Hitman's Revenge (a Forbidden Bad Boy Romance) (5 page)

A
fter leaving Kitty
, I drove to another shady place on the river, hoping that I would get lucky one last time. The strip club was hopping, the smoky interior full of all kinds of men hoping for a peek and a fondle.

Strip clubs had numerous types of patrons and this one was no different. Businessmen, college students, drunks, and even some women were spread out over the small space, crowding the stages as the strippers tried to garner some dollar bills in their G-strings. Kitty had worked in a place like this when I met her, selling her body for a buck or two a night. Back then she was fun and not doped up, but ever since she had met those who were willing to buy her drugs in exchange for other services, she had changed. She became clingy, and I didn’t do clingy.

Walking up to the bar, I made contact with the owner before sitting down, watching as she walked my beer over personally.

Lady A was her stage name; the busty blonde would twirl effortlessly around the pole showing off her skill more than anything, but behind the scenes she went by Alice. Alice was tough, no-nonsense kind of gal. She ran a tight ship and stayed out of trouble with the police unlike some of the other clubs tended to do. Everyone who knew Alice, not Lady A, knew her to be a fair businesswoman who had taken over the club after her husband ran off with someone three times younger than him. I heard he died of a heart attack some years ago, but Alice wouldn’t confirm or deny that.

“Long time, no see, Jack.”

“Hey A,” I said as she set down the beer in front of me. “How’s business?”

She smirked then and leaned over the counter, letting me see the implants that she was so proud of. “You know, surviving. Installed a fantasy lounge in the back, all legal of course. You want to take a turn tonight?”

“Not tonight,” I replied, giving her a cocky smile. I doubted anything she was doing back there was legal, but I wasn’t going to spill the beans on her. “I’m here for something different.”

Alice sighed and pushed off of the counter, her eyes scanning the crowd behind me. “I knew you would be coming this way. Sorry about the old man. He was always a good customer. How’s that sweet girl of his, Hazel, holding up?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said slowly. Alice looked at me sharply, and I saw a tremor of fear in her eyes before they glazed over with a hardened expression. “Well, I didn’t know that. No wonder you graced these doors with your presence.”

“What do you know, Alice?” I said softly, keeping my voice even. Unlike Pedro and Kitty, Alice had a keen ear for listening, training all of her girls to pick out parts and pieces of conversations that might benefit her in the future. A great number of prominent men graced her doors, and I couldn’t even imagine how much about this city and state Alice was privy to. “I need more answers… reliable information, and we both know you have this town wired. What do you know about Colt?”

“Oh Jack,” she sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I wish I could help you, I really do, but none of his people have been here in the last couple of weeks. At least not that I know of.”

“You owe me,” I reminded her. I expected her to resist at first, putting up a front for others to hear and see, covering her own back. But Alice’s eyes narrowed, and I knew I had her backed into a corner. A few years ago a rival of hers was threatening to have her shut down. One late-night visit and I had him ‘tripping’ down his stairs and breaking his neck. To this day, the case was still shut and not a word had been breathed since she called me that night. She would know I was desperate, but I didn’t give a shit. I needed to find Hazel.

“You must really care about that girl,” she finally said, losing some of her swagger and looking much older than she did normally. “I just heard that Colt was involved --, and he ain’t happy about what Nixon did to him, what he promised him. I also heard that Colt himself didn’t actually make the trip, but his goons were the ones that killed Nixon. I assume they took the girl?”

I gave her a sharp nod and her expression changed to a sad one. She leaned over to pat my hand in a motherly fashion. “I’m so sorry, Jack. For what it’s worth, I hope you kill the fuckers. Colt has gotten away with far too much for my tastes. Someone needs to take him down, and if anyone can do it, it’s you.” She then stopped a moment, some sort of realization coming across her features. “You know, I think I do have one bit of information you might be interested in.”

I leaned in closer, excitement running through my veins. “What’s that, A?”

She looked at me, a small smile gracing her lips. “There’s a building on Colt’s main property, down in Florida, funny shaped building. You know how security conscious he is? And don’t ask me how I know, but I know. Inside are all the controls for his estate, including the security cameras. You find that building, you control his ass, got me?”

“Thanks, A,” I said, polishing the beer off in one guzzle. She waved off the bills I pulled out of my pocket and gave me a wink instead. “On the house. Take care of yourself, Jack. Bring her around sometime, I would like to meet her.”

I thanked her again and walked out of the club, thinking this was the last place I would bring Hazel to.

So what had the old man promised Colt? A man as powerful as Nixon used to be a big deal in those crime circles, but there were newer, fresher men like Colt who wouldn’t uphold certain laws and unspoken rules that had been agreed to behind closed doors. Had he promised him a job he couldn’t deliver? That didn’t seem likely; Nixon was retired. No this had to be about me and what I did. This was Colt wanting payback.

And yet no one seemed to know for certain, or they weren’t telling, and I doubted I would be lucky enough to get anyone else to spill those beans without otherwise doing some vicious bodily harm. It was one thing to give me harmless information; it was another to tell me everything. I wasn’t a dumbass. I knew that Pedro, Kitty, and even Alice knew more than they were willing to share. They valued their lives and their businesses more than to get tangled up in this mess.

“Hey, you.”

Instantly on alert, I turned to find one of the dancers peeking out of the alley that ran between the club and the liquor store, huddled in a thin coat. “Yeah?” I asked, approaching her carefully. It could be an ambush, or it could be a proposition, I didn’t know.

“I’ve got some information about your father,” she said softly.

An unfamiliar feeling ran through me, and I swallowed hard to get rid of it. Nixon wasn’t my biological father. He sure treated me like the son he never had, but she didn’t need to know that. I moved into the alley and saw that she was indeed alone. “What do you know?”

Her eyes lowered as she fiddled nervously with the zipper on her coat. “I-I had a client that night he died. He was bragging about killing a man, an important man.” I saw red instantly but kept my cool, needing to get the information.

“I didn’t know he was talking about Nixon until I saw it in the paper the next day,” she continued. “I swear it.” She then looked up at me, her eyes red-rimmed. “Your dad was always so nice, always tipped well. I’m gonna miss him.”

“I believe you,” I sighed, reaching into my pocket. I kept my face straight and devoid of any emotion, it wouldn’t do to crumble about the old man now. That was for later. “Here.”

She looked up at the hundred-dollar bill, and her eyes went wide. Alice paid her girls well, but an extra bill at the end of the night would no doubt help her. I held it out, and she took it with trembling fingers, stuffing it into the coat quickly. “I-I can give you a blowjob if you want.”

“Go on back inside,” I said roughly. She hesitated, fingering the bill inside her pocket. “His name was Steve. He wanted me to call out his name while, well, you know.”

I nodded. She scampered away, and I walked out of the alley, anger burning in my chest. So Alice had been right after all. Colt didn’t have the balls to come start this whole mess off, to kill Nixon by himself, so he sent some asshole to do it for him. I should have expected nothing less.

Steve, huh? Now I had a partial name to associate with Nixon’s killer. He would pay, just like Colt would pay… even if he’d been following orders.

I
walked
into the apartment I hadn’t seen in over a year and took a deep breath, dropping the duffel bag at the door. I had bought the place for the killer view (no pun intended), but I was rarely here to enjoy the damn thing. It was just a place for me to store my belongings, a small reprieve, but as I walked over to the expanse of windows on the other side of the living room, I couldn’t help but feel a slight calm coming over me; clarity peeking out from around the edges.

Kitty’s words still haunted me, and my concern over Hazel’s safety were eating me up inside. I knew I had to get to her soon, and it killed me, all the time I had to waste tracking down the information I sorely needed.

And yet I still didn’t know what Colt was doing, other than making me walk into some sort of trap that he had planned. Colt was one of the more serious career criminals, ranking above Pedro or Romano for that matter. He owned half of the eastern seaboard, his investments making way for hidden drug-making facilities and sex trafficking. He had enough of the police force and politicians in his back pocket to be virtually untouchable, and no one dared meet him on his own turf if they cared for their livelihood. Whereas I had talked my way with the others, I wouldn’t be able to with Colt. No, it would strictly be a rescue mission, one that I hoped to hell was going to work. I needed to get Hazel out of there before I dealt with Colt. He would pay for what he had done to Nixon, but not until I could secure Hazel and get her somewhere safe.

Sighing, I walked over to the fridge and opened it, glad to see that the maid still stocked it with my favorite drinks in case I should stop by. I grabbed a beer and a bottle opener, popping the top before taking a long swallow. Tomorrow I would head to Miami to scope out the place, see if Hazel was still being held there and make my plans.

I was a one man show, and that wasn’t going to change just because Colt was behind this. I couldn’t trust anyone else to do it for me.

Placing a palm on the granite countertop in front of me, I tried not to think of what Hazel must be going through. I had always told her, promised her, that I would protect her. Though my current job position hadn’t allowed for a great deal of contact with her, I made sure she and Nixon were looked after, one way or another. But now I had let her down, now she was in the hands of someone dangerous, and I wasn’t so sure that he wouldn’t resort to hurting her just to get what he wanted.

“Dammit!” I roared, throwing the beer across the room, watching as it shattered against the wall in a thousand pieces. I didn’t like this feeling.

Colt had found my Achilles heel in Hazel, and he had me by the balls. I hadn’t seen Hazel since a few months after her high school graduation, having kept my promise about staying away after one torturous night that had tested my will power and scarred my memory forever.

Even Nixon didn’t know about that one. But now Nixon was dead, and I was all that Hazel had left. I couldn’t leave her alone anymore. She was a part of my ugly world now, and I fucking hated that fact. There was nothing I could hide from her anymore, and I was certain that her head had been filled with every dirty, sinful deed I had accomplished over the past ten years. I was older and harder than she would remember, and I was sure that she had changed, as well.

Raking my hand through my hair, I shrugged off all the emotional pieces of this issue. Nixon had always told me to keep my personal life and business separate. I needed to remember that. I couldn’t let Hazel occupy my thoughts if I wanted to stay alive. It was a weakness I couldn’t afford right now.

A creak in the hallway caught my attention, and I crouched low instinctively, surprise and fury filling my veins. Had someone dared enter my house? Dead man walking. Silently, I moved to the other side of the counter and waited until the shadow came into view. He was short and not at all bulky, the knife actually trembling in his hand as he looked wildly around the room.
Idiot.

I was glad I hadn’t turned on the lights when I’d entered. The darkness was playing to my advantage. I was used to the dark; my eyes were able to focus on his shadow very well as he nervously swung the blade around. This was going to be a piece of cake.

Without making a sound, I waited until his back was turned, no doubt searching for me, before I launched myself at him, knocking him to the floor, subduing him in seconds and taking the knife from him like it was a piece of candy. His yelp of surprise was all he got out before I had him around the neck, positioning myself to end his life. “Who sent you?” I growled as he tried to maneuver himself out of my tight grip. Fat chance there. I had him locked in for the kill. The knife was ready should he try anything stupid.

I let up on the pressure as he started to gurgle, adrenaline running through my veins. This was the high I got from killing; fuelling me. There was nothing even remotely close in comparison. “Please don’t kill me!”

I grinned then, keeping my hands where they were. “Too late. You are going to die just because I fucking hate when people break into my apartment. So why don’t you cleanse yourself before you go to hell.”

“C-Colt,” he sputtered, the strong smell of urine filling the air. I had literally scared the piss out of him. “He wants you dead.”

“Why?” I yelled, wanting to make sure my suspicions were correct.

“I dunno, let me go!” The man struggled, his fists beating against my arm that held him. “Please, you were my first job. I-I didn’t know it was going to be like this.”

“Like you would have spared me? Don’t think so.” I snapped his neck in one smooth motion before letting him fall to the ground. I wasn’t going to get anything else out of him. Just another goon with a damn target and not much else.

My adrenaline raging now, I flipped on the light and nudged him with my boot, disgust filling my mouth. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Colt would try something like this. Maybe he was bored waiting for me to enter his little trap. But he’d showed his hand, sending an amateur to try and off me, one who hadn’t even popped his cherry yet. It told me that he was on edge, concerned about all the things I would do to him in retaliation, or had some ulterior motive that I couldn’t quite see yet.