Page 22 of Cruel Revenge (Cruel Command #3)

Chapter Fourteen

JOSHUA

There’s a shitshow, and then there’s the goddamn mess that my wife and brother caused.

And then there’s the smoldering building in front of me, the last of the fire being put out by men with hoses and automatic rifles strapped to their backs.

If I had known getting involved with the Lyndes again would bring this much trouble into my life, I wouldn’t have done it.

A pang hits my chest as part of me recoils from that thought.

I can’t be falling for her. Can I?

Because even if I could spend the rest of my life buried in Skyla’s tight pussy, is it really worth it?

I ignore the voice inside my head screaming, “YES!”, because I know it’s true.

This fake relationship has a lot of blurred lines, and I have no idea what is fake and what is real anymore.

But I don’t have the time or the mental capacity to deal with any of that right now.

“I’m at the warehouse now.” I hold the phone between my ear and my shoulder. “It’s bad. Everything’s been burned.”

Whatever the Lyndes are involved in, it’s bad. I’ve got a feeling that I’m going to lose a lot of money on this deal.

I should start charging them double the cost price for what I’m selling them. It would be better than the near loss I’m taking by supplying them.

“Fuck.” Skyla sighs, and something shuffles in the background of the call. “I can’t get down there right now. Can you tell Kalani to handle it?”

I take another look at the melted rubber pallet that used to hold bricks of cocaine. “I can handle this without her. I told you I would come down and deal with it.”

“And I’m telling you that this is my family’s business. We bought the drugs from you, and we’re the ones that need to handle it,” Skyla says, her tone sharp. “You’re going to insult Aiden if you try to handle it.”

I exhale deeply and look up at the sky through the burned rafters above me. “I don’t really think that matters right now.”

Logan enters the warehouse and looks around, DEA written across the chest of the t-shirt he wears in a large, bold font. “I think it’s time we have a little chat, Joshua. Don’t you?”

Skyla groans in the background. “That’s the shit stain, isn’t it?”

I can just imagine the look on her face right now.

“Yeah, it’s him.” I glance at Logan as he walks around the warehouse, looking at the scorched brick walls.

I end the call without a goodbye, slipping the phone into my pocket before approaching Logan.

He eyes me as he looks at some of the metal barrels still standing at the other side of the room. “If I wanted to, I could arrest you right now. Skyla too. This warehouse is known to belong to her family, and when I look around, all I see are drugs.”

I gesture to the ash on the ground. “What drugs, exactly?”

His gaze narrows, his mouth pulling into a straight line. Hands ball at his sides as he stands in front of a broken window.

“You and I both know what was kept in this warehouse.”

“I don’t know what was kept in here.” I tuck my hands into my pockets. “How’s the stab wound treating you? I heard it hurt.”

Logan’s face turns a deep shade of red. If it were possible, there would be steam coming out of his ears. “You know your wife is a psycho, then?”

I shrug, but my heart skips a beat.

Why does the word “wife” sound so right when linked to Skyla?

Fuck, I need to shrug off whatever the fuck this is.

I pace toward Logan, weighing my options.

I could kill him right now. Light the body on fire. It would be easy to frame him for being in here when the fire started. Could blame the entire thing on him. Could even pin the drug dealing business on his ass.

But then I would lose my contact in the DEA, and all eyes would turn to me.

It’s a risk I can’t take yet. Not with the shaky hold I already have on my relationship with Grady.

There are too many variables right now.

“Going to kill me?” Logan asks like he’s reading my mind. “You would think about that right now, wouldn’t you? I can see it in your eyes. You’ve always been a cold and calculating bastard.”

“One of us had to be. You were always too weak to take over after Dad died.”

“You mean after you sent someone in there to kill him because you wanted the power he held?”

Fuck.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I never had Dad killed. I got the call the same as you did. Someone attacked him and left him for dead in his cell.”

Logan continues his walk around the warehouse, looking around, though there’s nothing for him to find or use against me.

“That’s just the thing, Joshua. This is the game you always play. You pretend to know nothing, but you’re the reason he died. You and he were so much alike.”

“And now you sound like Mom.”

He smirks and looks at me with his hands clasped behind his back, strutting around like he’s the one with the upper hand in whatever game he thinks he’s playing. “There’s a reason she wants nothing to do with you.”

“She’s made that perfectly clear over the years. I want nothing to do with her either.” I stop pacing and study him, watching the way he looks out the windows like he’s trying to stall.

Fuck. Did he set me up?

I lunge forward, moving before he has a chance to register what’s happening.

With his shirt held tight in my fist, I shove him up against one of the metal columns still standing.

His eyes widen and sweat beads on his forehead.

Logan was never good at hiding his fear from me.

He swallows hard, hands coming up and palms facing out. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I would think about your next move.”

“I think my brother is a rat who doesn’t value anything that I’ve done for him.

” I pull him off the column before slamming him into it again.

“I think that I took care of the family after Dad went to jail, and you’ve always resented the fact that I was the one who was willing to step up and do what needed to be done.

I think you’re nothing but a coward at the end of the day. ”

“You don’t know anything.”

“Don’t I?” Chuckling, I press two fingers against his stab wound.

His teeth clench, and he hisses. “You’re making a mistake.”

“You’re spineless.” I dig my fingers into the wound, the warmth and stickiness of his blood seeping through the shirt. “You always have been.”

But lately, he’s been acting more and more brazen.

I have to wonder if that has to do with Skyla, or if he’s done sitting by the sidelines.

Once I get home, I’m going to have to get Andrew to start looking into Logan. If he digs up anything even mildly concerning, I’ll have one more problem on my hands to deal with.

Logan tries to squirm away from me as I press my fingers deeper.

He grits his teeth. “Someday, someone bigger and meaner is going to take everything from you.”

I tear through his stitches and plunge my fingers inside the wound, twisting them until he screams. “Is that a threat?”

I pull my fingers out of the wound and drop him to the ground.

He falls to his knees, hands pressing against the wound as he looks up at me.

The look in his eyes is crazed, and his other hand reaches toward the gun on his hip.

With a sigh, I remove my own from the holster and point it at his head, flicking off the safety.

“What Skyla did to you earlier today was child’s play. If you come near her or threaten my wife again, it’s going to be me you’re dealing with.”

He looks down the barrel of the gun, his eyebrows pulling together, hatred in his eyes.

If our relationship wasn’t strained before, everything that’s happened here today has blown it out of the water. We’re never going to recover from this.

Not that I would want to. I have no interest in calling him brother anymore, but the feds are too risky to play games with before I’m ready.

Lowering the gun, I kick some of the ash toward him, spraying his face with it. “You need to get your shit together and handle whatever the fuck is going on in your head.”

After tucking the gun back in my holster, I turn and walk away, ready to go home and deal with Skyla. Which is yet another battle I don’t have time for.

Though, battling with her does have its moments.

Maybe it would be easier to kill both of them and be done with it.

But just the thought of her not in my life leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Something heavy collides with my back, sending me to the ground as I groan.

The weight presses into my back as Logan scrambles to get his hands on me before I can throw him off.

His fingers dig into my shoulder to try and flip me over.

I slam my head into his broken nose, smirking when he rears back.

Blood rolls down his face, and he wipes it with the back of his hand, glaring down at me.

I surge forward and grab him by the throat, slamming him back into the ground, inches from a nail sticking up from a board.

His gaze drifts to the nail before he looks up at me.

His knee collides hard with my chest, all the air leaving my lungs.

My grip loosens enough for him to shove me off.

I roll to the side, avoiding the nail as he clamors on top of me.

His fist finds my cheekbone and pain blossoms across the left side of my face.

I groan and reach for my gun, but he pulls it out and tosses it near the door.

Logan punches me again, but it’s the last lucky shot he gets in.

I slam my fist into his wound.

He howls, and I use the moment of hesitation to grab him by the hair and slam his head into the column beside us.

A large red welt is already forming on the side of his head, and the dark circles beneath his eyes only seem to get worse with the rebreaking of his nose.

He groans and holds a hand to his head as we both get to our feet.

“You’re not going to keep dismissing me and ignoring me.” His tone is gruff as he glares, his mouth pressing into a pinched line.

I stride over to the gun and pick it up. “This is becoming a habit, Logan. And I’m not a tolerant man.”

Logan scoffs and spits a mouthful of blood onto the ground. “Is that supposed to intimidate me?”

I aim the gun at him once more, this time pointing for the outside of his thigh.

Without another word, I pull the trigger, the bullet grazing the skin.

It’s enough to hurt, and he’s going to have a scar to show for it, but he won’t be hurt long.

He howls like I shot him through the chest before the anger takes over. “What the fuck!”

“I’m not playing fucking games with you. Fall in line, or the next one won’t be a graze.”

He presses one hand to the bullet wound. “You don’t know her. You’ve spent most of your life knowing me, and this is the way you treat me? After everything I’ve done for you?”

I crouch down in front of him, keeping the gun aimed at his foot. “I’ve never trusted you, Logan. I would be an idiot to. You’re always sneaking around. Looking for the easiest way to get through life without thinking much about the consequences.”

“You don’t know anything I’ve been through.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” I put the barrel of the gun beneath his chin, forcing his head up so he’s looking at me. “I’ve spent years protecting you and shielding you. I kept you clean so you could get a job with the DEA. The problem is that my hard work and investment aren’t paying off anymore.”

Worry shines in his eyes and more sweat rolls down his forehead. “Have you asked your wife what she’s hiding from you yet?”

“Don’t you dare turn this around on Skyla now. It’s time that you answered for your actions.”

He tries to turn his head away from the gun, but I keep it in place, though sirens sound in the distance.

He spits, “You think you’re a monster, but you’ve got nothing on her.”

“You should stop pretending you know her, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop trying to convince her to leave me.

” I twist the gun, the mouth pressed against the underside of his chin.

“We could end this right here and right now. You just need to back down and stop thinking you know what’s going on when you’re nothing more than a confused and clueless little boy. ”

Hatred blazes in his eyes. “You don’t know what’s going to happen to you if you get rid of me.”

“Now, why would I get rid of you?” I lower the gun and grin, clapping him on the shoulder before shoving him down once more. “We’re brothers. You’re going to have a chance to show me that you’re still loyal.”

“Skyla and her family deserve everything that’s coming to them.”

With a sigh, I press the gun to the back of his head. “This is the last chance you get.”

I tuck the gun back into the holster as the sirens get louder. Instead of sticking around, I take off out the door, getting in my car and calmly driving away.

Let the cops find Logan in the ashes. He can have a good time figuring out what to tell them while I get the hell away from this mess.

It’s time to start digging into who my wife really is and what she thinks she’s going to be able to keep hidden from me.

As dangerous as her secrets may be, they won’t kill me.

But they might kill her.