Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Jade
“Can you turn that off? It’s freezing!” I ask Malachi, my mind still a little foggy while I try to figure out the dashboard in his car.
“What, the AC?” He asks without taking his eyes from the road. “It’s not on.”
“Then why is it so freaking cold?” Only as we were pulling out and joining the highway, I realized that I should have at least taken my things with me.
Now I’m going to be stuck at Malachi’s mercy and he’ll probably continue buying me shirts that are a little too big and pants that are a little too small.
“Maybe close the window?” He finally glances in my direction and I notice he’s holding back a smile.
“Excuse me, is my suffering entertaining to you?”
“A little,” he admits, taking me by surprise.
“Who the hell answers this type of questions,” I say more to myself as I press the button closing the window. I didn’t even notice opening it in the middle of the nervous breakdown I was having.
“Hey, don’t take it out on me. You should thank me for getting you out of that place where no one respects you.”
“How do you know they don’t respect me?”
“Your mother?” He says and I remember the way she acted when we just arrived at the house earlier.
“You don’t know her…”
“Agree to disagree,” he says, reaching for something on the dashboard. “I have been in close contact with many bad people and my radar is spot on when someone is a jerk.”
I feel the warm air starting to spill over from the vents.
He turned the heat on for me.
I shrug.
His attention is on the beeping sound his phone is making from the holder. Someone is texting him like their life depends on it and I have to force myself to turn away.
“Fuck!”
Before I can say anything, Malachi’s phone starts ringing and he picks it up immediately without even looking at the caller ID.
I couldn’t never do such thing. And not because my phone is rotting somewhere in my room.
Correction, my old room. I have a serious dislike of taking phone calls, so I do my best to avoid them.
“Yes?” Malachi asks. “I’m driving right now, I didn’t read them.”
This statement is followed by silence and I can’t help but wonder who it could be. I felt a little bit relieved to see that this conversation sounds a lot like work.
“I’ll be there.” With that, he hangs up the phone and turns to look at me briefly, adding. “We need to make a quick stop.”
“Where?”
“Eden, the nightclub we own,” Malachi explains.
“I’ve never been to a night club,” I admit. “Especially not one like Eden.”
The thought of it scares me. I’m not even dressed appropriately to go to a club. And I’m most certainly not ready to pretend to be a happy couple in front of his employees and brothers.
“It’s okay, the place is empty this time of day,” he explains.
“So why are we stopping by Eden?” I blurt out.
“Business,” he says.
I narrow my eyes at his brief answer. “What kind of business requires a detour in the middle of the day?”
“The kind that requires my personal attention,” Malachi says, his voice entirely devoid of emotion. He doesn’t look at me but his grip on the steering wheel tightens just enough for his knuckles to turn pale.
“Someone’s being interrogated, aren’t they?” I ask, having been around enough men in this world to recognize when a soft word is hiding something bloody.
“You ask too many questions, Jade,” he replies calmly, bringing the car to a smooth stop outside the club’s private entrance.
The place is breathtaking and nothing like I imagined an elite gentleman’s club would look like.
I remember there was some talk going around, the police suspected the owners were selling girls, but that turned out to be a setup and they were cleared.
Based on the number of staff already working in early morning, I would dare to say that their reputation has gotten better since the incident.
It also seems like the place was recently renovated.
Malachi leads me down the dimly lit corridor, stopping in front of a door that has ‘bar manager’ written on it. He knocks twice and a female voice responds from inside. “Come in.”
When Malachi opens the door, I get to witness a modern-looking, mostly white office filled with plants. Even though it’s quite small, the place looks incredibly beautiful.
“Hey,” The woman smiles when she sees Malachi, but then her eyes land on me.
“Hi Riley,” Malachi greets her. “I need to take care of some things, would you mind keeping Jade company?”
“Sure,” Riley responds, her smile warm. “If you don’t mind hanging with me while I’m doing some paperwork for the bar,” she says looking at me.
“No problem,” I answer. I already like her.
“Great,” Malachi turns to face me. “I’ll finish as fast as possible.”
I nod, watching him leave and shut the door behind him. For a second, I stand still, not sure how to act and what to say to Riley.
“Have a seat,” She signals at the beige leather chairs at the desk across from her. “I’m Riley Kavanagh, it’s really nice to meet you.”
Kavanagh?
As far as I’m aware, the Kavanaghs don’t have any sisters, or female cousins, for that matter, so I think it’s safe to assume that Riley is married to one of Malachi’s brothers. Probably Ezekiel. He recently got married.
“Jade Moretti, nice to meet you.” I smile back at her as I make myself comfortable in the chair. “Damn!” The exclamation comes the moment the soft fabric hugs my body.
“I know!” Her smile widens. “They’re the most comfortable chairs I ever saw in my life.”
“You might have to tell me where you got them,” I imagine having a pair of chairs as comfortable as this in my future living room. It feels ridiculous to even think about it.
“Of course,” she nods. “You don’t mind if I keep working while we chat?”
“No, of course not.” I don’t say it at loud but I could spend the rest of the day perfectly silent in this chair. I didn’t realize how tired I actually was until after the meeting with Papà.
“Great!” Riley turns her attention to the screen. “If you want a drink or something, let me know and I’ll order it.”
“I’m good for now, but thank you.”
“So,” She continues. “You’re friends with Mal?”
That question is exactly why I wasn’t so happy when Malachi told me we’re stopping by Eden. I didn’t rehearse the speech I’m supposed to give people when they ask me about him. And we still have many details of our plan to cover. If we’re going to pretend to be a couple, we better do it right.
“We’re…” The words are right there, but can’t seem to get past my tongue.
Then the realization hits her and her eyes widen. “Wait! You’re the girl that was going to marry Nolan?”
“No, I was going to flee the country actually,” I laugh for the first time. “Marrying a piranha sounds more appealing than marrying Nolan.”
Riley bursts into laughter. “Can’t say I blame you. I only briefly saw him, but he doesn’t look very nice.”
“He’s handsome, but only when he’s keeping his mouth shut and not moving,” I shrug, remembering his hand on my lower back.
“I can’t believe that Malachi managed to get you to agree,” she continues, her eyes on the screen. “So, are you going to marry my brother-in-law now?”
“That’s the plan,” I cross my arms, leaning back in the fluffy chair.
“When I married Zeke, I don’t think I was realizing what carrying the Kavanagh name really meant.
” A faint smile touches her lips. “It’s a heavy name.
But they take care of their own.” She then pauses, leaning back in her chair with a knowing look on her face.
“Of course, I’m biased when it comes to Zeke, but if you’re with Malachi, you’re in good hands. ”
“Riley, we need you!” The office door opens and a man in his mid-twenties sticks his head inside.
“What is it?” She raises her eyes to meet his.
“We have a few bottles that were never registered,” the guy explains. “And no one seems to know where they came from.”
“How many is a few?” Her eyes darken at the news.
“Twelve,” the guy says. “More or less.”
“Damn it,” Riley gets up from her desk elegantly, turning to me. “I’m sorry, I have to take care of this.”
“It’s okay, not a big deal,” I smile.
“Will you be okay by yourself?”
“Yeah,” I nod, hoping Malachi returns soon so we can leave. “No worries.”
“Okay,” Riley says. “It was really nice meeting you. I hope we see each other again soon.”
“Me too,” I surprise myself with how honest that feels. Maybe it’s because I’m not used to having friends or being around people that I genuinely want to get closer to, but Riley seems like someone I wouldn’t mind having in my life.
I wait a few more minutes, staring at the closed door Riley walked through, convincing myself that Malachi will come back any second. He said he would finish quickly and I want that to believe him. But I know better than to assume things in this world ever go according to plan.
The silence starts getting to me. Riley’s office is comfortable, almost too comfortable, but sitting here knowing what Malachi is doing somewhere in this building makes it impossible for me to relax.
I get up, smoothing down the oversized shirt. The corridor outside is quieter than when we arrived. I’m not even sure what I’m looking for.
I wander around for a few minutes, and just when I start wondering if I might have gotten lost, I hear shouting coming from the dark corridor on the opposite end of where I was. Before I have a time to think things through, I follow it.
Maybe I should turn around, but I don’t. I continue following the sound, the hairs on my back rising the closer I get to the shouting, my footsteps becoming softer. As the voices become clearer, I recognize one of them immediately. Ironically, it’s the one that’s not shouting.
Malachi.
I reach the slightly opened door at the end of the corridor, hesitating only for a second before pushing it enough to see what’s happening inside. A disgusting metallic smell of blood wraps around me like a cloud, making my stomach twist before my brain even catches up.
There is a man tied to a chair in the middle of the room, his face covered in bruises. Blood is running from a cut near his eyebrow and down the side of his cheek, his breathing uneven, his head hanging slightly forward.
Malachi is standing in front of him, his posture and tone disturbingly calm. “You’re running out of time,” His words cut through the air, and I wrap my hands around me as a shiver runs down my spine.
“Go to hell.” The man spits blood at Malachi’s feet.
“What did Nolan send you to find?” Malachi repeats his question with the patience of a saint, but the man lets out a broken laugh.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Even I can tell that the grin on the man’s face is clear confirmation that he does indeed know what Malachi is talking about.
“You sure?” Malachi tilts his head slightly, studying him.
“Yep.”
“Okay,” Malachi takes a step closer to the man and I know I should look away. I know the image is going to stay with me the same way that watching Papà shoot that man during our vacation in Italy still haunts me. But I don’t, and I despise myself for it.
Despite my desperate attempt to stay chill, I take a few steps back, only stopping after my back hits the abstract painting on the wall, making a loud thud. I freeze, my hands tightening at my side as Malachi turns and his eyes meet mine. For a moment, neither of us says anything.
“That’s the girl?” The tied man asks, revealing a bloody set of teeth as he smiles. “I can see why you and Nolan are fighting over her.”
The little hope I had that he wouldn’t finish this vanishes the moment he faces the man, his hand wrapping around his neck. “What did Nolan send you to find?” Even though he’s furious, Malachi maintains the same steady tone and somehow that makes him even scarier.
“You’re dying to know, aren’t you?” The man continues grinning.
Malachi exhales quietly, almost like he doesn’t want to do this. Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, or maybe he doesn’t want to do it in front of me.
The following moments drag out, stretched thin, and every sound hits with violent clarity. The sharp scrape of metal against concrete, the heavy, wet rasp of the man’s breathing. Malachi asks the same question in that flat, unbothered tone, but when the man repeats his answer, I know what’s coming.
This time, I do close my eyes.
It takes everything in me not to cover my ears and shrink back like a child.
I was raised in this world, I’ve known what happens behind locked doors my entire life.
The man brought this on himself. But none of that stops my chest from tightening until I can barely breathe.
A sharp, gurgling scream cuts through the air, then snaps shut.
The sudden silence feels heavy and suffocating.
“It’s over,” Malachi’s voice breaks the silence and I force one eye open.
He’s moving toward me, unhurried, towering in the dim light.
His crisp white shirt is ruined, dark red blood soaking the cuffs and dripping slowly from the knuckles of his bare hand.
But it’s his eyes that freeze me in place.
Pale green and completely empty of remorse, radiating a quiet, suffocating fury.
“I told you to wait in the office,” he says, his voice dangerously low.
“I know.” A breath I didn’t realize I was holding escapes me as he takes the final step towards me.
He doesn't stop until he’s crowding my space, forcing me to look up at him. The smell of copper and sweat makes my stomach turn.
He steps closer, his shadow swallowing me completely. He reaches out, his fingers tracing my jawline. The sudden, intense heat of his skin against mine makes my pulse spike, but when his thumb drags across my cheek, leaving a faint, damp trail of red behind, every muscle in my body locks tight.
I’m not afraid of you.
Malachi notices the subtle recoil and says quietly, “I will never hurt you.”
“I know,” I whisper, my throat dry.
“You are safe with me,” he continues. “But when I give you an instruction, you follow it. Understood?” He adds coldly.
I swallow hard, staring up at the man who just ended a life without blinking, feeling a terrifying pull toward the absolute certainty in his voice. I’ve lost my mind, but I believe him.
“I know,” I manage.