Page 11

11

ZANE

I woke up to Eddie hollering my name.

I blinked in the bright morning sunlight that the tattered blinds did nothing to keep out and tried to work out where the hell I was.

The night before came rushing back in full color and vivid detail. Despite my brother’s obnoxious shouting, I smiled, remembering Fawn’s thighs wrapped around my head, her pussy weeping for me and tasting like pure, sweet sugar.

Movement caught my eye at the doorway. Otis lingered there, looking uncertain and worried.

I shifted onto my side and rubbed a hand over my face, trying to wake myself up. “Hey, kiddo. You okay?”

He bit his bottom lip.

And suddenly a spear of fear shot through me. “Is your mom okay?”

He shook his head.

I shot out of bed like someone had electrocuted me. I was down the stairs and facing off with Eddie within seconds. My chest heaved with the exertion, or perhaps more likely with panic.

If he’d found out…if he knew what I’d done to her in that bedroom last night, while he was downstairs…

She’d be dead.

And I’d be next. A bullet wound in my head. I had no doubt he was keeping that gun close.

In the cold, harsh light of day, and now completely sober, I suddenly realized exactly how reckless I’d been. How dangerous.

“Where’s Fawn?”

Eddie glared at me. “Who fucking cares? Go get dressed. I’ve got guys coming in, and if you’re going to be introduced as my brother and second-in-command, you need to at least pretend like you can handle it.”

I went to protest but then saw an opportunity. “I need a weapon.”

Eddie snorted. “To do what with, Zaney boy? You know nothing about guns, last I remember. You’ll shoot your own fucking hand off.”

“So I’m supposed to run your crew of criminals without a weapon? How am I supposed to do that?”

Eddie sniggered, pushing up onto his feet with a wince of pain. “Not really my problem.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Fawn leaving the laundry room and wrapping a Band-Aid around her index finger.

She hurried into the kitchen and out of sight.

I hoped like hell the cut on her finger was what Otis had meant when he’d said his mom wasn’t okay.

From outside came the roar of an engine and a cloud of dust, kicked up by tires. A truck pulled into the clearing, the four men inside stepping out, the driver taking a cigarette from a packet inside his jacket and lighting up.

Eddie opened the door and pushed me out of it with the nose of his gun. Then shoved it back into the waistband of his pants before any of his guys could notice.

I took the advice and walked over to them.

All four of them paused at my approach, eyeing me with interest. But then they noticed Eddie, and a cheer went up.

“Hey! Here he is! Back from the dead!”

They surrounded him like he was some sort of returning hero and clapped him on the back.

The driver blew out a long stream of smoke. “Got the name and address of the guy who got you. We’re just waiting on you to say the word before we go after him.” He drew a finger across his neck, miming slitting a throat, and the other guys all laughed. “We gonna make him bleed just as much as you did. Just give us the thumbs-up.”

They reminded me of the hyenas in the fucking Lion King movie, all slobbering and falling over themselves to get Scar’s attention. They thought they were these big, tough gangsters, but all I could see was how pathetic they were. How desperate they were, that they would work for someone like my brother, at the risk of both their and their families’ lives.

Eddie jerked his head toward me. “That’s up to Zane. He’s calling the shots while I’m getting back on my feet.”

All four guys swiveled to look in my direction.

The driver huffed. “Who the fuck is he?”

“My brother,” Eddie said, as way of introduction.

It was on the tip of my tongue to add “Unfortunately.” But I bit it back, because being a smart-ass wouldn’t help the situation.

The driver clearly wasn’t impressed, if his expression was anything to go by, but he said nothing, just watched me with narrowed eyes while he took another drag on his cigarette.

I stared him down, not intimidated by his attitude the way he wanted me to be. He was all bravado, his tough-guy act just that. An act. When you’d spent a lifetime with a true psychopath, who didn’t have an ounce of empathy in his body, wannabe gangsters seemed like children in comparison.

Eddie jerked his chin toward the man. “That’s Spider.” He pointed in turn at each of the others. “Santos, Derek, and Ward. Huff and Berger round out the crew, but they’re currently…occupied, on another job out of town.”

The look Eddie gave me was so fucking smug and full of amusement for himself that I knew instantly Huff and Berger were the assholes with the knives, currently lurking around my mother’s property.

The driver, Spider, tossed his smoke to the dirt and stepped on it with a heavy boot. “We need to get moving.” He turned to me and added snidely, “If that’s okay with you, of course, Boss .”

I nodded.

The men all stared at Spider, confusion pulling at their expressions while he scowled like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Understanding dawned on me. He’d been expecting the top spot now Eddie was out of commission. And it was pissing him off that he hadn’t been given it.

Eddie chuckled at the clear tension between Spider and me, and I silently berated myself for giving him exactly what he wanted. Eddie had always fed on making people uncomfortable. It delighted some fucked-up part of his brain that got off on other people’s pain.

Eddie clapped me on the shoulder. “You’ve got a job this morning. And it takes a five-man crew to run it.” He glanced at Spider. “You’ll give my brother the rundown, capiche? I haven’t had a chance to run him through the job, so I’m counting on you.”

Spider nodded but didn’t appear any happier.

I didn’t miss the glare he shot my way. Or the delight in Eddie’s eyes as he walked all over me.

As fucking usual.

I forced a sharp whistle out between my teeth, stopping all four men where they stood, Spider with the keys gripped in one hand, the others in various stages of getting into the truck.

“Spider,” I called to the man getting into the driver’s seat. “I’m driving.”

He shot me a murderous look. “No, you fucking ain’t. It’s my truck. Nobody drives but me.”

I returned his glare, in a much cooler, calmer fashion, because that’s all I really had on these guys. An ability to think quietly and calmly. To be smarter. Fuck knew I was well outnumbered in terms of muscle.

“I need the rundown on the job while we drive, and Eddie says you’re the man to give it to me. You can take it up with him if you don’t like it.”

Eddie snorted on his delight. “Seems like you’re riding bitch, Spider.”

The other guys took Eddie’s lead and laughed along with him.

For the first time I could remember, the expression on Eddie’s face was nothing but pure pride.

I’d never felt more disgusted with myself. But getting into town, and to the police, was worth doing whatever I needed to. I had no idea what I was going to do, only that control of the vehicle was vital.

I got behind the wheel and put the truck into reverse when Eddie hobbled over and tapped the window.

I rolled it down.

“Just got a text from Huff and Berger. Mom asked them to pass on her congratulations on your first day as crew leader.”

My gaze snapped to his. I knew for a fact Mom would never say anything of the sort.

Eddie was just making sure I knew that even though I’d stepped into his shoes for a moment, I wasn’t in charge.

And a single toe out of line would result in them hurting her.

God, I fucking hated him. “I get it. Message received loud and clear.” I put the truck in drive and made the mistake of looking up at the house before I put my foot on the gas.

Fawn watched on from the front porch, Otis’s fingers twisted in her long skirt, and a desperate expression on her sweet face.

I drove away torn in two, knowing no matter what I did or didn’t do, I’d be putting someone’s life in danger.

And there was absolutely nothing I could fucking do about it.

E ddie’s place truly was in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere. Spider sat smugly in the passenger seat, directing me through the maze of dirt tracks and then small, country roads to get off the property and back into the nearest town. I tried committing each turn to memory, but it was the sort of place where if you didn’t have GPS or some idea of where you were going, every turn looked the same. Trees, trees, and more trees lined the roads, until they eventually gave way to a town that wasn’t walking distance by any stretch of the imagination.

A freestanding police station came into view, and I took my foot off the gas a little, my heart leaping into my throat while I tried to think about what to do.

Spider frowned at me. “My grandmother drives faster than you. You want to fucking hurry up?”

I already knew I couldn’t just turn into the driveway, wander in, and make a report while all of Eddie’s guys waited for me in the truck.

I needed time to think. To come up with some sort of plan.

A smart one that wouldn’t end in Fawn or Otis or Mom getting hurt.

One that preferably didn’t end with me dead in a shallow grave either.

The police station disappeared in my rearview mirror. “Tell me about the job,” I demanded of Spider. “What’s at this address we’re going to?”

“A house.”

I pulled my gaze from the road and glanced over at him. “Super helpful. Want to be more elaborate?”

“No. Turn right up here.”

I did, just wanting to get whatever this job was done. I raised my voice to talk to the guys in the back seat. “Any of you want to fill me in?”

No one said a word, probably because Spider had set the tone and the others were taking their cues from the devil they knew. I couldn’t really blame them.

“No? Nobody wants to speak all of a sudden? I’m not going to be much fucking good as your fifth if nobody fills me in on what’s going on. Drugs, right?”

“Oh darn it, you caught us.” Spider clapped his hands together sarcastically. “Yeah, it’s drugs.”

The guys in the back all chuckled, telling me I was clearly off base.

“Guns, then?”

Nobody said anything.

My blood ran cold. “Women. You’re fucking trafficking women?”

Of course they were. Eddie had always loved lording it over women, using their bodies, bending them to his will until he broke them. It wasn’t much of a jump to trafficking them.

“Big white house up there on the corner.” Spider pointed ahead of us. “Drive past, park on the side street.”

I eyed the house as we passed, but it was just like any other suburban home on the block. Albeit a nice one, in an upper-class neighborhood.

“Santos, you go around the back.” Spider pulled a gun from the back of his jeans. “Derek and Ward, you come in from the left and right.” He sneered at me. “The boss here and I will cover the front.”

The guys all piled out of the truck as soon as I parked it and took up the positions Spider had indicated before I had even moved.

“You fucking coming or what?” Spider’s gun gleamed in the morning sunlight. The weapon felt out of place in a nice neighborhood like this.

Any thoughts I might have had about just leaving them there and driving the truck away disintegrated with a weapon pointed at me and the reminder the house I’d rented for Mom was also in a nice neighborhood, just like this one.

I got out and followed Spider, walking right up to the front door. He rapped his knuckles across it, and when nobody came, he leaned on it sharply, popping it from the lock with a single hard shove.

I felt sick watching the way it opened so easily.

The one on my house was exactly the same.

“You take the upstairs,” Spider directed once we were inside. “I’ll handle the lower level.” He motioned with his gun toward the stairs. “Go. Get anything of value we can sell. Cash. Jewelry. Whatever.”

I frowned. “Seriously? Petty theft is the aim of the game here?”

He raised one eyebrow. “Would you prefer we had a bunch of drugged women tied up and were here to transport them?”

I blanched at the image he painted. “No.”

“Then stop looking a fucking gift horse in the mouth, Zaney boy, and go get the wife’s fucking jewelry box.”

My jaw clenched at the taunting nickname Eddie had always used to belittle me. Spider wasn’t Eddie. He didn’t have half of his brawn or agility.

The thought of wrapping my fingers around the smaller man’s throat and shoving him up against a wall briefly crossed my mind.

But Derek, Ward, and Santos were all moving about in other areas of the house, and at the end of the day, I was relieved more than anything else that all we were doing was robbing the place.

I jogged up the stairs, grateful to get away from Spider’s gun. I kept one in the safe at home, knowing if Eddie came for us, it would be there. But I’d never taken one to work.

Now I wished I had. Or that I could rely on the lessons I’d given Mom. Except I already knew her memory was so bad she would have forgotten the code to the safe, let alone the knowledge there was a gun inside it.

If it was even still there. If Eddie knew about it or his guys had found it…

I sighed and poked around the master bedroom. There was some cash on the dresser, and a box full of necklaces with pretty gemstones. One was a love-heart-shaped locket with a photo inside of two women, one elderly, one several decades younger, perhaps in her late thirties. The locket was tarnished by age.

A family heirloom, most probably. There were some tiny bracelets that might have once adorned the wrists of babies, though the photos around the room showed a growing family of preteen girls, posed with their neatly groomed parents.

I sighed, taking one of the necklaces that didn’t seem to be of personal significance, knowing I’d need to provide something.

But I didn’t have it in me to take the lot.

A door slammed downstairs, and I grabbed the cash off the dresser, adding it to the haul in my pocket. I wrinkled my nose at the unpleasant odor that hit me as I went back out onto the upper-level landing.

It took my brain a second to work out what the smell was, but when my thoughts caught up, my stomach dropped.

Smoke.

I rushed for the stairs, but flames lit them up.

On the other side, Spider grinned at me, a box of matches clenched in his nicotine-stained fingers. “Oops. Sorry. Didn’t realize you were still up there. You really should have stuck to the time limit.”

He hadn’t said anything about a time limit, and we both knew it. He wiggled fingers at me in a wave before disappearing in the direction of the front door.

Fucking asshole.

Thankfully, the flames were still low enough I could back up a couple of stairs then jump. I hit the living room floor hard, deliberately rolling to put out any possible flames that had latched on to my clothing than to take the impact off my legs.

I tried not to think about the family memories being destroyed behind me.

Instead, I hightailed it down the street to where I’d parked the truck.

The guys all stood sheepishly outside it.

I exploded in a fit of anger. “You all forgot I had the fucking keys? Were you planning on walking home after trying to kill me in that fucking house?”

Santos was quick to come up with excuses. “We didn’t know Spider left you in there!”

I shook my head. But what did I fucking expect? Loyalty from men Eddie had picked?

Absolutely fucking not.

I got in the truck, slamming the door. The four of them were smart enough to throw themselves inside quick because I sure as hell wasn’t planning on hanging around waiting for them.

Even though it wasn’t smart, I doubled back, driving past the house again.

Smoke seeped out from beneath the front door, and flames burned through the windows. A smoke alarm pierced through the quiet suburban neighborhood.

Someone would have called 911 by now. By the time the fire department showed up, the place would be well alight.

I clenched my fingers around the steering wheel, remembering the way Spider had just fucking left me for dead.

It wasn’t even surprising. This was what happened when you ran with weasels. These guys didn’t have my back. They weren’t my friends or my family, the way Eddie had tried to make out they would be. They weren’t loyal to me.

Fuck, I doubted they were even loyal to Eddie. Which was why he was smart enough not to trust them. He’d called me in because he knew all too well these assholes would turn on him the first chance they got.

Flashing lights passed as we drove back through town. Fire engines flying by in a blur of red-and-blue lights and wailing noise. The police station came into view again, just up ahead, cop cars peeling out of the station, all turning in our direction.

The first whizzed by, and I let out a breath of disappointment.

I didn’t care if I went to jail. If someone had reported the truck outside a now-burning house, maybe I’d be taken in. Questioned. Given an opportunity to tell someone what was happening with Fawn and my mom. The police could coordinate something between branches, surely? Get both of them to safety.

The idea settled in my head.

But the second police car whizzed by as well, no attention given to a truck full of men, all their sole aim getting to the fire.

My heart sank.

They clearly weren’t looking for us.

“Holy fuck,” Santos murmured, twisting as another truck hurtled by. “That fire must have gotten big quick for them to send so many.”

I didn’t give a fuck about the fire.

That didn’t matter to me anymore.

All that mattered was their distraction.

And while they were too busy watching the fire trucks race toward the scene of the crime, I put my foot down on the gas just a little harder.

And drove the truck straight into the third police car pulling out from the driveway.