Bonus Chapter
Chelsea
A week previously…
“You get in the house and stay there,” Vince ordered as we walked up the steps to the grand front door of home.
“Stop telling me what to do, Vince. You’re my brother not my father.”
“Well, he’s not here, which puts me in charge.”
“Says who?” I unlocked the door and stepped into the vast, cool hallway.
“Says me.”
I kicked off my pumps, sending them them skidding over the white porcelain floor tiles and stalked into the kitchen. “Dad?”
“He’s not here,” Vince said, tailing me, “he’s in London.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know. He’s on business. Got to keep the millions rolling in.”
I frowned. Of late I’d believed our wealth to be from human trafficking, the profits of my mother’s sordid, secret life.
But now…now I knew that wasn’t true. Hell, it couldn’t be further from the reality.
And it was my father’s successful company that had given me a life of privilege.
His hard work and business acumen had provided us all that we had over the years.
And that was a huge weight off my shoulders.
I poured a glass of water, my eyes stinging suddenly with tears of relief. Okay, my mother had had another life, an undercover cop, but she’d been the good, decent, perfect person I’d always known her to be.
No longer did I have to look at photographs of her and wonder about the poor girls she’d illegally and deceptively brought into the country. She’d been trying to stop that sick trade, not add to it.
I sipped my water and took a deep breath, regained control.
“I sent Tina home,” Vince said.
Tina was our housekeeper. “You did? Why?”
“There wasn’t much to do here.” He gestured around the sparkling kitchen. “And besides, her mother is sick, I figured she deserved to take some time back for all the occasions she’s gone over and above for our family.”
“Fair enough.” I went to the huge bay window and stared out at the gravel driveway and the pristine lawn beyond. “And you? How long are you staying? I presume you just came to say your piece to me.”
He moved to my side. “You had to know.”
“I agree.”
“And I had to come to…that place, Chelsea, to tell you in front of him , so he knew, too.”
I held in a sigh. Vince hadn’t liked Andrew from the start. But then Vince would struggle to like anyone I hooked up with. I was his sweet little sister after all.
Except Andrew had tapped into my darker side, the erotic kinky layer of my being, and I’d been hooked for a long time. I didn’t think I could give him up no matter how mad I was with him.
I folded my arms, hugging myself. In the distance, two white swans flew over the treetops, likely heading to our lake.
“That old dude has filled your head with lies,” Vince went on. “Hateful, vicious lies, offensive and libelous, you have to see that. He poisoned you against our mother. Made her out to be a vile criminal.”
“He was acting on intelligence.” For some reason I was compelled to defend him. After all, I’d spent the night in his arms, his thick cock inside me for most of it.
Vince snorted. “Hardly reliable intelligence, and not from any official source.”
I stayed quiet, what could I say? Galahad were independent, they had their own system and rules. Andrew ran the show. It had been his brainchild. It was one of his reasons for getting up in the morning.
“You’re not to see him again,” Vince said. “I don’t want you caught up in all of his chaos. It will end badly.”
“You can’t tell me who I can and can’t see.” Right now, I didn’t want to see Andrew, but equally I didn’t want a bossy brother thinking he could dictate my life.
“I can, and I will.” He frowned.
“There’s nothing to stop me seeing who I damn well want when you go back to your precious bikers.”
He looked at me, a muscle flexing in his cheek.
He knew I was right.
“Dad will hate him. He’ll hate everything about him.” His voice was gruff.
“Then I won’t introduce them.” I shrugged. “Simple.”
“So you are going to see him again?” He gripped my arm. “Are you out of your damn mind, Chelsea? Can’t you see that he’s morally gray, that he’s asking for trouble, trouble that will find him, and he’ll take you down with him?”
“And you’re squeaky clean, huh?” I shook him off. “You and your mates?”
“We’re not talking about me.” He turned to the window again. “What the fuck!”
I followed his line of sight.
Andrew was stomping up the drive, his fists clenched, his shoulders hunched, and dark determination chiseling his features.
My heart did a silly little skip at the sight of him, and then adrenaline shot into my system. What the hell was he doing here? And how did he get through the security gate? He must have scaled the high brick wall.
“I’m going to fucking kill him!” Vince spun around and stalked across the kitchen. “Fucking asshole’s got a nerve showing up here.”
“No! Wait.” Shit. This was only going to go one way, and that was badly. I dashed after my brother.
Vince pulled open the door. “You got a fucking death wish, Professor?”
“Where is she?”
“Nowhere you’re ever going to be at again, so fuck off. You’re trespassing.”
“Chelsea?” Andrew called, his voice deep and loud. “Get out here.”
“I’m warning you, dickhead.” The front door slammed against the wall, and Vince’s heavy footsteps landed on the stone steps.
“Chelsea, I fucking mean it, get out here,” Andrew shouted, his words echoing around the hallway. “I know you’re in there.”
I strutted into his line of view, arms folded, chin tipped.
“We need to talk,” he said with a frown, the moment he saw me.
“No you don’t.” Vince paced up to him with intent, fists balled and shoulders tense. “You don’t ever need to see my sister again, you lowlife bastard.” He took a swing at Andrew.
Andrew sidestepped.
“No. Stop.” I rushed to the top of the steps. “Please.”
“Get out of my way and let me speak to my woman,” Andrew snarled. He reached behind himself, to the small of his back. “Before I have to make you.”
“Yeah, you and whose fucking army…hey…whoa!” Vince backed up, arms raised, eyes wide.
Andrew had drawn a black handgun on Vince. He held it forward, steady, his finger on the trigger.
“Come on, man, no need for that.” Vince took another step back.
“There’s every need for it when you’re stopping me sorting out this shit with the woman I love.” He threw a glance at me.
There was love in his eyes, but also anger and frustration, and my heart squeezed with terror at the thought of him firing a bullet at my brother. I’d lost him for months, not a word, and now I had him back. Much as he annoyed the hell out of me, he was family and I loved him.
“Please, no, put the gun away, Andrew,” I said, holding my palms up, as though surrendering on Vince’s behalf. “We can talk, don’t hurt him.”
“I don’t reckon your brother is up for us talking.” Andrew set his steely gaze on Vince again.
“He is, he was just leaving. We can talk.” I paused. “Isn’t that right, Vince?”
Vince grimaced as though hating to concede. But what else could he do?
Andrew moved toward me, the business end of his gun still trained on Vince. “Make yourself scarce,” he threw at him.
Vince glowered at Andrew then at me.
“It’s okay, Vince,” I said. “We’re just going to talk.”
“I don’t want you with this guy,” Vince said. “He’s going to get you in trouble, or worse…killed.”
“You know nothing about me,” Andrew said. “And that’s okay, but know this, I love your sister, I’m not going to do anything to hurt her or put her at risk.”
“You already have.”
Andrew bristled. “And that was my wake-up call to make sure it never happens again.”
“She’s a killer because of you.” Vince stabbed his finger in Andrew’s direction. “That’s on you, asshole.”
“It was self-defense,” I said. “That guy had been about to strangle and rape me.” I shuddered at the memory of the back alley and hateful Brian Dix who I’d put a bullet into. “He would have killed me.”
“I won’t let anything ever happen to her again,” Andrew said, his words slow and deliberate. “I promise.”
“Huh, as if your word means anything to me.”
“It should,” Andrew said. “Believe me, it should.” He jerked his head in the direction he’d come up the drive. “Now fuck off, me and my woman have things to discuss.”
Vince made a strange growling sound.
“I mean it.” Andrew waggled his gun. “And don’t think I don’t know how to get rid of a body. I’m a professor of criminology, remember, I’ve spent my life studying this shit.”
“You wouldn’t kill me, she’d never forgive you. She’s lost so much already.”
Andrew glanced at me.
I tucked my hands beneath my chin. My heart was going so fast it felt like it would race right out of my chest.
“Maybe I wouldn’t kill you.” Andrew directed at Vince. “But it would be hard to ride a bike with only one hand.” He dropped the gun toward Vince’s right side.
“You’re an A-list twat, you know that? And don’t think I’m ever going to sit around a dinner table with you pretending everything is fucking hunky-dory.”
“I don’t want that, I just want your sister.”
Vince raised his eyebrows. “I think you need to ask yourself if she wants you. The lies you’ve spread about our mother, we should be suing you for slander.”
“Nothing has been said outside of the group, and we thank you for bringing us up-to-date intel.”
Vince spit on the gravel. “If you were all so fucking clever, I wouldn’t have to.” He jerked his head at me. “Watch your back, Chelsea, you’re playing with fucking fire, and I’m not always going to be around to put out the flames. I’m warning you, you’ll get burned by this guy.”
I bit on my bottom lip. I had no words to say to that.
Andrew was dangerous. He did live on the edge when he wasn’t in his professor persona.
It couldn’t be denied that he was a killer, a seeker of retribution, kidnapper, blackmailer, a man who was determined in his mission to rid society of evil no matter what that took or how violent it had to be.