Chapter 27 #2
It’s like watching a ninja fight. Or a vampire. Something not human that moves at impossible speeds and dodges every attack. He’s like one of those samurais in a movie, in the middle of five assailants who can’t even touch him.
It all happens very fast. One second, I’m staring at Gavan as he fights off five armed men. The next, he’s the only one standing around five unconscious forms on the ground.
He looks up at me, his gunmetal gray eyes blazing. Then he whirls, storms over to Brooks, and yanks him up by the collar.
“ Where is it ,” he snarls viciously into Brooks’ bleeding, terrified face.
“I—where’s what— ”
“The recording. Where. Is. It.”
My eyes bulge in terrified disbelief. What ? How does he…
Gavan’s face is grim as he turns to level his gaze at me again. He winds up and punches Brooks hard in the mouth, knocking him to the ground. Then he walks over to me, taking my shaking hands in his.
“Please forgive me,” he growls quietly, his jaw tight.
I shake my head. “For what?”
“I needed insurance,” Gavan continues. “I needed something to bury him with.”
He pulls a little device out of his pocket and pushes a button. I stare as Brooks’ voice and mine rattle tinnily out of a small speaker.
“Have you fucked him?”
“ A hundred times . Gladly. Willingly. He’s good. And huge. ”
“Maybe he’d like to hear you begging for my dick. We’ll see if he even wants you once I play him that recording.”
The terrace goes silent when Gavan touches the button again. I stare up into his eyes, my face pale.
“I—”
“ Forgive me ,” he growls again, his face pained as he takes my hands gently in one of his. The other reaches up and takes the emerald on my necklace between two fingers. He flicks something with his thumbnail, and when his hand pulls away there’s a little black dot on his thumb.
A surveillance bug.
“ Please forgive me ,” he growls quietly again. “I had to have proof on him. Please understand.”
Tears start to fall down my cheeks and I look away in shame. “I… I’m so sorry ,” I choke. “It… It was years ago, and—”
“You have fucking nothing to apologize for ,” Gavan rasps with a dark edge to his voice that honestly scares me. He gently cups my face, tilting my head up to his. “Nothing, solnishka . Do you understand that?”
When I can’t answer because the tears are streaming down my face too hard, all he does is close the distance between us in a blink and sear his lips to mine.
And it’s the best response I could have ever asked for.
I sob as I throw my arms round him, kissing him as the past and the hold Brooks has had over me shatters and falls to my feet.
Slowly, Gavan pulls back. When he turns to a sniveling, bleeding Brooks, the look in his eyes is pure malevolence. He strides over to him and grabs him by the throat, making the spoiled little trust fund douchebag sob and bleat.
“I’m only going to ask you one more time.”
Gavan flicks open a blade and Brooks’ eyes bulge.
“ Okay! ” He sobs. “Okay! Okay, I’m sorry, okay!?”
“ Where is it .”
“My phone! It’s on my phone!”
Gavan snarls as he jams a hand into Brooks’ jacket pocket, yanking out his phone.
“Where else.”
Brooks pales.
“ Where. Fucking. Else .”
“A safe! There’s a safe!” he squeals. “In my condo!”
“Thought as much.” Gavan’s face is cold with fury as he calmly takes his own phone out and touches a button, putting it on speaker. The ringtone echoes out and the call connects.
“I’m here, Boss-man,” a man’s voice answers.
“You in?”
“Yeah,” the man grunts. “It was easy. Minimal security. I’m standing in the McKinnley kid’s living room.”
Brooks’ face turns the color of ash.
“Good,” Gavan growls. His eyes narrow at Brooks. “Where’s the fucking safe. Do not make me ask twice.”
“Th—there’s a signed poster of Yankee Stadium,” Brooks stammers. “In the st—study. It’s behind—”
“Combination. Now .”
Brooks starts to weep. “It’s a keypad password. Seven-nine-nine-six-two-zero.”
Gavan smiles thinly at the phone. “You got that?”
“Got it,” the voice rumbles through the speaker. “One sec.”
A second later, there’s a soft beep and a clicking sound.
“Safe’s open, Boss-man.”
“It’s…it’s on a little blue flash drive,” Brooks whimpers.
“Take everything, Korol,” Gavan snarls, still glaring at Brooks. “And I want the small blue flash drive secured. Clear?”
“Crystal. I’ve got it all.”
“Now find his home computer.”
Brooks’ eyes threaten to pop out of his head.
“ Wait— ”
Gavan laughs coldly. “Make that definitely find his computer.”
“Got it,” the man on the phone answers after a second.
“Password,” Gavan glares at Brooks. When the asshole hesitates, Gavan presses the edge of his knife against Brooks’ throat. “I will not ask again, fucker.”
Brooks looks like he’s going to throw up.
“It’s whitepower. One word, all lower case.”
Gavan stares at him incredulously. “Seriously?” He shakes his head. “Jesus, the ways I’m going to fuck with you, you little shit. Korol. You got that?”
“I’m in, Gavan.”
“Copy everything. Delete any cloud backups.”
“Doing that now. One sec.”
Brooks looks like a shell of a man as he slumps on his knees on the ground, bleeding from the face. The man on the other end of the phone whistles.
“Christ, there’s some…I dunno, man, I’m not looking at this shit. But the motherfucker’s got some questionable-looking porn folders on here.”
Gavan’s face swirls with rage. “ Copy it all ,” he snarls.
“Done.”
Gavan hangs up the phone and quietly slips it back into his pocket. Brooks is sobbing on the ground.
“ P-please! ” he chokes, looking up piteously at Gavan. “Please!” Don’t kill—”
“Jesus. I’m not going to kill you,” Gaven spits venomously. “I’m going to fucking own you, you little fuck. And I’m going to own your father , too. And he’s going to know exactly why I own him.”
Gavan’s eyes swivel to mine, holding my gaze for a second as something dark and surging swirls behind them. Then he turns back to Brooks.
“No—I’m not going to kill you,” he murmurs, a lethal heaviness in his tone. “But you did touch what’s mine. You hurt what’s mine.” He lets his words sink in. “Lie down.”
Shaking and whimpering, Brooks does what Gavan says.
“Hold out your arm.”
Brooks starts to sob even harder. Gavan snarls and bends down to yank Brooks’ arm out for him before gagging Brooks with his own tie.
“I’d bite down hard if I were you.”
Gavan stands, looks at me, and then turns back to Brooks. His foot stamps down, hard. Brooks screams into the tie in his mouth, trying in vain to wrench his arm away. But Gavan stops him, kicking Brooks’ wounded arm back out across the stone floor and stomping on it again.
And again.
And again.
When he’s done, Brooks could very well be in shock as he hyperventilates on the ground. His arm is bent askew in four different unnatural angles, and his fingers are nothing more than red pulp and gore.
Gavan wipes his bloody shoe on Brooks’ jacket before leaning down close to him.
“I haven’t killed you or cut off your balls because this is about sending a message to your father, not starting a war with him.
Now, here’s what’s going to happen: when they wake up, your guards will say whatever you tell them to say.
I’d make very sure to get your story straight.
If you ever try and come after Eilish again, or her family, or her friends, or if God forbid you’re supremely fucking stupid enough to try and come after me , the ways in which you will regret it are vast .
You will beg me to shatter your arm again instead of what I’ll actually do if I so much as hear of you looking at, speaking to or about, or even thinking of her ever again. You will nod if you understand.”
Brooks manages a weak nod of his head before Gavan winds up again and knocks him out cold.
My pulse is roaring. My entire body is tingling with this weird, vibrantly throbbing, almost erotic thrill as I watch Gavan stand up, turn, and stab his eyes into me.
Suddenly, I’m consumed with an almost heart-stopping need for this man. A desire that threatens to engulf me in flames. His eyes surge with power, possessiveness, and lust as he storms across the terrace, grabs me hard, and yanks me against his rock-hard body as his mouth slams to mine.
“ I would fucking kill for you. Never forget that ,” he snarls. I hungrily kiss him back, whimpering as he scoops me up into his arms and carries me away.