Boston Avant-Garde 5: Bellicoso (27 page)

“What on earth makes you so certain I could handle that?” The question was part teasing and part really, really wanting to know. Selena wasn’t sure she could be a decent wife, let alone someone’s mother. How could this kid seem so sure?

Allie scrunched the pillow up and laid her cheek on it. “I don’t know. I just do. You’re perfect for us, Selena, and I’m not giving up until Dad and Dee see it too.”

Selena struggled to keep the shock off her face. She didn’t want Allie to see how deeply her words hit home. “Sweetie, sometimes adults are pretty boneheaded about relationships. We tend to make things harder than they have to be.”

Allie had just taken a breath to answer when Selena’s door burst open. Hammer dangling from her hand, Selena stared in shock as two Asian guys, both shorter and slimmer than Demon, pushed their way into her dorm room.

Without hesitation, Selena put herself between Allie and the intruders. The first guy was artificially blond with shaggy hair, a snarky expression, and a lot of black leather. The second had close-cropped black hair with a nasty scar on the right side of his face that bisected his milky white eye. This went beyond a hey-you’ve-got-the-wrong-room-dude visit. These guys didn’t belong in the school. At all.

“You’re not supposed to be here.” Selena wished her phone were just a little closer than the nightstand. Lars was on speed dial and so was campus security. Although she got the feeling campus security had already been dealt with.

They pointed at her and jabbered at each other at light speed in a language Selena didn’t understand.

“They’re here for me,” Allie whispered from right behind her.

Selena would deal with the fact that the kid obviously spoke either Mandarin or Cantonese later. A strange feeling was gnawing at the pit of her stomach. How dare these assholes barge into a school and try to grab a little girl just because her mother was a damned lunatic crime lord? Malachi had turned himself inside out for years to keep his daughter out of it. Now this?

Like hell!

“You need to leave,” Selena said in a stronger voice. “I’m not kidding. This place will be swarming with cops and God knows who else in no time.” Of course that was hypothetical since Selena wasn’t even going to hazard a scream. There was no way she was going to chance having more students or teachers barging into this situation unawares.

A taller man with dark eyes and a cruel expression sauntered into the room. “Ahh, Alisa Kingston, we meet at last. And who’s this lovely protector you’re hiding behind?”

“Stay away.” Selena had just remembered she was holding a hammer. She swung it lightly in her hand, trying to remember anything and everything she’d ever been taught about self-defense.

“See, my business associate Seraphina de Medici has suddenly found herself unable to pay a rather large sum of money to me and my father.” The new guy’s expression was a sick parody of a smile. “My name is Yen Kun, and I think we’re going to get along just fine if you two ladies do as you’re told.”

Behind Selena, Allie gave a little squeak. Selena realized why when it sank into Selena’s head that the Chinese listed their surname before their given name. The resemblance, his presence here at school, it all suggested this piece of shit about to abduct Allie probably not only knew Demon but was related to him somehow.

Kun cast a careless glance at his lackeys. “Bring them along. The night is wasting.”

Blondie tried to shove Selena out of the way to reach Allie. Years of dance gave Selena the balance to dodge quickly out of range despite the tight space. She evaded his grab and then swung her hand up and clocked him square in the face with the hammer. She hadn’t put much thought into exactly where to hit him, thinking to aim for his temple but missing and hitting his cheekbone instead. The girlie hammer didn’t do much damage. It was made to tap dainty brads instead of drive nails. Blondie fell back, but he was just as pissed as he was hurt. With one side of his face bleeding, he snarled and grabbed her around the neck.

They scuffled, Selena batting at him with her tiny utility hammer and wishing she’d borrowed their estate handyman’s full-size version. As she used the heel of her slipper-covered foot to smash Blondie’s instep, she realized the other guy had gone after Allie.

Scarface had severely underestimated this child who’d grown up with Demon and Malachi for fathers. Allie grabbed the hand Scarface placed on her shoulder and twisted it around, using her body weight for leverage as she neatly broke his wrist. He sank to his knees, and she planted the heel of her hand against his nose. Blood spewed everywhere, disorienting her attacker. Before any of them could react, she’d grabbed Scarface’s hair and slammed his face into her knee. The jackass crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

Kun spewed epithets in his native tongue and pulled out a handgun. The bottom dropped out of Selena’s stomach as he leveled the weapon at Allie. Without a second thought she yanked away from Blondie and put herself in front of the barrel. Her heart thundered. She didn’t want to die, but she’d rather he shot her instead of this crazy, brave, beautiful girl that was coming to mean just as much as her fathers did to Selena.

Kun frowned. “Teachers where I come from don’t like their students this much. Shall we assume the feeling goes both ways?” A smirk twisted his face, and he pressed the muzzle of his handgun against Selena’s forehead. “Your choice, Alisa Kingston. You come quietly, or I shoot your pretty teacher in the head. Big mess.”

Selena had always thought when people said their life flashed before their eyes, it was a load of shit. It wasn’t. Although it wasn’t really her life she saw. It was the things that made her life worth living. In that moment she knew without a doubt that leaving Malachi and Demon behind had been the dumbest decision of her life, and that she didn’t care how big of an age gap there was. She wanted it to work for however long fate decided to give her. She’d take every minute, love them both the way they deserved, and make a home for their incredible daughter while savoring the idea of adding a few more babies along the way.

“I’ll go!” Allie said with a sob. “Just don’t hurt her.”

Kun looked at Scarface’s prone body in disgust before turning to Blondie. “Leave him and bring both bitches.”

Allie’s hand found its way into Selena’s, and she squeezed the girl’s fingers tightly. “Stay close, baby.”

Selena swallowed back the bile in her throat and snatched up a sweater and her hoodie as they were ushered from her dorm room. She hadn’t managed to grab her phone. She hadn’t managed to alert anyone. But this son of a bitch had just stolen the one thing Demon and Malachi valued above everything else in the world. Selena only had to keep Allie alive and well until they came, because she trusted in them completely, and they were coming.

* * * *

Demon fumed as he parked his car in front of Allie’s school. He wanted to kill something. Anything would suffice, though the preferred target for his wrath would be his cousin. Everything in his gut told him Kun was behind this abduction.

He and Malachi could hear the yelling before they’d even entered the main building of the Boston School for the Arts. Neither man spoke. It wasn’t necessary. They needed answers, and they needed them quickly if they were going to track Allie down in time.

“You’re fucking Interpol?” a man roared. “Since when? Were you using my sister in your investigation, Lars? What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Gentleman, if I could ask you to keep it down. There’s nothing to be gained by yelling.”

Demon recognized the voice of reason as belonging to the headmistress. He stepped into the school’s main office. It bustled with activity. Lars was facing off with a man Demon suspected was his cousin Erik. The headmistress looked on as though she was trying to referee. A paramedic was tending to a dark-haired Asian man with a scar bisecting his right eye. He appeared unconscious. His nose was broken, as was his wrist. Despite everything, Demon’s mouth quirked into a smile he could not hide.

“What’s funny?” Lars demanded.

Erik and the headmistress greeted Demon’s and Malachi’s entrance with blank stares—Erik because they’d never officially met, and the headmistress because Malachi had lost his temper with her on the phone a short while ago. Demon stepped the rest of the way in to let Malachi see the man on the gurney.

His partner gave the scarred man the same quick once-over that Demon had. “That’s Allie’s handiwork.”

Lars looked dumbfounded. “Are you telling me your thirteen-year-old daughter did that?”

“Damn straight,” Malachi grunted.

“There was a hammer covered in blood too. I think Selena must’ve tried to intervene.” Lars stabbed both hands into his hair and looked at the ceiling. “She’s gone, Yen. They took her too.”

A chasm seemed to open, sucking Demon into the blackness of rage and desolation that had once defined his existence. How could this have happened? He’d known Allie had been taken. The headmistress had informed them. How had he not known Selena was gone? How had his heart not told him instantly that she was in danger?

I refused to accept the possibility.

Beside him, he could feel a matching rage boiling inside Malachi’s tall, lithe frame. His partner snarled something beneath his breath.

Another woman entered behind them. “Mama just called us, Erik! Nicolai and I came right over…”

The new arrivals moved immediately toward Lars and Erik. Though the woman was shorter and curvaceous, she carried the same green eyes that belonged to Selena. Demon realized these were her siblings. However, the man with Selena’s sister was a face from the past.

Demon and Malachi had both known Nicolai Anastas for years. He’d once been a high-stakes poker player. While he had favored Asylum over Triptych, he’d still participated in a few of the games Malachi had hosted in the Underground over the years. It was obvious he recognized them as well.

“What’s taking you so long to go after these idiots, Lars?” Selena’s brother demanded. “She could be on a plane by now.”

“They wouldn’t fly her out. This is more complex than that.” Lars looked annoyed. “Please calm down. I needed to talk to Yen and Malachi before I did anything. It’s their daughter.”

“It’s my effing sister!” The woman wiped away a tear. “I want to know what you’re going to do.”

“Enough, Desiree,” Nicolai murmured. He gathered her close and gave both Demon and Malachi a look of respect. “This is about more than just your daughter for you both. Yes?”

Demon gave Nicolai a curt nod, all he was willing to reveal at the moment. He and Malachi had already discussed the best way to opt out of the yards and yards of red tape Lars would have to work around. Jace and Lucas had been staking out the address where they’d been scheduled to take Seraph for the final meeting she’d never attended on the Boston wharf. Malachi had dispatched Owen to that warehouse to see if he could discover where Allie—and now Selena—were being held.

“Erik, I’m taking my wife back to the estate. You get your ass in your car and follow me,” Nicolai ordered. “We can wait there with your mother where we’re out of the way.”

“The hell I’m going to leave!” Erik snapped. “I want to know why my sister was abducted by the Yakuza!”

“Wrong mob,” Lars said. “Seriously, would you please listen to your brother-in-law and back off?”

“Why?”

Nicolai grabbed his wife’s hand and gazed at Demon. “You don’t know them, but I do. If they say they’re going to bring Selena and the kid home, they will. But I’m getting out of the way, because they’ll burn the whole city to the ground if they have to.”

The headmistress was looking ashen. Demon wished he hadn’t brought misery to this woman’s door, but it hadn’t been his intent.

“You guys can’t do what you’re intending to do,” Lars said.

“She’s your cousin, Lars,” Malachi said softly. “Do you really want us to step aside and wait for the law to do its thing?”

Lars’s eyes slid closed briefly. “No. I’ll keep everyone off your tail. I can buy you maybe three hours.”

Demon turned and strode back out. His bastard cousin had taken the only two things that might induce him and Malachi to level the city. Kun had best be prepared to die.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Selena wrapped her body around Allie’s and tried to keep the girl from shivering to death. They had to be close to the harbor. She could smell the salt and fish in the damp, clammy air. At least Blondie had taken the ties off their hands and the bags off their heads.

After the scene in Selena’s dorm she and Allie had been immediately herded out of the school and into the back of an SUV with their hands zip tied and paper sacks over their heads. The whole ride Kun had yapped loudly in whatever language he spoke. She hadn’t understood a word, but she’d gotten the tone. He was pissed. Probably because they’d had to leave Scarface behind, thanks to Allie.

“Are we going to suffocate in here?” Allie whispered.

Selena cuddled her close and prayed she wasn’t telling a lie. “There’s lots of air in these containers. Besides, I think we’d be worthless to them if we died.”

“That guy Kun was talking to Dee’s Uncle Han on the drive here.”

Selena marveled at just how clever Allie was. Would Selena have been able to handle this kind of thing at thirteen? “What language is he speaking?”

“Cantonese.”

“And you speak it?”

“So can Daddy, although not as good as I can. Dee taught me when I was little.” She sounded near tears. “How are they going to find us?”

“I don’t know, baby, but I promise they will.”

Selena had replayed the daydream of the container door swinging open to reveal Demon and Malachi so many times she’d even perfected the ending where they both forgave her for walking out on them and said
I love you
just as soon as she admitted she’d fallen head over heels for both of them and their beautiful baby girl.

She squeezed her eyes shut and imagined them both, not as she’d last seen them the morning she’d walked away, but during those stolen moments when she had watched them while they were sleeping—Malachi with a fall of silky, dark hair framing his bold features, and Demon with his understated exotic beauty. She wanted to fall asleep between them every night. Curl up with her back to Demon’s rippling chest and bask in his soothing aura while she snuggled up to Malachi’s broad-shouldered warmth. Demon, the stolid, impassive protector, and Malachi, the silver-tongued badass with a teddy-bear center.