“I’M FLYING YOU out here.”
I laughed at my brother’s words. “You’re hilarious. I can’t just drop everything, Kenny. It’s not like it’s a short flight.”
“I need you here. You have to sign some papers anyway.”
“Well, then you come here.” I placed my phone on the table and pressed speaker. “I thought you were anyway.”
“I had to fly home. I had some business to take care of.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right. Business. That’s what we’re calling it now.” I knew it had to do with some fucker getting out of hand until Kenny took him out. But it was never him who did the dirty work. No. My brother would never actually kill someone. He only waved his power around and expected everyone else to drop everything and do as he demanded. Fucking please.
“I don’t care for the attitude, Creena.”
“Kenny, if you want something from me, come and say it to my face. It’s never stopped you before. And don’t you get one of your goons to come pick me up. I’d rather go to fucking jail than fly with them.” I pulled on a pair of black leggings and a white tank top. Doing a little spin in front of my floor-length mirror, I nodded, satisfied with how I looked. Not that I cared anyway. I had a man who would eat me up even if I wore a burlap sack.
“Creena, are you still there?”
I jumped. “Yes.” My cheeks burned. God, Stone was one hell of a distraction. “I’m still not flying there.”
“You’ll be in a private jet.”
“No,” I snapped, slamming my hand on the nightstand. “If you need me to sign shit, courier it.”
“You’re lucky you’re family,” my brother grumbled.
“Yeah, because like that’s ever stopped you from doing anything.” A sharp pain pierced behind my eyes. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I have to go, Kenny. I have work to do.” I grabbed my phone, turned off the speaker, and waited for my brother to hang up. But he didn’t.
“Dad’s left half of the estate to you and you haven’t touched a damn cent of it.”
“You know how I feel about that.” I grabbed my keys and left Asher and Meeka’s house, walking the couple of blocks to Jay’s tattoo shop. “I want nothing to do with the family business. It’s all blood money, taken from families who needed it more than we ever did.”
“You know why it was taken.”
“Yeah, I do. But no matter how much Father wanted out of the business, the money always controlled. It controls all of you. I don’t need it. I’m making money the legal way.” I refused to spend the money that destroyed innocent lives in the process. “That’s between all of you men,” I told him, repeating the sexist words many of their team had thrown my way over the years.
“You know that shit isn’t true. Fuck, Creena. You’re damn lethal, and you know it.”
“I don’t want to talk about what I can do or what I have done, Kenny.” I picked up the pace, damn near jogging the way to the shop. I needed to work out, my muscles protesting at the unexpected movements. Once I reached the shop, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. Kenny’s men were watching me. I knew because it would be the exact same thing I would do if I were my brother.
“When are you flying here?” I asked Kenny, unlocking the door to the shop and flicking on the OPEN sign.
“How do you know I’m coming there?”
“I know you,” I told him. “You ask me a question. I usually say no. So, you come here and assume that just because you ask me the same question in person that you’ll get a different answer from me.” I sat at the table Jay and I both used to draw our designs. Pulling out the sketchpad from my bag, I flipped to the page of the latest tattoo request from a client. I had been working on it for the past couple of days and I had a feeling the client would be very pleased.
“You know me well.” He paused. “What are you doing? You’re distracted.”
“I told you. I have work to do,” I reminded him, my stomach twisted at the fact he caught me in another daydream. “And I know you well. We are twins, remember?”
“We are. One and the same, baby girl. That is what your man calls you, isn’t it?”
“I love you, Kenny, but you leave Stone the fuck out of it.”
“It seems to me like he has his own shit to deal with. How does it feel dating a guy who has a daughter? Someone else got to him first, didn’t she? I bet that pisses you right off.”
“I have no idea what the fuck you want, Kenny,” I said, my voice raising. “But do not throw him into this. What happens between him and I is none of your damn business.”
He chuckled.
I let out a string of curses that would make Stone proud.
“Do you kiss him with that filthy mouth?”
“You’re an asshole,” I muttered, ashamed of myself for letting him get to me.
A ding chimed from the door.
“Listen,” I said, as my client stood off to the side. “I have to go.”
“Creena, don’t you dare hang up on me.”
“I have a customer who’s waiting. Goodbye, Kenny. See you when you get here.” I hung up the phone before he could protest anymore and rose from the table.
“Hi.” I stuck my hand out and greeted the large man. “I’m Creena. We spoke on the phone. Coby told me you needed some work done while you’re in town.”
“Hi.” The man known as Lucas Crane smiled down at me, his eye patch lifting when the smile reached his eyes. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Lucas.” He winked. “As you already know.”
I laughed. “Let’s get you set up.” I went to the table and grabbed the sketch I had been working on. “This is what I’ve come up with.”
Lucas looked from the paper to me, back to the paper and to me again. “Girl, if I wasn’t already taken, I’d say I was in love with you.”
“Well, Lucas” —I patted his arm, a grin forming on my face— “I do have that effect on people.”
“Coby told me you only do this as a hobby,” Lucas stated, sitting on the tattoo bed that would be his home for the next couple of hours.
“That’s right. I’m actually a nurse but I’ll be honest with you—” I snapped on rubber gloves and pulled a stool up next to him “—I much prefer this.”
***
(Stone)
“I guess there’s no point denying it, is there?”
Angel’s gaze burned into the side of my head. “Depends. You do something for me and it can all go away. It can disappear.”
“Are you bribing me?” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
“Yes,” he answered automatically. “But first, I need to know why.”
“The Navy is the only thing keeping me sane. Some people get nightmares from the shit they’ve seen. Maybe I will eventually. But in all reality, it’s my personal life …” I cleared my throat. “Well …”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Are you asking me because you care or because you want to hold it against me?”
“Stone.” Angel stopped when we reached a bench and sat. “This is a dick move on my part. But I need something from you because no one knows who you are. Not like they know the rest of us. I also need to know I can trust you.”
“What are you talking about?” I hesitated before I sat down beside him. “Of course you can trust me.”
“Now that we’ve got that cleared, I need you in on the inside. With Dale.”
“The fuck?” I turned to him, my brain wracking for answers he wasn’t easily providing.
“Tyler won’t be making it out of the infirmary.”
“I had already assumed that,” I paused. “Tell me what I need to do.”
“I need you in with Dale. But he has to be the one to take care of him.”
I understood. After Tyler had attacked Max, she shot him. The little thing who was nothing like her sisters held her own and blew the bastard’s dick off. “What do you need me to do?”
“Go with him. Watch him. Have his back. We’ll be in contact with people so you two can get in and get out.”
It was shady as fuck but Tyler Bone was the leader of the Organization. Or so he liked to make it seem anyway. But something was off. Nothing felt better or right since he went to jail. It almost felt worse. There was a thickness in the air. The Organization had been quiet, it was like they were waiting for us to turn our backs before they would strike again.
“I’ll make sure both of us get out of there alive and in one piece,” I told Angel.
“Good,” Angel paused. “I’m sick of this shit. I’ll be honest with you. If something else happens to one of you …” He shook his head. “I’m working on retiring but this isn’t making it easy.”
“How much longer do you have?”
“I have this training and that’s it.”
“How did the guys take it?”
“Surprisingly well.” Angel smirked. “They said it should have happened months ago.”
“I agree. You have to be there for your family.” I wished I could eat my words because I didn’t even follow my own advice.
“Tell me about those forged papers.”
Fuck. “And we’re back to that.”
“We are.” Angel crossed his ankle over the opposite knee. “Tell me and I can make it all go away.”
“It was supposed to go away already,” I grumbled, scrubbing a hand down my face. “Some shit happened after my squad got hit. The guys, my brothers, were all discharged. We lost one. He was new. Not that it makes it any less painful. I didn’t want out. I went through doctor after doctor, trying to get them to give me a clean bill of health but they all said I was fucked up. But I finally found one who I could pay off.”
“What did you do for him?”
“I introduced him to someone who could change his life.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
My stomach twisted, memories of my broken past rushing to the forefront of my mind. “The father of someone I used to know dealt in underground shit. Drugs. Weapons. Money. The doctor was shady as fuck. He barely skated by when it came to keeping his license. He ended up getting murdered a year later after I introduced him to these people.”
“Shit, Stone.” Angel blew out a slow breath. “That’s some fucked up shit right there.”
I shrugged. “It is what it is.” I had done worse in my life but if anyone needed to know the shit I had done, it would be Creena. As much as I respected him, she deserved to know first.
“You had your documents forged so you could stay in the military? Then you wouldn’t get kicked out and drown within the demons of your mind? While everyone got out, you stayed in.”
“When you put it like that, you make me sound like a desperate motherfucker.”
“You were.” Angel shrugged. “I get it. Before I met Jay, the Navy was all I had. I understand. Do I agree? Not one bit. But it’s in the past. You’re highly decorated. You’ve switched jobs until you found the one you like.”
“Being a SEAL tests your mental and physical wellbeing. It reminds me that I am in fact alive.”
“Do you still keep in touch with your old team?”
“Nope.” I cleared my throat, remembering the last time I tried to contact one of my old squad members. It didn’t go well when I lost several teeth in the process. After an emergency dental surgery, my smile was good as new, but the pain would always be there no matter how pretty the doctors made me.
“I imagine it didn’t go well.”
“It didn’t. They knew I pulled some strings to stay in. After I had the shady as fuck doctor write up a health report for me, I still had to go through the military doctors to get their okay as well. I had to pull some damn good acting.”
“Fuck, Stone.” Angel crossed his arms under his large chest. “I had no idea.”
“I never told you. How could you know?”
“You sound like Coby.”
“He’s a good guy.” I smirked. “So, thank you.”
“He is. He’s been dealt a shitty hand at life but he’s doing what he can to survive. We all are. Can I say the same for you?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Angel,” I bit out through gritted teeth. “I’m new to Vice-One. I get it can take fucking years for all of you to trust me but what I did was because I needed to survive,” I said, throwing his own words back at him. “The Navy is all I have.” Until Luna and now Creena but I still didn’t deserve either of them.
“You don’t think we trust you?” Angel laughed, shaking his head. “Like fucking hell we don’t. You joined us a few months ago and look at the shit we’ve all been through already. Maybe it’s your fault we have a black cloud now over us,” he joked, shoving me in the shoulder.
I rolled my eyes. “A black cloud has been following me my whole damn life.”
“Who did you have forge the documents?”
“If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you.” I rubbed my jaw. “All joking aside, it was an old friend who owed me a favor.”
“Do you trust they won’t say shit?”
I could feel Angel’s eyes burning into the side of my head. “You don’t have to worry about it.”
“And why the hell not? If something happens where you’re suddenly off my team—”
“He’s dead, Angel.” I let out a slow breath at my lie. “Like I said, you don’t have to worry about it.”