Chapter 8 – Nate
King County Correctional Facility was nothing but a massive square in the middle of Seattle. Nothing had changed since the last time I’d visited, which was before I’d left for the Army. It was the only comfort I had. Without the fenced-in yard and the armed guards patrolling it, it would have looked like every other building. Instead, citizens got a firsthand look at the inmates like they were watching a fucking zoo exhibit. I wasn’t inside, and I hated it.
No doubt, my feelings about the reason for our visit were clouding my judgment, but I knew whatever my father said was going to be awful. The deep pool of dread in my stomach told me as much.
As if she felt me waver, Mari wrapped an arm around my waist, giving me her strength. “You sure you’re ready for this?”
“No, but we have to go in.”
“He’s going to do whatever it takes to get under your skin,” she warned.
“I know.” Ace was just as bad as Cash when he wanted to be. Occasionally, worse. My brother had to learn it from somewhere.
“Don’t let him in,” Dominic said. “Keep your shit together, and I’ll take you to the gym later to work it off.”
The offer stunned me. Dominic had been better since my apology to Mari, but he still kept his distance. I knew it was because he was hurting and that his trust would take time to rebuild, but this gave me hope.
“I may take you up on that. Thanks, man.”
He didn’t answer, but I knew he understood what his support meant.
“We won’t leave you,” Mari promised.
Grey was still at the medical center, so we were one man short, but he’d texted before we’d left to check in on me. I wasn’t sure how, but these three people had become more of a family to me than the one I’d been born into—minus my mom, of course, who was apparently having a blast meeting her new friends at the facility Eagle had spirited her away to.
I couldn’t get much information out of him, only that she’d bonded with a retired agent who also had memory issues. I was both heartbroken and happy to hear she was finding some joy in the situation.
Now, I just had to face my other parent.
After squeezing Mari close and dropping a kiss to her head, I straightened. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Say the word, and we’ll leave.” Mari’s reassuring smile warmed me to the bones as she took the lead, leaving Dominic and me to take our respective places behind her.
Warden Michaels, whom I’d met previously, waited just beyond the door with an uncomfortable smile. He seemed the possessive type, so I assumed he didn’t like us infringing on his turf. The line of guards down the hall didn’t seem to have the same issue.
Half of them gawked at Dominic and me, while the other half slobbered over Mari. I got it—our girl was fine when she was strapped with weapons and any other second of the day—but it pissed me off to see them do it so blatantly.
“If you want to keep them, I’d remove your eyes from our girlfriend,” Dominic hissed. When the guards darted their gazes to me, I gave them my most killer smile and hoped they read how much I’d like to rip them apart with my teeth.
Every single man found somewhere else to look.
I could feel Mari’s smugness, and from the way Dominic rolled his eyes, he could too. No matter what she said, she liked us possessive. Which was good because we weren’t stopping anytime soon.
The good warden cleared his throat, reaching up to adjust the collar of his pressed shirt delicately. “Ms. Marcosa. We received word from the FBI that you were coming and prepared the meeting room for you, as requested.”
Mari tilted her head at the men watching the show. “Guards?”
Michaels shifted uncomfortably. “We were told not to have any inside, but I have to warn you. Beckstrom is?—”
“I’m aware of what a Beckstrom can do,” she assured him, sliding her hand behind her back to grab mine. A reminder that I wasn’t the Beckstrom she meant, and for once, I felt it.
Cash and Ace weren’t me, and I wasn’t them. I didn’t have to hold their sins as my own. Not anymore.
The weighted look Dominic gave me was another firm reminder. We’re your family, not them.
I wondered if Mari would mind another man taking her name because I was ready to torch mine.
Warden Michaels looked like he wanted to argue his point again, but he finally slumped. “In that case, he’s ready for you.”
Lifting his arm in invitation, he walked us to a door at the end of the hall. “I’m aware you’re professionals, but I have to insist that if you’re going to keep your weapons, you keep them. I will not have an inmate getting hold of one.”
Dominic smirked. “Don’t worry, Warden. We won’t give him a way to stab us in the back.”
With an uncomfortable grunt, he knocked twice and opened the door, leaving us to our fate.
Despite the years between visits, that same sense of desperation clung to my skin the second we stepped inside the room. It seeped into the plain walls, the slick floors, the metal tables, and even the chair where my father waited in his red jumpsuit, his hands shackled to a bolt in the floor.
“This place is creepy as fuck,” Dominic whispered. And I had to agree. I’d never been one to believe in ghosts, but I could practically feel the desperate specters pressing in on us.
“Desolation will do that to you,” I said, finally looking at the man we were here for full on and wishing I hadn’t.
It hit me then that Ace looked more like my brother than Cash did. We had the same build, though he had more muscle. His skin was darker, as was his hair, and he had a smattering of shitty tattoos along his arms. Beyond that, we could’ve been twins. It was like I was seeing who I would’ve been if I’d stayed the course and let the Aces run my life. That’s if I’d managed to stay alive at all.
“Christ, it’s like looking at a doppelg?nger,” Mari muttered.
“Just what we need. Two fuckboys,” Dominic joked.
Once I got over the shock of our similarities, it was easier to see the differences. There was white in Ace’s hair now and wrinkles around his face I could tell he didn’t like. He’d always been a prideful fuck. The cruelty was still prevalent, the same kind I saw in Cash, plus a bit of that manic attitude the cocaine brought out in him too.
“He’s juiced,” I whispered to the others, and Mari hummed under her breath, completely unsurprised. Drugs were more common in jails than most people thought. All it took was the right bribe, and you could get whatever you wanted. No doubt we had my brother to thank for Ace’s recreational habits.
As the warden said, there were no guards in the room, thanks to Two-Bit’s and Mari’s influence, so it was just the four of us. Dominic took one look around, barely glancing at Ace before taking up a place by the door. It was not only a sign that Mari could protect herself, but a clear dismissal. Ace wasn’t a threat to us at all.
The tightening of my father’s mouth said he noticed and didn’t appreciate it, but what else could he do when he was in chains and we were armed for extermination.
As if he realized it too, he settled back in his chair and dragged his gaze over Mari, that cruelty coming out in waves. He didn’t have the upper hand yet, so he was going to push at us until he did. “Is this her, Nate? I can see why you’d falter. She looks like she’d be a good fuck. Turn around for me, sweetheart. Let me see that ass.”
Apparently, I’d forgotten that Cash shared our father’s need for antagonizing others. Mari sighed in aggravation while I growled, “Don’t talk about her like that.”
Ace tipped his head back and laughed. “Oh my God, you do love her. I thought Cash was kidding, but it’s true. You fucking idiot.”
I didn’t even like the man, but hearing your father call you an idiot was always going to hit deep.
Ace didn’t seem to mind my irritation, continuing to be an obnoxious prick. “I can’t believe you fell for it. Love’s the oldest lie in the book, Natey boy.”
“Not to me.”
Love was the only thing keeping me going some days. The idea that when all this shit with Cash was over, I’d have Mari and my true brothers at my side. Men like Ace and Cash, they didn’t get it. If it wasn’t tangible, they couldn’t imagine it holding sway over them. Money, drugs, or pussy led them. Power, too. But while it wasn’t tangible, you could always feel when someone had it. Emotion was something you used to manipulate others, not something you lived your life on.
Thank God I wasn’t like them.
Ace scoffed. “You’re wasting your time, Nate. She’s going to leave you for someone hotter, richer, and with a bigger dick.”
“You assume he cares whose dick she rides,” Dominic drawled from where he was picking his nails with a knife. Drama king.
My father looked positively sick. It made me grin. “I’d heard the rumors, but I thought it was a joke. No way my son is sharing his woman.”
“Yet here I am, with two boyfriends and a husband.” Mari waved her fingers, flashing her wedding band, and Ace’s face darkened.
He turned to me, dismissing her as nothing more than pussy. Fucking moron. “A real man wouldn’t let anyone touch his woman. I didn’t raise a cuck, Nathaniel.”
“You didn’t raise me at all,” I countered. My girl finally dragged out her chair, sitting nice and slow and making sure to cross her legs like she was the main event of a sold-out show, while I dropped next to her. My mouth watered at how sinister she looked, and I desperately wanted this to end so I could steal her for five minutes. Twenty, tops.
“A real man understands he can’t control a woman, but I understand if that’s not your strong suit. It has been a while since you’ve been touched, right?”
“Less time than you’d think, and I controlled my women just fine when I was on the outside,” Ace sneered. How had my mother ever liked him? It took one look in his eyes to figure out he was a monster.
“Which is exactly why I wouldn’t consider you a good judge of ‘real men.’” Mari lifted her hand to encompass Dominic and me before dropping it back to her lap. “The men I keep around me, they’re real. Honest. Hardworking. They fight to protect their family, whatever it takes. They don’t just speak, they act. You wouldn’t know what a real man is because you’re nothing but a man of words, Ace Beckstrom.”
I’d never been more proud and horrified at the same time. She was so beautiful, but I saw my father’s face twist and knew what he was going to say next. We were collision-bound, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. My only warning was a squeeze to Mari’s leg, letting her know danger was coming.
Ace leaned forward as much as he could, hate blooming in his every movement. “You speak of family and loyalty and love, yet the person closest to you betrays you time and time again.”
“If you’re talking about my uncle, he’s dead and we weren’t that close.”
My father’s face split into an evil grin. “He may be dead, but his spawn isn’t. What’s that saying again? The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Mari gave no outward appearance that she understood what my father was insinuating—only a blankness in her eyes, like she’d shuttered all possibility of showing any emotion, that told me she knew exactly what he meant.
Cameron was the Marcosa rat.
It was the last card I’d held to my chest while I’d watched his every move. I needed to keep her safe as much as I needed not to be the reason she was hurting again. But sitting here while my father flayed her alive, I wished I’d told her anyway. Had I manned up and given her the name with everything else, he wouldn’t hold this power over her. He certainly didn’t deserve it.
Behind us, Dominic was an inferno of hate directed at Ace and Cash and Cameron. God help us all if Dominic got to her cousin before Mari did.
“If you think your son’s so weak, why don’t you have a go?” Mari’s question came out of nowhere, and my head whipped around almost before I realized what she’d said. Dominic’s low growl echoed my own.
“You don’t need to beg me to touch you, darlin’. I’d do it for free.” Ace’s smirk got bigger, though there was a piece of him that was decidedly uncertain. He’d expected her to fall to pieces at the news that her cousin was a traitor, but he didn’t know Mari. She’d bury the pain until she could unleash it in private. It wasn’t his to consume, nor anyone else’s.
“I’m sure you would, but I’m offering for something else. You best me in a fight, you prove you’re the alpha male over Nate. I best you, you give me what I want.”
“Which is?”
“Information.”
Ace frowned. “I won’t rat my boy out.”
“Then we’re done here.” She stood fluidly, letting her hands brush the swell of her ass like there was dirt on her pants. Ace’s eyes followed her every movement, hunger growing with each passing second. It made me fucking sick.
“If I say yes, will I get in trouble for smacking my son’s girl around?”
Mari laughed, the sound so fake it hurt my ears. “I’m my own woman, Beckstrom. Do we have a deal or not?”
He grinned and shook his chains. “What about these? Or do you need a handicap?”
I didn’t see her move, but the door opened and a guard moved in warily. “I’d recommend you keep him?—”
“Unhook the cuffs. We’ll be fine.”
“You heard the lady. Uncuff me,” Ace jeered.
The shackles dropped to the floor, and Mari dismissed the guard while Ace rolled his wrists, shaking out his arms like he’d been bound tight for hours. Hell, maybe he had. “If I win, do I get a taste of that golden pussy?”
“Sure.”
Mari shrugged, and I growled, “No.”
She ignored me. “You win, and I’ll let you do whatever you want.”
I’m going to tan her ass for this.
Ace grinned at me, grabbing his dick like a teenage asshole.“I’m going to take your girl right in front of you, son. Show you how a real man fucks.”
I didn’t realize I’d taken a step forward until Dominic hauled me back to the wall, his grip lethal on my shoulder. “Let her do this.”
At first, they circled each other. Ace taunted while Mari evaluated. She ignored every word he threw at her, focusing her energy on his steps, the way he moved, and even the bullshit swings he threw her way. When he finally went for her, she was ready. His right hook was dodged and parried with an uppercut that sent blood and what could have been the tip of his tongue spilling from his mouth.
“Mari, one. Dipshit Daddy, zero,” Dominic breathed, settling in for the show.
And what a show it was.
Ace roared with rage and started tossing haymakers left and right, but Mari was agile. She dodged every one, darting in for quick punches to the ribs that sent loud cracks echoing aroundthe room. Where he went for maximum damage with one hit, she went for a thousand cuts.
Ace didn’t stand a fucking chance.
This wasn’t a lesson in humility or a competition to see who was strongest; it was a bloodletting. Mari was in so much pain, and she was using my father as a punching bag. With every punch and dodge, Ace was getting angrier, until finally, he made a fatal error. He swung for Mari’s face, ducking at the last minute to reach for one of her blades. Dominic and I both grabbed for our guns, but we should’ve known better.
Mari spun out of his grip and kicked him in the ass. Already unbalanced, Ace went sprawling, and our little spider monkey was right there to see him finished. Mari crawled on top of him, trapping his arms at his sides, and she slipped the knife he’d gone for out of its sheath.
When they stilled, she had it pointed at his dick. She wasn’t even breathing hard.
“I win, Beckstrom. Give me what I want, or I’ll take your useless cock as a trophy.”
Ace glared at her, ready to kill her for the embarrassment of besting him, but Mari just grinned. “Did you know they have cameras in this room? I’d hate to see the footage get leaked to the population here. What would people do if they knew you couldn’t beat a woman half your size?”
She hissed through her teeth, feigning concern for his well-being, and Ace drooped. We all knew if she released the footage—if there really was any—that he’d be dead in a day.
“What the fuck do you want, bitch?”
“Tell me about the cartel.”
“What about them?”
“Who are they?”
Ace’s gaze flicked away for a second before returning. “Don’t know. I’ve been in here for over a decade.”
“He’s lying,” I told Dominic.
“Yeah, he is.”
Mari pursed her lips before digging the blade in. She kept her shit sharp, so even that small of an adjustment caused enough pain for Ace to curse. “Okay, fine. I know about them, but I swear it’s not much.”
“Start with the basics. How did Cash get in touch with them?”
“Fate. Cash had been looking for a way into drugs, when the old leader’s son got into some trouble and ended up in gen pop. I helped him out, knowing it would earn us some goodwill. At least enough to set up a meeting.”
“Why them?”
“Because the Osorios wouldn’t touch Seattle. Said it was a family thing but wouldn’t explain. We tried everyone else, but they refused too. Said my boy was too small-time to take a risk pissing off Marcosa. It didn’t stop Cash, though. Only made him more determined.”
As Mari continued questioning my father, I thought about how different he was with Cash. My brother was his pride and joy, while I was a disappointment and always had been.
Why? Because I chose someone outside the two of them to trust? Because I didn’t follow the same rules they did? I was still a murderer, still a man who would kill for my family. They just weren’t in it.
After so many years of wondering if something was wrong with me, I finally understood.
They were two broken, damaged people who found their mirrors in each other. They’d never like me because I was never meant to be like them. I was always meant to be something more, someone better, and that was the real reason they hated me.
For once, it felt really fucking good to be on the outside.
After an hour, Mari sat back, her knife still delicately poised above Ace’s dick, though his pants were cut here and there. He’d decided to fight back on some things, but Mari had eventually gotten what she wanted.
“Is there anything else we need?” she asked.
“No,” Dominic said from behind us. “We’ve got it all.”
“Good. Thank you for your time, Ace.” She carefully moved off him, the knife still in hand. When she was on her feet, she gave him her back, trusting us to watch it while she slammed a hand on the door.
In seconds, the guards piled in. “Ma’am?”
“Put him in the hole.”
“What? No! I helped you!” Ace screamed. Mari turned with the deadliest smile I’d ever seen. I wasn’t sure what it said about me that it turned me on.
“You started this mess. You let Cash blackmail his brother until there was nothing to do but become who you wanted. It’s disgusting that your own son felt so unsafe that he had to resort to killing people just to be free. You and Cash are a plague in my city, one I intend to eradicate. While he’s a little harder to eliminate, you aren’t.”
She stepped closer, smirking at him. “Take a good look around, Ace. From here on out, there’s no light. No sun. No interaction besides a tray getting shoved through a slot. I’m going to keep you so isolated you lose your fucking mind.”
Ace bared his teeth, fighting the guards as they clicked the shackles back on again. “Your cousin’s going to kill you.”
“He’ll have to get in line.”
We left the room to the soundtrack of his belligerent ranting. Warden Michaels waited in the hall, but we strode right past and didn’t stop until we got to the car. After Dominic’s quick check to make sure no one had booby-trapped it, we all climbed in.
The second the doors closed, I reached for Mari in the front seat.
“I’m so sor?—”
“Don’t. Just don’t. We’ll talk about this later.”
She still looked as unfazed as she had in the room with Ace, but her voice was broken glass and desperate pleas. I couldn’t help but obey.
Guilt forced me back to my seat and away from the woman I loved. “Okay, angel. Later.”