CHAPTER NINETEEN
Rush
I ’m not alone.
And fury eats at me. Fear, too.
Lucy saw me before she threatened to use Jess as bait, and the worst of it all is that Tony heard too. And if Tony heard?
Nikolai will.
Jess has nothing except some death wish pushing her, and the only thing she said in her mass of lies and half-truths from our time at that lookout was her brother’s in trouble.
I’m gonna say he got himself there, because she forgot she claimed she was the cause. I don’t blame her. I was in the middle of making her come when she said that.
I run a hand over my face and don’t look at Jess. I can feel her fear, the little vibrations that bite and swirl in the air.
She claimed she wanted me safe but really, it’s her brother.
I look at Lucy.
“I’m in charge still.” It’s mostly the truth. Nikolai and Rose are due back from whatever the fuck they went off to do. “So I’m up for being bait—”
“No—”
“Jessica,” I say, hard and cold, cutting her off. “There’re only a few times I’ll tell you to shut the fuck up and this is one of them. Shut the fuck up.”
I don’t look at her even now. I keep my gaze trained on Lucy.
“Jess does have a point. We need to take this chaotic group out. We’ve had trouble, rumblings where we shouldn’t, and it seems since they own Bunny Munroe, it’s them.”
Lucy sets her cold eyes on me. “The only reason I agreed to working in with Nikolai was his promises.”
Fuck, this isn’t my forte. But there’s no one else apart from Tony, and he’s not stepping in.
I know why.
Jess broke protocol by using me to somehow get in here. She was seen leaving my room so the pile of receipts I keep that I haven’t yet put into bookkeeping would have a transaction from this place. Dotting Is and crossing Ts. It’s a way to place me having a drink after a day of errands for my cousin.
Nikolai’s above most things. He’s got people on payrolls everywhere, and he knows how to make things disappear. But he’s always about certain kinds of paper trails that make a person look innocent.
But she’d have found this place.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter.
Because it’s come to this, a meeting of the most powerful rulers of Queenstown, and I’m one of them with Nikolai not here. If Tony stepped in like he used to when I was a punk, it wouldn’t look good.
I just hope to fuck I’m doing the right thing…
“I’ve spent the last week and change looking into the gang. A deep dive. They’re nasty, usually scattered in small lawless groups, so they just cause havoc on their patches of turf. But it looks like there’s been a momentum of cohesion. Around the time the bar was lost in Santa Fe. About when the whole Ten64 got a new king.
“The who’s who isn’t important until we want to pick them off, and we have names and numbers.”
There’s a sharp inhalation of breath next to me.
“We go in, Lucy.” I look at Ms. Smith, hold that gaze. “We take out these guys. We get the best from each group together. Confront them and be ready for war. Better nip a war before it starts. I’ll represent you and Nikolai. If they see this bar as the perfect spot to do illicit trade, then we can use that. Reclaim by their rules. Fight, if that’s what they want.”
Jess sucks in a sharp breath and I don’t hear a thing from Tony.
I swear a clock ticks somewhere, but it’s probably in my fucking head. Lucy waits, and it takes everything I am not to look at the red head who I’m fast losing my shit over.
All the shit.
On all levels.
Fury, fear, fuck…even love maybe. Love she doesn’t even remotely hold for me.
But I’m here, and I have to unfuck the situation.
“You don’t do much with that land, or the possibilities,” I say. “And I’m sure you’ve got your reasons. Just like Nikolai lets others play in his backyard. It creates vacuums, allows things to breathe and people to think they have more power than they have, but if the Ten64s have found something here, shouldn’t we stopper that vacuum and farm that, for want of a better word?”
“You mean we take it back and profit from it,” Lucy says, getting up and rounding her desk.
She comes up to me where she runs a hand down the charcoal gray tie I’m wearing with my slate gray Kiton suit and blue shirt that matches my eyes. There’s a flash of feminine appreciation in her gaze that tells me the suit and shirt are worth it.
“Because one of the reasons we let that drunkard—we as in my father before me and now me—own and run that bar was it stopped that shit, and the need to get dirty. We step in and we’ll get dirty, I’ll get dirty, because that’s what will happen. It was all in balance.” Her gaze shifts to Jess. “Until it wasn’t.”
“We can run it,” I say.
“I’m not giving you land.” Lucy’s eyes narrow.
“For you,” I say. How the fuck would Nikolai handle this? Shit.
“I was promised a smooth world here, if I entered into a neutrality pact with Nikolai. All the plans and deals are off if this doesn’t work.”
“The thing with peace,” I say, snatching her hand as it starts to drift lower and Jess snarls so low I’m not sure anyone else but me hears it, “is it’s only as good as it lasts. We can take a firmer hold on it, and we run these bastards out of town. They’re trying to turn others against us with promises of dirty, quick money, so we stop it.”
“I’m listening.”
“We stop it, turn those people back and against them, and we take Bunny Munroe and the land.”
“I don’t play that way. They won it—”
“You don’t. But we do. This is Nikolai’s town he’s sharing with you. And I’ll deal with the dirt.”
She steps back. “Get the girl a drink, Antonio,” she says to a slender man who’s by the door. He let me and Tony in. “And send in Gustav. We four—” her gaze flicks to Tony, “are going to talk.”
A fter the meeting, I exchange a look with Tony and he goes to the bar. As do I. Jess is silent. She holds a tequila, at least I assume that’s what’s in the glass, and she looks both fierce and lost in her combat boots, black jeans with the rips she wore when we met, and a T-shirt bearing Andy Warhol’s silkscreen green coke bottles.
And those magnificent tits fill it out in all the right ways.
I know those tits.
I want to, in this bar with clientele that keeps looking at her because she doesn’t fit their idea of this establishment, taste those tits.
I’d peel her shirt up, bra down, and suck the absolute fuck out of them in here if I thought I could.
Then again, they’d get to see her beauty that, quite fucking frankly, they don’t deserve.
Also, I’m furious at her.
“Rush—”
“Nope, Jess. Not fucking yet. Smile, drink your fucking drink, and then we’re out of here. Also?”
“What?” The surliness almost makes me smile.
Almost.
“Keys.”
She hesitates, drinks half her drink and slams them down on the bar. I pick them up and put them in my pocket.
This really isn’t the suit I want to get on a motorcycle in, but she sure as shit isn’t gonna be the one in charge of it. Not after stealing it. Not after drinking.
I take a sip of my coke and then flirt with the bartender a little. I don’t even know what we say, it’s more a by rote flirt, but I’m perked slightly by the heated anger that rolls off Jess.
The moment she’s done with her drink, I pay and steer the punk goddess out of the place and onto the street.
“It’s half in the fucking road, Jess!”
I hand her the helmet and get on, and the moment she’s seated behind me, her proximity making me fucking hard, I head home.
But as soon as we pull into the garage, I turn off the bike, and then I drag her the fuck out of there and into the far reaches of the garden.
I pace, then I turn and stab a finger at her. “I saved your ass, Jess.”
“I was saving yours.”
“Bullshit.”
I grab her arms and haul her up, right up against me. “Are you a member of this fucking gang?”
“What? No, I just said I went to help you.”
I consider her words and don’t let her go. But the anger in me turns to ice. What if she and her fucking brother planned this? The mythical brother? The one who is in the hands of this gang? It’s clear she’s been in contact, clear she’s trying to deliver them…something… I’m gonna go with dirt on us.
Nikolai isn’t careless. The fact this group’s a threat is one thing…her involvement?
That’s something else.
And I’ll take her out if I have to.
If I need to.
“Listen to me and listen good, Jess,” I say. “I need the truth or you’re dead.”
She goes white and pasty. Then her eyes narrow. She lifts her chin, and I’ve never wanted someone so much in my life. I’ve never wanted to beat someone’s ass so much either.
I’ll take her out.
Nikolai? He’d kill her.
“Are you going to kill me? That it, big guy?”
“Not me, sweet baby bunny.” I give her a shake. “But the Ten64 might. Nikolai definitely will.”
“You’re that weak?”
“No,” I say. “But if I decided to throw you to him, then clearly I wouldn’t stop him. I might not be Nikolai, but I’m not weak. I’m different, but don’t mistake any of that for toothless, Jess. I’ve got my own brand of dangerous. So don’t fucking test me.”
I let her go, pushing her back and she stumbles but stays standing. Her hands curl into fists. But that little knife in her ring doesn’t come out.
“Weighing your options?” I ask.
“I’m not going to stab you.”
“No,” I say, “because I’m not going to let you.”
She sucks in a breath. “I went there to try and…protect you.”
“Try again.”
Anger flashes, pain, too, and I harden myself.
“You’re right. You’re dangerous, Rush. To me. To my brother. I went in there and risked myself for you.”
“Bullshit. It was your brother you risked yourself for. Not me. You know I mentioned Lucy and you decided to use that connection, see if it could be exploited. Because, hey, I’m hot enough that she might want me.”
She grabs my tie and hauls me in. “You’re telling me now that you’re hot? Your ego…”
“Not what I fucking meant. I’m saying that’s what you see and yeah, I am. It’s what I have. Women want to fuck me. They usually prefer Nikolai, but he’s off the table.” I stop. I don’t know what it is about her that reverts me back to that teen that wanted what Nikolai had. The teen that saw the girls I wanted lust after him. And now Jess—
But she’s not into him.
I feel that in my bones.
Me?
I’m good enough to fuck, but anything more—
I fucking stop.
Anything more?
Do I want a happy ending with Jess Carabella? Because I don’t think she’s that kind of girl.
I’m not that kind of guy.
I’ve gone and caught feelings but…
“Right now,” I say, pulling my tie free and pressing her hand against my heart, “I’m the only fucking friend you’ve got.”
“We’re not friends.”
“All you’ve got, Jess. Me. No one else.”
“Look—”
“And think, very carefully, before you go and do something stupid like keep lying. I’m the only thing between you and a whole mess of trouble. From all sides.”
I don’t need to say including this one .
“My brother didn’t have a chance, Rush. Not growing up.”
“And you did?”
“Yeah, because I’m older. But gangs got him. I joined one with him, and then another motorcycle club. But it’s not my thing, and he liked the drugs. I did shit to get him out. Bad shit. He was clean and he got a job. Turns out, the job for was a Ten64 affiliate and he disappeared. He calls on a burner. We leave messages up at that clearing. Ribbon on the tree. Childish shit that won’t get noticed. But they want your cousin and the Smiths. I…I tried…I…”
She stops, tears glittering, and I tell myself I’m not moved. At all.
Even as something in my chest hurts.
“So you thought you’d betray us?”
She rounds on me. “What would you do, tables turned? I didn’t know you and it was you rich fucks or my brother. And I have to choose my brother.”
Jess turns and stalks off, then she comes back and there are tears on her face as she shoves me. “You’re so fucking dangerous, Rush. Because now I know you, how the fuck do I throw you under the bus? I can’t. And I don’t know what to do.”
“Yeah, well, me either. Because I fucking like you too, Jess. I want to help you. And I will. If you trust me.”
“Okay.”
N ikolai stares at me. We’re in the gym and he’s beyond agitated. They’ve been back all afternoon and he’s down here, working out.
“It’s a good plan.”
“We don’t save the fucking girl or her brother,” he says. “Otherwise, I’m on board.”
I swallow and grab the weight, taking it from him. Fuck, it’s heavy. I put it down. I mean, I work out, I run, do weights, keep up my martial arts, but…this weight is on a different level. And it’s not even in the range he uses.
So yeah, he’s beyond agitated.
He stretches his muscles, hair slick with sweat.
“No.” My word seems to sit and grow in the air.
“No?”
“No. She doesn’t die. Or her brother.”
“There’s collateral damage, you fucking know that.”
“I’m not you, Niko-oolai. Lucy’s on board.”
He eyes me. “She is?”
I nod.
“Did you fuck her, too?”
“Contrary to your belief, I don’t fuck every woman who appears. I mean, I haven’t fucked Rose or Mia.”
“If you did that,” he says, “you wouldn’t like the consequences.”
I get another weight, something light, and start doing bicep curls.
“Do you know how much that fucking suit costs?”
“I’m aware,” I say. “My point is, I’m not a total fuck boy.”
“So how do you plan on saving your little mission of the fucking heart, Rush?”
“By being me. Talking to them. We still carry out our plan, but give me a chance to get the brother out.”
“Her fucking brother?” He doesn’t ask why. He doesn’t do anything apart from move on to his next question. “And what about her? How do you plan on punishing her?”
“I’m not, Nikolai.”
I wait for him to tell me no, to lay down his laws. But he’s just silent as he starts doing some complicated planks that make my abs ache in sympathy for his.
“I’m going to use her, they know her, and since she’s the one with the friends in low places here, we can present a front. And who knows, maybe when this is done she can work for the outfit? She’s smart enough to talk to everyone and those who work in the lower levels need someone who gets them. Someone who comes from nothing.”
He doesn’t point out he came from nothing and I wait. And wait.
“They won’t fucking go for happy families.”
“They’ll be intrigued. And talk. She told me…she said they want dirt on you over Finnegan.”
“And they fucking think I just leave shit around.” He shakes his head as he sits up. “Maybe you’re right.” Nikolai gets to his feet. “This is yours. Pull it off. All of it. The girl, the gang, and the back up in the form of Smith Family and our colleagues. Impress me, Rush.”
“Nikolai?”
“What the fuck now?” He gets to his feet and throws a towel over his shoulder. “I’ve got things to do. The world did not stop fucking turning because I was away.”
“The bar sits on an important piece of land.”
“I know.”
I frown. “So when this is sorted, that needs to be addressed.”
“I can’t take it, and the Smiths don’t want to officially claim it.”
“What if it’s something else?”
“Like what?” he asks.
“I need to talk to Rose.”
I find Rose in her bedroom, and she’s sitting on the sofa, also looking agitated, a black box in her hands.
I wait for her to talk, I tease, but she just clutches the box and, finally I say, “What the fuck is going on, Rose?”
“What’s going on with this girl?”
I scratch Dante’s ears as he half lifts his head from her leg. “I asked first.”
“Let me ask this… Is she trustworthy?”
“I like her more than I like anyone. She’s scared for her brother.” Then I quickly outline my idea.
“Bunny Munroe, the bar?”
I nod.
“I’m in.”
She goes silent, and I’m aware I asked her something huge.
“Jess is slippery, so…” I say, my voice trailing off.
“I can keep her from interfering.”
“I know. You can do anything. It’s why Nikolai loves you.”
She sighs. “Your girl—”
“You saw Jess?”
She nods. “For a minute. That’s not important. I…Nikolai built this empire.”
“It’s his. I’ve got my piece I’m carving out.”
“I know he built it for you, but it’s such a part of him and things are good, I like my role. My world I’ve created.”
I’m not sure why she’s saying this, but I let her go. She’s in with my idea, all I have to do is get Lucy and Jess on board. So I let her talk.
“I don’t want him to give anything up, and I don’t want you doing things you don’t want to.”
“I don’t.”
“Good.” Rose bumps shoulders and I breathe in that Rose smell. “We went away for business, to talk, and…I have this. I found it out there. What do you think?”
She passes me the box, and I open it, pulling back the black tissue paper. I don’t know what I expect, but… I stare at the piece of plastic. “Holy fucking shit. But…”
“One in a million, apparently. He knows something’s up, and…what if…”
“Oh, he will,” I say.
She offers me a small smile. “You think?”
“Nikolai’s big and bad but oh yeah, he wants this.”
“Me, too.” She gets up, right as the door opens and Nikolai stands there. He looks at me, then her, and finally the box.
I get up and kiss her cheek, then saunter past him. “Old man.”
“Fucker.”
I’m halfway down the hall when I hear Rose’s squeal of happiness, and I go looking for Jess.
Things are looking up.
I’ve got a plan, I’ve got a place, there are changes afoot and—
“Jess?”
Her door’s open.
But she’s gone.
There’s a note and I pick it up.
One fucking word.
Sorry .