JETT
After hearing Ebony lock herself in the room, I tried not to shoot down the door. There was something about her that annoyed, yet fascinated me. She’d tried to calm me down after I’d had a nightmare even after she knew I wasn’t normal. I didn’t like how that sat with me, and how I hadn’t tried to shoot her when my gun had been within reach.
I was sitting on the porch with Ebony’s sketch pad in my lap. I hadn’t drawn in years, for some reason everything I put to paper was dark and demonic in nature. Perhaps that was because I was the devil incarnate as so many people came to tell me in their last moments on this earth before my bullet severed their brain into pieces.
I loved that people are scared of me and that they never knew what way I was going to go. That was real power, and it was the reason I was so damn successful because I didn’t give a crap about anyone or anything, until now.
York pulled up in my Lincoln and one of the oldest men I had on my payroll, Duncan, got out first. He greeted me and looked down at my drawing. For once, I hadn’t drawn anything dark and depressing. What I’d drawn was beautiful.
It was Ebony sleeping.
It scared me that I had thought it was beautiful, but I knew in my heart she was. She was breathtaking, even as she struggled for breath with my hand wrapped around that tiny throat. Damn, but didn’t that image give me a hard-on.
I slammed the pad closed, angry at myself and looked up at Duncan. “What is it?”
“One of the clubs has been burnt to the ground.”
“Giordy?”
“Yeah.”
Finally, he’s made a move against me.
“Good. Let’s get the boys in. I’ll come into the city in a few hours.”
Duncan nodded. “What about her?”
“Leave her to me.”
“Boss,” Duncan hesitated. I already didn’t like where this was going. “She’s a distraction, probably working as a spy for her uncle.”
“Potentially,” I replied, knowing full well she wasn’t.
“Why is she still alive?”
“That’s none of your concern.”
It took everything in me not to reach for my gun and dump his body in the lake around back. I’ve known Duncan a long time which meant he should know better than to doubt me.
“She’s got you by the balls, Boss.”
I stood, towering over him. “What did you just say?”
Duncan stepped back. “There was a time you wouldn’t care about her. She’s a distraction to you, and a danger to us and the organization we run.”
We? I didn’t verbalize it, but I should have. Did he think he had anything to do with me setting up this organization? He didn’t sell his soul to get this place up and running and for me to become one of the hardest and meanest men in the city.
York knew I was about to reach for a weapon, he always knew. I saw him shake his head from the corner of my eye. I knew he was right—another death would only see the men scatter. I pushed Duncan away from me setting the sketchpad down on the table as York approached me.
“Giordy has gone to the Police Commissioner,” York added. “He apparently wants his niece back.”
“He put a hit out on her.”
“Saying it was you.”
So Giordy stepped up and made a deal with one of the few people I didn’t control in the city. He was getting desperate, which means he would make a mistake sooner or later.
Whichever way it turned around, I needed to be ready.
Duncan was right, I only had one choice with Ebony—I needed to get her away from me.
✽✽✽
It only took an hour for York to return from dropping Duncan off at the warehouse, my plans all set up for Ebony. I told him everything, and yet again, he listened without judgment. Ebony hadn’t come out of the room at all, so it had given me a lot of time to think about what I needed to do without being distracted by her damn beauty.
I knocked on her door. “Ebony, come out.”
Silence.
“I’ve booked you on a flight. It’s leaving soon.”
Movement came from behind the door, and she finally opened it looking a little disheveled.
“Really?”
She’d been crying judging by the red, puffy eyes. I moved away from the door and allowed her to come out. York grabbed her bag and took it to the car, leaving her to me.
“Where am I going?”
“Surprise. If you don’t hurry, though, you’ll miss it.”
York returned inside, and I grabbed my blade I’d laid out earlier. He grabbed her from behind dodging her nudges to get free. She looked to the blade and up at me with fear. I tried not to relish in it too much, but I had to admit her fear was turning me on.
“Don’t do this, Jett,” she begged me. Tears were falling down those puffy cheeks again as she struggled against York. Something strange happened when she said my name, something I didn’t expect. I pushed it aside, not sure I had the energy to deal with whatever my head was going through.
“It’s a necessary task I must take. If you don’t stop struggling, it will only make this worse.”
I moved the blade across her arms cutting her deep enough so that it would be taken seriously but not enough to kill her. It would have been easier if I just killed her, but for some reason, I didn’t want to kill her. That was something I didn’t want to think about too much. Instead, I would play games with her until she broke.
I do love a broken woman.
“Come on.”
York bandaged her arm tightly and took her to the car. She laid on my lap, curled up in the fetal position, weeping as we drove. There was something intensely erotic about this, but I tried to focus on what I had to do. Ultimately, I was turning her into my broken mess, and I couldn’t wait to see the end result.