Chapter Nine #2
“I never met him. He sounded like he was in his thirties or forties. Very well-spoken, like he was smart or something.” The man licked his lips. “He only wanted her scared, not hurt. I was supposed to take her keys, knock her down and deliver the message exactly like he wrote it. That’s all.”
“What was the message?” Knuckles asked.
“There’s an offer coming on the building. You’d be smart to take it. That’s what the note said.”
“The number,” I said. “The one you called.”
He rattled off the number. “But it was dead by morning. The number’s in my phone if you want to check.”
Hawk crouched in front of the chair while Hawk fished through the guy’s pockets until he found the phone. The guy gave up the passcode without a fight. I watched the man’s throat work. “Where’d you learn to take work like this?” Hawk asked, tilting his head to hold the man’s gaze.
The guy gave a nervous smirk. “I was just in it to play with the bitch a little.” He shrugged. “Easy money and I got a memory to jack off to later.”
I felt the back of my neck prickle. Yeah.
This wasn’t going to end well. Knuckles pushed off the wall.
He crossed to the chair and stood over the man.
Without hesitation, he pulled out a knife and stabbed the guy in the side of the neck several times in quick succession.
When the bastard stopped moving, Knuckles spat on him.
“Clean this shit up. Then feed this one to the pigs.”
“Prez, we didn’t get his partner.” Hawk spoke quietly. It was hard for me to read the big man but I couldn’t tell if Hawk really cared or not. The guy had been going to die regardless, but it was rare for Knuckles to completely lose his temper.
“Knight will just have to work overtime. The attack happened in a public area, even if it was in the alley, so there’ll be cameras somewhere.” Knuckles turned to me. His voice was quiet and all the more deadly because of it.
I took a shower before I came back to my apartment. I didn’t want tonight to touch Juniper for any reason or in any way anymore than it already had, and I felt dirty. Later, I slung on some gym shorts and made my way to my apartment where I hoped Juniper had stayed after I left her.
I opened the door to my bedroom and satisfaction filled me to see her curled up underneath the covers in the middle of my bed.
She had her arms wrapped around my pillow as she slept and I found myself smiling wistfully.
I wanted this woman more than I wanted to breathe, but knew there was nothing I could do until she made the choice to come to me.
I hoped that by her still being in my room, she might be getting more comfortable with me.
Fuck. I scrubbed a hand over my face, sitting by my bedroom window in the dark with ghosts I’d left scattered across six years of my fucked-up life.
Juniper lay in my bed, hair still damp from the shower, breathing deep and regular, a counterpoint to the chaos still running laps inside my skull.
I stared out the window at the empty yard.
The camo netting threw weird shadows onto the paths and sections of the yard.
In a way, the vision was a reflection of the turmoil in my head.
I flexed my hands. Sometimes, my right one still ached in the mornings from when I broke it on a guy’s face. Which had also been the incident to lead to my prison term and served as the excuse for my divorce.
Until I came here, to Kiss of Death, I thought I’d become nothing but the sum of what I’d done.
The bad part was, if I ever found myself in a similar situation, I’d still beat the guy unconscious.
That one decision had cost me everything.
My wife. My job. My family. My freedom. That was the part that fucked with me the most.
The woman in my bed had no idea. She had no clue how close to the edge I rode thinking about something happening to her.
The second I saw Brett, he was a dead man.
Then I’d go back to prison, no matter what kind of pull Knuckles had, and Juniper wouldn’t have anyone to watch over her.
I didn’t want her to know my past and what I could do if pushed too far, even as I knew there was no scenario where I had a relationship with her without telling her my past.
There was a time I’d gone home to someone.
I’d never particularly enjoyed married life, but having someone to talk to in the evening had been nice.
I’d never had the kind of feelings for Natalie I found myself developing for Juniper and didn’t know how to process them.
If she looked at me the way Natalie had looked at me the day she brought the divorce papers to jail for me to sign, I didn’t know if I’d survive.
It hadn’t bothered me then. In my mind, Natalie deserved better than me from day one.
Same was true for Juniper. The difference with Juniper was that I wanted to make myself better so maybe I could deserve her.
Maybe not in the eyes of the world, but in Juniper’s eyes.
From the bed, Juniper stirred. “Inferno?”
“Go back to sleep, honey. I’m just watching over you. Keeping you safe.”
I heard the cover rustle as she moved. “Come to bed, Jonah.”
I turned. She’d moved the blanket back and lay half-curled on her side, one arm raised, beckoning me next to her.
I crossed the room and crawled into bed beside her.
She rolled into my chest, wrapped her arms around my waist, and hooked one leg over mine.
I pulled her tight, needing her weight to tether me to her as long as she’d let me.
She pressed her face to my shoulder and let out a long, even breath. “I can’t sleep if you’re not here, dumbass.”
I chuckled before settling, her head tucked under my chin.
She fit against me like she belonged right where she lay.
I held her as tightly as I dared. The tension left my body as her warmth surrounded me.
I listened to the rhythm of her breathing until the world went silent and the dark arithmetic finally balanced itself out for the night.