He stood by and watched the woman he’d claimed to love get beaten, and did nothing.
One thing was for sure: My dad or uncle or whoever the hell he was, was a monster. And he was hiding something. I was going to either get it out of him or kill him with my bare hands. I’d never felt connected to him, never felt like we were close. And now I knew why.
Both men had kept secrets from us—but why?
“I need some air.” I bolted from the room and ran outside. A few of the men looked at me like I’d lost it. To be fair, I was way past merely losing it and on my way to insanity.
“Chase!” Trace ran out of the house in one of my coats and stopped in front of me. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay!” I yelled. “How the hell am I supposed to answer that? He wasn’t ever just my cousin!” The cold air nipped at my face. “He had always been like a brother to me—he gave me everything and I—”
“What?”
“I took it all from him. All of it!”
“Chase,” Trace warned. “The men. We don’t know who we can trust. We can’t fight… not now.”
“Shh.” I pulled her close. “Someone’s watching. I can see his shadow, stay close,” I whispered. “And go with it.” It could have been one of our men—but I was starting to become a paranoid lunatic when it came to everyone, especially considering my conversation with Tony. What if they worked for him? What if their loyalty wasn’t mine? The shadow moved, and then disappeared behind the building.
I tugged Trace closer and kissed her forehead, speaking up. “I want you. I need to be with you, Trace. Having Nixon gone, it’s killing me.”
“Chase, you can’t…” Trace shook her head. “You can’t be like this. We can’t do this!”
“We aren’t doing anything,” I said in low tones, reaching for Trace’s hand. “Don’t you?” I looked directly at the shadow, hoping to God I wasn’t hallucinating, I mean, two seconds ago I was pretty sure I had died or something. “Don’t you feel the same way?” I looked above Trace’s head at the shadow and then back at Trace.
She jerked her hand away from mine. “It doesn’t matter what I feel. It’s not about me, Chase.”
“But it is.” I reached for her again. This time her hand stayed firmly in mine. She needed to play along or she was going to die. She didn’t know that, but I did. Because I’d just seen my father watching us from the side of the house. Meaning, he had to believe I’d bought it, I’d follow his assignment.
“It isn’t,” Trace sighed. “It never was.”
I jerked her toward me again. She fell against my chest and looked up into my eyes. “What are you doing?”
I sighed. “What I should have done a long time ago.”
I kissed her, hard, and then slid my mouth to her ear to whisper, “I’m going to shoot my gun. This is very important. I need you to collapse against me, okay?”
She nodded and clung to my shirt as I shot my gun into the side of the coat, making a muffled sound as it rang out into the night air.
Trace collapsed on me.
With a curse, I picked her up and carried her back inside.
The men were watching and hopefully so was my father. He’d think I’d tied up one loose end. Oddly enough, this might make him play perfectly into my hands. The sick thing was, that as much as I’d asked all my men to protect her, nobody ran to my side when I shot her—nobody blinked. My family officially sucked.
When we reached the kitchen I told her to crawl down the hallway and into her room, locking the door until I came and told her all was safe. I closed the blinds to the windows, pulled out my knife and sliced down my arm so that I would have actual blood on my hands. Ripping my shirt, I sliced part of my side, using as much of the blood as I could, and then I bandaged myself up.
A knock sounded at the door.
If it was my father, retribution was going to happen a hell of a lot sooner than I’d first thought.
To my utter shock and surprise, and most likely bad luck, I was knocked to the ground by a fist to the face.
“You son of a bitch. I swear I’ll kill you if you actually shot into her perfect body.”
“Nixon?” I gasped.
“No. I’m an angel of death coming to take you to your maker, you ass. Yes it’s me.”
“B-b-but—” I stuttered.
“We don’t have time. I just had to make sure she wasn’t actually shot. You’re lucky I saw Uncle Tony or I would have shot you on the spot. And ruined everything. Nice ring, by the way.”
“Am I dead?” I checked my body for gunshot wounds and was treated to another punch to the jaw.
“Answer your question?” Nixon tilted his head to the side. “Or do I need to make things more clear?”
“Still an ass.”
“Still more like a brother than your cousin, don’t you think?”
I froze.
“Look, I can’t stay. I shouldn’t even be here. I just needed to make sure they made you boss… What did Uncle Tony say tonight?”
“That I deserved to take your place—oh, right, and he told me to tie up loose ends.”
“Trace.” Nixon cursed.
“Yeah, Nixon. What’s going on?”
“Just act normal.” He paced in front of me. “I’m already dead, all right? But you guys, you’re alive, get it? If this goes badly…”
Aw shit. He was telling me what I didn’t want to know. If it went badly, and he did die, then he didn’t want Trace to mourn him all over again.
“But how are Luca and Mr. Alfero—”
“Sorry. This is where our conversation ends.” Nixon raised his hand to my head and everything went black.
Chapter Forty
Nixon
“He’s lucky as hell I didn’t beat the shit out of him.” I pounded my fist against the table and cursed.
“Nobody ever said being dead was easy,” Trace’s grandpa chuckled.
“I hate this.”
“It’s the only way. Quite clever, too, might I add.” He took a sip of coffee and drummed his fingers on the table. “It won’t be long now.”
“It’s been too long,” I grumbled. “If it doesn’t work, if I’m wrong, if Phoenix and Mil are wrong…”
“If, if, if. Stop worrying; you’ll give yourself an ulcer. At least I’d make it quick,” Luca said, walking into the room. “Straight in the head, just like you asked.”
“How… kind,” I muttered.
“I aim to please.”
“No, you aim to kill.” This from Frank.
Luca chuckled. “That too. Now, what did you discover on your little spying mission? All went well, yes?”
If well meant I had to sit by and watch Chase take over my life and fall even more in love with my girlfriend than yeah, it had gone fantastic. I leaned forward and poured myself another cup of coffee. “He ordered a hit on Trace.”
Frank gripped the table. “That lying piece of—”
“Quiet.” Luca put up his hand. “And?”
“And, Chase knows that Uncle Tony isn’t his real father. I left enough hints, and they’ve clearly read the journal.”
“So…” Luca clasped his hands together. “All loose ends are tied, then?”
“Yes.”
“So we wait.” Frank took another sip of coffee.
“I hate waiting.” I wanted to bang my head against the table a million times.
“Chin up.” Luca pulled out a cigar and handed it to me. “If you’re right in your assumptions, you’ll be celebrating with your girlfriend by the end of the week.” That was if she still loved me… loved me more than him. After all, I had left her again. And Chase, he’d been there the whole time.
“And if I’m wrong?”
“Then we go fishing in Lake Michigan.” Using my body as bait, no doubt. I loved bleak futures. Truly, they were what got me through the monotony of life.
Hell, I needed a drink, but I had been pulling all-nighters just in case I was needed. Damn, but my body was completely exhausted. The only thing that helped was my cell phone.
Who knew I would be so addicted to technology?
Or her?
I’d turned it on airplane mode so that I couldn’t receive calls. But I could look at my pictures.
My thumb hovered over the picture I’d snapped of Trace on our first date. I’d taken her on a picnic. Had she turned out to be just a normal girl and not the little girl I grew up with, I would have still fallen.
I would have still wanted her.
Because she was so damn special. She was… my other half. She didn’t take my shit like most people and she seemed to genuinely care. When she touched me—well, sometimes it felt like everything was still in my world. And I needed that peace more than I’d care to admit.
Maybe I was just holding on to a fantasy. It was possible she would turn and walk away from me. And when that time came, if that was the choice she wanted to make, I’d let her. Not because I wanted to let her go, but because I respected her too much to keep her when she wanted to leave.
I truly believed that the greatest sacrifice someone could make in life was putting someone else’s needs before your own wants and desires. Loving someone with such a passion that you’d suffer the rest of your life just so you could see them smile. You’d go to hell and back—if only it meant keeping them safe.
She was my Juliet—and damn if I didn’t want the story to end differently. I wanted her to have a life, even if it was apart from me.
I saw a pair of boots and ripped jeans and looked up into Phoenix’s eyes. “What?”
“Nothing.” He sat. “I just…” With a heavy sigh he leaned forward. “I wanted to apologize again. I get it, I don’t deserve your forgiveness and I sure as hell don’t deserve your protection or anything else. I know that the only thing that’s kept me alive so far is the fact that I’m a head of the De Lange family and even that didn’t keep me from almost getting killed.”
I set my phone down and leaned back. “No. We did.”
“And my sister, don’t forget her,” Phoenix said.
“Couldn’t even if I wanted to.” I sighed. “Once she started telling me what you knew, what you saw…” I shook my head. “I knew there was no other choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” Phoenix whispered. “You just happen to be one of the good ones.”
“What do you mean?” My head snapped up.
“You know what I mean.” He smirked. “As much as it pains me to admit it, and as much of a pain in the ass as you’ve been your entire life… you’re the good guy. The one who runs headfirst into battle with your sword raised high above your head. You’re like freaking William Wallace,” he snorted. “And the rest of us? Well, if we aren’t blinded by jealousy, we’re blinded by something else entirely.”