Chapter Three
JETT
“York, what’s the status on Mark?” I asked as I jogged down the steps of my cabin. I’d chosen this place in the woods out of the city due to the fact no one would come looking for me out here, and I had no reception which meant fewer distractions. I’d never told anyone about this place, and yet I’d allowed York to drive that woman here. It had been a few hours, so I was hoping the shock had worn off by now, and I could get some information out of her at least. I couldn’t get my mind off those damn black eyes.
“None.”
“Damn it. Get back to town and get a report off the boys. I want a full clean-up crew, too. I need Giordy to know what I’m capable of.”
York nodded.
“Wait.”
He stopped the car, and I walked to the trunk taking a deep breath before I opened it. Immediately, I felt hands around my throat and a body leapfrog onto mine, forcing me back a few steps. She was screaming something unintelligible as I tried to free her hands from my throat. Damn she was strong. With no alternative, I punched her in the side of the head, not as hard as I wanted to, but enough to have her fall limp in my arms.
During the struggle, York had gotten out of the car and stood by the trunk, a smirk on his face. “Feisty one you got there, Boss.”
“You know what to do,” I barked at him. He nodded and closed the trunk before heading out of the woods in the only car I had here. I properly picked her up and carried her into the cabin, placing her down on the sofa and taking a seat on the chaise, looking her over for any sign of who she was. I could see she had a small tattoo on the top of her foot of a skull with a rose protruding from its mouth, but that told me nothing of who she was.
Waiting was the last thing I wanted to do, so I grabbed the water bottle from the fridge and threw it over her face. She gasped, moving quickly to clear the water from her delicate facial features. Those black eyes looked up at me sending a chill down my body that didn’t make me happy. Who was this woman?
“Don’t attack me,” I said very slowly, so she understood. “What’s your name?”
“Ebony,” she softly said. God even her name suited her. It meant the same thing as mine did. Black. “Why did you bring me with you?”
“Honestly, I need to know you won’t tell the authorities what I did.”
“Really? That’s why? Wouldn’t you just have killed me? Personally, I think you want people to know it was you.”
I smiled, feeling her anger directed at me made me hard. No woman had ever spoken to me this way before, and it intensely excited me. “Do I?”
“Yes. Why else would you steal his niece?”
“Niece? You’re related to that sack of shit?”
She smiled. It was brief, but I saw it. “Why did you start shooting? It was all going okay from where I stood.”
“He was annoying me… I had to make my point.”
“Why did you tell me to duck?”
It was a curious question, and an even better answer if I knew why I had warned her, but I came up blank. “I don’t know… I guess I didn’t want to mess up that pretty face of yours.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, right. Can I go now?”
“No. I want to know what Giordy’s up to.”
She shrugged. “I’ve only been back in touch with him for two days. I’m the wrong woman for you.”
“Hmmm, that’s a shame.”
I stood up, fully intending on using the gun on her, but instead, I walked outside to sit on the porch. What the hell? My head was screaming to pull the trigger, end this misery I seemed to be having, and yet something held me back. Something told me to spare her, and that something was making me incredibly angry.
It took her a while to come outside looking for me. Scared, possibly, but more curious, I’d say.
“How long are you planning on keeping me?”
“You can go… as long as you deliver a message for me.”
“To?”
“Giordy.”
“Yeah, okay, I guess I could do that.”
I turned to her just as York came back down the dirt road with my boys in the car.
“Tell him, I’m coming for him.”
“I think he kinda knows that,” she responded.
I shot out of the chair I was on, my hands instantly circled her dainty throat, choking her, and her fingers trying to pry my hands away from her delicate little throat. It wouldn’t take much for me to snap it right now and get the dirty business out of the way. As I saw her struggling to breathe, I could feel how hard I was becoming—not at all as hard as I was when I felt her body against mine, though. This woman was dangerous, not just to me but my business. I had no idea why she was a weakness, but damn it, if she didn’t get out of my way, I would fuck everything I’d worked so damn hard to achieve. She had to disappear, and yet I found myself unable to pull the trigger on what I needed to do.
“You tell him that message.”
She nodded, and I let her go. She doubled over and coughed, just as the boys were exiting the car. They came to stand beside me, and I knew they had fucked up if York had brought them here to my cabin. No one came here, but me and York, and now Ebony.
“Take her home, York.”
He didn’t say a word, but I knew he was confused. I didn’t spare anyone. When she got down to him, he opened the door for her. She slid in, glancing back at me, probably to make sure I wasn’t aiming a gun at her head. The perfect kind of person for my organization, if only she weren't Giordy’s niece.
“Want us to kill her, Boss?”
“No, let’s see how this one rides out.”
They were confused. Fuck, I didn’t blame them. I was too.
I took out my gun and shot at Mark first and then the other one, I think his name was Simon. They fell beside me on each side, bleeding out on my porch. Ebony saw the whole thing and hadn’t flinched. How do I know? I hadn’t taken my damn eyes off hers the entire time. Call me crazy, but I think she bit her lip as she saw me pull the trigger.
Fuck me, this woman was trouble, and I knew it, but she could hold the answers to all of my problems. She could help me take out Giordy once and for all which was the only reason she was still breathing.
Once the Torelli’s were taken care of, I’d end her, just for fucking with my cock and my brain.
One step at a time, Jett, that’s what I had to keep telling myself as York drove away, taking those black eyes with him.