Chapter Thirty-Three

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Elder

 

 

 

WE DIDN’T SAY goodbye to anyone.

It was the height of rudeness, but with my blood coursing through my veins and overwhelming tenderness commanding me to care for Pim, I couldn’t bow to social niceties.

I couldn’t waste time finding Jethro Hawk to thank him for his hospitality. I wouldn’t be able to look him in the eye knowing full well I’d broken every rule of guest etiquette. He must never know we’d christened his quaint sitting room not once, or twice, but three fucking times.

So uncivilized but so ridiculously good.

Even now, with rational thinking part of my arsenal again, I couldn’t understand how I’d stopped. All I could remember was the driving obsession to claim again and again. She’d felt so good, so hot, so wet. All other thoughts apart from quintessential fucking didn’t factor in my brain. I was utterly obsessed, one-tracked, consumed. Yet when I’d done my best to stop after the second time, and Pim had chased after me, denying me the right to protect her, the sense of calm after my third release shocked me stupid.

All my life I’d known three was my tic, my twitch, my go-to number.

But why had Pim dared risk her well-being to see if it worked in sex too?

How did she know?

Silly woman.

Silly, incredible, sexy-as-fuck woman.

Sitting beside her, I wasn’t raging with regret for hurting her but comfortably exhausted—almost at peace for indulging in what I’d wanted for months and finding both of us survived.

She’d tested her theory…just like she’d warned me. I only wished she hadn’t done it in someone else’s home.

But then again, in a way, I was glad.

We’d crossed boundaries at Hawksridge Hall. We’d gone to battle and come out a little bloody, a little banged up, but with better awareness of our opponent.

Pim had known the risks and broken me anyway.

She’d opened her heart and body and trusted me.

Trust.

That one terrible gift.

If I’d known she’d throw that back in my face after I gave her the penny bracelet, I would never have taken her to Hawksridge. I would never have let myself be alone with her.

Stepping into that room, she’d given me no choice—almost as if she’d heard my fleeting thoughts about leaving her somewhere in England. Of putting her in a safe house, surrounded by guards, and preventing her from being beside me when the Chinmoku hit.

The idea had come to me while talking to Jethro. He was a man who’d lost a lot to gain so much. I understood the lengths he would go to protect his wife, and it made me aware how selfish I was being by keeping Pim by my side.

I loved her…therefore, it was my duty to protect her.

And I can’t do that with her on the Phantom.

I clutched her closer, cuddling her into my body where we sprawled on the back seat of the car.

Once again, my heart burned for the peril she’d put herself in by seducing me. The danger she’d willingly endured, purely to knock some sense into me—to prove my libido wasn’t something to be terrified of—merely something to be treated like every other thing in my life.

By rules and regulations and specific repetitions.

We’d been driving for over an hour. Another twenty minutes or so and we’d be back in South Hampton and on the water.

Selix drove, and I trusted him not to have overstepped in liquor. It didn’t mean he hadn’t mingled with guests and, judging by his own rumpled appearance and a few pieces of hay in his hair, I’d say he’d had an eventful evening with some mystery woman.

The knowledge we were going home ought to make me happy.

It didn’t.

If I took Pim away from England, there was no telling what sort of shit would find us.

If I was a good man, I’d leave her at Hawksridge where the well-known Black Diamonds would protect her. I’d leave her guarded by my own men and hunt the Chinmoku to ensure she remained safe.

I couldn’t trust her not to pull another ridiculous stunt like disobeying me with the coastguard.

This wasn’t fucking Romeo and Juliet.

I didn’t want to die for her, and I sure as hell didn’t want her to die for me.

I’ve had enough death of loved ones.

Pim rested her head on my shoulder, breathing quietly. Her warmth and slender weight clutched my heart with right and wrong.

If I was a better man, I’d leave her here.

But I wasn’t.

I loved her. I’d miss her. I couldn’t fucking walk away from her—especially now.

As tyres hummed on highway, taking us closer to the ocean, Pim raised her arm and twisted her wrist. She smiled at the gentle clink of gold and diamond pennies dancing on her new bracelet.

My stomach clenched again, second-guessing my choice to give her something that represented money after so much talk of currency and debts.

“I’m sorry for tossing it on the floor when you first gave it to me.” She looked up, pushing away a little to see me. “I love it so much. But when I saw it…I couldn’t stop myself from kissing you.”

Opening my arm, I waited until she’d snuggled back into me before I kissed the top of her head. She smelled like champagne and sex and me.

The best smell in the world.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“Love it.”

“It certainly earned a reaction from you.”

She laughed quietly in the dark.

Selix flicked me a glance in the rear-view mirror, raising his eyebrow. He wasn’t stupid. He knew we’d done something. The intimate bond webbing Pim and me was too strong to ignore.

I burned with it.

We couldn’t keep our hands off each other and not for sex but for connection.

My fingertips never stopped stroking her. My lips never far from her skin. Her ruined dress and my dishevelled appearance couldn’t hide what we’d done to achieve this new level of intimacy.

I gave him a smirk as he returned his attention to the road.

Another fifteen minutes of quiet, companionable driving and South Hampton pier appeared, slumbering under a blanket of stars. Boats hovered on crystal water, their inhabitants asleep at this time of the morning. The smooth sea reflected the half-moon on its calm surface, welcoming us home.

The Phantom, being oversized and unable to dock in the regular bays, floated in the distance in a spot reserved for cruise ships. Luckily, it was away from the main hub and private with its own driveway and ramp.

Selix drove us through the complex off-shoots and warehouses around the port then parked beside the gangway and waited for me to open the door and help a tousled Pimlico from the backseat.

Her bracelet glinted on her wrist and her knickers and heels dangled from her fingers.

I winced. We’d forgotten something. “Ah, shit, our masks. We left them on the floor.”

Pim glanced up with a sly smile. “Oh well, I have no doubt the Hawks will know what happened in there. It’s not like we were very discreet.” She rested her palm over my heart. “We were loud, Elder.”

I clamped my fingers over her hand, squeezing with all the fucking love I felt for her. “There was an orchestra, Pimlico.”

She smirked. “I don’t think an orgasm scream can be likened to any particular instrument.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Tucking her hand in mine, I slammed the door and guided her toward the ramp. “I’m sure I could mimic you on my cello.”

“Is that right?” She tiptoed over the gritty pier, her feet bare and vulnerable.

I wanted to scoop her up, but that damn dress of hers would probably suffocate me if I carried her up the gangway.

“I might need you to recreate said scream to get it perfect, though.” I chuckled under my breath.

Her eyes heated. “I’m sure that could be arranged.”

I’d never indulged in banter like this. Never hovered in the sexual joy of falling in love and being so fucking happy just talking to a person.

Not that Pim was just a person.

She was my reason for existing now.

She’d taken reign of my misery and loneliness and given me something to hoard and worship. I missed my family, but for once in my life, I wasn’t crippled by it.

How could I ever have thought about leaving her here? I didn’t care if it took me months or years to eradicate the Chinmoku, I would find a way with her by my side. She would remain safe. She was my newest addiction, and unlike my other unhealthy obsessions, I was determined to stay level-headed and sane even as my heart twisted into a lovesick fool.

The car engine revved. I glanced back at Selix who wound his window down. Pointing down the length of the Phantom where the garage to store the car was open, he said, “I’ll park up for the night. Catch you on board.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

He grinned. “Expect an early wake-up call, Prest.” He waved, sending a silent message that he’d want to know what the hell happened when we had our regular sparring season.

I’d tell him pieces, but I’d also tell him I’d had enough of him being second best. He was never my staff—he was the one who chose that role. I wanted him as my equal if we were to fight the Chinmoku together. That was my war…not his. If he was to be a part of it, then he needed to accept my terms.

Mainly inheriting half of my company once the lottery debt was paid.

Squeezing Pim’s hand, I guided her up the ramp, inspecting the looming giant of the Phantom. Its bulk far outshone any of the smaller crafts around the pier. Her hulking presence granting a false sense of invincibility.

A chilly breeze whipped around us as we reached the top. My tux’s fly was broken, allowing air to circulate around yet another growing erection. My shirt and jacket flapped around my waist, untucked.

I wanted a hot shower and fresh sheets.

I wanted them with Pimlico.

I wanted her beside me instead of behind a lock and key a deck below.

Climbing on board, I spun her to face me, desperate to kiss her.

She smiled as my lips touched hers, her cheeks pinking with the same desire infecting me.

Forcing myself to break the kiss before I took it too far, I breathed, “Spend the night with me.”

Her eyes flared. “Are you asking for more sex or…?”

I fucking loved that she gave me the choice. That she didn’t turn me down, beseeching that three times was enough for one evening. She merely smiled so pure, so sweet, and gave me anything I needed.

Christ, this woman.

What could I do to ever repay her…to ever deserve her?

Tucking wild chocolate hair behind her ear, I laughed quietly. “Sleep with me.”

Her lashes fluttered, her gaze dropping to my chest seductively. “Sleep, sleep?”

I laughed harder. “Sleep. You know? Where you let me hold you, and we both try to rest so we’re not zombies tomorrow?”

“Ahh, sleep! Yes, I’ve heard of it.” She wrinkled her nose. “Then again, it is rather boring, don’t you find?”

Nuzzling into her neck, I groaned. “God, don’t tempt me again, Pimlico.”

She pressed against me, her arms whipping around my waist. “Where’s the fun in stopping?”

My fingers captured her jaw, holding her still as I pressed my mouth to hers. The kiss had a life of its own, managing to somehow stay innocent but dirty at the same time. Our tongues touched then retreated; our hearts swelled then softened.

I was so fucking in love with this girl.

Kissing the corner of her mouth, I murmured, “I’m sure another kind of sleeping could be arranged.”

She shivered in my arms. “Let’s go then.”

Breaking apart, we stumbled over the main deck, impatience and desire turning our limbs jerky. She glanced at me with my flapping ruined tux and laughed. I looked at her in her rippling, torn dress and didn’t know if I’d make it to the room.

Laughing together was one of the best things in the world. I was enraptured by her, completely addicted, and for once, I didn’t care or try to break the spell.

She was all mine.

I would never get over that fact.

Never take her for granted.

Never let her go.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so content.

And that was my utter downfall.

She’d taken over my senses.

Every. Single. One.

I didn’t pay attention to my surroundings because all I cared about was the sea breeze coiling her hair and how her smile made my heart fucking stop. I didn’t notice the stillness or wrongness because all I saw was a goddess who’d somehow managed to bring me back to life.

I really should’ve paid attention.

I should’ve noticed how deathly quiet the Phantom was.

I should’ve found it odd that no staff greeted us.

No captain to inform us of tides.

No music floating from the kitchen.

No deck hands checking the rigging.

Nothing but empty decks and vacant rooms.

I didn’t notice any of that as Pim and I stayed wrapped in each other, drifting toward my bedroom, stopping to pull each other close for another lust-quick kiss.

The pennies on her bracelet were the only noise in the dense early morning air.

The sliding doors to my quarters were open—nothing unusual as I often left them wide. The lights were off—again, nothing unusual as I wasn’t there to require them to be on.

My room was quiet and still.

My bed untouched and white in the moonlight.

My instincts dulled and focused on Pim and only Pim.

But as I turned to close the doors and flicked the switch to turn the glass from clear to opaque, and Pim drifted forward to turn on the floor lamp by my desk, and the sound of her dress was replaced by the click of a gun, and the lamp flooded the empty space revealing it wasn’t truly empty, I was gripped with ice cold rage and lava hot panic.

My life fucking ended before I could even yell. “Pim—no!”

Too late.

Too motherfucking late.

A man’s arm shot out in the receding darkness, wrapping around her neck, holding her in front of him. His smile leered over her shoulder, heralding my worst fucking nightmare.

Two seconds in my domain and I’d lost my woman to my enemy.

Fuck!

How had I let my guard down so badly? What sort of idiot had I become?

My hands balled as I stalked toward the man holding Pim.

A Japanese man.

A man with thin lips and a red birthmark on his cheek.

A man I’d fought with so many years ago.

“Let her go.” My voice was nothing more than a thunderous snarl.

“I don’t think you’re in the position to give instructions.”

My blood froze as another man switched on the overhead lights, drowning the bedroom in light.

Shit, shit, shit.

He moved toward his colleague holding Pim, his steps elegant and controlled. His head was bald—as it had been in my youth. Tattoos ran over his skull and around his ears, ending in whips of Japanese characters at the tips of his cheekbones.

He was a scary son of a bitch and a cold-hearted killer.

Pim’s eyes turned wild, but she didn’t utter a sound. Her muteness might help in this situation. As long as she stood still and didn’t antagonise them, they would keep their focus on me.

Please let them keep their focus on me.

If they killed her—

My heart wrenched itself into pieces at the thought.

I couldn’t go there.

I wouldn’t.

Gathering my strength, I calmly did up my tux button and stood to my full height. I wouldn’t be intimated. Not by him. Not by anyone.

This was my yacht.

They were trespassing and would die a slow death because of it.

I bared my teeth. “Hello, Kunio.”

The second-in-command of the Chinmoku stood smiling, knowing full fucking well he’d bested me. He should never have gained access to my boat, let alone put his goddamn hands on my woman. “Hello, Miki-san.”

I shuddered.

I wasn’t Miki anymore. I hadn’t been him for a very long time.

My mother had given me a Japanese name, calling me after the moon. I’d changed it to the name my father had wanted when she’d banished me.

It wasn’t a name I ever wanted to hear again.

The fact that Kunio was here and not the master of the Chinmoku was grotesque disrespect.

They didn’t see me as worthy enough to be addressed by their leader before killing me.

My fists tightened, but I did my best to keep my full temper from showing. My hands craved the samurai swords I trained with. My heart howled for their blood.

“Let her go.” I did my best to keep my voice bored when really it was lethal with hatred. “She’s not part of this.”

Kunio glanced at Pim with a condescending smile. “Not part of it…just like your brother and father weren’t part of it? Just like the rest of your family aren’t a part of your blood debt?”

Every muscle locked in pure fury. “Exactly. You’ve already claimed two innocent lives. You don’t need another.”

“They were never innocent.” He moved slowly around the room. “They were yours. You let us down. They were ours to punish.”

Pim stood with her chin high and chest barely moving. She stared at me with trust even while fear etched her face.

I hated, positively hated, she was in danger yet again. She’d lived through enough. She shouldn’t have to put up with yet more bullshit all because she’d chosen to love me.

What a stupid, terrible choice on her part.

I’m so sorry, Pim.

Storming forward, I made sure to enunciate clearly and with authority. “Let her go, and we’ll do what is necessary.”

Fight until one of us is dead.

More men materialized from the shadows around the room, standing beside their leader. Seven in total. Seven plus Kunio. Once again, an uneven fight against the Chinmoku.

They were never ones for equal odds.

That was how they destroyed other gangs, took over turfs, and created a reputation of bloodthirsty inhumanity.

And once upon a time, I’d fought for them.

I’d been so fucking naïve and too wrapped in my obsessions to care.

This was my karma.

I deserved it.

But Pim didn’t.

“You disappointed us.” Kunio ran his hands over his bald head, stroking his tattoos. “You know how we hate to be disappointed, Miki-san.”

Oh, I knew.

I’d seen their disappointment first-hand.

I’d smelled their disappointment from my father and brother burning.

Even though the Chinmoku ran illegal operations, trafficked women, manufactured drugs, and corrupted everything they could get their hands on, their faction wasn’t huge.

They didn’t trust easily and only welcomed the tried and proven to join their ranks.

When I’d been invited into their family, there’d been seventy-nine fully fledged members. That number might’ve grown over the past decade, but I had no doubt if Kunio only brought seven men with him, then they were seven of his best.

Seven men who liked to inflict agony on others in unique and imaginative ways.

Kunio dragged a finger down Pim’s arm.

She hissed but remained steadfast and silently seething.

“I approve of your taste in women. Perhaps, instead of killing her, we’ll make her one of us.”

The thought of Pim belonging to the Chinmoku enraged me to the point of blacking out and killing everyone in my path.

She would never again belong to anyone. Especially them.

Hatred lodged in my throat. “Let her go.”

“As I said before—you’re not in a position to give instruction.” Kunio looked at his men.

They were all identical replicas with the Chinmoku uniform of black trousers and t-shirt, black bandana, and red fingerless gloves.

Long ago, the leader had told me they wore red gloves to symbolise the blood they were about to shed. Already bathing their flesh in the life force of their enemy.

I’d once worn a pair of those gloves.

Now, I wanted to cut off their hands.

Scanning the men, I took note of the many different weapons strapped to their bodies—some favoured simple guns while others had knives buckled to their legs and back. They might wear the same wardrobe, but when it came to their chosen method of killing? Anything was permitted.

Where the fuck was Selix?

My staff?

How had the Chinmoku taken custody of my ship without my goddamn knowledge?

Folding his hands in front of him, Kunio cocked his head. The atmosphere changed from poised to prepared.

I’d once been on the other side and understood what that subtle shift meant.

This was never meant to be a conversation of my betrayal and punishment. This wasn’t a drawn-out negotiation for Pim’s life or mine.

This was an extermination.

My limbs loosened, my knees ready to unlock and fight at a second’s notice.

Kunio smiled. “You know as well as I do how this night will end. Your woman is now ours to do with as we please. Your life is now ours for your disobedience. Your very existence belongs to us. Tonight, we collect.”

My heart rate slowed. My eyes sharpened. My breathing shallowed.

Kunio looked at the black-shrouded man beside him. There was no nod, no command, no signal.

But it didn’t matter.

My room went from silent threat to all-out homicidal war.

Four men pounced on me at once.

Their blows struck my head, my chest, my back, my kidneys.

Their swiftness put me on the back foot even though I’d seen it coming.

I was drained from three bouts of sex.

I was tired from shame and worry.

I was livid at Pim’s imprisonment.

I was too many things and not focused.

Emotion should never be part of a fight.

First rule of combat: the mind must be pure of all thoughts. The body vacant apart from the dance of violence.

An uppercut shot stars into my vision, my jaw howling under vicious knuckles.

And that was the last invitation I needed to lose myself.

I bellowed in fury, hunkering down to become more than me, more than human, more dragon than animal, more monster than man.

It’d been too long since I’d fought to maim. I’d grown too used to holding back, of locking down my true nature.

The four Chinmoku didn’t care.

They hit and kicked and struck.

Each punishment I deserved as I was too slow to drop my pretences and meet them beast to beast. But as agony flared and panic swelled and Pim screamed my name, I sank the final distance and found the mindlessness of precision.

I welcomed the cutthroat bloodthirstiness I always carried.

I nursed the mania of winning.

I threw myself head first into the crystal clarity of how to inflict the most damage.

I turned off my conscience and worries…

And went rogue.