Page 3 of Murder & Mayhem (Bloody Desires #9)

JAMESON

M y hands shook as I struggled to keep the gun pointed at Joey’s chest. The object of my nightmares and the one person I’d hoped to never see again.

We’d been free. We’d done it. Bailey and I had gotten away from our stepfather, who’d tormented us for years and years.

We’d finally had a chance at a real life.

I’d had two jobs and a shitty apartment, but Bailey had actually been in school and worked weekends at the grocery store.

We’d barely made enough to keep the lights on and survived on ramen, but it had been fucking worth it.

I’d been grateful every single second I’d crashed on that pull-out couch. And just like that, it was all over.

“I swear to fuck, I’ll do it, Joey! Tell me where he is!

” But my stepfather refused to take me seriously.

Even with a gun pointed in his face, he only laughed.

My finger twitched. He thought I was too much of a coward to pull the trigger, and maybe in the past, I had been, but if it wasn’t for the fact that he was the only one who knew where my little brother was, I would’ve already killed him.

Maybe. Probably.

Truth was, he likely had a point not to be scared of me.

I’d sworn I wouldn’t let him affect me when I showed up today, but just walking in those doors had brought back a flood of memories, none of them good.

He still had all those fucking cameras up.

I had been battling panic since the second I’d seen them.

Those held the proof of every horror Bailey and I had ever suffered through.

I should’ve destroyed all of them. I should’ve burned this fucking house of horrors down, but Joey was right. I was a chicken shit.

“You ain’t gonna kill me, pretty boy. So why don’t you stop playing these games and put my gun down? We can talk. Man to man, I mean, since that’s what you swear you are now, right?”

Joey laughed, his teeth somehow even more yellow than they’d been the last time I’d seen him six months ago.

I swallowed, trying to shove down that trickle of fear that had crept up my spine when he’d called me pretty boy.

It was right there at the surface. Every single trigger I’d thought I’d shoved into a tiny box so deep in the recess of my mind that I could forget they’d ever happened.

One of his creepy smiles and a “pretty boy” and I was twelve years old again, with my back against the locked closet door to keep him away from my nine-year-old brother.

I didn’t dare close my eyes, though, and even if my arms burned from how badly they shook, I didn’t lower the pistol at all. Bailey was more important than any of my fears.

“Tell me where he is! I know you took him!”

That fucking text message I’d gotten from my brother would be ingrained in my brain for the rest of my life.

I’m sorry. I tried to get away. I’m not strong enough. Come find me.

That was my last clue to Bailey. I’d left work early, nearly gotten fired, and booked it back to our apartment.

Bailey’s phone, which, like mine, was a burner, had been destroyed in front of the apartment building and his backpack had been tossed, the contents scattered and half missing all over the street.

That had been it, all that was left of my brother.

I’d managed to beg and sweet-talk the building manager to let me look at the security camera in the front entrance.

It was a crap angle, but I’d know that fucking Buick anywhere.

Joey hadn’t even tried to hide it. He’d taken my brother off the fucking street in broad daylight and not a thing could be done about it.

I couldn’t go to the police. Technically, Joey still had custody of Bailey since he was a minor.

In the eyes of the law, I’d been the one who’d kidnapped him and had him going to school under a fake name with documents I’d practically sold my soul to get.

I didn’t have friends, Joey had made sure of that, and his crew’s influence was everywhere. This was my only chance.

Joey sat up and I flinched, staggering back. Damn it, Jamie. Get it together. He can’t hurt you anymore . Except he already had when he’d taken the one person I loved in the entire world.

“Word of advice, turn the safety off when you’re threatening to shoot someone.”

I whirled around at the sound of the voice coming from my right.

A man I’d never seen before stood in front of me, completely relaxed even though I had a gun in his fucking face.

One I’d apparently forgotten to take the safety off of.

Shit. I hadn’t even thought about a weapon when I’d come here.

I’d seen it on the end table and taken advantage of it.

But I didn’t know shit about guns, and clearly whoever this guy was did.

He was youngish—older than I was, but not old enough to be running with Joey’s crew.

Maybe in his late twenties? His nearly black hair had been cut short and close to his head, and his facial hair was neatly trimmed.

His eyes were almost as dark as his hair and bored right into mine like he could decipher all my deep, dark secrets just by watching me.

He had perfect, tanned skin, like maybe he was either Italian or Hispanic.

I couldn’t be sure though. Oh, and he was wearing a fucking suit, minus the jacket.

He had to be the hottest guy I’d ever seen in my fucking life.

For a moment, I forgot everything, my focus solely on this stranger.

But then suddenly, he was moving. My finger twitched on the trigger on instinct, but the safety really was on, and he wasn’t coming for me anyway.

When I’d been distracted, Joey must’ve tried for me because I really was the pathetic dumbass he’d always said I was and couldn’t do anything right.

But the stranger had seen, even if I hadn’t. And now he had the bane of my existence struggling for his life in his recliner, a gloved hand squeezing his throat.

“I don’t fucking think so, Joey. Today is still your day of reckoning. But it’s not him that’ll end you. It’s me.”

“No!” I screamed before I could stop it.

I didn’t know who this guy was, and honestly, I didn’t care.

Joey had pissed off a lot of people. It could easily be any number of organizations, gangs, MCs, or even some random dude off the street for all I knew.

Hell, he could’ve been a family member of one of Joey’s victims. Normally, I’d be happy to let him end this asshole once and for all, but he couldn’t, not yet.

The stranger tilted his head so he could look at me, never releasing his hold on Joey’s throat. Joey thrashed, his fingers clawing at the stranger’s as he gasped for air, but the guy barely broke a sweat.

“No? Why is that? You looked like you were willing to kill him seconds ago.”

“H-he knows where my brother is. Please. Let him tell me and then I’ll get outta your way and you can do whatever you want to him. I just need to find Bailey first.”

I was still holding the gun, and maybe I should’ve figured out how to take off the safety and threaten this dude rather than beg, but judging by the fact that he hadn’t even bothered to try to disarm me, I wasn’t close to a threat to him.

My luck, I’d end up shooting myself. Begging had always been my strongest tactic in the past, so maybe it would work again.

Suddenly, the stranger stopped choking the shit outta Joey. My former stepfather started coughing and gagging, desperate to get any air into his abused lungs. The man paid him no mind, his head tilted to the side like he was listening to someone.

“Bailey Sullivan?” he asked.

I shook, the gun slipping from my hand, proving how much of an idiot I really was. “H-how do you know that?”

“Yeah, how do you know that?” Joey asked, his voice raspy as he tried to stand up once again. “Who are you?”

Before Joey even had his ass up out of the chair, the stranger had pulled a knife out of fucking nowhere and had it buried to the hilt in Joey’s thigh.

“Sit the hell down, Joey.”

“Ahhhhh! Holy shit! What the fuck?” Joey screamed, his hands immediately going for the handle of the blade.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” the stranger said conversationally.

“If you keep that where it is, you’ll live.

You pull it out, well, you’ll likely bleed out long before any medical care will get here.

And while I don’t really give a shit about that, I’m now also interested in where Bailey is. ”

“W-why?” Fuck. Why couldn’t I stop stammering? “He’s just a kid! I won’t let you hurt him!”

Joey laughed even through the pain. “That’s rich, acting like you’re the noble protector. C’mon, pretty boy, how many times did you kneel right there, crying and begging like the little bitch you are, while we all took turns with your brother? You can’t do shit.”

The room started to spin as the weight on my chest got too heavy to bear. Somewhere in my periphery, I was aware of the stranger punching Joey and saying something, but none of it meant anything.

Joey was right. Who the fuck did I think I was? I’d never been able to protect Bailey from all this. I’d tried. I had! But I’d always been a weak little bitch. Bailey had gotten hurt over and over and over again and I couldn’t stop it. I never could. And once again, I’d failed him . . .

“Buddy. Jameson. That’s your name, right? Can you hear me? I need you to breathe.”

The voice was strong and calm and so nice. So, so nice. I could listen to it all day.

“Jameson,” the voice said a little more authoritatively, “I’m gonna touch you now. But I’m not gonna hurt you, okay? You need to fucking breathe.”

Breathe? I wasn’t breathing? That was okay. Maybe if I stopped, everything would get better. No more pain. No more Joey. Something warm and soft touched my hand, and another one touched my cheek.

“Shit. I’m the wrong brother to deal with this.

Jameson, you said you’re looking for Bailey, right?

Your brother? I can help you find him, but I can’t do that if you don’t fucking breathe.

Don’t let this fucking asshole get to you.

Trust me, I get what it’s like to come face-to-face with your childhood nightmare, but don’t let him win.

You’re stronger than this. Just breathe.

If not for you, then for Bailey. He needs you. ”

Bailey needed me? I gasped, my lungs burning as air filled them.

“That’s it. Good boy. Nice and easy now. In and out. Like that. So fucking good.”

My eyes flew open, and I hadn’t even realized they were closed. The stranger knelt in front of me, and somehow, we were both on the floor in front of Joey’s chair. On my knees . . .

I scrambled up so fast, the world spun. My breakfast, the last meal I’d eaten today, threatened to come up, even if it would be only bile by this point.

“Easy, Jameson, you’re okay.”

But I wasn’t. I never would be. “C-can’t kneel. Not here. N-n-not in front of him.”

I didn’t need to say anything else. The stranger’s face softened even as something hardened in his eyes, like he understood. Fuck, maybe he did. I still had no idea why he was here.

“Okay, that’s okay. You can stand. Take it easy, alright? You almost passed out. I don’t want it to happen again.”

It hit me then that this guy I didn’t know at all was showing me more concern than anyone ever had in my whole life, except Bailey. It also occurred to me that he knew both my and Bailey’s names.

I staggered back a few steps, trying to create some distance. “Who are you? How do you know me?”

“My name is Dominic,” he said very carefully, like he was trying to settle a scared colt.

“And I don’t know you.” He tapped the earbud in his right ear.

I hadn’t even noticed it. “ My brother Ari is a computer whiz. He did facial recognition on you, and when you said Bailey, he was able to put it together.”

I frowned. “How? We should be hidden.”

“Ari is really good at his job. But I swear, I’m not here to hurt you or your brother.

I’m here to take out the trash.” He gestured to an unconscious Joey.

I guessed he really had punched him. “We thought he’d be alone.

I know it’s hard to believe, but I want to help.

Let me help you find out where Bailey is and then kill this jackass for you. ”

I had so many questions. Who were these people? He’d done facial recognition on me in a few minutes? How could I possibly trust him?

“How’d you do it so fast? Find us? I thought facial recognition took a while.” I had no idea how this would determine whether I could trust them, but I had to make sure Dominic was telling the truth.

Dominic’s expression faltered a tiny bit, and I tensed, preparing to fight someone way more deadly and trained than Joey. But I could never defend myself against him.

“Ari hacked into the cameras in Byrne’s house a few weeks ago. He’s been scouring the footage for evidence of his crimes. It’s something we do before we take this step. You and your brother are on there a lot. I’m sorry.”

That . . . made sense. I already knew he had more footage of us than I could ever hope of getting rid of. So many times, I’d thought about going on the dark web to try and find our videos, but I could never take that step.

He could be lying. Dominic and his brother were clearly dangerous. I shouldn’t trust him. But I needed help. I couldn’t find Bailey on my own—this disaster of an attempt proved that. I had to take a chance.

I didn’t have to trust him forever, just long enough to find out where Bailey was, and then I could get away from Dominic somehow and get my brother. We’d have to run again, but that would be okay. As long as he was safe, that was all that mattered.

I met those dark eyes that were somehow both dangerous and comforting. “O-okay. Please help me.”