answer.
Showing zero remorse, Dark shrugs up one muscular shoulder and drops it dramatically. “Pretty much.”
“You know I can handle myself, right?” I make sure they realize I’m a grown-ass woman and not someone who needs to be saved. Had they told me about Todd before this, I could have snuck into the dentist's office with Dark.
“Obviously not,” my ex growls. “You’re dating a man hired to gather intel on you for some piece of shit who likely wants to kidnap you to keep you as a prize, or worse.”
They don’t know that. This is all speculation. Maybe they made all this up because I’m dating someone they don’t want in my life. Maybe this is a bunch of bullshit lies to get them back into my life without having to talk about the real stuff. Blame it on basic Todd. Blame it on something other than their actions. That sounds like a smart cop-out, right?
Wanting them to see actual reason or, at the very least, own up to how far-fetched this sounds, I address my ex. “It’s been a decade, Dark. How many men do you know who play the long game? If he wanted me kidnapped, he could have done it sooner. It’s not hard. I live alone. He must know that.”
Leaning forward, staring straight at his father, Dark says, “I know plenty of men who play the long game, right, Pops?” He scoffs and lifts his chin at his dad, daring him to argue otherwise.
His expression unreadable, Sunshine ignores his son’s comment and presses his thumbs into the arch of my foot. I suppress a groan, loving the massage far more than I should. “We don’t know why all of this is goin’ down. But we know Todd’s involved. You need to remember that.”
Right. Remember that men who lied to me are selling me a story about how the guy I’m dating is some mastermind trying to kidnap me.
“You want me to kill him.” Sure, they said spy, but if I find the incriminating evidence they think I will, it’s obvious what’s expected of me. This isn’t about gathering intel as much as it is about eliminating another threat if there even is one.
“If you don’t, Sweets, I will,” Sunshine confirms with a shallow head dip.
Great. Just great.
“Just like that?” My voice spikes a dozen octaves.
Nostrils flaring, a low rumble vibrating in his throat, Sunshine nods without hesitation. “Yeah. Just like that.” His lips split into a cruel smile—promising sweet, sweet death. A death he’ll revel in.
Fuck. My. Life.
Dropping my head against the sofa, I squeeze my eyes shut and groan.
Can’t we go back to the lying, cheating drama? I could deal with that. I’ve been dealing with that. Maybe not successfully, but it’s better than adding another line to a laundry list of crap I gotta wade through.
I met an average man with an average life and an average everything—and even he’s a possible threat. None of this makes any sense. Not the stalking, not the intel, not my ex-father-in-law sliding his cock into home base then running away as if my vagina’s diseased.
Sunshine continues his ministrations on my feet, and Dark sees himself to the kitchen, where he makes a plate of food. They leave me to digest the information. The longer I think, the less I understand and the more aggravated I become.
Gripping my crystal necklace in my fist, I drop my chin to my chest, eyes still closed, and breathe.
In through my nose. Out through my mouth .
Expanding my stomach, I hold the air and slowly expel it through my lips with intention.
Having seen me do this a thousand times before, I overhear the man at my side following along. We breathe together. My exhale is his exhale, and my sharp intake of breath is his until the tension in my shoulders bleeds to nothing.
I let everything go.
Pain.
Fear.
Misery.
The unknown.
I float into myself. Introspective. Calming.
Zen.
The universe is warm.
I’m warm. Full of love. Of life.
None of this matters.
Everything will be okay.
When I return to myself—to the real world—I reopen my eyes, and they’re met with striking grays latching onto mine. The slightest grin ticks up the side of his mouth. We stare at each other, into each other, not speaking, just feeling.
This is what I missed.
How many times have we sat on this very couch with my feet on his lap and did nothing but be together? Hundreds of times.
He pinches my big toe playfully, and I smile.
Sunshine returns the sentiment, flashing a line of perfect teeth. The lines around his eyes crinkle, making him all the sexier. He scratches his bearded jaw shyly and winks.
Returning to his chair with a heavy drop, Dark makes an annoyed sound, then clears his throat. “Are we about done eye fucking for the day?” he grumbles and shoves a giant bite of cold waffle into his maw. His cheeks round as he chews, and I roll my eyes at his ridiculous comment.
Eye fucking? Hardly. He’s just an asshole.
Sunshine pinches my big toe again. “Later,” he whispers—a promise.
Sure, we’ll talk about whatever this is later .
But first, we need to discuss Todd and figure out what to do because I need a plan for handling my boy—ex-boyfriend. I also need to find out who the elusive man hiring these stalkers is. If there even is one.